34 States Shut out of Organic Farm Program by Congress and White House
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition - 1/24/2013. On Thursday, USDA published a notice in the Federal Register reminding the 16 states eligible for the Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA) program to submit their application by February 7 for federal assistance in order to be able to provide cost-share assistance to their certified organic farmers. Those 16 states - the 12 Northeast states plus HI, NV, UT, and WY - will divide $1.5 million among their State Departments of Agriculture. Farmers in the 34 states not eligible for the AMA program are out of luck. |
|
Thanks, E. B. White
Homegrown Life - 1/23/2013. By Dyan Redick - A friend gave me a copy of Down East magazine back before Christmas with a page earmarked. “You’ll die laughing,” she warned me. Turns out, it was a reprint of E. B. White’s “Memorandum,” from One Man’s Meat, published in 1944. |
|
Europe 'has failed to learn from environmental disasters'
The Guardian [UK] - 1/23/2013. By John Vidal - Europe has failed to learn the lessons from many environmental and health disasters like Chernobyl, leaded petrol and DDT insecticides, and is now ignoring warnings about bee deaths, GM food and nanotechnology, according to an 800-page report by the European Environment Agency. The report says that GM crops provide no direct benefit to consumers, are over-hyped, not necessarily safe and are largely unsuitable for the great majority of the world's farmers. |
|
Pesticides & prostate cancer. Again.
Pesticides Action Network Announcements - 1/23/2013. A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology reports that workers in Iowa and North Carolina exposed to certain organophosphate and organochlorine pesticides had significantly higher prostate cancer risk. The organophosphate pesticides fonofos, terbufos and malathion, one of the most commonly used organophosphate insecticides in the United States, was linked to increased prostate cancer risk; and a family history of prostate cancer combined with exposure to organochlorine pesticides (such as aldrin and lindane) was significantly associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. |
|