New Hope’s Douglas Brown gives his takeaways from the week in DC.
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New Hope’s Douglas Brown gives his takeaways from the week in DC.
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National Organic Coalition is deeply concerned that this reorganization could further undermine the NOP’s capacity to fulfill its mission, in addition to potentially jeopardizing essential research functions and interrupting critical services that farmers rely on from USDA agencies.
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Zen Honeycutt, the founder of Moms Across America, an advocacy group closely linked to the MAHA movement, called the draft “profoundly disappointing and dangerous.”
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In an unprecedented move, this government document specifically calls out two widely used chemicals — glyphosate and atrazine — and their possible side effects, including cancer, endocrine disruption and birth defects. Overall, the report painted a very bleak picture of America’s health, and as someone who was on antidepressants for nearly eleven years, I was extremely pained by the state of mental health of our young people. Here are my 5 takeaways from the White House press event for the report and the one thing that I believe was missing from many analyses of the report. The strategic recommendations about how to address these findings are due in August.
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Key provisions of the bill include improved coordination of organic research at the USDA, increased funding for the USDA’s Organic Research and Extension Initiative, and a new statutory grant program to assist producers transitioning to organic practices.
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Booker’s bill, also introduced in the House by Representative Gabe Vasquez, would require the USDA to release frozen grant funds and prohibit the termination of existing contracts.
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Members of Congress faced fiery town halls with concerned farmers and laid-off USDA employees during last week’s recess.
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Farmers, organic organizations and the Organic Farmers Association will be in the nation’s capital on March 4th to advocate for supportive policies on key issues, including the next Farm Bill, USDA funding freezes and fraudulent imports.
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Kailee Tkacz Buller recently served as the president & chief executive officer of the National Oilseed Processors Association and the Edible Oil Producers Association, in addition to having previously held numerous leadership roles across the USDA in the first Trump administration.
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Big Ag having such tremendous influence in D.C. makes it exceedingly challenging for organic.
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He is expected to work to eliminate processed foods from school lunches and push for the removal of dyes from cereals and other items.
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It is unclear how closely Brooke Rollins will be working with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is a big advocate for organic and regenerative.
Read Article RFK, Jr. and his antagonistic attitude toward GMOs and toxic pesticides is not sitting well with Big Ag.
Read Article The Safe School Meals Act targets “toxic ingredients” on school trays across America, proposing standards that would keep kids safe from poisons that can’t be seen on the plate.
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Gov. Walz seems to understand the connection between food and climate change, and he also established a universal free school breakfast and lunch for Minnesota kids, which allowed kitchen workers to prepare lunches from scratch, with locally grown produce.
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The Farm Bill framework from the Senate Agriculture Committee will allow the National Organic Program to keep pace with the growth in the organic sector in a variety of different ways.
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$83M is remaining in unspent funds in the Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance Program.
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Legislation to avert a government shutdown and extend the 2018 Farm Bill includes $8 million in funding for the Organic Certification Cost Share Program.
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Congress did not pass this critical omnibus bill by the September 30th deadline. Here’s what to expect.
Read Article The Opportunities in Organic Act of 2023 is designed to help farmers pursue organic agriculture by offering a suite of easy-to-access tools, expert technical assistance and flexible funding for underserved farmers and ranchers.
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Instead of leveling the playing field for small farmers, the bill would allow global corporations to pull money and resources out of rural communities and undermine the resilience of our food supply.
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A very troubling and disheartening development for those who believe that genetically-engineered food is not the way forward.
Read Article Shockingly, this was the first big and official White House meeting to discuss food and nutrition issues in more than 50 years.
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Center for Food Safety’s Bill Freese gives his take on what this all means.
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