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California revives program to buy water from farmers
05 09 2008 SACRAMENTO -- -- Saying California's water reserves are all but gone, state officials on Thursday announced the revival of a dormant 17-year-old program to buy water from Sacramento Valley farmers and sell it to the thirstiest Southern California agencies in case this winter brings a third year of skimpy precipitation.
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What Does a Sustainable Can of Beans Look Like?
04 09 2008 Two years ago Truitt Brothers decided to figure that out, and added two products, green beans and pears,sourced and prepared sustainably, to their more traditionally packaged goods which they had been producing for over 30 years. While the sustainability-focused line is still less than 5% of their whole business it has quadrupled in growth in those two years, and that growth is projected to continue. In fact, they have already doubled their offerings by adding kidney and garbanzo beans.
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Drought in Australia food bowl worsens
02 09 2008 Drought in Australia's main food growing region of the Murray-Darling river system has worsened, with water inflows over the past two years at an all-time low, the government's top water official said on Tuesday. The drought will hit irrigated crops such as rice, grapes and horticulture the hardest, but would have less impact on output of wheat, which depends largely on rainfall during specific periods and is on track to double after two years of shrunken crops.
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Slow Food Movement Picks Up Momentum in the USA
02 09 2008 A lush, under-the-stars spread of handmade bread, gourmet olives and fine wine makes an unlikely launch for a weekend dedicated to ending hunger, empowering poor nations and transforming farming as we know it. A sign points the way to a display of apples at a farmer's market during Slow Food Nation in San Francisco, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008.
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Water Corruption Prevents Progress
29 08 2008 Africa's largest water transfer effort, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, plans to supply water to the industrial heartland of South Africa and to generate energy for impoverished Lesotho. The multi-billion dollar investment offers economic growth and greater water security for underserved communities in the region.
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Small farmers to join Brazil sustainable cane move
29 08 2008 Dozens of small and medium-scale farmers in Brazil's Sao Paulo state will grow sugar cane certified as meeting strict social and environmental standards, the region's cane producers association said late on Thursday.Several ethanol companies like Cosan and Louis Dreyfus signed deals to produce and export verified sustainable ethanol in the last couple of months to address consumers' concerns over the impact of ethanol which powers almost all the country's new cars.
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'Best Hope At Sustainable Fisheries' Short-changed By Conservation Efforts, Researchers Argue
26 08 2008 Small scale fisheries produce as much annual catch for human consumption and use less than one-eighth the fuel as their industrial counterparts, but they are dealt a double-whammy by well-intentioned eco-labelling initiatives and ill-conceived fuel subsidies, according to a University of British Columbia study.
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Uruguay: Organic Wool Has Become the Great Challenge
25 08 2008 There is a strong growing demand in the world for "organic" wool and consumers are willing to pay a bonus, which is a promising advantage for Uruguay and its textile industry, said Pedro Otegui, one of the country's leading wool and textile exporters.
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A New Biopesticide For The Organic Food Boom
25 08 2008 With the boom in consumption of organic foods creating a pressing need for natural insecticides and herbicides that can be used on crops certified as "organic," biopesticide pioneer Pam G. Marrone, Ph.D., is reporting development of a new "green" pesticide obtained from an extract of the giant knotweed in a report scheduled for presentation here today at the 236th national meeting of the American Chemical Society.
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Roundtable Reveals International Biofuel Standard
25 08 2008 Biofuels offer the promise of a low-carbon fuel that could power vehicles and stimulate the world's rural economies. Yet biofuels are also among the most vilified of environmental technologies. Ethanol refineries are not always clean. The labor on biofuel farms is not always fair. The diversion of feedstocks from food to fuel may be driving up global commodity prices.
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Wastewater fears for urban farms
19 08 2008 Urgent action is needed to remove pollutants from urban wastewater, which is often used in cities to grow food, an international study has warned.Data collected by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) found that 85% of cities discharged the water without any appropriate treatment.
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As GMO Sugar Beets Sneak Into the Food Supply, Citizens Fight Back
16 08 2008 "Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -- Anthropologist Margaret Mead
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Study Looks at Health of Farmworkers
15 08 2008 MENDOTA -- When customers come into his store, Joseph Riofrio sees the positive effects of an ongoing study in Mendota on the health of farmworkers and their job risks.Hispanic farmworkers are more concerned about diabetes and their sugar intake, something Riofrio did not see a few years ago.
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Will the Economic Bust Stifle Organic Food?
13 08 2008 When the commodity boom and rising food prices took hold last year, optimists argued that this might cause people to switch to organic and sustainable foods, because the premium was no longer so high compared with mass market fare.
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Prince Charles says GMO crops will be "disaster"
13 08 2008 LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Prince Charles said on Wednesday the widespread use of genetically modified crops would be the biggest environmental disaster of all time. The 59-year-old heir to the British throne is well known for supporting organic farming, but his comments published in an interview with the Daily Telegraph were his most outspoken yet on GMO foods.
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South Koreans Fill Streets of Seoul to Continue Protest Against US Beef Imports
10 08 2008 For the past two months, protesters have been filling the streets of Seoul condemning a decision to lift a ban on imported beef from the United States. We speak with Michael Hansen, senior scientist for Consumers Union. He is in Seoul, where he is testifying before the South Korean National Assembly at a special committee hearing on mad cow disease.
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Slow Food Rising?
09 08 2008 Last week, I attended a lecture on the slow food movement (motto: good, clean, fair food) at Sophia University in Tokyo. The speaker was Stephanie Assmann of Tohoku University in Japan. It was organized and moderated by my friend James Farrer, who directs Sophia's Institute of Comparative Culture.
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Is Your Organic Food Really Organic?
09 08 2008 When you buy food with a "USDA organic" label, do you know what you're getting? Now is a good time to ask such a question, as the USDA just announced Monday it was putting 15 out of 30 federally accredited organic certifiers they audited on probation, allowing them 12 months to make corrections or lose their accreditation. At the heart of the audit for several certifiers were imported foods and ingredients from other countries, including China.
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British GMO Protests Highlight Global Divide
04 08 2008 British opposition to genetically modified crops is on the rise, prompting security concerns at research laboratories across the country. Nearly all 54 U.K. pesticide-resistant crop trials attempted in the past eight years have been attacked, according to media reports. Protesters are destroying the experimental crops to prevent biotechnology companies from spreading genetically modified organisms (GMOs) more widely in Europe and the developing world.
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Government pesticide and fertilizer data dropped
31 07 2008 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has eliminated the only federal program that tracks the use of pesticides and fertilizers on American farms. The move has left scientists, industry groups, and public advocates surprised and confused about how to carry on their work without this free information.
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Organic Agriculture, World Hunger and Global Warming: Report from the IFOAM Organic World Congress
31 07 2008 Organic Agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic Agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved.
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Stricken boat off the coast of Bali underscores the threats from unregulated fishing.
28 07 2008 This discovery highlights that efforts to prevent illicit fishing activities from occurring have been unsuccessful, activities that make it all but impossible to manage fish stocks and ensure that fishing boats are sound and secure from oil leaks. The region, site of many key WWF projects, is widely recognised as the most important area of marine biodiversity on the planet, and is often referred to as the nursery of the seas.
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Small Farmers Pushed to Plant GM Seed
24 07 2008 Baphethile Mntambo has been farming organically for the past five years because she knows that avoiding chemicals will in the long-term benefit her yield. She decided not to plant genetically modified seeds because she has heard that they cannot be saved for the next season and will eventually deplete her soil. But she is not entirely sure how and why.
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Japan feeds animals recycled leftovers
23 07 2008 With animal feed and fertilizer prices at record highs, Japan's food recycling industry is seeing greater demand than ever before for pellets for pigs and poultry made from recycled leftovers. Japan disposes of some 20 millions tonnes of food waste a year, five times as much as world food aid to the poor in 2007. The leftovers used to be dumped in land fills where they decomposed and produced the greenhouse gas methane.
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Training tree fellers helps cut carbon emissions
23 07 2008 Improved management of tropical forests can substantially reduce global carbon dioxide emissions and should be given high priority in negotiations for the 2009 Copenhagen Climate change agreement, write Francis E. Putz and colleagues in PLoS Biology.
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