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Survey explores why Americans garden, but not why they don’t

By • on June 23, 2010

[Update 6/24/10: corrected heading for column 2 in table] With a terrible economy and lots of coverage of gardening in the mass media, more and more Americans are growing food in home and community gardens. According to a 2009 survey, almost a third of American households intended to grow food that year, a 19% increase over 2008. These numbers and many

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The USDA looks at local food

By • on June 10, 2010

Every now and then, newspapers print an article that makes it seem like locavores are running the U.S. food system, throwing our weight around, causing Big Ag to cower in corners. If only we

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The Marin Carbon Project studies carbon sequestration

By • on April 17, 2010

Soil carbon sequestration — the process of converting gaseous carbon dioxide into carbon in the soil — offers a promising (and possibly necessary) route to addressing climate change

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In search of the self-pollinating almond

By • on April 11, 2010

Giving bees the brush-off:  California almonds, a multi-billion dollar crop, are almost completely dependent on honey bees for pollination. During the short pollination season, a significant fraction of the U.S. honeybee colonies are in the almond orchards — in 2004, for example, sixty percent of

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Research shows possible connection between pesticide use and skin cancer

By • on March 13, 2010

Health researchers have been unable to explain why several studies have found an excess risk of melanoma and other skin cancer for farmers. Farmers spend time in the sun — which is a major risk factor — but could it be something else? New research suggests that exposure to certain pesticides could

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Why seafood wallet cards can be the wrong bait for consumers

By • on February 25, 2010

Seafood guides and other consumer-based campaigns are an important part of the quest for sustainable seafood and healthy oceans, but so far they have not shown enough positive results: bigger efforts are needed. That’s the main conclusion of a new article, "Conserving wild fish in a sea of market-based

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What does asthma have to do with farm animals — or food?

By • on January 18, 2010

When government officials hear the words "backyard livestock," they tend to worry about disease outbreaks and sanitation crises. And for good reason, as improperly managed animals — including dogs and cats —

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There Be Dragons: Examining the alternatives to unsustainable aquaculture fish feed

By • on November 22, 2009

February 23, 2010 update: I discovered that the credit for the grasshopper photo was incorrect. The photo is actually from tazintosh's Flickr collection and the photo's Flickr page is

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USDA funding university research on organic

By • on October 30, 2009

Drop in the bucket: Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan yesterday announced that more than $19 million in grants have been awarded to universities across the country to solve critical organic agriculture issues. The Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative, administered by USDA's

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Flat world, fat world: Report from the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Symposium, part 1

By • on September 23, 2009

By Nicole de Beaufort On September 21, 2009 in Minneapolis, a crowd of 300 people representing more than 30 disciplines gathered for a symposium hosted by the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Institute

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New USDA report: 36% of farmers don’t have computers

By • on August 17, 2009

Farm 2.0? Not so much: A report released Friday by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) tallies the numbers for farm computer usage for 2009. It finds: Only 64 percent of farms have access to a computer, leaving 36 percent with no computer access. 59 percent of all farms--so nearly

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Do I dare to eat a peach? Not a conventional one, says Tribune study

By • on August 13, 2009

Another day, another facet to the debate over whether organic produce is worth the extra moolah. Unless you've been living on a remote mountaintop with no wireless, you've probably witnessed the recent frenzy over a UK

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Concentration in the food industry not a concern, says new GAO report

By • on August 5, 2009

In recent years, farmers have received an ever-decreasing share of the retail dollar, even during recent spikes in food prices. Some have argued that concentration in the food industry — the increase in the economic

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If biotechnology won’t feed the world, what will? Knowledge, says GE expert Doug Gurian-Sherman

By • on July 10, 2009

Earlier this week, I asked plant pathologist and molecular biologist Doug Gurian-Sherman to explain some of the science behind genetically engineered crops and their potential — or lack thereof — to feed a more populous, climate-changing

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Meaty diet found to be heavier in flame retardant PBDEs

By • on June 28, 2009

Free to be me and PBDE: Humans and many animals have become cocktails of chemicals, with a lifetime's "body burden" acquired from skin contact, breathing, drinking, and eating industrial materials. A newly released paper by researchers at Boston University investigates the role of diet in the body burden

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