Category Archives: Sustainable Farming

5 People Looking Out for Your Food

Posted on May 16, 2012 by lzerbe| Leave a comment

By Frances Beinecke, president of Natural Resources Defense Council

Today NRDC announces the winners of the 2012 Growing Green Awards. These awards celebrate the farmers, business owners, and bold thinkers who are transforming America’s food system. Each one of them has pioneered ways to produce food that nourishes our families and restores our water, air, and soil at the same time.

These leaders stand at the forefront of a movement that is sweeping the nation. This is the fourth year NRDC has hosted the Growing Green Awards and within that short time, there’s been an explosion of interest in healthy, sustainable food. Continue reading →

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Posted in Organic Food, Sustainable Farming

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Family Farmers Fight Monsanto

Posted on April 27, 2012 by emain| 2 Comments

By Margaret Riche, EcoCentric

According to many family farmers, there is an atmosphere of fear in rural America today. The threat of litigation looms, carried on the wind, by bird and by bee, in the form of Monsanto’s genetically engineered seeds. When these patent-protected drifters settle on a neighbor’s non-GE field, in effect contaminating their crops, unwitting farmers are suddenly at risk for legal retribution from the biotech giant. Continue reading →

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Posted in Food Politics, Organic Food, Pesticides & GMOs, Sustainable Farming

World’s Largest Rooftop Farm Gets More Space AND Bees!

Posted on April 18, 2012 by emain| Leave a comment

by Chris Hunt, EcoCentric

The arrival of spring tends to prompt a shift in collective attention toward soil and seeds, the warmer weather and longer days inspiring everyone from the large-scale farmer to the casual backyard gardener to plant and grow.  In most places, people look down to the ground.  But in New York City, we’re just as likely to look up to the sky – because here, many of our favorite farms are now on rooftops. Continue reading →

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Posted in Organic Food, Sustainable Farming

How Big Ag Is Lobbying to Silence Whistleblowers

Posted on March 7, 2012 by emain| 5 Comments

by Margaret Riche, EcoCentric

When corruption happens behind closed doors, whistle blowers are the ones who let us in. Late last month Josh Fox, who exposed the dangers of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in his documentary Gasland, was arrested at a House Science Committee meeting while trying to videotape a hearing on water contamination in Wyoming. As he was led from the hearing in handcuffs, Fox was heard saying “I’m within my First Amendment rights, and I’m being taken out!”

Fox just found out what animal activists – and increasingly, others who speak out about food – have known for years. Activists who expose truths that threaten the profits of big business are more and more becoming targets for legal action.

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Posted in Food Politics, Healthy Diet, Sustainable Farming

Fit for a King: On the Future of Food (A Book Review)

Posted on February 16, 2012 by lzerbe| 1 Comment

by Leslie Hatfield, GRACE communications

Advocates of locally sourced, sustainably produced food are often portrayed as elitists (most often by those with a vested interest in the agricultural status quo) and granted, it doesn’t get much more elite than His Royal Highness Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales.

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Posted in Organic Food, Sustainable Farming

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A Rose is a Rose is…Covered in DDT

Posted on February 10, 2012 by emain| Leave a comment

by Sarah Zimmerman, GRACE communications

There is no expression of love more classic than a dozen red roses. Every Valentine’s Day, more than 100 million roses are sold in the United States.  Since the Language of Flowers developed in the Victorian Era, they have signified passionate, romantic love, over time becoming one of the most iconic images of February 14th.

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Posted in Healthy Home & Garden, Low-Impact Living, Pesticides & GMOs, Sustainable Farming

Farm & College: Young Organic Farmers Do Double Duty

Posted on January 11, 2012 by lzerbe| 3 Comments

By Andrea and Erika Holm, second-generation organic farmers and members of Generation Organic

Twin sisters Andrea and Erika Holm are young organic farmers who live and work on their family farm in Elk Mound, Wisconsin. Together with their seven siblings, Andrea and Erika are second-generation farmers at Holm Girls Dairy. Recently, Andrea and Erika were chosen to join the Generation Organic 2011 “Who’s Your Farmer?” Tour, a road trip throughout the Pacific Northwest and California. Continue reading →

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Posted in Organic Food, Sustainable Farming

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Hurricanes, CSAs and the Resilience of Farmers

Posted on December 22, 2011 by emain| Leave a comment


by Erin McCarthy, program associate at the GRACE Communications Foundation

When Hurricane Irene hit New York City on August 28th, turning out to be a nonevent, residents breathed a sigh of relief and even a chuckle at the extensive preparations made for this less than significant storm. But even though we city dwellers were spared, I had a terrible feeling that farmers upstate might not be so lucky. I was especially worried about the farmers who provided me with my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) vegetables every week. And before I even had time to pluck off my rain boots, I received an email that made my heart sink. Continue reading →

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Posted in Climate Destabilization, Sustainable Farming

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Building Your Community’s Food System: What You Can Do!

Posted on December 1, 2011 by lzerbe| 1 Comment


By Helen Dombalis, Policy Associate at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

The month of November, and really the entire fall, has been filled with a whirlwind of conversations and questions about the state of agriculture funding and our nation’s economic status. We’ve heard the new terms, created as needed by Congress and advocates, which aim to succinctly explain what’s happening: from the “Super Committee” to “mini-buses” to a “secret” farm bill. Continue reading →

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Posted in Sustainable Farming

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Remembering A Global Treasure

Posted on November 9, 2011 by lzerbe| Leave a comment

by Deirdre Imus, founder and president of The Deirdre Imus Environmental Health Center at Hackensack University Medical Center

Last month, ovarian cancer claimed another dynamic woman, 71 year-old social activist, ecologist and Nobel Laureate, Wangari Maathai. Born in 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya, Maathai attended school during a time when few Kenyan girls were educated. Although hardly known in the U.S., Maathai received a master’s degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh before returning to Kenya where she earned her Ph.D. – a first for an Eastern African woman – from the University of Nairobi and began advocating for women’s rights and environmental conservation. Continue reading →

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Posted in Sustainable Farming

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