January 7, 2010 Environment 360 “In the past dozen years, three new diseases have decimated populations of amphibians, honeybees, and — most recently — bats. Increasingly, scientists suspect that low-level exposure to pesticides could be contributing to this rash of epidemics.” With all the environmental problems swirling around us, this stunning article provides a [...]
Tag Archives: pesticides
Genesis of the USDA’s National Organic Program
How the Federal Government came to regulate the organic industry
My previous column on the history of organic agriculture wrapped up with a look at the burgeoning national market that emerged during the 1980’s. Counterculture back-to-the-landers and die-hard traditionalist farmers were raising crops and livestock without agro-chemicals and growing numbers of consumers were eager to [...]
The Organic Certification Process
Early Beginnings
I’ve devoted the first two installments in this series to exploring the dual wellsprings that gave rise to organic agriculture. Organic Agriculture: Its Origins and Evolution delved into Sir Albert Howard’s pioneering vision of organic agriculture as a self-regulating system of integrated crop and livestock production that provides optimal nutrition for [...]
Posted in Food Conversations Also tagged ecology, Environment, food labeling, mark keating, organic, organic certification, organic farmers, rachel carson, rodale, sir albert howard, usda 2 Comments
Industrial Agriculture and the Organic Alternative: Rachel Carson’s Contribution
My introductory post on organic farming (Organic Agriculture: Its Origins, and Evolution Over Time) highlighted Sir Albert Howard’s role in describing its fundamental practices and principles. Seeing Nature as the most efficient and enduring of all farmers, Howard portrayed organic agriculture as a holistic endeavor inseparable from a farm’s environmental conditions. In Howard’s view, [...]
Call Of The Honeybees
Ever since Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” first appeared, warning us against the dangers of chemicals in our natural world—we seem to be entering a new, more dangerous period, where the accumulated human effects upon the environment are producing an obvious toll. In this story, another human soul speaks out, this time, about the plight [...]
Posted in Food Stories Also tagged beekeeping, ccd, colony collapse disorder, entomology, Environment, genetic engineering, honey, honeybees, lynn royce, pollen, pollination, rachel carson, stories, sustainable agriculture, Sustainable Living, wild bees 7 Comments
