Colony Collapse Disorder

A mystery epidemic is causing entire hives to "disappear," puzzling and worrying beekeepers and growers alike. This year's bee losses are ranging from 30-60% on the West Coast, with beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses exceeding 70%; a 20% loss in the offseason is considered normal. Read more here or watch an audio slideshow here.

SENATE POISED TO CUT SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PROGRAM FUNDING

Last week, the Senate passed a resolution that would immediately end funding for a federal program crucial to sustainable agriculture. The Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) program was designed to provide farmers with information on how to integrate sustainable practices into their own farms. This successful federal program has become one of the most successful and cost-effective tools used by farmers to make their agricultural operations safer for human health and the environment. Beginning early next week (Feb. 26) Congressman Boozman (R-AR) will begin circulating a sign-on letter to request the continued funding of ATTRA. Call your representative and senator and ask them to sign onto Congressman Boozman's letter.

ENDING BOTTLED WATER ADDICTION WILL SAVE MONEY & ENVIRONMENT

BOTTLED WATER ISN'T NECESSARILY CLEANER: According to the San Francisco Chronicle and lawsuits from the Environmental Law Foundation, 40% of bottled water is really just repackaged tap water. Maybe that's a good thing, considering federal standards for tap water are actually higher than those for bottled water.
BOTTLED WATER AND OIL: Supplying Americans with plastic water bottles for one year consumes more than 47 million gallons of oil, according to the Container Recycling Institute. That's enough to take 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Add in the additional amount of oil it takes to ship the bottles thousands of miles from extraction source to recipient, and your drink of H2O could be categorized with the "Hummers" of the world.
BOTTLED WATER AND BIODEGRADABILITY: Buddha's bones turned to dust a long time ago. But if he had been a bottled water drinker, that plastic would still be laying around. It takes two minutes to drink a bottle of water, but it takes thousands of years for that piece of plastic garbage to go away.
SOLUTION: Buy a water filter and a non-plastic water container of your preferred size. Fill it up in the morning before you go to work or school. Do a quick online search, and you can also find affordable portable water filters for when you are traveling. You'll save yourself and the environment a lot of expense.

FDA STILL ACCEPTING COMMENTS ON APPROVAL OF CLONED FOODS

The FDA is accepting public comments on their controversial proposed regulations that would allow milk, eggs and meat from cloned animals on the market, without labeling or safety testing. One major concern for organic consumers is the fact that it's impossible to determine via laboratory testing whether a particular meat or animal byproduct came from a cloned animal or its offspring. In other words, as the FDA approves conventional milk, eggs and meat from cloned animals, these same clone foods could find their way into foods labeled as "organic", even though foods from cloned animals cannot technically be labeled "organic". According to a report by Jim Riddle, former Chair of the National Organic Standards Board, labeling of cloned animals and their products is essential in order to "prevent entry of cloned animals, their progeny, and products into the organic food system."

Whole Foods/Wild Oats Consolidation

Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFMI) saw its shares rebound today after it surprised investors yesterday by announcing a proposed $565 million merger with Wild Oats Markets (OATS), a similar though much smaller chain. The acquisition news comes as Whole Foods posted a decline in fiscal first-quarter profit. Whole Foods has made 18 previous acquisitions, including Fresh Fields and Bread & Circus. Wild Oats is the biggest acquisition yet for Whole Foods. Started in Boulder, Colo., in 1987, it has 110 stores in 24 states and in British Columbia and $1.2 billion in annual sales. By contrast, Whole Foods, which was started in 1980 in Austin, Tex., has 193 stores in the United States, Canada and Britain and had sales of $5.6 billion in 2006. Investors predict the companies will save money by eliminating corporate duplication and that Whole Foods would gain access to markets where it is now weak, particularly the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountain region and Florida.

very, very depressing...

Organic farming 'no better for the environment'
By Cahal Milmo
The Independent (UK)
Published: 19 February 2007

Organic food may be no better for the environment than conventional produce and in some cases is contributing more to global warming than intensive agriculture, according to a government report.

The first comprehensive study of the environmental impact of food production found there was "insufficient evidence" to say organic produce has fewer ecological side-effects than other farming methods.

The 200-page document will reignite the debate surrounding Britain's £1.6bn organic food industry which experienced a 30 per cent growth in sales last year.

David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, drew a furious response from growers last month when he suggested organic food was a "lifestyle choice" with no conclusive evidence it was nutritionally superior.

Sir David King, the Government's chief scientist, also told The Independent he agreed that organic food was no safer than chemically-treated food.

The report for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs found "many" organic products had lower ecological impacts than conventional methods using fertilisers and pesticides. But academics at the Manchester Business School (MBS), who conducted the study, said that was counterbalanced by other organic foods - such as milk, tomatoes and chicken - which are significantly less energy efficient and can be more polluting than intensively-farmed equivalents.

Ken Green, professor of environmental management at MBS, who co-wrote the report, said: "You cannot say that all organic food is better for the environment than all food grown conventionally. If you look carefully at the amount of energy required to produce these foods you get a complicated picture. In some cases, the carbon footprint for organics is larger."

The study did not take into account factors such as the increased biodiversity created by organic farming or the improved landscape.

The report said: "There is certainly insufficient evidence available to state that organic agriculture overall would have less of an environmental impact than conventional agriculture.

"In particular, organic agriculture poses its own environmental problems in the production of some foods, either in terms of nutrient release to water or in terms of climate change burdens."

Using data from previous studies, the researchers singled out milk as a particular example of the environmental challenges presented by organic farming. Organic milk requires 80 per cent more land and creates almost double the amount of substances that could lead to acidic soil and "eutrophication" - the pollution of water courses with excess nutrients.

The study found that producing organic milk, which has higher levels of nutrients and lower levels of pesticides, also generates more carbon dioxide than conventional methods - 1.23kg per litre compared to 1.06kg per litre. It concluded: "Organic milk production appears to require less energy input but much more land than conventional production. While eliminating pesticide use, it also gives rise to higher emissions of greenhouse gases and eutrophying substances."

Similar findings were recorded with organic chickens, where the longer growing time means it has a higher impact on all levels, including producing nearly double the amount of potentially polluting by-products and consuming 25 per cent more energy.

Vegetable production was also highlighted as a source of increased use of resources. Organic vine tomatoes require almost 10 times the amount of land needed for conventional tomatoes and nearly double the amount of energy.

Advocates of organic farming said its environmental benefits had long been established, not least by Mr Miliband who has written it is "better for biodiversity than intensive farming". The Soil Association said it recognised that in some areas, such as poultry and growing vegetables out of season, organic was less energy efficient.

But it said that was vastly outweighed by factors which the Defra study had not taken into consideration such as animal welfare, soil condition and water use.

The pitfalls

Tomatoes

* 122sq m of land is needed to produce a tonne of organic vine tomatoes. The figure for conventionally-grown loose tomatoes is 19sq m.

* Energy needed to grow organic tomatoes is 1.9 times that of conventional methods.

* Organic tomatoes grown in heated greenhouses in Britain generate one hundred times the amount of CO2 per kilogram produced by tomatoes in unheated greenhouses in southern Spain.

Milk

* Requires 80 per cent more land to produce per unit than conventional milk.

* Produces nearly 20 per cent more carbon dioxide and almost double the amount of other by-products that can lead to acidification of soil and pollution of water courses.

Chickens

* Organic birds require 25 per cent more energy to rear and grow than conventional methods.

* The amount of CO2 generated per bird is 6.7kg for organic compared to 4.6kg for conventional battery or barn hens.

* Eutrophication, the potential for nutrient-rich by-products to pollute water courses, is measured at 86 for organic compared to 49 for conventional.

* The depletion of natural resources is measured at 99 for organic birds compared to 29 for battery or barn hens.

Ancient Peppers, High Yields & No-Fly Ag for Europe

Starch microfossils from peppers have been found at seven sites dating from 6000 years before present to European contact and ranging from the Bahamas to southern Peru. The starch grain assemblages demonstrate that maize and chilies occurred together as an ancient and widespread Neotropical plant food complex that predates pottery in some regions. More here and here.
Also, Organic challenges conventional for yield potential in current Rodale tests, a ban on air-freighted food under the organic label is proposed in Europe and more from New Farm's February Newsletter.

FEDERAL GRAZING FEE DROPS, RAISING COST TO TAXPAYERS

The Bush administration has lowered the monthly cost of grazing livestock on federal land from $1.56 to $1.35 per cow/calf. This is the lowest allowable fee and is based on the cost of livestock grazing in 1966. The ridiculous fee — less than it costs to feed a pet goldfish — is one reason the federal government loses over $500 million per year on its livestock-grazing program.

In Niger, Trees and Crops Turn Back the Desert

Thinking about Matty Mccue on the front lines doing the good work. Read more here or watch video here.

UCSC apprenticeship program receives top honor in sustainable agriculture!!

This is a WONDERFUL press release on the award that was given to the Apprenticeship at the Ecological Farming Conference this year.

(Staff who support the UCSC Apprenticeship in Ecological Farming include, left to right, Orin Martin, Nancy Vail, Christof Bernau, Julie Stultz, Diane Nichols, Jim Leap, and Ann Lindsey)

Ethanol Fuels ADM's Profits

Archer-Daniels-Midland's (ADM) efforts to move into the ethanol business are paying off so far. Investors bid the shares higher Thursday after the corn processor reported a 20% jump in quarterly profit. U.S. ethanol plants already consumed nearly one-fifth of the corn crop; if all the factories under construction go into operation, they'll eat up no less than half the harvest by 2008 (see BusinessWeek, 2/5/07, "Food vs. Fuel"). But even as surging demand pushes up the price of corn and ADM's costs, the company has been able to increase the prices it charges on products processed from corn like starch, sweetener, and ethanol. Corn farmers are having a rare period of prosperity, and the federal government is getting a break. In 2006, Uncle Sam gave corn farmers $8.8 billion in subsidies. Thanks to high corn prices, subsidies are expected to drop to $2.1 billion in 2007. "All the price-dependent spending is getting wiped out," explains the USDA's Collins. Corn is a lousy raw material for fuel however because producing 10 gallons of ethanol consumes the energy equivalent of about 7 gallons of gasoline, and greenhouse gas reductions are minuscule.
As one reader points out: Ethanol manufacturers are gross polluters. An Iowa ADM processing plant generated 20,000 tons of pollutants including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds in 2004, according to federal records. EPA considers a plant as a major source of pollution if it produces more than 100 tons of any one pollutant per year, although it has proposed increasing that cap to 250 tons (CorpWatch 2006). With ethanol subsidies going through the roof [$770 million in 1995, $1 billion in 2000 & $8.8 billion in 2006] (Cato 1995, 2007). The gains of ethanol are far outweighed by its economic and environmental costs.