On July 29, 2016 President Obama signed GMO labeling legislation into law. The law, which passed the House and Senate by large bipartisan majorities earlier this summer, creates federal mandatory GMO labeling.
In 1993, a group of farmers on the high plains of Texas planted thousands of acres of organic and transitional cotton. After finding a very underdeveloped market with only one or two potential customers, they formed the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative (TOCMC).
With no paid staff, the organization worked out of co-founder Jimmy Wedel’s home trying to develop a totally unknown market.
Twenty-three years later, the farmers who make up TOCMC are receiving OTA’s Farmer of the Year Organic Leadership Award.
For over a decade, including six years as Chief Scientist of The Organic Center, I have focused on new science from around the world on the impacts of organic farming on food safety, food nutritional quality, and agriculture’s environmental footprint.
The California State Legislature passed AB 1826—the California Organic Food and Farming Act (COFFA)—with unanimous bipartisan support in response to hundreds of organic farmers, businesses, and consumers calling for critical updates to the California State Organic Program (SOP). COFFA is expected to be signed into law by October 2016.
Two new studies out of Newcastle University have confirmed several benefits of consuming organic dairy and meat. The papers, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, show that organic milk and meat contain about 50% higher levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids than conventionally produced products. They also show that organic meat had lower concentrations of two saturated fats, and that organic milk and dairy products contain 40% more of the heart-healthy conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) than their conventional counterparts.
Global sales of organic food reached $80 billion in 2014, with the U.S. the largest organic market, according to findings in The World of Organic Agriculture: Statistics & Emerging Trends 2016 unveiled during BioFach in February by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and IFOAM—Organics International.
Research—on–farm and at land-grant universities—could help solve some of the most pressing production-related issues that keep existing organic farmers from expanding and optimizing production, and pose a barrier for conventional farmers looking to convert their acreage to organic production. For this, the GRO Organic check-off proposal now before USDA could play a key role in funding research vital to addressing those issues.
Bob Quinn has been an organic wheat farmer in Montana for 30 years. Through the years, he’s spoken at countless meetings and workshops, written articles, given interviews on organic, and he says never in his three decades of practicing—and advocating—organic has he received as many questions about transitioning to organic agriculture as he has in the past six months.
Fact: You can eat organic on a budget. Fact: Organic agriculture can help feed the planet. Fact: There are proven health benefits of organic. These are three of the more than 30 research-backed facts that OTA and partners digitally disseminated each day in September as part of its highly successful “Myth-Busting Month” social media festival.
Organic Farmer of the Year Benny McLean of Uncle Matt’s Organic says it makes him feel good to see his 12 grandkids work in the soil and learn how healthy food is grown. Growing the Organic Industry recipient Tom Harding of Lehigh Valley Organic Growers says after 30 years advocating for organic, he still feels like he’s just beginning the trek for organic. And Rising Star winner Michael Berger of Elevation Burger says his commitment to advancing organic and selling healthy fast food to American consumers has never been stronger.
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