What would you be willing to pay, to ensure your food came from a farm that doubled up to protect biodiversity and mitigate climate change? That’s the question a group of researchers recently asked hundreds of Finnish citizens—finding that a surprisingly large majority of people would be willing to pay more for food from farms where crop diversification practices protect the soil, boost species diversity, and prevent pollution.
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Annastasia Mullen has been expanding her home garden in Des Moines, Iowa, since 2015. After starting with three raised beds in her backyard, she rented three more in a community garden nearby and started planting flowers in addition to produce like tomatoes, peppers, leafy greens, and root vegetables.
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In an interview with Freakonomics Radio, Whole Foods’ CEO, John Mackey said, “The best solution is not to need healthcare. The best solution is to change the way people eat, the way they live, the lifestyle, and diet. There’s no reason why people shouldn’t be healthy and have a longer health span. A bunch of drugs is not going to solve the problem.”
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Decrying numerous policies and practices they say violate Google's "don't be evil" founding principle, more than 200 of the Silicon Valley tech giant's workers on Monday announced they are forming a union, a move that was applauded by progressive lawmakers and labor advocates nationwide.
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Our food system has taken hits from COVID-19. You’ve read about it, maybe felt it firsthand. Endless food pantry lines, scrambles to feed kids out of school, and supply chain disruptions for farms and food retail alike. A shuttered restaurant industry. Supermarkets facing food shortages, suppliers figuring out their pivots, farms forced to discard food.
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Seeds need to be brought back into public ownership, rather than belonging to a small group of agrochemical companies, say campaigners, after a year in which seed-swapping and saving has reached new heights of popularity.
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The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today announced that the District of Columbia Superior Court rejected Smithfield’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit OCA brought against the pork producer in May 2020 under the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA).
“We are pleased that the court agrees that Smithfield, a producer of industrial factory farm pork, should be held accountable for claims the company makes about the safety of its products and production practices,” said OCA International Director Ronnie Cummins.
In its ruling, the court rejected Smithfield’s argument that no reasonable consumer would rely on the company’s claims that its products are the “safest” possible, that Smithfield is “Leading the industry on food safety.” and that its COVID-19 response “complement[s] the extensive safety measures” used by the company. The court held that such claims plausibly lead reasonable consumers to believe the products are “produced without the use of potentially carcinogenic drugs, have lower-than-average rates of Salmonella contamination, and are not contaminated with particularly dangerous disease strains.”
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I’m one of those “farmers and ranchers for a Green New Deal,” and like a lot of them, my involvement started with soil. I began market gardening in 1994, five years before my wife and I purchased the old tobacco farm where we’ve been doing organic farming ever since.
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COVID-19 has magnified global food insecurity and is driving unhealthy eating and worsening malnutrition, food experts say. They have called for deliberate global investment in food as medicine on the back of growing diet-related illnesses.
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Earlier this year, Americans learned what it looks like when a food system reliant on industrial agriculture, near monopolies and exploited laborers breaks down. Just two months into the pandemic, the meat industry in the most powerful nation in the world was buckling.
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