INSIDE ORGANIC Archives · Page 2 of 2

INSIDE ORGANIC: Farm Bill Includes Significant Gains for Organic Farming But Falls Far Short of Achieving an Organic ‘Fair Share’ (July/Aug 08)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · July/Aug 2008 The five-year farm bill that survived a relentless attack on farm subsidy payments and a Presidential veto before becoming law includes important organic farming advances and improvements and higher funding levels for organic programs. Overall, however, the $307 billion initiative does not go nearly far enough…

INSIDE ORGANIC: Controversial Congressional “Oink Oink” Funding Process Is Potential Source of More Organic Program Support (May/June 08)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · May/June 2008 After doing well in a long campaign to increase support for organic agriculture in the farm bill, organic advocates are looking ahead to USDA implementation of programs with newly mandated funding and the annual push to convince lawmakers who appropriate money annually to do more to…

INSIDE ORGANIC: IFOAM’s Drive to Ditch Its Basic Standards Stirs Up A Global Fight Over Organic Values (March/April 08)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics ·March/April 2008 The organic community’s market expansion vs. organic values debate has heated up worldwide over a determined effort by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) to ditch the basic standards developed over 30 years as the gold standard for organic. The proposal to replace the IFOAM…

INSIDE ORGANIC: New Michigan Global Yield Comparison Study Challenges Critics Who Claim Organic Farmers Can’t Feed the World (Jan/Feb 08)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Jan/Feb 2008 When a Wisconsin dairy farmer slammed organic farming recently after accepting a local service club award for his 750-cow conventional milking operation, it brought back bad memories of similar attacks over the last 30 years that have never been backed up by scientific or economic data.…

INSIDE ORGANIC: The NOSB Completes Fifteen Often Bumpy Years Dealing with USDA Facilitating Public Participation and Protecting Organic Integrity (Nov/Dec 07)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Nov/Dec 2007 The National Organic Standards Board, the one-of-a-kind official body that recently completed 15 sometimes bumpy years advising and assisting the U.S. Department of Agriculture in implementing the Organic Foods Production Act, (OFPA) deserves the kind of report card most students dream about. The organic community, like…

INSIDE ORGANIC: Surprise NOP Auditor Visits to Organic Farms and Processors in China is Overdue Response to Concerns About Integrity of Organic Food Imports (Sept 07)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · Sept 2007 Widely publicized reports of Chinese lapses in guaranteeing the safety of its food exports, including press reports raising questions about the integrity of its organic food exports, suggest an urgent need to increase government and industry oversight that will guarantee organic integrity and reassure consumers. The…

INSIDE ORGANIC: Organic Farming and Global Climate Change: Organic Farming’s Contribution to Mitigating the Impact of Global Warming, Although Fully Documented, Gets Little Public Notice and Is Not Rewarded (July 07)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · July 2007 Almost everyone seems to have heard about the growing threat of global warming, but almost no one seems to have heard about the important contribution organic farmers are making to help mitigate the damage. Organic farming’s mitigation contribution and future potential, although well documented here and…

INSIDE ORGANIC: Organic Farmers Make Gains in Political Access and Support For Organic Appropriations and Farm Bill Organic Initiatives (May 07)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · May 2007 A series of recent developments strongly suggest that organic farmers and others in the rapidly growing organic sector have gained new political access and support that will enhance their ability to influence both annual organic program funding and the 2007 farm bill process unfolding on Capitol…

INSIDE ORGANIC: Collecting and Reporting Organic Data, Slowed by Setbacks, Is Expected to Get a Strong New Push This Year on Capitol Hill (March 07)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · March, 2007 A strong push is underway to line up new funding to enable the National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS), the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), and other government agencies to collect and report much more organic price, acreage, sales, and other current data. The main effort will press…

INSIDE ORGANIC: Year-End Congressional Appropriations Meltdown Wipes Out Last Chance for 2007 USDA Certification Cost-Share Funding for Midwest Organic Farmers (Jan 07)

by Roger Blobaum · Inside Organics · January, 2007 The program that has provided certification cost-share funding for Midwest organic farmers since 2002 appeared to be on life support when Congress adjourned in early December without taking final action on a long list of unfinished appropriations bills. A continuing resolution to keep the bills alive…