Food Rights Network

Food News You Can Use

December 13, 2011

• Wisconsin Farmer Jim Goodman Urges the “99 Percent” to “Occupy the Food System“ (Common Dreams, 12/12). See also the Bangor Daily News article (12/8) the Maine organic farmer leading the “fight against Monsanto“: “Jim Gerritsen of Bridgewater made his first trip to New York City to address the December 4 “Farmers’ March” to Zuccotti Park organized by the Food Justice Committee of the Occupy Wall Street movement.” Grist also published an excellent article about the Farmers’ March (12/6).
• National Organic Standards Board Approves Changes: For more details, see the National Organic Program Newsletter (December 2011), the summary of major votes from Beyond Pesticides (12/12) or the meeting report by the Cornucopia Institute (12/10).
• Environmental Activists in British Columbia Blockade Sludge Hauling Trucks (Prince George Citizen, 12/10)


Japanese Cattle Farmers Protest TPP (Source: Kyodo/Japantimes.co)

• Japanese Cattle Farmers Protest Latest United States Free Trade Agreement (Aliran Malaysian human rights group, 12/9)
• Arkansas Court Awards Rice Farmers Fifty Million for Contamination of Food Supply by Genetically Altered Rice from Bayer CropScience (ABC News, 12/8)
• “The Great Milk Robbery: How Corporations Are Stealing Livelihoods and a Vital Source of Nutrition from the Poor”: “Most of the dairy markets that serve the poor are supplied by small-scale vendors who collect milk from farmers who own just a few dairy animals. But such systems of “people’s milk” are in direct competition with the ambitions of big dairy companies, such as Nestlé, and a growing number of other wealthy players that want to take over the entire dairy chain in the South, from the farms to the markets. A battle over dairy is under way that will profoundly shape the direction of the global food system and people’s lives” (GRAIN, 12/7).
• Oregon Man Faces Prison for Wire Fraud Selling Conventional Corn as Organic (KVAL News, 12/6)
• Oakland Institute Investigates How Land Grabs in Africa Contribute to Famine and Conflict (Oakland Institute, 12/6)
• “Five Ridiculous Myths People Use to Trash Local Food — And Why They’re Wrong”: Jill Richardson debunks detractors’ claims on AlterNet (11/18).

Filed under: In the News

Tags: FarmersMarch, freetrade, GMOs, landgrabs, localfood, Monsanto, nationalorganicstandards, OccupyFood, organicfraud, sludgespreading