Everyday, new information about negative health, climate, and economic impacts of chemical-intensive agriculture abound, while new reports emerge showing the benefits of organic agriculture and lifestyle. Read about them here.
Food & Farming News
EWG’s 2025 Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce
EWG
With grocery costs rising, choosing where to allocate your budget for organic produce is more important than ever. The Dirty Dozen list highlights fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide residues, like strawberries, spinach, and kale. Focus on buying these organic when you can. It’s a smart way to protect your health while stretching your budget.
Plants produce more nectar when they ‘hear’ bees buzzing, scientists find
The Guardian
Groundbreaking research has shown that plants can “hear” the buzzing of bees and respond by producing more nectar with higher sugar content. By understanding these natural interactions, we can explore innovative, pesticide-free methods to enhance crop pollination.
A New Use for Shellfish Waste: Extending the Shelf Life of Produce
Maryland Today
Crab shells aren’t just for compost anymore! University of Maryland researchers have developed a natural solution from seafood waste that removes harmful pesticides and extends the shelf life of your produce.
Nearly 40% of conventional baby food contains toxic pesticides, US study finds
The Guardian
Organic products showed no pesticide residue, crucial for baby health. Pesticides like acetamiprid and captan pose risks to children’s health. Choose organic for safer options.
Confirmed. Most robust evidence yet that plant-based diets protect both human and planetary health
Anthropocene
People following a diet rich in plants cut their mortality risk by a third, and slash climate impact of food by a similar amount – concludes the largest study ever to analyze the health & environmental impacts of the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet
Food Politics: “FDA says (quietly) CAFOs contaminate leafy greens”
Food Politics
Food guru Marion Nestle declares: “concentrated animal feeding operations” that plague the nation must be held responsible for waste produced by their animals. “Human wastes are not allowed to be released untreated into the environment; neither should animal wastes”
Conditions right for paraquat drift injury in 2024
Farm Progress
The 2024 growing season’s compressed field-work schedule — due to weather delays in the Mississippi Delta — has increased the risk of paraquat drift damaging nearby corn and rice. Studies from Mississippi State show that even small, sub-lethal doses (as little as 1/10 of a normal application rate) can injure non-target crops, and while some plants may recover if damaged early, later exposure results in lasting yield losses.
Enforcement Rules for Organic Standards Far Surpass Those in Chemical-Intensive Agriculture
Beyond Pesticides
New USDA requirements in the Strengthening Organic Enforcement Rule aim to strengthen the integrity of the National Organic Program through both enhanced oversight and enforcement of existing program regulations, and the introduction of new ones to address occurrences of fraud in the organic supply
What does an Organic Reset look like?
Regeneration International
Paying organic farmers and ranchers a fair price for what they produce. Including them in financial rewards for sequestering atmospheric carbon in soils, plants and trees. Recognizing the value of providing key environmental services – preserving clean water, improving soil fertility, protecting biodiversity, wetlands, wildlife habitat, and rehydrating and reforesting parched landscapes.
Origins of Organic Food
Treehugger
Here’s a view on the origins of organic farming and food, fascinating insights into why organic living is so important that still apply today.
Maryland’s Largest Organic Grain Grower: How It Happened
Pesticides Smart
Maryland’s largest organic grain grower, Mason’s Heritage Farm tells how they transitioned from conventional grain production to organic regenerative practices, benefitting soil health and the farm’s bottom line
Planet-Score: New eco-label factors in pesticides, biodiversity and animal welfare
Food Navigator Europe
A new eco-scoring system for food products has been developed in France that takes into account pesticide use, climate impact, biodiversity & animal welfare
To Simplify or Diversify? On Today’s Farms, That Is the Question.
Civil Eats
Shifting away from large-scale farming would build resilience in the face of climate change & other crises. The authors of new research want to show how to make it happen
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Americans Spend $1.1 Trillion on Food But Hidden Costs Are 3 Times As Much
Treehugger
Every year Americans spend around $1.1 trillion collectively on food. But when you factor in the environmental & health impact that food production, distribution, and consumption have on U.S. society, the cost is tripled.
Organic Farming Massively Reduces Dietary Risks from Pesticide Residues on Food
Sustainable Pulse
A key conclusion of this research is that by converting the 1.2% of US cropland growing fruits and vegetables to organic production, the nation’s farmers could dramatically reduce pesticide dietary exposures & risk.
Bell & Evans teams with Cargill, Rodale Institute to transition 50,000 farm acres to organic
AG Funder News
Organic poultry producer Bell & Evans is hoping to increase the supply of organic grain for feeding its birds through a new partnership with agribusiness giant Cargill and the organic-focused nonprofit Rodale Institute.
Best Practices: How Regenerative & Organic Agriculture and Land Use Can Reverse Global Warming
Regeneration International
Regenerative organic agricultural practices sequester CO2 and store it in the soil and above ground as organic matter with perennial polycultures, agroforestry and reforestation sustaining and increasing both above ground and below ground carbon.
“Hardly anyone had heard of regenerative agriculture before September 2014, when Regeneration International was founded by a small group of international leaders in the organic, agroecology, holistic management, environment, and natural health movements with the goal of changing the global conversation on climate, farming, and land use.”
Can Agricultural Soils Sequester More than 100% of CO2 Emissions?
No Till Farmer
If all cropland and pastureland were converted to regenerative agricultural practices, they could sequester more than 100% of global annual CO2 emissions, according to an important research by the Rodale Institute.
“Late in 2020, the Rodale Institute issued a white paper titled “Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution.””
Opinion: Landowners Are Driving Organic Production
Lancaster Farming
Landowners are driving organic production as they want to use their land to support certified organic and regenerative organic agriculture. Some landowners understand the environmental impacts that conventional farming can have on the environment and human health, and they do not want to be a part of it any longer.
“Part of that trend is coming from landowners that want to use their asset to support certified organic and regenerative organic agriculture.”
Ten Ways For Farmers To Support Pollinators
Honey Bee Haven
Ten different ways farmers can help pollinators on their farms.
“One of the things we have committed ourselves to at our farm is providing a diverse and healthy habitat for what we like to refer to as “beneficial critters.” “
How the Loss of Soil Is Sacrificing America’s Natural Heritage
Yale Environment 360
A new study points to a stunning loss of topsoil in the Corn Belt from farming practices that have depleted this once-fertile earth. Diminished agricultural productivity & more carbon in the atmosphere, its a catastrophic loss of an irreplaceable resource.
“Geologically speaking, I grew up in a small farm town on the Des Moines lobe, a huge tongue-shaped remnant of glacial activity that reaches south across central Iowa.”
New study pinpoints practices that boost carbon sequestration by double digits!
The Organic Center
New study by the University of Md and The Organic Center, digs into the specific ways organic farmers can take their climate change fighting power to the next level.
“Organic agriculture’s proven ability to lock carbon away in the soil is a critical tool for combatting climate change.”
What a 40-year experiment can tell us about organic food
Peeled
Rodale Institute is doing the longest running side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional farming in the world.
“In Eastern Pennsylvania, fields of corn that stretch endlessly towards the horizon are a common sight.”
Food Companies Step Up Funding for Organic Farming Research
Civil Eats
Food companies are stepping up to the plate and funding organic food production research to counter the system that favors conventional agriculture.
“For almost 20 years, Stephen Jones developed wheat varieties for white commodity wheat flour, but he never liked it much.”
How California Crops Fought Off a Pest Without Using Pesticide
Modern Farmer
Californian broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale farmers fought off a crop pest without using pesticides but rather using fungi.
“California is the nation’s leading grower of crops in the Brassica family, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale, and it isn’t particularly close.”
Rodale Enlists Cargill in Unlikely Alliance to Increase Organic Farmland
Civil Eats
Unusual partnership launches the U.S. Organic Grain Initiative to transition 50,000 acres of corn and soy to organic to help fill a growing gap in domestic organic animal feed.
“Rodale Institute—one of America’s most renowned organic institutes—announced today it will help transition more than 50,000 acres of farmland to organic production by forming an unlikely alliance with Cargill, the largest privately owned agribusiness company in the country, and chicken producer Bell & Evans.”
New research reveals measurable benefits of organic cotton production
The Organic Center
Organic cotton is one of the most important choices we can make for the environment because it supports a healthy ecosystem and prevents the use of toxic synthetic chemicals.
A drastic revolution in the way we eat and farm could limit habitat lost to agriculture to a mere 1%
Anthropocene Magazine
“As populations grow and food demand goes up, agricultural expansion is set to usurp several million square kilometers of wild habitat across the planet by 2050.”
If we don’t change our food systems, according to new research, the fate of almost 20,000 species–birds, amphibians, and mammals–hangs in the balance.
The case for edible public spaces in cities
Modern Farmer
Australian landscape architect, Joshua Zeunert, says the time is now.
Urban food production shouldn’t be limited to what’s being grown privately within four walls. Could community gardens or orchards be filling our public parks, rooftops and town squares?
Regenerative agriculture could save soil, water, and the climate. Here’s how the U.S. government actively discourages it.
The Counter
Cover crops and other regenerative agriculture practices are still pigeonholed as conservation practices, not as good farming practices. But if farmers want crop insurance, they have to play by the rules.
Buy organic food to help curb global insect collapse, say scientists
The Guardian
Urging political action on pesticide use is another way to help stem ‘collapse of nature’
Buying organic food is among the actions people can take to curb the global decline in insects, according to leading scientists. Urging political action to slash pesticide use on conventional farms is another, say environmentalists.
Intensive agriculture and heavy pesticide use are a major cause of plummeting insect populations, according to the first global review, revealed by the Guardian on Monday. The vanishing of insects threatens a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, the review concluded, because of their fundamental importance in the food chain, pollination and soil health.
Three crises, one solution: change the way we produce food
Organic Consumers Association
World hunger is on the rise. Scientists just moved up the deadline for addressing the looming climate crisis. Small independent farms are failing at an alarming rate. According to three recent studies, one big change could go a long way toward addressing all three of these crises.
By transitioning, on a global scale, to organic regenerative agriculture, we could feed more people, sequester more carbon and improve the economic prospects for farmers.
Three crises, one solution—a solution that will require a massive overhaul of food and farming policy, and a paradigm change in consumer behavior. Can we act in time?
New groundbreaking study shows organic farms store more carbon
Sustainable Pulse
A new groundbreaking study proves soils on organic farms store away appreciably larger amounts of carbons – and for longer periods — than typical agricultural soils.
The important study, directed by The National Soil Project at Northeastern University in collaboration with the Organic Center, provides a new significant proof point that organic agricultural practices build healthy soils and can be part of the solution in the fight on global warming.
Salisbury-based Perdue aims to break organic price barrier with new chicken brand
Orlando Sentinel
Growth in demand for organic food in more traditional channels has only helped the sales of small grocers that focus on organic products.
Consumers want to buy organic food, but often they can’t because it’s too expensive. Perdue Foods, the Salisbury-based chicken giant, aims to break that price barrier with a new organic brand it’s launching at a time when organic food is growing nearly six times as fast as the overall food market.
How organic can be a solution to soil pollution
Organic Without Boundaries
Soil pollution is a worldwide problem which degrades our soils, poisons the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Every minute of every day the equivalent of 30 football fields of fertile soil is lost, partly due to irresponsible farming practices.
This is having a huge impact on food security, public health, and well-being, as well as our planet. The good news is sustainable farming practices can heal the soil, build soil fertility, and also increase carbon capture in the soil.
Why Regenerative Organic Agriculture Is All About Farming Down
Patagonia
The promise of regenerative organic agriculture
The good news is that this is one very significant component of climate change that appears to be well within our grasp.
Should “Regenerative” agriculture get its own label?
Civil Eats
Some groups want to compete with the organic label and raise the standards for eco-conscious consumers. But others worry that another label could end up sowing market confusion.
U.S. organic sales soar to new high of nearly $62 billion in 2020
GlobeNewswire
The Organic Trade Association has released a survey which that the pandemic and home cooking has driven a boom in the industry.
Stop Eating Pesticides
Consumer Reports
Consumer Report’s ratings to get the health benefits from fruits & vegetables while minimizing your risk from toxic pesticides.
Get rid of the “Dirty Dozen” in 2026
EWG
A list of the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables that should be bought organically.
Steps to fight climate change with the foods you eat
FoodPrint
Humans are to blame for the current pace of climate change, so, it falls to us to do something about it. Thankfully, there’s something very simple you can do every day to make a difference:
By making small changes to your diet, you can significantly decrease your impact on our climate.
Reminder: the word “natural” means absolutely nothing on food labels
Modern Farmer
Of all the meaningless terms in the food labeling world—and there are a lot—”natural” might be one of the worst. The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) recently sued Hormel, the company behind brands like Applegate and Dinty Moore, for misleading customers with its “natural” label.
Organic farming curbs the spread of foodborne pathogens
Sustainable Pulse
Organic farming promotes natural resistance to common food-borne human pathogens, according to a study that evaluates the benefit of soil organisms. By protecting valuable species of dung beetles and soil bacteria, organic farming systems naturally act to clean up and decompose potentially pathogen-bearing animal feces.
Organic beef is more nutritional than conventional beef
The Organic Center
“Choosing organic when you’re shopping for beef at the supermarket may be a good way to boost the nutrition in your meals, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.”
Good news if you buy organic food — it’s getting cheaper
Associated Press
“U.S. shoppers are still paying more for organic food, but the price premium is falling as organic options multiply. Last year, organic food and beverages cost an average of 24 cents more per unit than conventional food, or about 7.5 percent more, according to Nielsen. That was down from a 27 cent, or 9 percent, premium in 2014.”
Chemicals on our food: When “safe” may not really be safe
Environmental Health News
Toxicologist Linda Birnbaum, who directs the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), has called for “an overall reduction in the use of agricultural pesticides” due to multiple concerns for human health, stating that “existing US regulations have not kept pace with scientific advances showing that widely used chemicals cause serious health problems at levels previously assumed to be safe.