Organic farmers face growing pains as demand outpaces supply
When Andrew and Melissa Dunham took over a 150-year-old corn, soybean and cattle farm from a relative in 2006, the 80-acre spread northeast of
Meaty matters: How to navigate organic’s new frontier
According to the Organic Trade Association, the market for organic meat grew over 11 percent this year alone.
An Organic Check-off; Contributing to Our Greater Good
As with most anything else, I find myself weighing both sides of the debate over the organic check-off application that was recently submitted to the USDA by the Organic Trade Association.
U.S. Organic Industry Praises U.S.-Switzerland Partnership in Organic Trade
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that the United States and Switzerland formed a partnership that will recognize the two countries' organic programs as equivalent for organic products and streamline access to each other's markets.
Do organic farmers need special seeds & money to breed them?
Rearranging veggie genes is big business, and we're not even talking about biotechnology. Private companies and university researchers spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year breeding better genetic varieties of food crops. But organic farmers say those programs have a big blind spot when it comes to figuring out which new varieties are truly better.
Members Named to Seven Agricultural Trade Advisory Committees
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and United States Trade Representative Michael Froman today announced the appointment of 129 private-sector members to the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee (APAC) and six Agricultural Technical Advisory Committees (ATACs).
OTA members Clif Bar, Organic Valley spearhead $10 million investment to support organic agricultural research
Clif Bar & Company and Organic Valley today named the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) as the recipient of the nation’s first endowed chair focused on plant breeding for organic crops.
OTA member Driscoll’s expands organic nursery plant program
Driscoll Strawberry Associates has made a commitment to supply all of its organic berry growers with organic nursery plants. Watsonville, Calif.-based Driscoll’s has had an organic nursery program certified by Santa Cruz-based California Certified Organic Farmers for the past seven years, according to a news release.
OTA on point with research and reaching out across the nation
As the demand for organic produce aggressively jumps boundaries, and with no signs of slowing down, the Organic Trade Association is working hard to keep spreading the message and reporting about organic conditions across the nation.
