Bringing organic and conventional farmers together on common interests
Portland Press Herald - 1/20/2010.Op-Ed by Amanda Beal – On Jan. 13, I spent four perplexing hours at the Maine Agricultural Trades Show, listening to a parade of speakers who were presenting in a block billed as a "Sustainability Mini-Conference." From the information I read ahead of this event, including an endorsement from Maine Agriculture Commissioner Seth Bradstreet posted on the Maine.gov Web site, I gathered that the goal of this series was to heal fractures between the conventional and organic farming communities. |
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Save the planet: eat more beef
Time Magazine - 1/19/2010. On a farm in coastal Maine, a barn is going up. Right now it's little more than a concrete slab and some wooden beams, but when it's finished, the barn will provide winter shelter for up to six cows and a few head of sheep. None of this would be remarkable if it weren't for the fact that the people building the barn are two of the most highly regarded organic-vegetable farmers in the country: Eliot Coleman wrote the bible of organic farming, The New Organic Grower, and Barbara Damrosch is the Washington Post's gardening columnist. |
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Are ‘natural, organic, eco-friendly’ products really what label claims?
Portland Press Herald - 1/18/2010.By Leigh Donaldson – Once upon a time, Burt Shavitz, a beekeeper in Dexter, sold honey in pickle jars from the back of his pickup truck. He lived in the wilderness in a turkey coop with no running water or electricity. In 1984, he met named Roxanne Quimby and together they started a business of natural-inspired health care products made from honey, including the Burt's Bees line. According to an Alernet.org article by Andrea Whitfill, the company was sold to Clorox in 2007 for more than $900 million. |
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Why you should fear your sofa, baby stroller and nursing pillow
Alternet - 1/18/2010.By Ruth Rosen – In 1972, California passed legislation requiring flammability standards for upholstered furniture and baby products like high chairs, strollers and nursing pillows. Manufacturers met these new standards by using inexpensive, toxic and untested flame retardant chemicals. These flame retardants contained hazardous halogenated chemicals similar to PCB's and Dioxins, two of the most toxic classes of chemicals. |
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