EcoFarm Blogs

The EcoFarm Blogs seek to nurture and support sustainable and organic farmers and food system change agents. Through sharing entertaining and informative essays, we hope to promote important voices to a wider audience, create a platform for interactive dialogues on important issues and increase communication among diverse groups.

Groups oppose genetically engineered eucalyptus trees

Posted on August 23, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

Environmentalists are challenging the plans of a S.C.-based biotechnology firm to grow genetically engineered eucalyptus trees in the South, saying the fast-growing Australian species could spread uncontrollably.

Thousands Blind for Want of GM Rice?

Posted on August 4, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

Excessive regulation of genetically modified crops has delayed release of a variety of rice that could help reduce the leading cause of preventable
blindness in children, according to an editorial published in the British journal Nature.

Farm Bureau urges sanctions against EU’s GM crop ban

Posted on July 28, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

The largest U.S. farm group has urged the Obama administration to begin steps towards imposing sanctions on the European Union in a long running dispute over the EU’s treatment of genetically modified crops.

Syngenta Seeds, Inc. Launches Agrisure Artesian(TM) Technology, First Water-Optimized Technology for Corn Hybrids

Posted on July 28, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

Syngenta Seeds, Inc., today unveiled its Agrisure Artesian™ technology, the new brand name for its range of water optimized hybrids and the newest addition to the Agrisure® family of high-performance trait products.

The ‘‘Seeds are Sacred’‘: Chile Film Wins Top Award

Posted on July 28, 2010 in the Genetic Engineering Blog

The New Mexico chile, latest candidate for genetic engineering, stars in an award-winning documentary that has touched the heart and soul of New Mexico.

I work on Farms; I am a Criminal

Posted on July 21, 2010 in the Farmer Blog

I am a professor at Sonoma State University. I am also apparently a criminal, and perhaps involved in a conspiracy to violate the law. I work without pay on small, local organic farms in northern California - because I love to do it - and in the eyes of the law - specifically California’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement - the farms that are benefiting from my unpaid labor are operating illegally.

Nature’s “Break Through” Discovery

Posted on July 20, 2010 in the Farmer Blog

Not a regular reader of the powerhouse scientific journal, Nature, from which a rare article on organic pest control was torn and sent along by a CSA member in last week’s mail, I gave it a go. One glance left a quick impression that submissions to Nature are purposely written in languages unintelligible to all but parochial tribes of scientists.

The Bovine

Posted on July 19, 2010 in the Farmer Blog

Those docile black and white Holstein “milk machines” on today’s industrial dairies hardly evoke an image of their wild progenitor, the enormous auroch, Bos primigenius, that commandeered Eurasian forests some 8,000 years ago, on the cusp of its impending domestication.