Bill establishes organic authority OLYMPIA -- State senators heard testimony Thursday, Jan. 14, on legislation to affirm the Washington state organic program's conformation to the National Organic Program. Under Senate Bill 6228, the state Department of Agriculture would also certify transitio ...

Organic club at OSU celebrates 10 years

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Oregon State University's organic growers club celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year. For the past five years, according to its director James Cassidy, the club has had the wind at its back. The first five years, he said, he felt as if the club was navigati ...

Pollan: Farmers will solve crises

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Michael Pollan believes farmers may eventually solve three of the world's biggest problems -- the crises centered on energy, health care and climate change. The author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" outlined his "sun food agenda," advocating a return to a diversified agricu ...

Controversy leads to healthy debate, Pollan says

PULLMAN, Wash. -- "I wasn't sure I was coming," author Michael Pollan told the audience during his lecture at Washington State University. His book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," was about to be yanked from the freshman Common Reading program last fall when food safety attorney Bill Marler st ...

Recession flattens demand for organic food

Organic farmers shouldn't expect demand or prices to rise in 2010, as the industry is stifled by the recession, according to food buyers at a recent conference. Fierce competition among major food retailers resulted in price deflation in 2009, which reverberated through the supply chain, ...

Grower strengthens soil, saves berries

Talk to blueberry grower Bob Wilt, owner-operator of Wilt Farms in Corvallis, Ore., and he'll tell you that the key to producing great fruit is building robust soils. While his 75-acre farm is certified organic, Wilt likes to refer to himself more as an "aerobic biological" farmer who's more co ...

Wyoming lawmaker wants to relax food regulations

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) -- A Wyoming state lawmaker says food inspectors have gone overboard when it comes to food regulations, and she wants to relax the rules for farmers' markets. Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Recluse, says a change in Wyoming law earlier this year didn't go far enough to relax food licensin ...

Port directors envision processing mecca

Organic producers in the West may soon have another place to sell their crops. The Dayton, Wash.-based Port of Columbia has purchased 28 acres, where it plans to develop a natural and organic culinary center, Blue Mountain Station. "It will be a food processing park to house small (a ...

Young farmer bucks aging trend

BONANZA, Ore. -- After graduating from college, many twenty-somethings don't always head straight into the career field they studied. They backpack across Central America, teach English in Japan, move back in with Mom and Dad, or make espresso until they find a job in their major. Not Ni ...

Target admits to error in advertising organic milk

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Target Corp. has admitted to wrongly advertising soy milk as organic during a U.S. Agriculture Department investigation. The investigation came following a complaint filed in October by the Wisconsin farm policy group The Cornucopia Institute. It alleged that Target advert ...

Group aims to teach urbanites to farm

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Planting a peach tree was a powerful symbol for the 50 onlookers who gathered on a high Palouse plain 15 miles outside of Spokane on a blustery November day. Eden Bright Spirit Hendrix had hot tea ready for the group, which had turned out to celebrate the dedication ...

Winery pairs fundraising, biodynamics

Ehlers Estate winery in Saint Helena, Calif., is serious about biodynamic farming practices and about giving all its proceeds to further cardiac research. The winery has 40 acres of estate-grown organic winegrapes and advocates the use of "ancient" farming methods. "We were certified ...

Family tastes victory in first bottle of organic milk

Ask Don and Renae Halverson what success tastes like and they might tell you it tastes like organic milk out of a bottle with their own label on it. Launched in October 2008, Halverson's Organic Acres milk is now in many southern Idaho stores and is expanding weekly into new markets. ...

Cattle firm may lose organic certification

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Promiseland Livestock will lose its organic certification for four years unless it appeals a ruling issued last month because the company kept inadequate records and refused to let USDA inspectors review the records it did have. The U.S. Department of Agriculture filed a ...

Finding new power for old tractors in electricity

. "I thought electric motors would be no maintenance." He said the torque curves are flatter than with gas or diesel engines, and it was easy to double the power. Plus, the machines can be driven extremely slowly. "We have two of them now, and they're terrific," he adde ...

Organic farmer searches for acreage

HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- Hal Oliver has established a unique niche in Henderson County farming. He sells organic produce at the Henderson County Tailgate Market and caters to local restaurants. "We use him every week," Inn on Church general manager Michelle Bri ...

Trust adds 100 acres of farmland

PCC Farmland Trust, a nonprofit that aims to preserve threatened farmland in the Northwest, has secured funding to keep 100-acre Orting Valley Farms in organic production in perpetuity. The Orting Valley Farms project was the most complex and ambitious project to date for the trust, said Kelly ...

Project to create shared sustainability metrics

A collection of producers, commodity buyers and interest groups is creating a volume of metrics by which the environmental sustainability of farming operations might be measured. The project, called the Stewardship Index, is a response to the growing demand among buyers for evidence of pr ...

Urban farmers collide with city rules

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Steve Mann doesn't look like an outlaw as he cheerfully harvests giant rutabagas and luscious lettuce bunches from a friend's garden in Kansas City, North. But technically he is violating Kansas City ordinances as he prepares to sell the produce. Bro ...

Boulder Valley pupils rejecting healthier lunches

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Schoolchildren in Boulder Valley are giving a thumbs-down to healthier food in the cafeteria. The school district said fewer elementary school students are eating hot lunches this year after the district spent hundreds of thousands to give their cafeterias a healthy ...

Small farm churns out organic goat cheeses

SWEET HOME, Ore. -- Jan Neilson rarely gets in Mariano Battro's whey. He sometimes gets in hers, but that's why he was hired. Jan and her husband, Larry, produce goat's milk cheese at their dairy, Fraga Farm. Demand for their certified organic goat cheese has grown so much that they ...

Safety: fundamental concern

PORTLAND -- Speakers at an organic farm food-safety summit Friday, Nov. 6, said there is no silver bullet and no magic pathogen killer against contamination in raw fruits and vegetables. The only answer is prevention. The stakes are high, participants were told at the summit, presen ...

Everett conference raises new issues on farming

TULALIP, Wash. (AP) -- In this day and age, it's not enough for farmers to grow food. They also must be experts at marketing, Twitter and Facebook. They must protect their land not just from development but from ecological wear and tear. They must work against a nationa ...

Whole Foods profit jumps in 4th quarter

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Whole Foods Market Inc. said Wednesday that its business has officially turned the corner as sales and profit grew in the fourth quarter. The organic grocer was hard hit by the recession as consumers cut back on their spending and focused on more va ...

Bats beneficial to regional farmers

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) -- The sun sinks behind the western horizon, an orange glow lingers behind the fluorescent lights of an oil station northwest of Carlsbad. The faint whirr of oil pumps and chirp of crickets are all that can be detected by the human ear -- but on other frequencies, it is ...