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Recent
Stories
June
27, 2003
Jason
Leopold
CIA: Seven Months Prior to 9/11 Iraq
Posed No Threat to US
David
Lindorff
The Catch and Release of "Comical
Ali"
Ray McGovern
Cheney, Forgery and the CIA
June
26, 2003
Sen.
Robert Byrd
The Road of Cover-Up is a Road to Ruin
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Instructed the CIA to Investigate
Hans Blix
Paul
de Rooij
Ambient Death in Palestine
Chris Floyd
Mass Graves and Burned Meat in Bush's New Iraq
Elaine
Cassel
Wolfowitz as Lord High Executioner
CounterPunch
Wire
Musicians Unite Against Sweatshops
Sheldon
Hull
Squatting in Mansions
Ben Tripp
A Guide to Hating Almost Anyone
Uri
Avnery
The Best Show in Town
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
Ordinary Vistas:
The Photographs of Kurt Nimmo
June
25, 2003
Bruce
Jackson
Buffalo Cops Wage War on Pedal Pushers
Mickey
Z.
The New Dark Ages
David Lindorff
Indonesia's War on Journalists
Dan
Bacher
Butterflies and Farmworkers Confront USDA and Riot Cops
Adam Federman
"Success is Not the Issue Here"
Elaine
Cassel
"Ain't No Justice": Fed Judge Quits, Assails Sentencing
Guidelines
Bill Kauffman
My America vs. the Empire
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/25
Website
of the Day
You Are Being Watched:
Elevator Moods
June
24, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Indemnity
Holocaust Denial at the High Court
Roya
Monajem
A Message from Tehran: Is It Worth
It to Risk One's Life?
John
Chuckman
The Real Clash of Civilizations
David Lindorff
WMD Damage Control at the Times
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/24
June
23, 2003
Marc
Pritzke
Washington Lied: an Interview with
Ray McGovern
Conn
Hallinan
The Consistency of Sharon
Wayne Madsen
Commercials, Disney & Amistad
Edward
Said
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie
Steve Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 6/23
June
21 / 22, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories
CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
Our Favorite Novels
Todd Chretien
Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension
Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
June 20, 2003
Walter
Brasch
Down on Our Knees
Robert
Meeropol
The Son of the Rosenbergs on His Parents Death and Bush's America
Russell
Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Grannies and Baby Bells
Norman
Madarasz
Pierre Bourgault: the Life of a
Quebec Radical
Gary
Leupp
Bush on "Revisionist Historians"
Steve
Perry
Bush's Lies
Marathon: the Finale
Hot Stories
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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June
28, 2003
Bush's Squeeze on
Organic Farmers
The
Big Money Still Flows to Chemical Ag
By
BOB SCOWCROFT
More and more Americans are buying organic food.
But is our government matching this groundswell of support with
federal and state agricultural dollars?
No.
Organic farmers work with nature to control
pests, weeds and disease. No synthetic fossil-fuel fertilizers
are used and no hormones or antibiotics are used in livestock
production. By many measures, organic food is healthier for our
soil, water, wildlife and the people who grow it. The Agriculture
Department last year issued standards and labeling rules for
organic production and marketing.
But where is the government's support,
which still flows overwhelmingly to industrial agriculture?
Most observers agree that in 2002 the
organic products industry received about 1.5 to 2 percent of
our nation's food dollar. Not much, some would say. But consider
this: Last year consumers spent about $10 billion on organic
products. Back in 1989, one agricultural economist pegged the
size of the organic industry at only $89 million. That's growth!
Clearly growing numbers of Americans are saying organic farming
is important.
But the government so far fails to recognize
this surging support. The Organic Farming Research Foundation
has determined that certified-organic land-grant university research
acreage has grown from 151 acres in 2001 to just over 496 acres_this
out of a massive 886,000 acres now dedicated to agricultural
research.
Five years ago, OFRF published a report
identifying the number of organic research projects funded by
the USDA. After running 75 key words through the USDA's 30,000
agricultural research projects database, OFRF discovered 34 explicitly
organic projects. That translates to barely over one-tenth of
1 percent of our publicly funded agricultural research projects
specifically dedicated to organic production practices.
What about actual dollars devoted to
helping organic growers farm and market better? The news is a
bit better here. Or is it? Last year, for the first time, Congress
appropriated $3 million for organic research and required that
this be an annual expenditure for the next five years. Our federal
budget is now $2.14 trillion. The USDA budget is $74 billion.
But the total annual organic outlay, which also includes money
for marketing, economic analysis and enforcement of organic standards,
approaches only $8 million.
Organic farmers deserve their fair share
of our nation's agricultural resources. A commitment to organic
farming by the federal government that matches the commitment
consumers have made to organic food would equal 1.5 to 2 percent
of the USDA budget, or more than $1 billion. Think about it.
That would go a long way to encourage a way of farming that is
better for people and our planet.
Bob Scowcroft
is executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation,
Santa Cruz, Calif. He is a member of the Land
Institute's Prairie Writers Circle, Salina, Kan.
Weekend
Edition Features
Alexander
Cockburn
My Life as a Rabbi
William
A. Cook
The Scourge of Hopelessness
Standard
Schaefer
The Wages of Terror: an Interview with R.T. Naylor
Ron Jacobs
US Prisons as Strategic Hamlets
Harry
Browne
The Pitstop Ploughshares
Lawrence
Magnuson
WMD: The Most Dangerous Game
Harold
Gould
Saddam and the WMD Mystery
David Krieger
10 Reasons to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Avia
Pasternak
The Unholy Alliance in the Occupied Territories
CounterPunch
Summer Reading:
Our Favorite Novels
Todd Chretien
Return to Sender: Todd Gitlin, the Duke of Condescension
Maria
Tomchick
Danny Goldberg's Imaginary Kids
Adam Engel
The Fat Man in Little Boy
Poets'
Basement
Guthrie, Albert & Hamod
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