Environmental News Network

Food Markets Getting Greener, More Sensual
Consumers are asking the food industry: "What are all these weird ingredients that I can't pronounce doing in my salad dressing? And why is the dressing in a nonrecyclable bottle? And why is grocery shopping such a drag?" Americans concerned for their health, the environment and where their food comes from are changing the way they eat. And a yearning for more sensory stimulation is changing the way they shop. In response, manufacturers are changing the way they do business. >> Read the Full Article
Green Power, Energy & Corporate Transformation
Some already established companies are proving to be particularly adept change artists, capitalizing on the green and clean tech trends to craft and carry out corporate strategies that transform their organizations from the top-down and from the bottom-up. Many are found in Europe, where new EU laws and regulation are establishing new ground rules for the energy and power industries. >> Read the Full Article
Brazil unable to curb Amazon destruction
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's government is unwilling and unable to halt destruction in the Amazon rainforest despite emergency measures it announced last week to curb rising deforestation, environmental experts say. High commodity prices and increased land use elsewhere in Brazil are driving ranchers and farmers deeper into the Amazon in search of cheap land, environmentalists say. >> Read the Full Article
China's crops badly damaged by icy storms
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Agriculture Ministry said on Wednesday that the unusually harsh winter had dealt a serious blow to the country's wheat and vegetable crops and warned that damage could rise because of persistent cold. The ministry said in a statement on its Web site that 103 million mu of farm crops had been hurt by the freak weather, which has plagued southern, central and eastern China over the past week. >> Read the Full Article
Eco-Farm: Seeds of Ignorance: Investigative Journalist Reveals Serious Safety Concerns About GM Food
Note: For the next few days I'll be reporting from Eco-Farm, the annual conference held by the Ecological Farming Association of California. At Eco-Farm, some 1,400-1,500 organic farmers, Big Organic marketers, and sundry sustainable-ag enthusiasts pack into a rustic, beautiful seaside conference hall an hour-and-a-half south of San Francisco to talk farming amid the dunes. >> Read the Full Article
U.N. aid chief worried by food inflation, weather
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Rising food prices and extreme weather are sparking more humanitarian disasters around the world, the United Nations' top official for emergency relief warned on Tuesday. Fourteen out of 15 U.N. "flash appeals" for help last year were a response to devastation caused by droughts, floods and hurricanes, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said. >> Read the Full Article
As Supplies Dry Up, Growers Pass on Farming and Sell Water
The shortages this season among the most intense of the last decade are already shooting water prices skyward in many areas, and Los Angeles-area cities are begging for water and coaxing farmers to let their fields go to dust. "It just makes dollars and sense right now," said Bruce Rolen, a third-generation farmer in Northern California's lush Sacramento Valley. "There's more economic advantage to fallowing than raising a crop." >> Read the Full Article
Seed-Savers and Greens Unite to Challenge Monsanto's Latest Cash Cow
For years, candy makers and other industrial food manufacturers refused to use genetically modified sugar, fearing a consumer backlash. As a result, Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beet -- designed to withstand heavy application of Roundup, Monsanto's herbicide -- has been dead in the water. (Sugar beets, grown in the Midwest and Northwest, account for half of U.S. sugar production; cane, grown mainly in Florida, provides the rest.) >> Read the Full Article
First 100% organic, 'green' restaurant opens in NYC
Gunning for a national presence, New York City's first green- and organic-certified restaurant has opened its doors. Gusto Grilled Organics is a Greenwich Village eatery serving 100 percent, organic, Latin-inspired cuisine for eat-in, takeout and delivery. >> Read the Full Article
Can crops be climate-proofed?
Among the most worrying aspects of climate change is its effects on the world's food supply. The worst-case scenario is stark: Africa's Sahel region will produce fewer cereals, rice cultivation in Asia will be under threat, there will be fewer vegetables â€” with potatoes and beans potentially wiped out â€” and livestock and fisheries will be severely stressed. >> Read the Full Article