What we’ve been reading this week

This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

Back agriculture to get the most out of aid to Africa, SciDev.Net

No-till agriculture may not bring hoped-for boost in global crop yields, study finds, UC Davis

Family farms produce 80 percent of world’s food, speculators seek land, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Can We Feed the World in 2050? A Scoping Paper to Assess the Evidence, GDAE

Principles for responsible agriculture and food investments are approved, FAO

Oxfam response to UN Committee on World Food Security Endorsement of Principles, Oxfam

Why ‘climate-smart agriculture’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, The Guardian

The Race Is On to Find Organic Pesticides, The Wall Street Journal

What we’ve been reading this week

This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

Smarter Food: Does big farming mean bad farming?, The Washington Post

Are Engineered Foods Evil?, Scientific American

FAO study profiles benefits of school feeding programmes linked to family farms, FAO

Golden Rice: Lifesaver?, The New York Times

Solutions for Micronutrient Deficiency, Scientific American

Spread of crop pests threatens global food security as Earth warms, University of Exeter

Global food prices continue to drop, FAO

Study estimates cost for new conservation practice, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Farming and knowledge monocultures are misconceived, SciDev.Net

When is Organic No Longer Organic?

An article in the New York Times in July 2012 brought attention to the increasing assimilation of organic farming into the domain of giant agri-foods companies. Companies like Kellogg, PepsiCo, General Mills and Kraft own such organic brands as Wholesome & Hearty, Kashi and Naked Juice.

While it is a tribute to organic farming’s success that large corporations have seen the investment potential, some believe their financial motivation will corrupt the organic food business. Indeed only a handful of independent organic companies able to compete with the big corporations remain.

While organic farming has never included in its certification criteria the requirement that food be produced from ‘pure, locally grown ingredients from small family farms’, its branding says otherwise. Big business argues that whether organic food is produced on a small or large scale it is still complying with the same standards.

Many original organic advocates and pioneers, however, disagree with the ‘buy out’ of the organic sector, now worth $30 billion a year, not because of the issue of image but because as major corporations become bigger players they are more able to set the standards for organic farming. As the NYT article noted ‘as corporate membership on the board has increased, so too, has the number of nonorganic materials approved for organic foods’: from 77 in 2002 to over 250 today. So as the organic food industry is claimed by food giants the certified organic label loses its integrity.