Court Declares Vermont’s Genetically Engineered Food Labeling Law Constitutional

April 27, 2015, www.centerforfoodsafety.org | “Today, Center for Food Safety (CFS) hailed the just-issued federal court decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont affirming the constitutionality of Vermont’s genetically engineered food labeling law, Act 120. The ruling fully denied the preliminary injunction motion brought by the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association, Snack Food Association, and other plaintiffs to try and halt the law’s implementation, and granted the State of Vermont’s motion to dismiss on several claims.”

Ruling Denies Big Food’s Preliminary Injunction Motion April 27, 2015 (Washington, DC)–Today, Center for Food Safety (CFS) hailed the just-issued federal court…centerforfoodsafety.org
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Organic Trumps Conventional Across the Board: Highlights from The Rodale Institute’s 30-Year Report

April 26, 2015, foodtank.com | “After a 30-year side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional agricultural systems, the Rodale Institute reports that organic systems match, or even outperform, conventional systems in terms of yield, profitability, and energy efficiency, while having positive effects on soil health, water quality, and rural communities.”

After a 30-year side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional agricultural systems, the Rodale Institute reports that organic systems match, or even outperform, conventional systems in terms of yield, profitability, and energy efficiency, while having positive effects on soil health, water quality, and rural communities.
The Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial® has concluded that organic methods are superior across the board.
foodtank.com

Six Environmentalists Each Win $175,000 Goldman Prize

winnersApril 20, 2015, ens-newswire.com | “The activists honored with the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize at a ceremony Monday evening have protected the planet by shutting down a lead smelter, blocking dam construction, stopping a proposed gold and copper mine, and safeguarding fisheries.”

Robert BrothersGoodNews FortheEarth

Six Environmentalists Each Win $175,000 Goldman Prize SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 20, 2015 (ENS) – The activists honored with the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize at a ceremony Monday evening have protected the planet by shutting down a lead smelter, blocking dam construction, stopping a proposed gold and copper mine, and safeguarding fisheries. – Six Environmentalists Each Win $175,000 Goldman Prize | ENS

Farmers Are Figuring Out They Can Make Bank Growing Non-GMO Crops

GMO SoybeansApril 20, 2015, www.takepart.com | “There’s one on the edge of nearly every corn-belt town in the Midwest. Towering high above the flat landscape, the grain elevator is often the tallest structure around, save, perhaps, for a water tower. It’s here, really, that the industrial food chain starts—where the harvests of countless family farms comingle, the dent corn or soy shifting from plant to commodity. A farmer sells his or her crop to the elevator, and then the elevator sells the harvest of numerous farmers to food companies, ethanol distilleries, or whoever else is in the market for vast amounts of commodity grain.”

Ami Linden shared a link to GoodNews FortheEarth‘s Timeline.

Corn and soy growers are giving up their genetically engineered seed to meet new consumer demand.
takepart.com
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Portland Bans Insecticide in Light of Massive Bee Deaths

April 16, 2015, naturalsociety.com | “Portland, Oregon has joined at least seven other cities in banning the usage of neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides that many scientists think is behind colony collapse disorder and the premature death and dysfunction of many bees and other pollinating insects. The ban applies to all city lands and will be enforced despite the opposition of some nearby farmers who claim neonicotinoids are critical for producing their food crops.”

Ami Linden shared a link to GoodNews FortheEarth‘s Timeline.
Portland, Oregon has joined at least seven other cities in banning the usage of neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides that are killing the honey bee.
naturalsociety.com

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France Declares All New Rooftops Must Be Topped With Plants Or Solar Panels

April 8, 2015, csglobe.com | “A new law recently passed in France mandates that all new buildings that are built in commercial zones in France must be partially covered in either plants or solar panels.  Green roofs, as they are called, have an isolating effect which helps to reduce the amount of energy needed to heat a building during the winter or cool it in the summer. They are capable of retaining rainwater and reducing problems with runoff, and also offer birds a place to call home in the urban jungle.”

Kevin Phillips shared a link to GoodNews FortheEarth‘s Timeline.
A new law recently passed in France mandates that all new buildings that are built in commercial zones in France must be partially covered in…
csglobe.com|By Broderick Corban
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Regenerative Ranching in North Dakota

Dec 11, 2014, www.youtube.com | “Outside Bismarck, ND is a ranch that exemplifies a quiet revolution in commercial agriculture. While more and more consumers learn about the overwhelming benefits of eating healthfully (preferably local, organic food), a growing number of farmers and ranchers are weaning themselves from the grip of a small cartel of extremely powerful chemical “pharming” corporations. They are returning to a style of farming that had always existed before. Gabe & Paul Brown are a father and son who are not shy about showing off their beautiful land and visibly happy livestock. They practice what they call “Regenerative Farming” – a set of practices that encourage biodiversity and the natural enrichment of untilled soils.”

An example of Regenerative Farming & Ranching to mitigate climate change: All no-till, with animals grazing on the cover crops and crop residues = less C02 into the atmosphere. No pesticides, fertilizers, or fungicides, since 1993.
Outside Bismarck, ND is a ranch that exemplifies a quiet revolution in commercial agriculture. While more and more consumers learn about the…
youtube.com
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My edible classroom gives deprived New York kids a reason to attend school

Stephen Ritz working on vertical planters with studentsAugust 20, 2014, www.theguardian.com | “Stephen Ritz is a teacher in New York’s deprived South Bronx district where he began a pioneering project to farm plants and vegetables indoors at Discovery High School. The school’s so-called “edible walls” gave birth to the Green Bronx Machine, a project that helps other schools in the US start their own agricultural programmes to teach children healthy eating, environmental awareness and life skills. As well as continuing his educational work in New York, Stephen travels the world promoting the value of growing fresh produce, both in schools and the wider community.”

Robert Brothers shared a link to GoodNews FortheEarth‘s Timeline.
Teacher Stephen Ritz explains how a project to grow fresh food in his school turned into a wider movement encouraging healthy eating among US students
gu.com|By Matthew Jenkin
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Protecting the Amazon for Life

http://www.animalnational.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Amazon-Rainforest-Animals.jpgMay 21, 2014, www.worldwildlife.org | “It has taken millions of years for the Amazon to evolve into the most biologically diverse place on Earth. In just a tiny fraction of that amount of time humans have radically changed our natural world, and not for the better. The government of Brazil, working in partnership with WWF and others, envisioned a better way forward, a bold and aggressive move in how large-scale conservation is achieved.”

Protecting the Amazon for Life | Stories | WWF

Wish you could fertilize crops with pee? Urine luck

Seth True of Best Septic Service, LLC, pumps urine from a 275-gallon tank for transfer to the farm. A family of three can produce this much urine in eight months.March 12, 2014, grist.org | “‘When are you going to start bringing pee out to the farm?’ Jay Bailey, a local farmer, asked Abe Noe-Hays when they ran into each other at the hardware store in Battleboro, Vt. ‘Um, how about now?’  Noe-Hays had just teamed up with Kim Nace to form the Rich Earth Institute, an organization that separates out pee to use as fertilizer for local farms —  “peecycling” to those in the know.”

GoodNews FortheEarth shared a link.

“Want to fertilize crops with pee? Urine luck – community-scale urine recycling – 2 years in action
grist.org
175 volunteers collect their urine in five-gallon jugs and drop it off at a “urine depot”. From there, the Brattleboro Vermont Department of…”
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