Good Food from Healthy Farms
Activism
President’s Cancer Panel urges consumers to demand organic.
Jun 7th
Check out this important report about how Organic products can dramatically reduce cancer risks.
The President’s Cancer Panel report, released today, exhorts consumers to choose food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, and growth hormones to help decrease their exposure to environmental chemicals that can increase their risk of contracting cancer. Organic products avoid the use of these chemicals.
Help Stop Monsanto GMO Alfalfa!
Jan 24th
You may be familiar with the Monsanto Company, an organization which has created tons of genetically modified crops that have undermined small farmers, and damaged organic crops and eco-systems. Now Monsanto is moving to push for approval from the USDA of yet another GMO crop – Alfalfa. Secretary Vilsack and the Obama administration are only days away from approving Monsanto’s genetically modified alfalfa which means that organic, non-chemically designed crops are at series risk of contamination. As data suggests, GMO crops are incredibly dangerous to consumer and have the potential to destroy species of crops.
You can help send a message to Secretary Vilsack and the Obama administration by signing this petition and calling your Senator to voice your thoughts. Help put a stop to Monsanto to ensure that healthy, safe, organic crops are preserved and continue to make their way to your doorstep.
We appreciate your support!
For more information about GMO’s, we put together an article a while back with some great information. Check it out here.
Update: Tester-Hagan Amendment – Vote YES to Support Terra and Tahoma
Nov 17th
Senator Jon Tester of Montana
Background
You may remember our post in September about the Tester Amendment. The Tester Amendment refers to a bill called the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510). In a nutshell, S.510 places stricter regulations on farms that process their crops. The issue arises with smaller farms and facilities as the bill makes it more difficult for your favorite small farm products to get into stores and your kitchen. Those small farms will also be forced to pay additional fees for required regulations and tests.
The Tester Amendment exempts those small farm/facilities with incomes under $500,000 and allows them to continue their operations while putting the necessary checks on big agriculture producers/farms.
The Problem in Washington
Since we last updated you, the Senate has voted 74 to 25 in favor of the cloture vote for The Food Modernization Act. This means it could move forward to a final vote by the end of the week.
At the moment, support for the Tester-Hagan Amendment is unclear and possibly even absent. According to a Democracy Now alert:
“We’re hearing that some Senators still have not made up their minds or even worse, some are waffling in their support for the Tester-Hagan and Manager’s Amendments, which will help protect farmers who sell their produce or goods locally to farmers markets, customers, stores and restaurants from excessive regulations that could harm their ability to compete and even survive.”
Even food experts Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser are calling for action in supporting the Tester Amendment:
“S.510 is the most important food safety bill in a generation. The Tester amendment will make it even more effective, helping to ensure food safety while protecting small farmers and producers. We both think this is the right thing to do,” said Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser.
How You Can Help
It’s critical you show your support for the Tester-Hagan Amendment today. Washington is on the move, and very close to a decision on this. With your support we can ensure small farms like Tahoma Farms and distributors like Terra Organics are able to sustain their businesses without the fees and roadblocks included in this unbalanced act.
STEP 1: Call Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and let them know you support the Tester-Hagen Amendment.
You may be surprised, but giving your Senators a call makes a serious difference in how they act. Calling in is the easiest and best way to help make the Tester-Hagen Amendment happen.
Senator Patty Murray
(202) 224-2621
Senator Maria Cantwell
(202) 224-3441
STEP 2: Share this with your friends and family
Terra Organics and Tahoma Farms needs all the support it can get in helping to pass this critical amendment. Explain the importance of the Tester-Hagen amendment to friends and family and urge them to make the same call to their own State Senators.
Thank you, as always, for your support! We, at Terra Organics, love being able to provide you and your family with the best quality, small farm grown, organic produce and hope to be able to continue to do so in the same way that we already are.
Resources:
Food and Ag Groups Rally Against Tester Amendment
Stand Up for Small Farmers
Greenwashing & Other Fine Tales
Aug 6th
We have the first in a new series of podcasts posted on our blog for those interested in hearing an impromptu conversation about McDonalds, Wal-Mart, sustainability and how local food production, and Terra Organics, fits into the mix.
There’s also a graphic that I’ve been holding onto for a while, and it now seems timely to share it.
The subsidy regime pits commodity growers against vegetable and fruit growers, and McDonalds and others buy fillers and subsidized meat, dairy, and grains at an artificially low cost. The foods that should be accessible to the least healthy amongst us have little to no price supports. So long as corn syrup and factory meat and dairy dominate the $60 billion a year farm program in this country, McDonalds will always dominate the way food is produced and consumed in this country, no matter how many new farmers markets are springing up around the country.
But, of course, that doesn’t mean we can give up the fight.
Standing Against Discrimination
May 20th
Seldom do we feel compelled to take one side or the other on any partisan issue of the day. Most of the time our promotion of good food, family farms and organics is non-partisan. But when an industry is under attack – more specifically, when the people that make up an industry are under attack – we feel it is our duty to take a stand in defense of the injustice. More >
Make Your Voice Heard — Support the WSU Extension
Apr 5th
Pierce County has proposed the reduction of the WSU Pierce County Extension budget from its current level of $275,423 to $75,423 for 2010. This reduction will affect programming in the current 2010 funding year. This is roughly a 72% cut from the current level of funding. At that funding level it would effectively eliminate the Agriculture and Natural Resources program.
This program is responsible for technically assisting Pierce County farmers, developing educational programs to support existing and new farmers, and driving the knowledge base of agriculture in the County. Over the past 15 months this program has applied for over $6 million dollars in external grants funds through partnerships with county, state, and federal agencies, non-profit agencies, and farmer cooperatives. This money has been used to build the future generation of farmers, identify potential new agricultural products and cropping systems, reduce production costs and increase profit margins, and increase consumer interest in Pierce County agricultural goods. More >
Gerald Miles|Organic farmer & GM activist
Mar 1st
What would you do to protest about GM crops being planted in Britain? Just sit there? Or get on your tractor and drive to London in protest.
