Agriculture

California County Initiatives Banning Genetically Engineered Organisms

Fact sheet prepared by Californians for GE-Free Agriculture outlines the risks and problems associated genetically engineered crops.

California County Initiatives Banning Genetically Engineered Organisms

Fact sheet prepared by Californians for GE Free Agriculture outlines the risks and problems associated genetically engineered crops.

Farm And Lawn Fertilizers From Minnesota Are Killing Marine Life Downstream In The Gulf Of Mexico

What's good for Minnesota's corn and soybeans can be deadly to crabs and shrimp in Louisiana. A national task force meeting in St. Paul last week heard that fertilizer from farm fields washing down the Mississippi River continues to help create a seasonal "dead zone" that this year extends across 5,800 square miles of the Gulf Coast.

U.S. Not Doing Enough to Fight Mad Cow

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been under fire for its handling of the discovery of mad cow disease on a Washington farm last year, and the agency's ensuing efforts to improve regulations to prevent the disease. One giant problem is that the testing program is voluntary, allowing producers to choose which cattle the USDA will see and test.

How to Make it Work: Required Policy Transformations for Agroecosystem

Dennis Keeney and Loni Kemp combined their expertise to explain the driving forces in agriculture today, including policy and technology, and to point the way to a new green payments approach for U.S. farm policy.

Another "Truly Historic" Trade Agreement

A recent framework agreed to at the World Trade Organization is full of well-meaning rhetoric, but does nothing to address the fundamental distortions in world agricultural commodity markets.

Waters in Common: Protecting Water and Farming in the Great Lakes Basin

The Great Lakes water supply is under threat from development, pollution and water withdrawals. Protection of this resource is crucial for the future of the region's agriculture base.

Limited Progress In Attempt To Revive Doha Talks

The final countdown starts today for efforts to revive the Doha global trade round, after two days of talks in which World Trade Organisation members have made only limited progress in resolving their most stubborn differences.

WTO Treaty Talks Close To Collapse

Key mediators warned yesterday that failure to agree on a draft of a global trade treaty at next week's gathering of the World Trade Organisation could doom the talks indefinitely.

Farm Subsidies and Africa: Cotton's Not King

SAINT PAUL, Minnesota It is increasingly asserted that American and European agricultural subsidies inhibit prosperity in the developing world, particularly in Africa. Critics argue that rich nations have aggressively dismantled trade barriers on industrial goods, yet shamelessly refused to do so for agriculture, where many African nations would have a comparative advantage.