New England's largest dairy cooperative, Agri-Mark, has officially banned rBGH from its products. The decision follows demands by consumers, largely of its popular brand, Cabot, and is in line with those of other leading dairy companies and grocery chains that have come to reject the controversial growth hormone.

Agri-Mark boasts about 1,300 members and operates the major manufacturing plants in the region. One plant in New York will continue to accept milk from cows injected with rBGH, though there's not much incentive to continue using the synthetic hormone -- farmers have to pay extra to ship their milk to this plant.

If you ever doubt that consumer requests are heard or think our choices don't impact production practices, take this quote by Agri-Mark's senior vice president to heart:

Cabot sales were at risk, and we were going to lose markets if we continued to accept milk from rbST-treated cows...Agri-Mark waited as long as it could to close the door on rbST, but the pressures coming back from consumers and retailers forced the cooperative to protect its Cabot brand.

Source: Vermont Public Radio, Lancaster Farming

Greek farmers have blockaded several major highways with tractors and aren't showing signs of letting up. They're protesting weak government support and asking for more assistance at a time when farmers can't make a living. Their demands include higher subsidies, pension payments and lower fuel taxes.

Across the globe farmers are struggling to keep their operations afloat, including the British organic livestock producers we told you about earlier this month. We only have to look at farms next door to see volatile commodity markets taking their toll. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported yesterday that rapidly falling dairy prices will lead to dairy farms shutting their doors. And U.S. corn producers face tumbling export markets as other countries raise more of their own corn.

Farmer protests -- and these economic hardships -- aren't new. This story reminded me of a North Carolina farmer who in 2004 drove his tractor into a Washington, DC, pond to protest the government's cuts in subsidies to tobacco farmers. Just last year, Mexican farmers protested their government's decision to eliminate trade barriers for U.S. corn, saying it would put them out of business and steer people north; Peruvian farmers stopped traffic and held other protests against the Peru Free Trade Agreement; and Indian farmers held demonstrations against GMOs.

Source: Washington Post, USA Today

The New York Times says a new start-up company, Foodzie, provides "a similar experience to a farmers market" by creating an online marketplace for small, artisan food producers.

It's a stretch to compare surfing on the Internet to a leisurely stroll through a local market, picking up ripe tomatoes and making cordial conversation with a farmer. We wouldn't call it an online farmers market, but we do like the idea of an online marketplace that supports artisan food producers and growers.

Foodzie is the "gourment version of Etsy," which, if you don't know, is an online marketplace for handmade goods (really cool stuff). Etsy has been very successful, selling nearly $13 million worth of products in December alone.

How do these businesses work? Well, Foodzie allows vendors to post their goods for free, but it takes a 20% cut of each sale. This might seem high, but in the food business, it's not. (Remember when we told you that the producer's share of a sale is typically small compared to the middlemen?)

Foodzie will probably excite people who don't have a farmers market nearby or other retailers that sell artisan food. Though this model doesn't always meet the definition of local food, it may be just what some entrepreneurs need to keep small businesses going and meet a growing demand for handmade food products.

The site is still growing -- it's only been live since December -- but the staff and their investors are pretty confidant that it will be successful.

Don't miss the cheese page. It's especially enticing. And also the Foodzie blog, which currently has pictures of Obama and Biden cookies and promises more coverage of the Fancy Food Show.

Source: New York Times

USDA may soon approve a transgenic corn variety meant for ethanol production and not food. If you want to weigh in, today is the deadline for submitting public comments (scroll to the bottom for the link).

We recommend you ask USDA to perform an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) so the agency can fully examine the environmental, economic and human health concerns related to the commercialization of the nation's first industrial corn variety.

For starters, history has shown us that it's hard, if not impossible, to segregate different grain varieties in the production and distribution chain. Varieties unintended for the human food supply inevitably get there as evidenced with rice and corn.

Ethanol has its own debate, but that aside, USDA shouldn't release this variety until its deemed safe in cases of accidental consumption, especially allergenicity concerns, since a new form of alpha amylase (an enzyme) that hasn't been proven safe through independent testing would be introduced. The agency continues to rely on the biotech industry's own data, a voluntary approach that has left environmental and economic devastation in the wake of weak regulations.

Biotech News in Review after the jump.

Thousands of mutant bass larvae on a fish hatchery in Australia were born with two heads and died within 48 hours.

The hatchery on the Noosa River has been experiencing more and more mutant fish, at a rate which appears to coincide with the expansion of a nearby macadamia nut farm. That farm uses pesticides—carbendazim and endosulfan—which are banned in many countries, and is now completely bordering the hatchery.

The fish were tested and no virus or bacteria were detected leading specialists to believe that it's likely the fish were affected by toxic contamination in low levels over time. The Queensland state government claims that the macadamia farmers are using the pesticides according to the instructions, which may exempt the farmers from fault but doesn't exactly change the situation at hand.

Meanwhile, horses chickens and sheep at the hatchery have also experienced higher birth defects in the past two years. The local fisheries department is looking into the matter.

Source: Sydney AFP via Yahoo! News

Earthworms might be an indicator for soil quality. In a study out of Melbourne, Australia, earthworms were collected from farms that use conventional farming methods including synthetic pesticides and compared to other earthworms that were collected from organic farms. The study used metabolomics which can show how creatures with the same genome might be responding differently to different environments.

Worms from conventional farms showed a higher level of metabolites which are associated with stress. Metabolites have, in the past, been high in worms that are exposed to copper and other soil toxins.

Dr. Simone Rochfort of Victorian Department of Primary Industries and head of the study suggested that farmers could get a sense of how healthy their soil system is by getting their worms tested.

Source: ABC Science

Community supported agriculture (CSAs) is a common term these days—from smaller communities to urban farmers' markets. In the case of agriculture, you buy a share (some places allow you to work for your share) and over the course of the season, you get weekly harvests of vegetables. It's a great way, if you can afford it, to participate in supporting local agriculture without actually farming yourself.

Now, according to the Washington Post, community supported fisheries (CSFs) are the newest addition to sustainable eating. It's the same idea--people buy shares and get pounds of fish (10-12 pounds in some case) every week. But there are other exciting aspects to CSFS. Upfront cash from shares allows small fishermen to invest in the season ahead of time, instead of going out of business because they can't afford big initial investments. The share also creates a relationship. Shareholders aren't just investing in fish, they're investing in a fishery that they expect to have environmental, ethical and healthy practices. And they'll pay higher prices to the fishermen to make that happen.

Some fishermen in Maine say current environmental regulations inadvertently support large fishing operations, leaving the small ones high and dry. But with CSFs, small scale fisheries win. In addition, many of these small-scale fishermen are looking to their past to address environmental issues. Instead of jumping on the technological treadmill and buying up new equipment to catch fish in order to keep up with the big guys, they're scaling down their technology and using older, tried and true methods that don't cost a fin and a tail to either fishermen or the marine environment.

Source: Washington Post

Oil on canvas by John William Lewin

Now here's a different approach to mitigating global warming impacts through farming -- and we mean different. We're not talking about carbon sequestration in soil or reducing petroleum-based inputs. Scientists at Bristol University say farmers can help curb rising temperatures by adopting crops that "reflect solar energy back into space."

Because some crops are "naturally more reflective than others," reports the BBC, they send more solar energy back into space than those that absorb more light. Scientists have studied this through the help of satellites that monitor "albedo," or reflectivity, across the earth's surface.

The IPCC projects that the average global temperature will have risen by 1.8 - 4.0 C degress from 1990 levels by the end of the century. The Bristol University models show that transitioning to more reflective crops in Europe and North America could reduce global temperatures by about 0.1 C. (Researchers concluded that this approach would only make a difference in Europe and North America. In Asia, for example, most of the reflection during growing season is done by clouds. Changing the ground's albedo wouldn't have much impact.)

Compared to other grandiose ideas being tossed around -- building sunscreens in space and pumping aerosols into the atmosphere -- reflective crops would take advantage of a global infrustructure already in place. And it probably wouldn't take trillions of dollars worth of investments. Though, it could get pricey. They're already talking about genetically engineering plants with leaf surfaces that differ in reflectivity. There would likely have to be an incentive program, too, like carbon credits that make it financially feasible for farmers to switch to what might be a less desirable crop.

Though experts say this approach could "never be quantitatively important on a global scale," it's intriguing, to say the least.

Our hope is that emphasis in science, policy, and public debate remains on the source of the problem -- which very much includes farms -- while also nurturing creative solutions.

Source: BBC