Here's a cool trailer about an uplifting movie about the importance of fresh food.

The U.S. doesn't regulate industrial agriculture and hasn't for years.  The result has contributed significantly to a host of environmental problems although few people generally think of agriculture as being one of the prime culprits.  Will Allen, writing at Alternet, provides an overview of why and how it is.  I am providing just an overview of his article.  Read the entire piece.

The appointments to senior USDA jobs have been all over the board, reflecting an agency that has proponents ranging from huge agribusinesses, i.e. ADM; fertilizer/biotech companies, i.e. Monsanto; and factory farms, i.e. Smithfield; to the generally smaller organizations advocating sustainable agricultural practices, i.e. Rodale Publications, organic food growing, i.e. Tilth, and direct marketing of farm produce to farmers markets across the country.  So, sometimes we get someone as good as Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, the organic food proponent, sometimes we don't.

KUOW’s Steve Sher interviewed Dan Newhouse, the new Director of the Washington State Agriculture Department yesterday morning.  Newhouse was until recently a Republican legislator from eastern Washington.  He is a family farmer who operates a 600-acre farm outside of Sunnyside, where he grows hops, fruit, grapes and alfalfa. 

Newhouse graduated from WSU with a BS in Agriculture Economics.  He obviously loves farming.  His family has been farming in eastern Washington since 1882 and he lives on the farm that his father bought in the late 1940’s. 

Sales of organic products, both food and non-food in the U.S grew 17.5% from 2007 to 2008 according to the Organic Trade Association based on its 2009 Organic Industry Survey.  Organic food sales rose 15.8% to $22.9 billion while organic non-food products such as fibers, personal care products and pet food grew a whopping 39.4% to $1.65 billion.  Organic food sales now account for about 3.5% of all food products sold in the U.S.

Shortly after the swine flu became a big media topic, Tom Philpott, food writer at Grist, wrote an article about the possible origins of the flu in Mexico.  Based on his reading of a blog, Biosurveillance, that tracks diseases worldwide. Philpott suggested that there was reason to believe that the flu had originated at a huge hog farm owned by U.S. company Smithfield Foods, the worldest biggest hog farming corporation.