Organica News: Your One-Stop News Shot About Organics

Wired.com has published an interesting article describing how real environmental change will require a rethinking of agricultural fertilizer–not just its use, but is manufacture. Fertilizer is of course an energy intensive product to produce and the Wired contributor argues that any real fundamental shift towards greener agriculture will require both a rethinking of how fertilizer is used but also manufactured.  We still produce fertilizer by the same basic process used in 1909. Despite huge technological advances in farming and resource use, this basic building block of the agricultural system has remained oddy innovation free for generations.  Even though some scientists are hard on the trail of producing nitrogen using cleaner, more sustainable, and possibly cheaper, methods, it is hard to obtain the funding required for the overdue break through.  “So while billions of dollars in venture capital are flowing in to cleantech companies that would only make small differences in the world’s energy balance, research into new fertilizer tech is inexplicably underfunded.” Read the entire article at http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/news/2008/06/nitrogen?currentPage=2

Abigail Hadad over at the American ( American.com) argues that the “environmental and aesthetic virtues of organic agriculture have been overblown.” Read the entire article at http://www.american.com/archive/2008/june-06-08/the-problem-with-organic-food

American Chronicle carries an article from Sandy Powers, breast cancer survivor, about the use of pesticides, the toll on the human body, and why organics are a, pardon the pun, no-brainer. Read the article at http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/64600

The money quote:”Environmental Health Perspectives reported that American toddlers eating mostly organic foods have only one-sixth the pesticide residues in their urine of children eating non-organic foods.”

Environment News Service is reporting that the Attorney General of California has brought suit after the companies’ products were tested in a study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association, OCA, and released in March. The study analyzed “natural” and “organic” brand shampoos, body washes, lotions and other personal care products for the presence of 1,4-dioxane.

Results for all products tested is online here. http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/DioxaneResults08.cfm

Read ENS full article here: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2008/2008-06-10-093.asp

The Boston Globe is carrying an article by Beth Daley describing the rise of greenwashing, whereby dubious environmental and natural label claims are used to tap into consumers’ green conciousness. The article, titled “Not as Green as They Claim to Be” cites a study by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing that found up to  99 percent of 1,018 green advertising claims could be misleading. The answer: “The government “needs to require anyone making a green claim to provide proof of the accuracy and relevance of the claim.” Well, yeah. Or at least outsource such verification to third party certifiers, such as is done with organic marketing claims.

Read the entire article at http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/05/14/not_as_green_as_they_claim_to_be/

Organica presents a trio of stories on the hot topic (no pun intended) of carbon dioxide from various angles. First up is the story from Environmental Protection online, which discusses how quickly the market-based solution of trading in carbon credits is growing and taking hold. Market forces are way out in front of governments on this one. Bottom line: Carbon trading doubled in 2006 and it is expected to continue to grow fitfully as nations attempt to grapple with their Kyoto protocol obligations. Read the story at http://www.eponline.com/articles/62554/. Next up is a story in the Washington Post titled United Nations has a Tree-mendous Goal, which describes a UN Plan that amounts to “each one plant one” as a way to reduce the worldwide impact of carbon dioxide by the equivalent of Russia’s emissions, merely by planting one tree for each person on the planet. The UN has already planted a billion trees and is encouraged by that success. Read the short blurb at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/13/AR2008051302532.html. Finally, and to round out our round-up, Science Daily has posted an article describing why the planting of trees, ala the UNEP model, might just be a critical part of any effort to get a handle on the global carbon emissions problem. However, according to the article, for this to work, the wood so produced must be buried and not allowed to compost or be burned and thereby release the carbon back into the natural cycle, rather the wood must be sequestered in some manner such as burying in a manner to prevent decomposition. An interesting article that actually goes through the trouble of thinking all the way through the problem and well worth reading. Check it out at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080513101652.htm.

The UK’s Guardian is reporting on the dangerous and near total depletion of sustainable wild fish throughout the world. As the article quotes one scientist, we are headed towards a world where the only thing available from the sea is slime and jellyfish.

Read the entire article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/11/fishing.food/print

The L.A. Times’ Jerry Hirsch is reporting that costs are rising faster than prices for farmers, and accordingly, the much bally-hooed price increases are doing nothing to ease the plight of farmers, who may be cutting back production rather than scaling up. If this is true, we haven’t seen the worst yet. One quote from the article:

“The cost of farming an acre of corn, for example, has risen almost 47% over the last year, according to Wells Fargo & Co. estimates, outpacing the 35% increase in the price of corn in the same period.”

Read the entire article at http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-farm13-2008may13,0,38893.story

The Associated Press is reporting that Cornucopia targets Fagundes Brothers Dairy for its latest complaint over lack of enforcement of USDA organic regulations.

Read the entire article at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/5773194.html

Read Cornucopia’s take here: America’s Largest Corporate Dairy Processor Muscles Its Way into Organics

Make Fuel at Home With Portable DIY Refinery

Wired.com has posted an article by Chuck Squatriglia about a company offering what amounts to homemade stills to produce ethanol. From the article:

People were making ethanol at home long before there were cars. They called it moonshine. With gas prices going through the roof and everyone worried about global warming, a California company is betting people will jump at the chance to use the same technology to turn sugar into fuel for less than a buck a gallon.

E-Fuel Corporation has unveiled its EFuel 100 MicroFueler, a device about the size of a stacking washer-dryer that uses sugar, yeast and water to make 100 percent ethanol at the push of a button.

Maybe because we like to daydream here at Organicanews, but we are envisioning a day when the “war on drugs” and the “war on terror” takes a backseat to a new war on a growing menace–a “war on bootleg ethanol”. Think it can’t happen? I don’t know. Wait until it grows to the point where it can challenge the existing military-industrial-energy complex, and then we’ll see. It might not get that far–consider how quickly the recording industry responded to online downloads. But we at Organicanews are imagining a day when the BATF is kicking in doors and taking axes to casks of  . . . illegally produced fuel. Are we paranoid? Only on lazy Friday afternoons: I’ll take 20 gallons of white lightning, and top of my flask while you’re at it.

Read the whole article at http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/make-your-own-e.html