Monthly Archives: December 2011

The California Department of Food and Agriculture, on behalf of the Invasive Species Council of California (ISCC), seeks to appoint seven (7) members to the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee (CISAC). The role of CISAC is to advise the ISCC on a broad array of issues related to preventing the introduction and spread of invasive species and providing for their …

The USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has just released The Changing Organization of U.S. Farming, a report that shows  farmers and ranchers are on their way to accomplishing the greatest challenge of this century – sustainably meeting the food demand of the future. In a world where the population just passed the seven-billion mark, and projections show a need to double food production by …

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/12/05/143141300/insects-find-crack-in-biotech-corns-armor Hidden in the soil of Illinois and Iowa, a new generation of insect larvae appears to be munching happily on the roots of genetically engineered corn, according to scientists.   It’s bad news for corn farmers, who paid extra money for this line of corn, counting on the power of its inserted genes to kill those pests.   It’s also bad …

http://www.healthycal.org/archives/6783/print/ A year after environmentalists lost a regulatory battle to keep controversial pesticide methyl iodide off the California market, they appear to be winning the ground war against the chemical. Only six California growers have used methyl iodide—marketed as Midas—to zap soil borne pests and weeds before planting crops like chile peppers, strawberries and walnut trees. Methyl iodide manufacturer Arysta …