A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the USDA allowed the commercialization of a certain strain of genetically-modified sugar beets without adequately completing the proper steps to do so. According to the judge, the USDA never prepared an environmental impact statement for the sugar beets, which many critics have worried would have a large impact on all sugar beet production.
 
Sugar beets, which are grown on around 1.4 million acres of U.S. farms, are used to create much of the sugar that this country uses. While many farmers only began planting the genetically-modified sugar beets in 2008, several critics …read more

The organic food market has become the fastest-growing sector of the food industry, blossoming over the years into a business that rakes in $23 billion each year. Part of the reason for organic food’s success, however, could be that the government has slowly eased the standards for what receives a U.S. Department of Agriculture “organic” label.
 
For example, organic baby formula may now contain synthetic additives that USDA employees found, three years ago, to be unsuitable for inclusion in a product with an organic label. Getting the government to change its mind only required lobbying from the makers of the baby …read more

Stonyfield Farm is one of those truly green minded companies that has little to prove yet they just keep getting better. According to TreeHugger, Stonyfield Farm now carries the USDA Organic seal on all of the dairy products in its line which means they are 100% organic.
Stonyfield Farm has long been a beacon of sustainable business and an advocate for healthy food and a healthy planet. Among their forward thinking business strategies, Stonyfield Farm was the first dairy processor in the US to pay farmers not to treat cows with rBST, the synthetic bovine growth hormone. They donate an impressive …read more