As many as 25 percent of the American farmers growing genetically engineered corn are no longer complying with federal rules intended to maintain the resistance of the crops to damage from insects, according to a report Thursday from an advocacy group.

The increase in farmers skirting the rules, from fewer than 10 percent a few years ago, raises the risk that insects will develop resistance to the toxins in the corn that are meant to kill them, the report says. And it raises questions about whether the Environmental Protection Agency and the agricultural biotechnology industry are adequately enforcing the rules.

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Meatless Monday, the idea that one day a week you enjoy a vegetarian diet as a way of cutting the carbon footprint of your food supply, has only slowly made its way into the public consciousness. Until recently, the list of signers-on to the Meatless Monday idea was sort of slim: some expected figures like Colin Beavan (aka “No Impact Man”), Michael Pollan (of “the Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food” fame), and the city of Ghent, Belgium.

I’m certainly not intending any knock to the city of Ghent, but Europe is often well ahead of the U.S. in this as well as with so many other environmental activities. So it was a bit of a boost, domestically at least, for the Meatless Monday movement when the Baltimore Public School District last week announced it would adopt a Meatless Monday menu for all 80,000 the students it serves.

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Article and photo from the Mother Nature Network, September 24, 2009

After we [Mother Nature Network] published the original roundup of “40 farmers under 40,” it became abundantly clear that, from coast to coast, America loves its young farmers (and the food they produce). So we invited you to tell us about your favorite farmers under 40 — idealistic, eco-friendly, under-the-hill agrarians who are helping you bring home healthier bacon, as well as beets, lettuce, organic milk and more. And you responded.

We dug through a bounty of votes and e-mails from across the country, then we dug up some dirt on 40 of your nominations to create this inaugural “readers’ choice” edition in our “40 farmers under 40″ series. We’ve numbered the entries to help you navigate through the list, but they’re in no particular order — this is an egalitarian compilation, not a ranking. These farmers all bring their own skills, backgrounds and crop varieties to different communities, and the real winners are the locavores who get to eat all the natural grub they grow.

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It’s a testament to Pollan’s wild success that the pushback against his books, opinions, and celebrity is sharpening and deepening. The In Defense of Farmers group in Madison, which is planning to counter Michael Pollan’s speach there, is probably the grassroots farmer-based group that it claims to be — and that’s going to make Pollan’s task more challenging in the months to come.

Because it’s one thing to write books for likeminded readers, or to persuade readers to become likeminded readers, and it’s another thing entirely to turn and face the industry that one has so matter-of-factly dismantled and discredited — not only in books (Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, etc), film appearances (Food Inc, King Corn, etc), and many NYT articles, but in the mass rejuvenation of the food and farming movement itself.

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The industrial agriculture complex has been doing back flips for the last few weeks, first because of the ascendance of Blanche Lincoln (ConservaDem-AR) to the high throne of the Senate Agriculture Committee, where she promises to pinch climate legislation (or at the very least shove it aside until next year) and push a southern Big Ag agenda in the Senate for rice and cotton interests. Now, the White House has announced Islam A. Siddiqui, current Vice President for Science and Regulatory Affairs at CropLife America (you will remember the organization as the one that sent the First Lady a letter admonishing her for not using pesticides on the White House garden) as nominee for Chief Agricultural Negotiator, who works through the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to promote our crops and ag products abroad.

Why does it matter if the Vice President from the trade association representing pesticides and other agricultural chemicals takes over the Office of Agricultural Affairs at the USTR? Well, because that office, according to the USTR website “has overall responsibility for negotiations and policy coordination regarding agriculture.”

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Many gardeners are currently pulling up plants and preparing beds for fall. They are laying parts of their garden to rest while their squash lay about, curing in the sun. Some gardeners are already turning their backs on their plots and projecting their green minds through winter and into next spring. But fall is not the time for complacency in the garden. It’s a great time to sneak in some late plantings of lettuce and greens—and it’s the ripest time of year to save some seeds.

Saving seeds sustains us. It is a cultural activity, one that connects us to 12,000 years of the most essential human tradition. Saving seeds also connects us to our familiar food plants in new ways, teaching us to appreciate each plant’s full life cycle from seed to seed. Now, more than ever, saving seeds is also a political act—a good garden practice that doubles as agricultural activism.

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A federal judge overturned government approval of a variety of sugar beet genetically engineered to resist a popular weed killer produced by agricultural giant Monsanto, according to a ruling released Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco found the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service violated environmental law by failing to take a “hard look” at whether “Roundup Ready” sugar beets would eventually share their genes with other crops.

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Article and photo from Civil Eats, September 16, 2009

A true beacon of creating community through food, the Ceres Community Project in Sebastopol, California, brings teens into the kitchen to learn about healthy foods and cooking skills while providing organic meals to individuals and families battling cancer and other serious illnesses. Named for the Roman goddess, Ceres—who rules the growing and preparing of food as well as the natural cycles of birth, death, and renewal—the nonprofit’s 100-plus volunteers currently cook meals for more than 40 families a week and, since launching in 2007, have provided nearly 45,000 meals to Sonoma County families.

According to Ceres, cancer now affects one in three people before the age of 75 and one in four will die from complications caused by the disease. More than 50 percent of all deaths in the U.S.—from heart disease, cancer and diabetes—are directly related to the combination of poor nutrition, obesity and inactivity. An estimated one-third of the 565,000 cancer deaths annually—or 188,000—are believed to be directly related to these dietary and lifestyle choices.

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Africa’s small farms could hold the key to the continent riding out the recession. “An increase in investment in smallholder farms – which represent 95% of agriculture in Africa – can return the continent to a path of high growth,” said Kanayo F Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, he told delegates: “Smallholder agriculture is the largest private-sector activity in many African countries. It not only feeds families, it provides jobs and catalyses the growth of rural businesses and broader development.”

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For someone of my generation, growing up under postwar food rationing, the idea that food would always be plentiful and cheap seemed about as likely as a portable phone that you could carry around with you.

For many of us the dire predictions of Thomas Malthus were all too credible. Malthus had advanced the dismal theory that human populations would always grow faster than their food supply. It meant you could forget all your grand ideas about progress. Every social advance was destined to be brought to nothing by famine.

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