Thinking of enrolling your farm or ranch in USDA’s dynamic 
Like many others invested in organic agriculture, the decision at last week’s National Organic Standards Board meeting to phase out an antibiotic used in certified apple and pear production may have left you wondering, why was it allowed to begin with? The straightforward answer is that, throughout its history, organic certification has allowed a very small number of materials, even pesticides, that we more often associate with conventional agriculture.
Last week, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation released a 
When asked why he farms organically, Rich replied--
Organic family farmers are facing real hardship due to Congress’ ongoing failure to get its act together. Case in point: When it finally passed the 2013 federal budget in January, Congress stripped funding from a host of essential programs which support small- and medium-sized organic farms. Among the abandoned programs were the $5.5 million which had funded the National Organic Certification Cost Share Program (NOCCSP) each year since 2009. 
Maureen Wilmot-
“A good hockey player skates to where the puck is, a great hockey player skates to where the puck is going to be.” - Wayne Gretzky
Last week, the San Jose Mercury newspaper published an article on new research from scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The report identifies how the brain tracks fast-moving objects. How do those hockey players, baseball batters, and tennis players know where that ball or puck is going to be? How do humans predict the path of moving objects when it can take one-tenth of a second for the brain to process what the eye sees?
