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As energy, healthcare, and feed costs skyrocket, organic dairy farmers get squeezed

The following is a guest post by Ed Maltby, executive director of the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance.

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Deerfield, Mass.: What is more important to Stonyfield Farm and HP Hood, market share or the health and welfare of their organic family farmers?

If you ask 24-year-old Mark Ouellette Jr., who supplies organic milk to HP Hood that is sold under the Stonyfield label, his answer is very clear: market share. "I'm losing up to 60 cents per gallon producing milk for the Stonyfield brand. I've used up my line of credit, I'm close to maxing out my credit card because of spiraling feed and fuel costs." He adds, "Last fall, I and many other organic farmers told both Stonyfield and HP Hood what was happening and we were given a 3 cent per gallon increase. Now another 8 cents starting on April 1. This is a slap in the face."

Mark's father was one of the first dairy farmers to sell organic milk in Maine, and Mark started working with him when he was 14, with a dream of working together to expand the family farm. After graduating from high school, Mark realized he needed more experience and equity and started working on the farm, which he purchased two years ago. "I had the opportunity to buy this farm and everyone said there was a tremendous future in organic dairy," says Mark, "so my family and I made the commitment and invested over half a million dollars believing that [Stonyfield CEO] Gary Hirshberg would stand by his pledge to his organic dairy farmers."

Moby’s new video pokes at KFC

Bald techno-greenie Moby sends a chicken pimp after the Colonel in his "Disco Lies" video: “Disco lies” from Moby on Vimeo.

Activist says he was shot in confrontation with whalers

The captain of the radical anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says he was shot in a clash with Japanese whalers on Friday. Paul Watson says he found a bullet in his Kevlar vest; Japan’s fisheries agency disputed the accusation, saying those onboard the whaling ship retaliated with non-lethal flash grenades after activists threw stink bombs […]

Would Jesus eat fish during Lent?

Jennifer Jacquet of the Sea Around Us Project just published a solid and timely essay with Science & Spirit magazine. The piece begins by asking:

If Jesus can turn two fish into enough to feed five thousand people, now would be a good time to intervene. According to researchers, each American ate nearly a half-pound more seafood last year than the year before. As we reach the end of the Christian season of Lent -- the period in which seafood consumption is at its highest -- scientists predict that, if the trend continues, wild marine fisheries will disappear in the next forty years.

At issue is whether fish is meat (which, of course, it is). But in the 11th century, the Catholic Church "banned meat but sanctioned fish as a show of penance on Fridays and during the 40 days before Easter. When other observances with similar restrictions were added to the equation, the prohibition meant more than one hundred fish-only days per year" for Catholics.

If the Pope is a Gristmill reader, then here's a call to action on your recent pledge to protect creation!

Green Living For Dummies: yet another addition to slew of easy-being-green books

I know no Grist reader will need this book (especially if you’ve got Grist’s opus), but the ubiquitous bumblebee-colored series has now turned its all-dummifying eye to the environment. Somewhere between Heartburn & Reflux For Dummies and Coaching Lacrosse For Dummies is your chance to learn what you’re really supposed to do with those mysterious […]

Bush touts his climate leadership

I have nothing pithy to add to this story, but only because the inanity of the quotes is so hard to top.

From Restructuring Today ($ub req'd) (my emphasis on the good bits):

New certification planned by safety group

Maybe this all makes more sense to green builders than it does to me, but I see news today of plans to develop another new green-building certification, this one sponsored by the International Code Council. It seems like only yesterday three weeks ago that the National Association of Home Builders launched its own “education, verification, […]

Startup company makes thin-film solar cells via new process

Solar company Konarka has announced that it successfully developed a new process to manufacture solar cells that could lead to a range of new solar-powered products and applications. The solar cells are made without silicon and are manufactured into a thin, light film via an inkjet printer, which means they don’t need to be born […]

Manhattan Declaration disses IPCC, Gore, any attempts to reduce CO2

Okay, so at the recent Heartless Heartland skeptic/denier/disinformer/climate-destroyer conference (I promise to propose a better term this week!), one of the few attendees who was a non-non-believer in science emailed me the following:

Marc Morano, Sen. Inhofe's press secretary, just cited your post on the dangers of consensus as an example of how deniers are forcing climate action proponents to retreat. "We're making them afraid of using the term 'consensus'!"

Now, that is humor! After all, my article is titled "The cold truth about climate change: Deniers say there's no consensus about global warming. Well, there's not. There's well-tested science and real-world observations [that are much more worrisome]," and it explains that:

1. "Consensus" is far too weak a word to describe the collective scientific understanding of the dangers of human-caused global warming.
2. The reality of climate change is almost certainly going to be much worse than the "consensus" as that term is normally used (to describe the IPCC reports).
3. The deniers are peddling pseudoscience.

Senate passes consumer-safety bill that would reduce toxics in toys

The U.S. Senate has passed legislation aimed at decreasing consumer exposure to dangerous products (like, oh, lead-tainted toys, to pick a random example). Specifically, the measure passed Thursday would increase the staff and budget of the Consumer Product Safety Commission; sharply reduce acceptable levels of lead and phthalates in toys; create a database of public […]