Home News & Events Alternative Agriculture News -- January 2000

Sustainable Farming Connection
Where farmers find and share information.

Alternative Agriculture News
For January 2000, from the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture.

red ballNew Wallace Center Created at Winrock International
red ballAnti-Biotech Forces Start to Receive "Serious" Foundation Money
red ball"Brand Name Product List" Now Available from OMRI
red ballPositions
red ballStudy Links Chemicals and Pancreatic Cancer
red ballMonsanto Sued Over Genetically Engineered Seeds
red ballResources
red ballUpcoming Events

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©2000, Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture, 9200 Edmonston Road, #117, Greenbelt, MD 20770. Phone: (301) 441-8777. E-mail: hawiaa@access.digex.net.

This newsletter is also available to subscribers to the sanet-mg discussion group. To subscribe, send a message to: almanac@ces.ncsu.edu. Leave the subject line blank and in the body of the message type only: subscribe sanet-mg

Subscription information for the hard-copy version is available at the Wallace Institute website.

In addition to this monthly newsletter, the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture publishes the American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of research on alternative agriculture. It is a scientific forum for disseminating technical, economic, and social research findings about the character and requirements of alternative agriculture systems.

The current issue (Volume 14, No. 3) features articles on:

  • The development of more effective conservation farming systems through participatory on-farm research.
  • Supplementation of mid-gestation swine grazing alfalfa
  • Crop-yield and economic comparisons of organic, low-input, and conventional farming systems in California's Sacramento Valley.
  • Comparison of organic and conventional dairy farms in Ontario.
  • Global land resources and population-supporting capacity.
  • Organic farming in Austria.

Subscriptions to AJAA are $44 for libraries; $24 for individuals; and $12 for students. Find more information about AJAA at he Wallace Institute website.


red ballNew Wallace Center Created at Winrock International

The Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture has become the Henry A. Wallace Center for Agricultural & Environmental Policy at Winrock International. Founded in 1983 and named after Henry A. Wallace, former Secretary of Agriculture and U.S. Vice President during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, the Wallace Institute has been instrumental in defining alternative agriculture in the United States. 

Winrock International is a private, nonprofit organization that works with people around the world to increase economic opportunity, sustain natural resources, and protect the environment. Based at Morrilton, Arkansas, Winrock offices are located in Arlington, Virginia; Salvador, Brazil; Beijing, China; New Delhi, India; and Manila, Philippines. 

As a voice for alternative agriculture in Washington, DC, the Wallace Institute has provided strong leadership, sound policy research, scientific analysis, and reliable information for the sustainable agriculture movement. It has influenced national agricultural policy and has worked with government agencies, educational and research institutions, producer groups, farmers, scientists, advocates, and other organizations that provide research, education, and information services.

"Winrock International has long sought to increase its capabilities in policy research and analysis to strengthen our programs in agriculture and natural resource management," commented Frank Tugwell, Winrock president and chief executive officer. "With creation of the Wallace Center, we will be able to address both domestic and international policy issues, and tackle some of the complex challenges that face agriculture and development around the world. Our shared desire to help people and do so in sustainable ways makes the two organizations a good fit."

Kate Clancy, director of the Wallace Institute's Agriculture Policy Project, is the new director of the Wallace Center at Winrock. Former Executive Director Garth Youngberg will continue to assist the Center on a part-time basis. Wallace Institute Board Chair, Dr. Cornelia Butler Flora, has been elected to Winrock International's Board of Directors. 

The Wallace Center will relocate from Maryland to Winrock's Arlington, Virginia, offices by mid-spring. The 10- member staff will continue its ongoing projects and will participate in the development of new programs at Winrock: Kate Clancy, Chantal Line Carpentier, Suzanne DeMuth, David Ervin, Elizabeth Higgins, Joanna Hildebrand, Lydia Oberholtzer, Nessa Richman, Rick Welsh, and Garth Youngberg.

The Wallace Center will maintain its policy analysis programs and will continue to publish Alternative Agriculture News, a monthly newsletter covering policy and scientific developments and activities in the alternative agriculture community, and the quarterly American Journal  of Alternative Agriculture, a peer-reviewed, scientific journal on alternative agriculture.

Winrock International matches innovative approaches in agriculture, natural resources management, clean energy, and leadership development with the unique needs of its partners. By linking local individuals and communities with new ideas and technology, Winrock is increasing long-term productivity, equity, and responsible resource management to benefit the poor and disadvantaged of the world.  

Winrock International staff implement projects in 40 countries, including the United States, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union. Activities are funded by grants, contracts, and contributions from public and private sources.

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red ballAnti-Biotech Forces Start to Receive "Serious" Foundation Money

"Serious money is starting to flow to the anti-biotech movement in theU.S., even amid debate over whether the opposition is mostly about a scientific threat, an aversion to big business or a wariness of the unknown," according to The Wall Street Journal (December 14, 1999).

Although opposition to genetically engineered food has been primarily concentrated in Europe, "demonstrations at the World Trade Organization forum in Seattle and elsewhere showed [that] the issue . . . is capable of arousing an emotional response in the U.S. too," the article said. 

"The funds to attack bioengineered food, as well as biotechnology in general, are still coming in fitfully and are modest compared with the millions of dollars producers of genetically modified seeds have pledged for their own public relations offensive. But what is striking is the number and nature of the donors that have begun to take notice and dive in---from Ms. [Elizabeth] Wilcox's small Common Counsel fund to the mighty Rockefeller Foundation." 

According to the article, Rockefeller Foundation President Gordon Conway says he is earmarking $3 million for a new effort that will, pending board approval, include "funding a mediation and conflict-resolution firm to study how warring factions can be brought together; funding consumer activists who want strict labeling of products containing genetically modified ingredie