Today in Organic: December 16, 2009

Everybody here / Flickr user Freeflo

• The New York Times depicts the agricultural demonstrations in the streets of Copenhagen:
  "Surrounded by dozens of police officers in vans, on horseback and on foot, the motley assemblage of cows, pigs, clowns, foods and a brown elephant on wheels — its exact meaning was never quite made clear — sallied through the streets as protesters gave speeches by loudspeaker, played reggae music and banged on drums."

• "USDA needs a bettter climate playbook," writes Tom Laskawy at his Beyond Green blog in response to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack's address at "Agriculture Day" of the climate talks in Copenhagen.

• "We should all give the USDA credit for keeping the ties between agriculture, food and climate change at the forefront of the discussion," writes Paula Crossfield at Civil Eats, who offers a point-by-point critique of Vilsack's prepared remarks in Copenhagen.

• Here's a new term I wish had never been coined: "Whole Foods Republicans." Michael Petrilli uses it in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed to describe a new base of "independent-minded voters who embrace a progressive lifestyle but not progressive politics" that the GOP seeks to court.

• Writing for the New York Times, fish expert Paul Greenberg does some research on fish oil, which is used in many omega-3 fatty acid supplements. He finds that it's killing off a member of the herring family called menhaden, a fish that is quite possibly "the most important fish in the world"