San Francisco Chronicle
By MARGIE MASON AND MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press Writers

The mystery started the day farmer Russ Kremer got between a jealous boar and a sow in heat.

The boar gored Kremer in the knee with a razor-sharp tusk. The burly pig farmer shrugged it off, figuring: “You pour the blood out of your boot and go on.”

But Kremer’s red-hot leg ballooned to double its size. A strep infection spread, threatening his life and baffling doctors. Two months of multiple antibiotics did virtually nothing.

The answer was flowing in the veins of the boar. The animal had been fed low doses of penicillin, spawning a strain of strep that was resistant to other antibiotics. That drug-resistant germ passed to Kremer.

Like Kremer, more and more Americans — many of them living far from barns and pastures — are at risk from the widespread practice of feeding livestock antibiotics. These animals grow faster, but they can also develop drug-resistant infections that are passed on to people. The issue is now gaining attention because of interest from a new White House administration and a flurry of new research tying antibiotic use in animals to drug resistance in people. Read Full Article »

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AMS 235-09
Joan Shaffer 202-720-8998
joan.shaffer@ams.usda.gov
Billy Cox 202-720-8998
billy.cox@ams.usda.gov

WASHINGTON, December 23, 2009 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced the release of Breaking Down Market Barriers for Small and Mid-sized Organic Growers, a report developed by the California Institute for Rural Studies, focusing on marketing challenges faced by organic fruit and vegetable farmers in California and their potential commercial buyers. Read Full Article »

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FoodConsumer.org
By: Dr. Mercola

An increasing number of outbreaks of food-borne illness have given many the impression that the U.S. food supply is spiraling out of control. And in fact, it could be a lot safer — there are real reasons to worry.

A centralized food system can allow a single batch of contaminated food to hurt people across the country. A single jalapeno pepper patch in Mexico may have sickened 1,400 people more than 40 states over a four-month period in 2008.

Salmonella-carrying peanuts affected people around the country and may have contaminated 3,900 separate products.

Concentrated production techniques also help propagate pathogens. Read Full Article »

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Environmental Health News
By Marla Cone, Editor in Chief

Reversing a decade-old decision, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that it plans to require pesticide manufacturers to disclose to the public the inert ingredients in their products.

An inert ingredient is anything added to a pesticide that does not kill or control a pest.

In some cases, those ingredients are toxic compounds, but companies do not identify them on pesticide labels.

Nearly 4,000 inerts – including several hundred that are considered hazardous under other federal rules – are used in agricultural and residential pesticides. Read Full Article »

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HispanicBusiness.com
John Tozzi–BusinessWeek

Entrepreneurs are flocking to local food, starting businesses devoted to producing and delivering food within their communities. Just as consumers focus new attention on what we eat and where it comes from, farmers, foodmakers, restaurateurs, retailers, distributors, and processors are rethinking the business models behind it. They want to create enterprises that will succeed in the long run for local food to be more than just a fad or a luxury for wealthy Western consumers. Read Full Article »

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