The Food Safety Shell Game
By Mark Kastel and Will Fantle What isn’t being discussed in Congress, during the ongoing debate on the broken federal food safety system, is the root cause of the most serious pathogenic outbreaks in our food—the elephant (poop) in the room. The relatively new phenomena of nationwide pathogenic outbreaks, be they from salmonella or E. […]
White Oak Pasture a piece of the Serengeti in Georgia
Will Harris attempts to establish an African ecosystem at his Bluffton organic farm. The Albany Herald By Terry Lewis, staff writer BLUFFTON, Ga. — Will Harris III is a fourth generation “cow man” … So what would his daddy think of what he’s doing on his 1,000-acre farm tucked into this bucolic corner of Early […]
The Deadstock Dilemma: Our Toxic Meat Waste
The Atlantic By James McWilliams For all the environmental angst being expressed over livestock, we rarely mention its counterpart: deadstock. Most of a slaughtered farm animal cannot be transformed into edible flesh. About 60 percent of it — offal, bones, tendons, blood, and plasma — becomes abattoir waste and, as such, has to be either […]
Local food initiatives can help to reconnect consumers to the land
Farm and Dairy by Wendee Zadanski Recently, at the farmers market, a woman rushed over to me excitedly, seeking out the vendor with the fresh eggs that her friend had told her about. “She told me the yolks were deep yellow, and the eggs were the best she had ever tasted! How does he grow […]
Rotten eggs and our broken democracy
Oregonlive.com By Amy Goodman What do a half-billion eggs have to do with democracy? The massive recall of salmonella-infected eggs, the largest egg recall in U.S. history, opens a window on the power of large corporations over not only our health, but over our government. While scores of brands have been recalled, they all can […]
On organic coffee farm, complex interactions keep pests under control
Science Centric Proponents of organic farming often speak of nature’s balance in ways that sound almost spiritual, prompting criticism that their views are unscientific and naive. At the other end of the spectrum are those who see farms as battlefields where insect pests and plant diseases must be vanquished with the magic bullets of modern […]
Farther Afield
By Tom Willey T & D Willey Farms Those docile black and white Holstein “milk machines” on today’s industrial dairies hardly evoke an image of their wild progenitor, the enormous auroch, Bos primigenius, that commandeered Eurasian forests some 8,000 years ago, on the cusp of its impending domestication. European scientists, hot on the trail towards […]
USDA Extends the Use of Methionine in Organic Poultry Production
USDA WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) today announced an amendment to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. The amendment extends the use of methionine in organic poultry production. Published in the Federal Register today as an interim rule with request for comments, it extends the allowance for […]
Growers: USDA must act, prevent sugar supply issue
The Associated Press By Michael J. Crumb DES MOINES, Iowa — A judge’s ruling halting planting of genetically modified sugar beet seeds has left growers feeling uncertain as they wait for federal officials to decide the next step for a crop that provides half of the nation’s sugar supply. Duane Grant, chairman of the board […]
Studies Link Range of Major Diseases to Pesticides, New Database Launched
Beyond Pesticides WASHINGTON — Links to pesticide exposure are being found in a growing number of studies that evaluate the causes of preventable diseases — including asthma, autism and learning disabilities, birth defects and reproductive dysfunction, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and several types of cancer. A new database tracks published epidemiologic and real world […]
Mobile slaughterhouses feed local food movement
Farmers can have just a few animals killed, then sell the meat nearby Chicago Tribune By Steve Mills, Tribune reporter BONFIELD, Ill.– Kim Snyder built her farm in this small community west of Kankakee on the principles of organic farming and local food. But bringing her livestock to slaughter in a way that helps her […]
Monsanto spent $2.18 million lobbying gov’t in 2Q
Bloomberg Businessweek WASHINGTON — Monsanto Co. spent $2.18 million in the second quarter to lobby the federal government on a proposed changes to U.S. patent law and other issues that could affect the world’s largest seed company, according to a disclosure report. The company lobbied the U.S. Department of Justice and Congress on antitrust and […]
