John Kinsman What is the latest taxpayer-subsidized economic stimulus scheme? Why, manure digesters on factory farms, of course! At the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled plans to promote manure digesters as a way to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent. The trick is that you have to be a factory farm to qualify. In his State of the State address in January, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced his latest round of tax credits for factory farm expansion, including a whopping $6.6 million for two manure digesters in Dane County catering to just a handful of mega-dairies. Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk has also been pushing for $1 million in her budget for these digesters. The real tragedy is that manure digesters actually make global warming worse while "solving" a manure problem that would not even exist if cows were allowed to graze on pasture rather than being confined indoors.

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

The American Meat Institute says zapping meat is the answer for addressing safety concerns. Dave Carter, exectuive director of the National Bison Association isn't so sure. Natural Foods Merchandiser By Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association. The meat industry took a public relations shellacking in 2009. The constant barrage of stories regarding E.coli, salmonella and ammonia-washed ground beef did little to instill consumer confidence in the nation's meat supply. To address these concerns, Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, urged USDA to approve AMI's long-standing petition to allow slaughterhouses to irradiate beef carcasses to eliminate the E.coli. Say again? Irradiation is the answer?

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

We have become so disconnected from nature that we have forgotten what real food is. It is time to relearn how to live with the planet. The Mark News by Alexandra Morton - Professional biologist; Founder of non-profit Salmon Coast Field Station for research. As I stand behind a young mother at the market checkout counter, the biologist in me wonders if my species no longer recognizes food. Item after item bears no resemblance to any food item that our species evolved to consume. Even the apples in the plastic bag were too toxic for any insect to touch. This would be like watching a mother bear trying to feed her cubs rocks and empty shells. I would not give that bear's lineage high potential for survival. I look sadly at the mother, who without a doubt is trying her best to please and feed her children. She is just too distant from her roots as a living creature on planet earth to recognize what real food looks like.

Posted in Opinion/Editorial, Talking Points

Newsweek By Tom Philpott Five years ago, I gave up a career as a business writer in New York City to take over a small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina with several friends. From the start, our goal was to help rebuild an ecologically sane local-food economy accessible to everyone in our community, from the second-home owners and vacationers who flock in every summer, to year-round residents with deep historical ties to the area. That modest-sounding goal proved to be extremely challenging. Profit margins on small-scale organic farming are numbingly low, even when you charge prices that low-income folks can't afford. We quickly found ourselves in a paradox: we were growing great food for the rich—which is not what we set out to do—and losing our shirts doing it.

Posted in Opinion/Editorial

The Capital Times Jim Goodman, farmer and Food and Society Fellows Program fellow Why is conventional agriculture so wound up? Are they afraid of organic agriculture? What's all the fuss about? After all, a recent study by the Lieberman Research Group showed that organic food sales account for only 3.5 percent of all food product sales in the U.S. A column in the September 2009 Prairie Farmer leads me to believe that the author, a spokesperson for conventional agriculture, dislikes and even fears organic farming and its supporters. The author admits to feeling self-satisfaction in knowing that organic farmers are suffering in a down economy. I doubt many people share her sentiments. Farmers generally have the attitude that "we are all in this together," no matter what farming practices we use.

Posted in Opinion/Editorial