Site Archives

Scientists Write about CAFO Health Impacts


Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are what can happen when efficiency and cost are the only considerations in food production. Cramming multitudes of animals into close quarters, they create vast amounts of waste, an oppressive stench, plumes of air pollution, inhumane conditions, and additional health hazards or nuisances. As an […]

Whole Foods to Purchase Wild Oats


Whole Foods has announced that they plan to purchase rival Wild Oats Market. It isn’t a major surprise to see the country’s largest natural food retailer gobble up their number two competitor. Especially as their slowing growth could benefit from the positive momentum that the Wild Oat’s family of stores has been experiencing.
In […]

Another Chicken Recall


A Baltimore news station, WJZ, is reporting that “Carolina Culinary Food is recalling packages of Oscar Mayer ready-to-eat chicken breast strips with rib meat because they may be contaminated.” The nationwide recall was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. It covers “all six-ounce packages of ‘Oscar Mayer/Louis […]

Making the “Year of the Pig” a Better One for Pigs


In anticipation of the arrival of the “Year of the Pig” on February 18, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) posted a summary of some of the recent positive changes in the pig industry:
“A revolution is underway in the pig industry,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. “Whether at the […]

Ethanol and Your Food Budget


Ethanol is all over the news these days because it offers the promise of home-grown, renewable fuel for transportation as a gasoline replacement. At this time, corn is the main source of ethanol in the United States — and will be for some time until the cellulosic ethanol process becomes feasible. According to […]

Loophole Allows Bird-Flu Meat to be Sent Abroad


The Times reports that meat from a farm in England infected with bird-flu “was sent abroad.” There are quarantine rules in place, but six trucks of poultry arrived in Hungary on Thursday. In response to this report, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched an investigation. The defense asserted is […]

Mapping the World of Food and Water


Some time ago, the Gadling travel blog introduced me to a fascinating web site called Worldmapper, redraws world maps, adjusting the size of each country for a certain piece of data, like population or energy consumption. Worldmapper is a collaboration between The University of Sheffield and the University of Michigan. Worldmapper has […]

Forty Groups Write a Letter to Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell


On February 2nd, forty farming, environmental and other groups sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) requesting that the Budget Committee authorize sufficient funds to create a Farm Bill that will “provide a safety net for our agricultural producers, expand production of renewable energy, protect our natural resources, […]

Food Safety a “High Risk” Federal Program, says the GAO


Last week the Government Accountability Office released their 2007 High Risk Update, which focuses on federal programs that are “high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement.” The 2007 update includes three new high risk areas: transportation financing and capacity, protection of technologies critical to U.S. national security, and […]

The USDA’s Farm Bill Proposal


On Wednesday morning, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns released the USDA’s proposals for the farm bill.
USDA began preparations for the 2007 farm bill in 2005 by conducting 52 Farm Bill Forums across the country. More than 4,000 comments were recorded or collected during forums and via electronic and standard mail. These comments are summarized in […]