Food Doesn’t Grow in Silicon Valleys A focus on innovation can be an impediment to genuine progress in the food system. By Rufo Quintavalle | 15 | Mar. 12, 2014 We are living through multiple and simultaneous environmental crises of an unprecedented gravity—climate change, resource depletion, overpopulation, water stress, oceanic acidification, deforestation, and biodiversity loss….
The animal welfare and antitrust issues behind America’s cheap meat An unlikely alliance is taking action against the country’s powerful meat industry and the federal policies that support them Friday 14 March 2014 11.46 EDT Raising animals on a large scale means that often animals are moved from an outside setting to an indoor caged…
Two Smithfield plants OK to export to Russia By Rita Jane Gabbett on 3/21/2014 Earlier this month, USDA announced Russia approved two Smithfield Food plants to export pork products to that country made from hogs never fed beta-agonists such as ractopamine. The two plants are located in Clinton, N.C., and in Tarheel, N.C. USDA posted…
Book Hour: The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business March 21, 2014 Family farms and ranches are disappearing at rate of over 10,000 per year. Those who survive are being squeezed by the four powerful multi-national agri-business corporations that control 85% of the meat markets. Their control is eliminating fair markets for…
Humane Society of the US in Columbia to Promote Sustainable Farming Posted on 20 March 2014 at 3:47pm COLUMBIA – The Humane Society of the United States proposed new sustainable food policies at the "How We Eat, How We Farm" panel discussion Thursday. Local and national experts urged participants to support sustainable agricultural farming techniques…
COOL news due any day now By Lisa M. Keefe on 3/21/2014 PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Lawyers for the organizations that filed a lawsuit against current country-of-origin labeling rules say a decision is due any day on their quest to prevent the USDA from enforcing those rules, according to John Dillard, an attorney with Olsson…
Agriculture industry not good for farmers, consumers, group says Thursday, March 20, 2014 By Amity Shedd ~ Southeast Missourian As America loses its farmers, it also loses sight of how food gets from a farm to a kitchen table, according to a panel of agriculture experts who spoke about humane and sustainable agriculture Wednesday at…
Worm Now Thrives in GMO Corn Designed to Kill It, Study Says By Zoë Schlanger Filed: 3/18/14 at 2:50 PM Scientists have confirmed that corn-destroying rootworms have evolved to be resistant to the Bt corn engineered to kill them Jim Young/Reuters One of industrial agriculture’s biggest GMO crops may have just backfired. Scientists have confirmed…
Price of beef posts biggest spike in a decade By Meatingplace Editors on 3/20/2014 The Labor Department said beef prices in February recorded their biggest monthly gain in a decade even as overall inflation at the consumer level was tame. Beef and veal prices climbed 4 percent in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer…
Their fierce opposition to COOL and numerous other pro-cattle producer issues make it abundantly clear that NCBA has betrayed the trust of checkoff-paying cattlemen. The beef checkoff (now commonly known as the beef tax) represents more than 80% of NCBA’s total revenue; being essentially the lifeblood of this front organization for the meat packers. It…