The following story considers only the industrial model of meat production. There are other better alternatives. Actually the water usage per animal in the big beef plants is around 730 gallons per head, not 132 gallons. James McWilliams is right on with his analysis on water hungry alfalfa – why export our precious water? Mike…

USDA Plans to Speed Poultry Slaughtering, Cut Inspections Carey L. Biron, Inter Press Service Biron reports: "The U.S. government is in the final stages of weighing approval for an overhaul of regulations governing the country’s poultry industry that would see processing speeds increase substantially even while responsibility for oversight would be largely given over to…

latimes.com Courts to decide which comes first, the chickens or the eggs 7:00 AM PST, March 8, 2014 By Jon HealeyThe individual mandate in the 2010 Affordable Care Act forced the courts to consider anew the limits of Congress’ power to regulate the insurance market. Now, a California law governing the size of hens’ cages…

OCM explains its dislike of ‘industrial ag,’ trust in HSUS Friday, March 7, 2014 by Chris Kick MOUNT VERNON, Ohio — Cattle rancher and political activist Mike Callicrate has spent a lot of time fighting for what he considers fair and open markets in the beef industry. He’s sued large corporations, lobbied lawmakers, fought to…

Albertson’s, Safeway to merge By Lisa M. Keefe on 3/7/2014 Safeway Inc. has agreed to be acquired by the investor group that owns Albertsons, and be merged with the latter supermarket chain, the companies said in a press release. The combination will create the country’s second-largest dedicated supermarket chain, behind Kroger (and not counting Wal-Mart)….

Economies of Community March 5, 2014 The principle known as economies of scale has allowed entire industries to consolidate and become more efficient, including our food system. Now there’s no difference between a supermarket in Kansas City or Boston or San Diego or Fort Lauderdale. And our culture is the poorer for it. Benzi Ronen…

How (Not) To Use The USDA’s New Meat Labels To understand how far Americans are from knowing anything about the provenance or safety of grocery store meat, just look at the 12-year battle over Country of Origin Labels. (Warning: This post contains a photo of dead animals.) posted on March 5, 2014 at 10:47am EST…

Plan to import beef from Brazil causes an uproar March 4 By MIKE MCGRAW The Kansas City Star Foot and mouth disease is so highly contagious it can be spread on a gentle breeze or the tires of farm machinery. File photo by PAULO FRIDMAN | Bloomberg Foot and mouth disease is so highly contagious…

55 Groups Ask Congress to Help Stop USDA from Introducing FMD Into the United States Billings, Mont. – In a letter sent today,55 organizations asked a bipartisan group of five U.S. Senators for help in stopping the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) from going forward with plans to…

Friends and Colleagues: am just back from THE Organic Farming Conference in Lacrosse, WI, where we celebrated MOSES 25th anniversary (www.mosesorganic.org) with 3000+ attendees and growing. The farmers of the year – Dan and Theresa Podoll, and David and Ginger Podoll — live in Fullerton, North Dakota, where they produce a diversity of grains and…