Month: December 2017

New York Times: Amazon, in Hunt for Lower Prices, Recruits Indian Merchants

Thousands of Indian sellers have shipped bedding, jewelry, kitchenware and clothing to Amazon warehouses to serve bargain-hunting Americans. By VINDU GOEL | NOV. 26, 2017 MUMBAI, India — Americans shopping on Amazon.com this holiday season may find that the best deals for popular gifts like leather shoes and luxury bedding are coming from an unexpected…



New Food Economy: Rural America’s Trump vote was decades in the making. Democrats’ farm policies—starting with the New Deal—are partly to blame

Public knowledge of food and farm history is littered with myths. Two specialists debunk the big ones. by Nathan A. Rosenberg and Bryce Wilson Stucki | December 6th, 2017 After Donald Trump’s surprising 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton, commentators and journalists turned their attention to rural America—where Trump won three times as many votes as…



The Hill – To help ranchers, US should change NAFTA’s rule of origin

To help ranchers, US should change NAFTA’s rule of origin By Bill Bullard, Opinion Contributor — 12/05/17 08:45 AM EST The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill The renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has quieted the mantra that all free trade agreements are…



OCM: USDA Hides Thousands More Beef Checkoff Spending Records

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 8, 2017 Media Contact: Angela Huffman, 614-390-7552 ahuffman@competitivemarkets.com One week after GAO urges transparency, USDA continues to conceal checkoff information LINCOLN, NE – On November 27, 2017, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was required to submit to the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) additional information related to an audit initiated…



Agweb: Rural Areas at Risk as Water Levels Drop in Massive Aquifer

December 6, 2017 The draining of a massive aquifer that underlies portions of eight states in the central U.S. is drying up streams, causing fish to disappear and threatening the livelihood of farmers who rely on it for their crops. Water levels in the Ogallala aquifer have been dropping for decades as irrigators pump water…



The Guardian: Why are America’s farmers killing themselves in record numbers?

December 6, 2017 The suicide rate for farmers is more than double that of veterans. Former farmer Debbie Weingarten gives an insider’s perspective on farm life – and how to help It is dark in the workshop, but what light there is streams in patches through the windows. Cobwebs coat the wrenches, the cans of…



Global Meat News: Irish farmers attack ‘toxic’ EU beef deal with Brazil – again

By Oscar Rousseau | 05-Dec-2017 Livestock producers are outraged yet again over the EU’s provisional decision to let four South American countries export thousands of tonnes of beef to the bloc, potentially harming local business. The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), a staunch opponent of the EU’s ongoing trade negotiations with Latin American bloc Mercosur, has…



Wattagnet.com: High nitrate levels found in wells near Mountaire plant

December 1, 2017 Company provides bottled water to neighbors, offers other measures to improve water quality issues Water in several wells near the Mountaire Farms poultry plant in Millsboro, Delaware, contains nitrate levels that exceed the national drinking water standard of 10 milligrams per liter, the Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC)…



NY Times: Soil Power! The Dirty Way to a Green Planet

By JACQUES LESLIE | DEC. 2, 2017 The last great hope of avoiding catastrophic climate change may lie in a substance so commonplace that we typically ignore it or else walk all over it: the soil beneath our feet. The earth possesses five major pools of carbon. Of those pools, the atmosphere is already overloaded…



Return to Now: Lard is the New Coconut Oil

September 26, 2017 I cook everything in lard — sweet potatoes, steak, chicken, and everything in between. I guess you could call me a “lard ass.” I’m far from fat, though. In fact, I’m the leanest, strongest and healthiest I’ve ever been. Lard is fat rendered from the belly of a hog, strained into a…