May 2012
2 posts
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So Goes California, So Goes the Nation
Something very exciting happened last week -
It was announced that nearly One Million California citizens signed the ballot initiative in support of labeling foods that have been produced by or from crops produced by genetic engineering. The minimum number of signatures required to land an initiative on the CA voting ballot is ~500,000. Assuming the minimum number of signatures is validated in...
March 2012
2 posts
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Stop Using Technology and Eat Real Food
This week has been packed with news on protein. Here’s a run down mixed up with a bit of commentary.
First, due to consumer demand, the USDA is allowing public schools to opt-out of using Boneless Lean Beef Trimmings (BLBT) aka ‘Pink Slime” in their school lunches.
Next comes two voices of support for a new soy-based chicken product - two voices who couldn’t be more...
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February 2012
2 posts
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Monsanto Found Guilty of Chemical Poisoning in...
A court decision in France this month has found Monsanto, American agribusiness responsible for genetically modified foods and the pesticides required to grow them, guilty of chemical poisoning. Farmer Paul Francois suffered neurological problems as a result of breathing in the pesticide Lasso. Effectively tying his condition to the pesticide, this is a huge win for healthy farming advocates -...
They say we do things for either love or money. We...
Happy Valentine’s Day, We love you,
The Mindful Meats Family
January 2012
6 posts
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WatchNorth Carolinians: The conversation on antibiotic use in livestock production reaches home! Did you realize that we’re #2 in the country for hog and turkey production? Wow. PS: I’m a native NC’n.
Semantics over Safety: The Case of Substantially...
Coming across this Atlantic article in my Google Reader, I was reminded of another interesting move that enabled the release of GMO crops into our food system.
In order to get GMOs to market faster at their launch, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) proposed a regulatory approval concept called “Substantially Equivalent” that would allow new food...
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Cost Cutting Means Getting GMOs to Market Faster
America’s debt is now as big as our economy. You read that right.
In attempts to cut federal spending, the USDA has announced several major changes afoot, claiming that these streamlined operational processes will save $150M annually (a tiny amount given that our debts are over $15.2 Trillion).
The plan is being called the Blue Print for Stronger Service; press release here. All of the...
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FDA's First Move Against Livestock Antibiotic...
2012 begins with a little hope for improved livestock production - The FDA announced that it will set policies to limit the use of the antibiotic cephalosporins in animal food production by banning the extra label (ie: unapproved) use of the drug.
While any showing by the FDA to limit antibiotic use is good, the class of cephalosporins only represents less than 0.25% of antibiotic use in farm...
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Corn: Subsidies Slide, Mandates Maintain
Some may have heard the recent news that federal subsidies for ethanol production were not renewed at the end of 2011. In what sounds like a win for taxpayers and those who are anti-ethanol, note that the Renewable Fuel Standard (see: EPA and Bioenergy Wiki) still requires by law that a growing percentage of corn grown in the US be allocated for ethanol production. This strong enforcement...
December 2011
7 posts
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Organic Farming: Better Bottom Line(s)
Another study comes forward - this time an 18 yr project - propping up organic production over conventional. Focusing on the economic rewards of organic production, the study found that organic production is consistently more profitable and creates more jobs than a conventional system. The only short-term downside? Farmers may have to spend more time marketing their products. But with a rapidly...
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NY Rep. Slaughter: Fighting for your health in the...
Representative Louise Slaughter continues to impress with her straightforward semantics on the use of antibiotics in farm animal production. Let’s hope the rest of Congress stops avoiding a ban on a practice that knowingly increases serious worldwide disease risks.
“To the [New York Times] Editor:
Re “The High Cost of Cheap Meat” (editorial, June 3), about the looming public health...
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Argentina: Feedlot Beef and Booming Grain...
The push for cheap meat continues to expand globally. Once loved for its superior grass-fed flavor, Argentinian beef is now mass produced. Let’s hope growing awareness and demand for better beef flips this practice back!
“But while in Buenos Aires last week, I discovered that the pampas-raised beef of my reveries is practically a thing of the past. Today, most cattle in Argentina are...
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Land o' Labels
With the majority of US food being produced in curiously mysterious ways, more and more labels and certifications are popping up to help we, the eaters, have confidence in what we choose to feed ourselves.
But with more information, comes confusion…and the required time dedicated to deciphering.
Never fear! Here’s a good break down that SF’s Center for Urban Education and...
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Food Animals and Antimicrobials: Impacts on Human... →
More support for the ban of Antibiotics in meat production
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The Organic 1%: Sustainable Farming in a Broken...
“In 2008 organic cropland represented only 0.7 percent in the United States and, at the current growth rate, it is expected to reach not more than 2.5 percent by 2050…
Well-respected agriculture research outlets like Rodale Institute and the Agronomy Journal recently published long-term studies, 30 years and 18 years respectively, revealing the benefits and business case for organic...
November 2011
3 posts
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GHGs Higher Than Worst Case Scenario
“Associated Press reports worldwide greenhouse gases jumped higher than it ever had from 2009 to 2010, surpassing a worst-case scenario predicted four years ago. Citing new figures from the U.S. Department of Energy, AP science writer Seth Borenstein notes the level of carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, had shot up by six percent in 2010 from 2009 — an...
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Michael Krasny hosts Craig Cox, SVP for...
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October 2011
2 posts
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Can Parents Compete with Clever Food Marketing...
If parents said nothing, about 71 percent of the children who had watched French fry ads chose that coupon. But when parents urged their kids to make the healthy choice, only 55 percent of the kids chose French fries. For the kids who had seen the apples and dipping sauce ad, only 46 percent made the unhealthy French fry choice when the parents remained neutral.
This difference in and of itself...
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Marion Nestle after the wake of the FTC's...
A Round Up of Latest Reports on Food Marketing’s Negative Effects
U.K.: BBC radio programme on marketing junk food to kids
U.S.: consumer laws can be invoked to protect children from junk food marketing
U.S.: Toys turn healthy foods into ‘happy meals’ — for more, click here
India: Ban ki-moon calls upon kids’ processed food makers to act with integrity
U,S,:...
July 2011
2 posts
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Mark Bittman : Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize...
Bittman reviews what impact could be had on US health and diet by flipping the subsidy-tax relationship for our food in the US.
The projections - $13B in national tax revenue and $30B in health care savings - and comparable - ‘98 tobacco settle resulting in decreased marketing efforts and an increasing in financing anti-smoking efforts leading to 50% decrease in smoking rates - are...
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April 2011
3 posts
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Food is the New Frontier in Greentech
“According to research by the World Resources Institute, agriculture is mankind’s biggest contributor to climate change, generating at least 26 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide — more than from all electricity and industry or from all the world’s planes, trains and automobiles. Other estimates suggest agriculture generates 36 percent of emissions.
Feeding the growing world...
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Meat Contamination and Use of Antibiotics
“Researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a nonprofit biomedical research center in Phoenix, analyzed 136 samples of beef, chicken, pork and turkey from 80 brands. The samples came from 26 grocery stores in five cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Flagstaff, Ariz., and Washington, D.C.
About half — 47% of the samples — contained S. aureus, the...
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Chicago School Bans Lunches Brought from Home
Never imagined I would read this:
“At [Fernando Dominguez ‘] public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago’s West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.
Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.
...
March 2011
9 posts
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Why We Should Stop Pre-emptive Medication of...
According to David Love, project director of Johns Hopkins’ Center for a Livable Future, healthy animals who consume too high an antibiotic dose from food can become ill or even die.
Links between antibiotic overuse on factory farms and antibiotic resistance in people
Continued exposure in animals to antimicrobials can cause resistant bacteria in fecal matter on farms.
Sick animals...
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GE Alfalfa: A Review
“A federal judge temporarily banned the alfalfa in 2007 as a result of the CFS lawsuit, but last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that the USDA could reconsider deregulating the GE alfalfa after completing an environmental impact statement (EIS). The USDA fully deregulated the alfalfa on January 27, 2011…
Like the GE corn and soybeans that now dominate agribusiness, Roundup Ready...
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Can High Pressure Technology Make Hamburger Safer?...
“Hailing a patent-pending process for a new line of fresh hamburger patties as a “natural option for food safety” and a “technological breakthrough,” meat-industry giant Cargill has begun using a method of high-pressure processing to produce its newly introduced “Fressure” hamburgers for food-service customers…
While high-pressure processing...
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USDA Fully Deregulates Roundup Ready Alfalfa
“Bill Tomson and Scott Kilman of the Wall Street Journal reported that Vilsack’s rejection of a compromise proposal—partial deregulation, which was vehemently opposed by biotech companies and only tepidly accepted by non-GE interests—was the result of an Obama administration review of “burdensome” regulations.
Sources familiar with the negotiations at USDA,...
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Battling GE Crops in National Wildlife Refuges
“… a coalition of environmental and food groups including the Center for Food Safety, Delaware Audubon, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) recently won a battle against GE crops…
“National wildlife refuges — areas protected by the federal government as wildlife reserves — have actually allowed farming inside their limits for quite some time. The...
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Infrastructure Needed More So Than Seed Technology
“…so much of the discussion about agriculture in Africa focuses on production. Plant more. Increase yield. Improve seed technology. But there is really no silver bullet when it comes to food production and access, and the relentless focus on technology ends up being lopsided and incomplete—as I saw in Zambia.
The nation produces more than enough food, much of it by small-scale...
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USG + Monsanto Push on Spain and France, Lobby the...
“The US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any Euroxpean Union country which opposed genetically modified (GM) crops, newly released WikiLeaks cables show… In other newly released cables, US diplomats around the world are found to have pushed GM crops as a strategic government and commercial imperative… Cables from the US embassy in...
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Monsanto's Government Infiltration
List of former-Monsanto players now in government roles:
Tom Vilsack, the pro-biotech former governor of Iowa, now head of the USDA
Michael Taylor, the former Monsanto Vice President, now the FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods
Roger Beachy, the former director of the Monsanto-funded Danforth Plant Science Center, now the director of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Islam...
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Wikileaks, uncovered cable entitled “Spain’s...
“ACTION REQUESTED: In response to recent urgent requests by MARM [Ministry of Environment and and Rural and Marine Affairs, Spain] State Secretary Josep Puxeu and Monsanto, post requests renewed USG [United States Government] support of Spain’s science-based agricultural biotechnology position through high-level USG intervention in support of the EFSA [European Food Safety Authority]...
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Largest US Planting in a decade required this...
“Analysts estimate farmers come spring must sow an additional 10 million acres—the largest U.S planting in a decade—to maintain adequate supplies of crops from corn to oats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week forecast supplies as a percentage of usage would fall to 15-year lows for corn and more than 40-year lows for soybeans. The agency also cut its forecast for some exporters...
December 2010
3 posts
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Big Food goes to court for directly marketing to...
“The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced today that it will sue McDonald’s for the fast food chain’s advertising of Happy Meal toys. …
CSPI lawyers looked to Big Tobacco for inspiration on how to build their case. You see, many states — including California — have consumer protection laws in place to shield folks from deceptive marketing tactics....
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World's largest pork producer acting against its...
“When it comes to animal welfare policies and processes, count on us to lead the way,” reads the “Responsibility” section on the website of Smithfield Foods, the Virginia-based pork operation that is the largest in the world.
…the Humane Society released a video and report that it says are the results of an undercover investigation into a Virginia breeding facility...
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Hoping Detroit sets an example
“About 3,400 of the city’s residents die from heart disease every year, giving Detroit the dubious distinction of having the fourth highest rate of heart disease-related deaths of all U.S. cities. …
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine recently sent a letter to Mayor Dave Bing asking him to impose a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in the city. Right now,...
November 2010
2 posts
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Duke Enters Into Hog Waste Partnership, Office of...
“Hog waste is more than just an odor problem. The open lagoons currently used to handle the waste are prolific producers of methane gas, which is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, pound-for-pound, as a greenhouse gas. Unlike carbon dioxide, however, methane, or natural gas, is a great fuel.
The $1.08 million system being built at Loyd Ray Farms uses mostly off-the-shelf...
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Vegetarian-turned-Omnivore: I raise meat because I...
Jenna Woginrich, vegetarian turned sheep rancher, shares her experience on why and how she converted to omnivorism. The entire article is wonderful, but here are highlights:
When I found out I was surrounded by so much grass-fed meat and wild game it seemed ridiculous to keep eating tofu shipped in diesel rigs from California. Since my reasons for being a vegetarian were entirely about avoiding...
September 2010
2 posts
sototallycarl asked: There is no such thing as mindful consumption of meat. Is there such a thing as mindful farming of people? A mindful murder of a human? A mindful genocide? How is killing in one way more humane than killing in another? It could be more considerate and ultimately less gruesome, but at the end of the day your killing a sentient being. If you had to kill the animal yourself looking it right in the...
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Reforming Meat
“Livestock is increasingly traded from packer to packer, not farm to packer, giving packers more control of the total market — in the pasture, in the barns, in the feedlots and on the killing floor. This, in turn, makes price collusion and manipulation much too easy. Mr. Vilsack’s rules aim to address this, making it illegal for packers to sell livestock to other packers.
By themselves,...
August 2010
3 posts
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How to become a Sustainable Meat Eater
“You get what you pay for.
If you’re going to be eating less meat, you may as well enjoy it more. Greg Plotkin wrote a great piece last month on the challenges small farmers face against industrial meat Goliaths. Meat that isn’t pumped full of hormones is actually quite tasty, but it’s the minority, and the ranchers who produce it are fighting a good fight. Katherine...
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Food for Thought: Meat-Based Diet Made Us Smarter
“Plato said if we were regular animals, you know, we wouldn’t have time to write poetry,” Richard Wrangham, Harvard anthropologist, jokes. “You know, he was right.”
New work is being done to illuminate yet another benefit to an omnivorous diet: once humans turned to eating meat, we were given a more efficient source of fuel, enabling more energy to be dedicated to...
Nicolette Niman's Guide to Avoiding Factory Farmed...
Lawyer fighting the pork industry turned rancher focusing on sustainably raised meat, Nicolette Niman is also a vegetarian. She spent years working on Bobby Kennedy’s campaign against industrially produced pork, much of that time being in my home state of North Carolina. Describing factory meat farms as “biblical-scale plagues of pollution and stench,” she’s dedicated her...
July 2010
6 posts
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American Factory Farms Threatened As EU Sets... →
The most notable trade barrier [between the US and Europe] has been the European ban on chlorine-bathed poultry. U.S. poultry producers frequently rely on a tasty chlorine rinse to kill the pathogens that, thanks to unsanitary slaughterhouse standards, regularly pervade our chicken. The EU — and until recently, Russia — has labeled such poultry unfit to eat, resulting in the American poultry...