Salmonella Outbreak Ought to Signal the End of Battery Cages
The Food and Drug Administration is investigating a salmonella outbreak that has sickened people in several states. And a nationwide recall is underway of 13 brands of eggs. The eggs have been linked to a farm in Iowa that is operated by the son of Turner, Maine egg farm baron Jack DeCoster. Animal rights groups are using the salmonella outbreak to renew their call for an end to the use of wire cages.
The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms on Humans and the Environment
As we talk about the largest egg recall in US history, at this point half a billion eggs, our guest is David Kirby. His book is Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms on Humans and the Environment.
After a Half Billion Bad Eggs Get Released, the FDA Reveals Filthy Conditions of Wright County Egg
There's nothing like a good salmonella outbreak to inspire FDA inspectors to deliver blunt, graphic reports from inside the industrial food system. When future historians marvel at the fetid, festering underbelly of our food culture, they will relish these post-facto dispatches from the bio-hazardous front.
New Research Study on Local Foods Vs. Conventional Foods Promises Real Data
Thomas Stern is an unabashed locavore, buying everything from beets and basil to lamb and legumes from nearby producers.
The Berry Healthiest: How Organic Strawberries 'Are More Nutritious'
Organic strawberries may cost more, but it's a price worth paying, scientists say. The fruit is both tastier and better for your health, research shows. The most detailed study of its kind has found that they contain higher levels of anti-cancer nutrients than fruit sprayed with chemical pesticides.
Strict Quality Assurance Program has Virtually Wiped Out Salmonella in California Henhouses
Amid a rolling landscape of browning chaparral and battered trailers, Alan and Ryan Armstrong's metal hen houses line up like military barracks. Keeping their 450,000 birds safe - and Salmonella enteritidis out of their hen houses - is a daily battle.
Cow Country: The Rise of the CAFO in Idaho
On a cool June day, Dean Dimond looked out from his back porch at a field of green wheat bending in the wind. Dimond lives on and farms a patch of land in the Magic Valley just north of Jerome. A mile or so beyond is Minidoka, site of the former Japanese internment camp where the National Park Service is building a memorial.
Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff Proposes Jail for Feeding Homeless Under the Guise of Food Safety
Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff has created regulations around giving food to the homeless that few could meet and that would apply a fine and imprisonment to anyone trying to do so in the old fashioned way: “Here is a little something to tide you over. We wish you the best.” Try to be generous again, and the fine goes up and the jail sentence gets longer.
Geothermal: Getting Energy from the Earth
The heat in the upper six miles of the earth's crust contains 50,000 times as much energy as found in all the world's oil and gas reserves combined. Despite this abundance, only 10,700 megawatts of geothermal electricity generating capacity have been harnessed worldwide.
What Created the Populist Explosion and How Democrats Can Avoid the Shrapnel in November
To say that the American people are angry is an understatement. The political brain of Americans today reflects a volatile mixture of fear and fury, and when you mix those together, you get an explosion. The only question at this point is how to mitigate the damage when the bomb detonates in November.
Silver Nanoparticles Stop Sperm Stem Cell Growth
A new study has identified exactly how silver nanoparticles cause male reproductive cells to stop growing.
California Rejects Ban on Plastic Shopping Bags
California lawmakers have rejected a bill seeking to ban plastic shopping bags after a contentious debate over whether the state was going too far in trying to regulate personal choice.
New Lab Results Raise Questions About Gulf Seafood's Safety
A Boston lab hired by the United Commercial Fishermen's Association to analyze coastal fishing waters says findings suggest the government's claim that Gulf of Mexico seafood is safe to eat may be premature.
A Recent Article on the Egg Recall that Completely Misses the Point
A recent article from US News and World Report begins with the subtitle "Shopping for organic or local farm stand eggs may not help you avoid salmonella poisoning." The article goes on to ask the question "Are organic eggs less likely to carry salmonella? What about those sold on farm stands?" You can imagine where this is leading.
Food Safety Bill Would be Bad for Local and Organic Farms
Anational egg recall, local Umpqua milk contamination: When will it end? Isn't it about time the Senate followed the House and passed The Food Modernization and Safety Act (S 510)?
Study: Home Pesticides Linked to Childhood Cancer
As if links to Parkinson's disease, diabetes and obesity, cancer, low sperm counts and other reproductive health problems, and childhood developmental problems and diseases were not enough ... or that pesticide residue is common on foods, or that that children are even more susceptible than previously thought, or that pesticides stick around in the home for decades after being used, or that the EPA is slow to remove known toxic pesticides from the market, and doesn't require chemical makers to even list toxic "inert" ingredients ... now there's another reason to avoid using pesticides around the home.
Charged With Enthusiasm, Seattle Gears Up for Electric Cars
Seattle is preparing for an electric car roll-out that could amount to 200,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030.
U.S. Climate Bill Is Dead While So Much Life on Our Earth Continues to Perish
Between 2001 and 2005, aerial surveys were conducted over 6.4 million acres of New Mexico. Some 816,000 affected acres were mapped and it was found that during this short period Ips confusus, a tiny bark beetle, had killed 54.5 million of the state tree, the piñon. In many areas of northern New Mexico, including Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Española, and Taos, 90 percent of mature piñons are now dead.
Smart Cities are Paving the Way for Urban Farmers and Locavores
If some sort of natural disaster or terrorist attack were to shut down New York City's food supply chain, our supermarket shelves would reportedly be picked clean within three days. Other U.S. cities aren't any better prepared for such emergencies, thanks to our fuelish dependence on a globalized food system.
What the Cluck? Backyard Chickens Make a Comeback
Video on backyard chicken farming.
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