By
"Federal officials investigating conditions at the two Iowa mega-farms whose products have been at the center of the biggest egg recall in U.S. history found filthy conditions, including chickens and rodents crawling up massive manure piles and flies and maggots 'too numerous to count.' Water used to wash eggs at one of the producers tested positive for a strain of salmonella that appears to match the variety identified in eggs that have sickened at least 1,500 people, according to preliminary Food and Drug Administration reports of inspections at facilities operated by Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms of Iowa Inc..."
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-eggs-20100831,0,7203070,full.story
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
AP Article - Livestock industry debates antitrust issues
By Catherine Tsai
August 27, 2010
"FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Meatpackers, feeders and hundreds of ranchers from around the country are attending a workshop Friday on proposed federal rules that would place the sharpest limits on meat companies since the Great Depression. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are also attending the daylong workshop at Colorado State University, one of five the administration set this year to hear about competition in a consolidating agriculture industry. The Obama administration has proposed new antitrust rules for meat companies that reflect a willingness by the USDA to shift the balance of power between farmers and processors and to regulate an industry long dominated by a handful of corporate giants..."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hEAluUa2hn-UazwhP9xFiT4QWPZAD9HRTGE00
August 27, 2010
"FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Meatpackers, feeders and hundreds of ranchers from around the country are attending a workshop Friday on proposed federal rules that would place the sharpest limits on meat companies since the Great Depression. Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack are also attending the daylong workshop at Colorado State University, one of five the administration set this year to hear about competition in a consolidating agriculture industry. The Obama administration has proposed new antitrust rules for meat companies that reflect a willingness by the USDA to shift the balance of power between farmers and processors and to regulate an industry long dominated by a handful of corporate giants..."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hEAluUa2hn-UazwhP9xFiT4QWPZAD9HRTGE00
Food Safety News Article - UK Updates Food Hygiene Rating Scheme
By Michelle Greenhalgh
August 27, 2010
"The United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency has written to all local authorities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to inform them of an update to the Food Hygiene Rating System. The Food Hygiene Rating System helps consumers choose which eateries to go to and which grocery stores to shop at by providing information about the hygiene standards in restaurants, pubs, cafes, takeaways, hotels, supermarkets, and other food establishments..."
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/08/uk-food-hygiene-rating-scheme-update/
August 27, 2010
"The United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency has written to all local authorities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to inform them of an update to the Food Hygiene Rating System. The Food Hygiene Rating System helps consumers choose which eateries to go to and which grocery stores to shop at by providing information about the hygiene standards in restaurants, pubs, cafes, takeaways, hotels, supermarkets, and other food establishments..."
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/08/uk-food-hygiene-rating-scheme-update/
Food Politics Post - Egg industry response to recalls (in translation)
August 26, 2010
Click here to read Marion Nestle's "translations" of the egg industry's public statements about the recent massive egg recall, as featured in an ad placed in major newspapers last week. Nestle follows with a reworded message that the egg industry should have made - if only they did take that much responsibility! As she says in the post, "I can dream, can't I?"
Click here to read Marion Nestle's "translations" of the egg industry's public statements about the recent massive egg recall, as featured in an ad placed in major newspapers last week. Nestle follows with a reworded message that the egg industry should have made - if only they did take that much responsibility! As she says in the post, "I can dream, can't I?"
Huffington Post Article - Meet Your Meat: Why We All Should Care Where Our Burger Comes From
By Sam Schabacker
August 26, 2010
"I grew up next to a factory farm near Longmont [Colorado]. It was an industrialized turkey farm, covering several acres and comprised of metallic silos full of crowded birds. The family of my best friend in elementary school operated it and lived next to it. We used to play baseball in his front yard, dodging manure and mud that would fly off the wheels of the trucks that picked up the birds, and we rounded the bases as the smell of manure wafted about. My friend's dad worked hard to make a modest living on that turkey farm for his family. Until one day the company shut down this factory farm--moving its operations and taking its jobs with it. The county eventually bought the derelict facility in order to decommission it. This childhood story is a case study of our current food system: We are consuming food produced, packaged, distributed, advertised, and controlled by a handful of large corporations as never before. As the story above illustrates, it is a food system that doesn't work except for the few who are reaping massive profits off of it, while it is bad for our health, our environment, and our wallets..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-schabacker/meet-your-meat-why-we-all_b_695997.html
August 26, 2010
"I grew up next to a factory farm near Longmont [Colorado]. It was an industrialized turkey farm, covering several acres and comprised of metallic silos full of crowded birds. The family of my best friend in elementary school operated it and lived next to it. We used to play baseball in his front yard, dodging manure and mud that would fly off the wheels of the trucks that picked up the birds, and we rounded the bases as the smell of manure wafted about. My friend's dad worked hard to make a modest living on that turkey farm for his family. Until one day the company shut down this factory farm--moving its operations and taking its jobs with it. The county eventually bought the derelict facility in order to decommission it. This childhood story is a case study of our current food system: We are consuming food produced, packaged, distributed, advertised, and controlled by a handful of large corporations as never before. As the story above illustrates, it is a food system that doesn't work except for the few who are reaping massive profits off of it, while it is bad for our health, our environment, and our wallets..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-schabacker/meet-your-meat-why-we-all_b_695997.html
Civil Eats Post - Egg Gaps Illustrate Fractured Food Safety System
By Helena Bottemiller
August 25, 2010
"As consumers scramble to check their egg cartons and federal officials investigate two Iowa farms at the center of a half-billion egg recall, it’s becoming clear that no one was overseeing egg safety in Iowa. In a piecemeal federal system many consider illogical, the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture share jurisdiction over the safety of the food supply–and eggs fall into the divide. The FDA, responsible for the safety of table eggs, says it has “no inspectional history” with either Hillandale Farms or Wright County Egg, who together have recalled 550 million eggs for Salmonella Enteritidis contamination in the past two weeks..."
http://civileats.com/2010/08/25/egg-gaps-illustrate-fractured-food-safety-system/
August 25, 2010
"As consumers scramble to check their egg cartons and federal officials investigate two Iowa farms at the center of a half-billion egg recall, it’s becoming clear that no one was overseeing egg safety in Iowa. In a piecemeal federal system many consider illogical, the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture share jurisdiction over the safety of the food supply–and eggs fall into the divide. The FDA, responsible for the safety of table eggs, says it has “no inspectional history” with either Hillandale Farms or Wright County Egg, who together have recalled 550 million eggs for Salmonella Enteritidis contamination in the past two weeks..."
http://civileats.com/2010/08/25/egg-gaps-illustrate-fractured-food-safety-system/
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Colbert Report - Better Know a Lobby: American Meat Institute
See Stephen Colbert interview J. Patrick Boyle, President of the American Meat Institute (national trade association that represents meat and poultry associations). Colbert asks Boyle about food borne illness, target meat consumption, climate change, and with the growing concern about how much meat Americans are consuming and its effect on our health and the environment, Colbert suggests we eat each other - for the record, AMI does not recommend cannibalism.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Better Know a Lobby - American Meat Institute | ||||
| ||||
Artificial meat? Food for thought by 2050
By John Vidal
August 16, 2010
"Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today. But a major academic assessment of future global food supplies, led by John Beddington, the UK government chief scientist, suggests that even with new technologies such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, hundreds of millions of people may still go hungry owing to a combination of climate change, water shortages and increasing food consumption...."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/artificial-meat-food-royal-society
August 16, 2010
"Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today. But a major academic assessment of future global food supplies, led by John Beddington, the UK government chief scientist, suggests that even with new technologies such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, hundreds of millions of people may still go hungry owing to a combination of climate change, water shortages and increasing food consumption...."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/artificial-meat-food-royal-society
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
