Wausau Daily Herald: Wisconsin, with the second largest number of organic farms, is growing a statewide network to link organic farmers with each other and with customers. (Note: California has the largest number of organic farms. Texas has the most organic acreage.)
The Sentinel: An organic farm in Pennsylvania hosted an organic field day […]

Scott Bice shows us the tank of that day’s goatmilk. It’s lower in fat than cow milk, which is why there’s less cream on top. (Sir Loin photo)

This is the final installment of a three-part tale chronicling our adventures at Redwood Hill Farm, a goat dairy. (Read Part One or Part Two. Can’t get […]

Washington Post: The battle over using carbon monoxide to keep beef looking bright red — and unspoiled through several weeks — continues, with industry insisting the practice is safe but food-safety officials saying it concerns them.
Kennebec Journal: Op-ed by a Maine resident on why she’s glad Whole Foods banished lobster tanks.
Kansas City Star: Op-ed about […]

American University Radio/The Diane Rehm Show: This is an archive edition of the Diane Rehm show (available in Real Audio and Windows Media formats) that features Nina Planck and Michael Jacobson discussing why we should eat “real food” and have a greener diet. Planck is the author of Real Food (I’m reading the book […]

The book Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew by Samuel Fromartz is a timely companion piece to Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. While they both touch on the commercial aspects of Big Organic (using Earthbound Farm and Cascadian as examples), Fromartz focuses much more on the overall organic picture, from its […]

Washington Post: The Post passes on excellent advice for those unsure what to eat: Pick ethical priorities, stick to them, and be grateful that you have choices.
AP/Excite: The Senate is after the USDA for failing to have a comprehensive plan to test for the H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza. The poultry industry probably […]

I’m back from my week-long trip to Iowa, to visit family, friends, and the family farm — and to get myself away from my computer and all of the drudgery (sometimes) of too much freelance work. All work and no play make Jane a very dull girl, after all.
Most of my reflections need to simmer […]

Grist Magazine: Adam Werbach, former president of the Sierra Club, is taken to task for helping to greenwash Wal-Mart.
Forbes: How now Mad Cow? The USDA plans to reduce testing of Mad Cow.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: The P-I’s guest Master Gardener gives advice on planting a winter garden (for those of us who have winter), giving a […]

Miss Steak, Dairy Queen, and Sir Loin get frisked by the goats. (Photo by Potato Non Grata)

This is the second of a three-part tale of our adventures at Redwood Hill Farm, a goat dairy. (Read Part One. Can’t get enough of the goats? We couldn’t either, so we made a slideshow with additional photos.)
Miss […]

Put your money where your steak knife is!
The Montlake Meat group is looking for additional members, according to our reader (and Montlake Meat book maven) Jenni. She also reminded us that we’ve been tardy about sending in our order form. Eep. (I hope she believes the excuse that it was too stained […]

NY Times*: More and more Greenmarket farmers markets are opening in New York, but not all neighborhoods — or farmers — are excited.
Burlington Free Press: Portrait of Maple Wind Farm in Vermont, including discussion of its Intensive Management Grazing practices, wich involve rotating lots of types of animals on its pastures.
California Farm Bureau: State’s ranchers […]

Farming is hard.
And I have a feeling Chickenman is going easy on me.
Omnichores:
Shoveling the wood chips out of the brooder house to get ready for the imminent hatching of the chicks.
The brooder house hasn’t been used for a long, long time, except by scorpions and geckos, and really big black spiders. Oddly, the more I’m […]

Dallas Morning News: Texas not only has the most organic acreage of any state, they have a newspaper that did a really kickin’ job of researching the USDA organic label and enforcement of the rules. The USDA organic rules are vague and some companies (Whole Foods is one, and good for them!) have taken extra […]

The Butter Bitch and I celebrated Bastille Day in as close to the French fashion as one can find in Seattle for a reasonable price: Savory crepes and balloon animals at a local crêperie, complete with Lillet and a corny “French Chef” balloonist who was standing in for the regular magician. We considered going to […]

Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit watchdog organization based in Washington D.C. that advocates clean food for the consumer, has released the names of 106 chicken plants that failed to meet the USDA standards for acceptable levels of salmonella between 1998 and 2005. The data, which was collected via the Freedom of Information Act, also […]