Newswire: The National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (NCIFAP), an independent group formed by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, announced today that it was launching a two-year study of industrial meat production’s various impacts (public health, environmental, animal health and well-being, rural sociological). The NCIFAP’s chairman is John Carlin, former Kansas Governor […]

The Butter Bitch and I took delivery of our first shipment from the Crown S meat CSA Sunday. The meat was delivered to the house of Jenni, one of the co-organizers, who also hosted a barbecue and potluck dinner. Crown S provided beef patties, and several people brought salads and dessert. We […]

Seattle P-I: Bob Condor ruminates on recent studies about the number of calories Americans consume at fast food restaurants, the difficulty of getting fifth graders to eat vegetables, and that children may need to sample a new vegetable 20 times before liking it.
San Francisco Chronicle: Lazarus considers the negative implications of Chevron’s latest oil discovery […]

Another meat CSA has announced announced availability to Seattle residents. Williamson Farms will deliver their variety pack to Seattle residents on a weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly basis. They join Crown S Ranch in bringing sustainably raised beef to the Puget Sound region.
Not that we are keeping count, but the Bay Area still has […]

PopMatters: A thoughtful essay about Wal-Mart’s potential effect on the ideology of the organic movement, asking whether a company so fixated on price at the expense of every other economic “externality” will harm a movement that is all about considering externalities (animal suffering, land stewardship, food miles) and the willingness to pay more to ameliorate […]

In what has to be its biggest stumble since New Coke, McDonald’s has had the bright idea of including 42 million toy Hummers in its Happy Meals for kids. Much parental outrage has ensued — and some very funny protest campaigns, like the Ronald McHummer Sign-O-Matic, a genius response by the Environmental Working Group. Here, […]

Sustainable Ballard: Ballard, a protectorate of Seattle and home to two of the Ethicurean team, intends to become the first carbon-neutral community in the United States.
Boston Globe: Heartfelt editorial about the need to save the beautiful monarch butterfly and the milkweed — the only plant on which it lays eggs — from extinction. Both are […]

I guess I’m naive, but the shameless audacity of the food industry still manages to take my breath away occasionally.
The morning news trawl turned up an item about a protest in a genetically modified cornfield in France last Saturday. But if the headline, “French Fried Reactionary Still Hurting Poor People,” didn’t give away the pro-industry […]

Grist magazine: Tom Philpott gets cranky over school lunches, where the new “hot opportunity” as defined by the Wall Street Journal lies in selling processed crap to schoolkids for breakfast. Philpott, who is fast becoming our favorite reality-based ranter, says that the USDA’s lunch program has been “terribly successful, if your goal is to create […]

So, looks like I was wrong that that AP story had nothing new about the USDA’s proposed grass-fed label. As Tom Philpott reports over at Grist.com, the agency — which he points out is headed by a star-studded roster of “food-industry shills” — has indicated it thinks it’s perfectly OK for the “grass-fed” label to […]

Not every vendor at the Berkeley farmers market seems to enjoy the face-to-face sales aspect. And from a very random, unscientific sampling, it seems to me that the ones who enjoy it most tend not to be the actual farmers.
For this second installment in the Five Minutes at the Market series, I went to my […]

St. Paul Pioneer Press: A Minnesota organic farm has won a settlement in which Minnesota Pipe Line Company will reroute their proposed pipeline to avoid 100 acres of organic farm. The agreement sets a further precedent for organic farms, in that the company has agreed to take measures to protect wildlife habitats and organic […]

Seattle cartoonist Dan Piraro has provided his opinion on the topic of best Seattle donuts in his daily strip. If you aren’t familliar with Pirarro’s works, then you may have dangerously low levels of Vitamins S (for surrealism) and H (for humor).

I snagged these gorgeous peppers from Scott Arbor Farm, a family farm located in Seguin, about 50 miles south of Austin. I always make a beeline to their stand at the downtown Austin Farmer’s Market. According to their website, they have been farming organically at the same location for 32 years. They were organic when […]

Lowell Sun Online: Wary of drugs like Ritalin, parents of hyperactive and ADD children are turning to alternative treatments, such as diets free of high-fructose corn syrup and caffeine.
Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: Sociology of food courses are popping up on college campuses.
AsiaTravelTips.com: Korean Air is now offering an organic in-flight menu option to premium passengers; […]