Bird flu in Britain: The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu has hit Europe’s biggest turkey producer. Some 2,500 turkeys at the Bernard Matthews farm near Lowestoft in eastern England have died; the entire population of 159,000 will be “culled.” A 2-mile protection zone has been established around the farm, and some neighboring countries are telling farmers to keep their birds inside. New York Times via Reuters
Bye-bye “Beef — it’s what’s for dinner”?: The USDA funded a survey of beef producers to get their views on the 20-year-old beef check-off program. The check-off program is the mandatory $1-per-cattle-head fee that, , among other things, goes toward national advertising campaigns promoting beef however the Cattlemen’s Beef Board and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) see fit. While this article might seem a bit “inside beef-ball” to many people, some changes could be in the offing that affect carnivores: mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) legislation and industry separation of meatpackers. There’s also just some funny bits, like “the nature of cattlemen, reflected in the survey, is that they tend to be older men who distrust the government, don’t pay dues to any cattle organization and are generally angry at the world.” High Plains Midwest Journal
Flogjam: The new wave of New York City food bloggers likes to sharpen their knives on restaurant reviews and news. New York Times
Hog farm NIMBYism: Local governments in Kansas counties have taken steps to prevent Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) from locating in the neighborhoods, and now state legislators want to gut the ordinances. Kansas City Star
Good news from Planet Clueless: Guess what? Ammonia-based fertilizers can be good for the planet, and tuna isn’t endangered after all. Those big environmental lobbyists just want you to think otherwise. Chronicle Herald (Canada)
Organic confusion: Marketers are profiting from consumer confusion by pretending organic food is healthier, says a restaurant critic. Why this is of more concern than marketers profiting from pretending that food fortified with, say, Vitamin A is healthier, we’ll never know. BBC
Slow fashion: Some U.K. retailers are applying the principles of Slow Food to clothing. Why you should care: mass-produced cotton accounts for more than 22% of the world’s insecticides and 10% of the world’s chemical fertilizers, and the WHO says its responsible for an estimated 3 million instances of pesticide poisoning among farmers every year. Times Online
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