Time is running out to tell the FDA what you think of its assessment that meat and dairy from cloned animals is safe for the food supply. The comment period closes April 2.
Yawn! you say. Enough already with the pleas to take action on cloning! I eat only organic — who cares what funky stuff […]

More bad pet food: The pet food recall has been expanded to other wt food brands and dry kibble as well. Boston Globe (via AP) While the AP story says the FDA would not name the manufacturer, the FDA’s website says that Hill’s Pet Nutrition is recalling its Prescription Diet dry food.
Hell no, don’t grow: […]

Fuel for the fire: Tom Philpott flames corn-based ethanol boosterism for what it is — an agribusiness boondoggle and an economic and environmental disaster in the making. (Gristmill) Related headline: Farmers to plant largest amount of corn since ’44
And now for some good news: The National Organic Standards Board has banned cloned progeny from being […]

“Perfect steak all over again”: Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle hosted a segment on cloned meat a few nights ago, complete with bizarre-o appearances by the CEO of cloning leader ViaGen and Adam Eidinger from “Big Eco,” aka the Organic Consumers Association. We love the awesome animation of the “natural” process of bovine duplication. Warning: […]

The Meatpaper party was not hard to find. Retro posters of tripe and assorted unusual fleshy goods festooned the windows of Sugarlump coffee lounge in the Mission. A gauntlet of charcuterie, terrines, and patés began just inside the front door and stretched for 20 feet.
Hordes of hip carnivores pecked and shoved like vintage-clad vultures around […]

Male sterility and beef steroids: A new study says men whose moms ate a lot of beef during their pregnancy have a sperm count at 25% below normal. Possible suspects? Anabolic steroids used to fatten cattle in the U.S., or pesticides and other contaminants. Although the study is a little shaky, relying on women’s recollections […]

Burger King announced today it will be moving to cage-free eggs and pork from cage-free sows. It is also going to make an effort to buy from poultry suppliers that use gas, known as “controlled atmospheric stunning,” instead of electric shocks for slaughtering chickens. The New York Times article doesn’t go into it, but the […]

Noshette and I packed up the sled dogs and shed our parkas to spend some time in warm, sunny Florida. We were there to visit with my mom and to relax a bit before I had rotator-cuff surgery, but also to eat some good food.
 
(Here is a shot of Noshette and a friend sitting by the beach […]

Cloning end game: Buried in this recap of the FDA’s proposed ruling on the safety of food from cloned animals are a few eyebrow raisers. One: ViaGen, the leader in animal cloning, has yet to make a profit — but its parent company is confident that will change “once the FDA approves cloned food.” Two: […]

With the release of the final report on the E. coli-contaminated spinach crisis of 2006 (download the PDF), much has been written about the subject in the last few days. My attention was grabbed by four parts of the San Francisco Chronicle’s March 24 article about new produce-handling guidelines:

“California and the FDA released their […]

Walking the talk: Reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan inspired us to start this blog. That’s nothing. It inspired a group of suburban moms and one dad in Davis, CA, to start raising their own cattle, pigs, and ducks. But after killing ducks once, they’re now going to outsource the slaughter. Davis Enterprise
City […]

The other white milk: The reasoning behind California Dairies’ vote to ask its members not to inject synthetic bovine growth hormone into their cows — even though some members bristle that “whether it’s organic, rbST-free or regular, it’s all exactly the same.” San Francisco Chronicle
How much damage could they do in two years?: Monsanto […]

Nose-to-tail tale: Whole-animal eating is making a comeback as part of the larger “food sourcing” trend, and Toronto’s Healthy Butcher shop is responding by offering evening classes in butchering and sausage making. We applaud them for having the, um, guts to run such a bloody large image in the print edition. The Globe and Mail
Super […]

Possible pet food culprit: Rat poison has been found in the tainted pet food that killed several animals and sparked a nationwide recall. Frankly, we’re surprised they were bothering to poison the rats, instead of grinding them up into pet food. USA Today Whoops, breaking news has it that the rodenticide — which is […]

Sierra Club Radio has a food-centric heavy lineup this week (MP3), kicking off with journalist Eric Schlosser, followed by tips for choosing nontoxic cookware and an interview with John Cloud, the reporter who did the recent cover story for Time about whether local was the new organic.
After he gets through explaining for the 349th time […]