One CEO having very bad month: Hallmark/Westland Meat’s CEO testified before a House Subcommittee (after being subpoenaed) that sick animals were not slaughtered at his slaughterhouse for food. He changed his tune when shown a second video, one that had been on the Humane Society’s website since mid-Feb…and admitted he wouldn’t eat meat from cows slaughtered that way. (LA Times)
Farm Bill Follies, Part LVIII: Congress has approved a one-month extension of the current Farm Bill while it tries to hash out an agreement on the one for the next five years. Meanwhile, House Ag Committee Chairman (and stubborn turniphead) Collin Peterson has decided to begin work on a bill that will conform to a different spending baseline than the figure all the major players are using. (Brownfield Network)
Run, salmon, run!: National fishery officials say they may close the Pacific salmon fishery, from northern Oregon to the Mexican border, because of the worst collapse in 40 years of the stocks. (San Francisco Chronicle) More: For a 360-degree view of the coverage in context, visit the always-excellent Knight Science Journalism Tracker.
They drink what we take: A five-month Associated Press investigation has found that all those pharmaceuticals we’re currently freaking out about being in our water supply are seriously harming the animals that live in or drink from streams and lakes. (Associated Press) Related: Dolphins tested in South Carolina waters get exposed to so many antibiotics from our sewage that they are growing antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (Charleston.net)
How many now, downer cows?: This comprehensive look at mad-cow testing in the U.S. has enough scary facts to make humans nutso, too. Officials love to brag about how low the incidence of BSE in the U.S. has been, but we test only about 40,000 annually — that’s less than 0.1 percent of the 37 million cows slaughtered …and those samples are voluntarily submitted. In other nations, when they start testing, they start finding. (Press-Enterprise)
Clean fuel, dirty pool: Ethanol and biodiesel refineries around America have been dumping fish-killing oil and grease into public waterways. (New York Times)
Save our seeds!: Growing GM contamination of organic crops is threatening organic production. (Reuters)
Greens slackers: Facilities that package fresh spinach have serious sanitary problems ignored by the FDA, a House committee report has found. (Washington Post)
Bringing the veggie booty back home: Washington State passed the Local Farms – Healthy Kids bill (SSB 6483), which will make it easier for schools to buy locally grown food. (Press release)
Lord how we hate it when we agree with the pope: The Vatican has come out with a list of "new sins," including genetically modified organisms. (Reuters)
I Can’t Believe It’s Deadly Fake Butter: An NIH study has confirmed that exposure to diacetyl, a chemical component of artificial butter flavoring, can harm the nose and airways of mice, just like it did in humans at the popcorn factory. (NIH press release; thanks Carmen!)
Short takes:
Canadian retail giant Shoppers Drug Mart unveils 170-product line of organic foods (Press release)
Hormone-free milk labeling subject of 4-hour Ohio debate (Ohio.com)
Study finds DNA damage in Indian farmers exposed to pesticides (Expressindia.com)
Canadian labs don’t have to report escape of genetically modified fish into the wild (TheStar.com)
Milk brims with industrial-chemical and pesticide residues (Gristmill)
New Jersey offers $300 to first-time beekeepers (Burlington County Times)
City of Seattle to stop buying bottled water (Seattle Times)
San Francisco passes law requiring chain restaurants to post nutrition information (SF Chronicle)
Cloned cow’s offspring withdrawn from UK auction following bad press (icWales)
Food, Farming, & Food Politics events calendar
March 14th, 2008 at 8:08 am
“Growing GM contamination of organic crops is threatening organic production.” OH, NO!!! You’ve uncovered Valdomonsanto’s Evil Plan, Dr. Lifegood! Now if only you could broadcast this on Faux News, so that the Other Half of the country would have a chance to know this. Oh wait, this other half is already under the diabolical Mind Control of the Greedy Evil Corporations Bent on Contaminating the Planet Earth for a Sake of a Few Extra Dollars. Who will even stop their newest attack, the Biofuels?
When, oh, when will super heroes arise and battle this dreaded evil?
March 17th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Given that Monsanto, et al, initially claimed there was no possibility of drift, etc., plus the reality of Monsanto’s willingness to sue (for violation of patent, failure to apy royalties, etc.) when “its” genes have been found in seeds saved by farmers, I’d say it’s cause for real concern. Contrary to what the first poster seems to think. Yep, Monsanto & its legal teams could in fact end up owning much of the seed gene pool in this fashion-courtesy of the US judicial & legal system.
And no, I don’t particularly want a corporation, by definition an entity (created out of nothing, by a legal system) devoted to maximizing short term profit by externalizing costs & getting rid of competition, to control a considerable portion of the food supply.
Why would anyone want that? Anyone observing the gyrations of the stock market for the past 4-5 months, who remembers the corruption of Enron, AIG, Worldcom & so many other corporations and their CEOs, CFOs & COOs would also be alarmed. Or remembers the wholesale collapse of the 1974 (I think it was 1974, definitely early to mid ’70’s) because just about all of the US corn crop consisted of one variety of hybrid corn that of course was advertised as the best possible, most pest resistant but it turned out it was most definitely not resistant to some kind of rust.
Oops.
But of course that could never happen again. And real estate always goes up and the CEO of Bear Sterns said, last week that it was “ridiculous, just ridiculous” to say that Bear Sterns was in trouble.