A grad school chum of mine, who practices permaculture on her farm, posted this video on her blog recently—a mere two days after Daisy, one of her three adult pygmy goats, gave birth.
I admit it; I’m easily amused when it comes to animals, especially wee ones. But I dare you not to chuckle—even just a […]

Last Sunday I made bacon and eggs for breakfast.
Nothing earth shaking about that — but I didn’t buy the bacon from the farmer’s market or even Farmer Joe’s. Actually, I made the bacon myself — from a 2 lb. package of pork belly I received through Operation Pork.
The pig who provided the pork belly was […]

Winter and soup go together like cold feet and comfy, goose down slippers.
Once the weather turns cooler, I begin my seasonal longing for soup’s warmth and comfort. And when I find enough time to make a huge pot of soup for sharing with friends and family — with enough left over for another meal […]

From the rabble-arousers who brought us The Meatrix I, II, and II 1/2, as well as Store Wars…
Take a gander at Free Range Studios‘ latest short film, “The Mouth Revolution!”
Who said the food revolution couldn’t be fun?

Good news! It’s not too late to help keep animal clones from entering our food supply.
A few weeks ago, I wrote to encourage readers to write and send an editorial to their local papers about their feelings on this recent “clones-are-just-fine-to-eat; don’t-you-worry-you-can-
trust-us” development. Now the Center for Food Safety is here to help you add […]

Maybe it’s my German roots, but I have always loved pickled foods: dill pickles, pickled beets, olives, sauerkraut, and, especially, pickled herring.
One of the things that the celebration of Christmas and New Year’s Eve brings to mind for me is pickled herring. Herring was always one of the special treats my family offered to relatives […]

When I heard the news last week that the FDA approved the use of cloned animals and their offspring as food for the American populace, I almost puked at the thought.
Not as much from the thought of actually eating cloned food, but more so as a guttural reaction to what I feel is happening all […]

Last Saturday, like I do on most Saturday’s, I scanned the “Earthweek” feature that shares space with the San Francisco Chronicle’s weather page. On the world map, my eye caught a graphic of a penguin placed on the southern coast of Australia. Intrigued, I read that wildlife officials have decided to employ sheepdogs in their […]

Certifiably man-made crop circles such as this one featured on Greenpeace’s website have begun “cropping up” in fields around the world: in the Philippines, France, Spain, and Mexico—the birthplace of corn. The message is clear: we do not want genetically engineered corn in our fields or in our food. (To share your opinion with Mexican […]

Last Sunday I made my first-ever batch of homemade apple juice.
Earlier in the week, Lady Persimmons, my friend and next-door neighbor, and I decided that Sunday night would be our apple date. I agreed to pick the apples beforehand from the two apple trees in our backyard, and Lady P would […]

OK, now I’m angry. Really angry — in a good way. After more that three weeks of trying to find my writing voice — and not having enough procrastination time built into my schedule to coax it out — it’s finally back! Nothing like a little David and Goliath drama to spur me back into […]

Sometimes miracles do happen. At least the failure of the California Preemption Bill — SB1056 — to even make it out of committee in the California Senate yesterday seems like some kind of miracle to me. (And one worth celebrating, I might add.)
From what I’ve read, we owe its apparent death — at least […]

Last week I returned from six amazing days in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This particular visit was spent mostly indoors, however, because I was there to attend the annual Language of Spirit Conference, where we engaged in “dialogue exploring reality from Indigenous and Western science perspectives.”
On my last day in town, I really wanted to venture […]

Tell me, do boycotts still work today in America? For dairy cows everywhere, I hope so.
The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is co-leading the fight to boycott the two largest “organic” dairies in the country — Horizon Organic and Aurora Organic Dairy — until they stop using factory-farm treatment of their cows, which is in […]

Washington Post*: A federal court concluded last week that the USDA repeatedly broke the law by allowing genetically-engineered crops to be planted on hundreds of acres in Hawai’i without first studying their impact.
New York Times*: Monsanto will control even more of our seeds. The deal to buy Delta and Pine Land Company — the nation’s […]