On a recent trip to the grocery store, a friend of mine living in the Midwest decided to put in a plug for grass-fed beef. They won’t supply it if we don’t ask for it, right? She approached the man behind the meat counter and asked if they carried it. With a completely straight face, […]

Oh, Monsanto. Just look at you. You’ve got your knit cap pulled down tight over your crew cut, and your stomach is sticking out beneath your skull-and-crossbones T-shirt. You’ve been left back a few grades now — summer school doesn’t always help much, does it? — and so now you are way bigger than everyone else. You don’t have too many friends anymore. It’s tough to be the class behemoth, isn’t it? So you’ve taken to pushing other kids around on the playground and trying to take their milk money. Or, at least, to take away their ability to label their milk as rBGH-free.

We’ve just dug out from a mild winter storm here in northern Ohio (only a few inches of snow, but topped with a thick glaze of ice), and I’m finally able to see the ground emerge from that blanket of cold, frozen precipitation. The weather lately has fueled a number of dreams of sunny, tropical […]

During both World War I and II, the American government mandated that its citizens ration food in order to feed the troops overseas. In order to supplement their rations of meat, oil, sugar, and other precious foods, the American people followed the government’s call to plant War Gardens (in WWI) and, later, Victory Gardens. Home […]

On December 17, 2007, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the government will be implementing a new "Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan".
Apparently, the federal health and agriculture departments want feedback from Canadians on how the government should carry out its proposed food and consumer safety action plan. They have set up a website […]

PETA’s smartest PR move ever may be hiring Free Range Studios, the geniuses behind The Meatrix, to co-produce their latest campaign, "The Road to the Greenhouse."
The go-vegetarian message is a lot more palatable when served up as a mock debate featuring the presidential candidates of both parties reimagined as vegetables  — among them Broccoli […]

On Wednesday, January 16, at 12 p.m., the California state legislature is holding a hearing to consider reversing — or at least amending — AB 1735, the sneaky Oct. 8 change to California’s Food and Agricultural Code that would basically shut down the production of raw-milk in the state. It is absolutely critical that everyone who cares about real food show up.

A while back I wrote that the USDA was stealing the term Naturally Grown. Well, they have done so. No need to listen to comments from the people. No need to wait for the rule to be implemented. They just went ahead and stopped the use of Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) on meat labels. I hate saying “I told you so,” I really do, especially since I’m the one, along with all CNG farmers and consumers, who’s taking a beating here…

The Farm Bill has passed the Senate, and I’m the last one who’s going to say it doesn’t make me want to cry. But despite some extremely disappointing losses — including the failure of the Dorgan-Grassley payment limitations amendment — the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition reminds us that there were some important wins, too (and yet […]

Parke Wilde’s U.S. Food Policy blog has an update on the status of the Dorgan-Grassley amendment, which would have put a $250,000/recipient cap on subsidy payments. The status: dead. The kicker: the amendment failed despite the fact that a majority of senators voted in support of it. What is this madness, you ask? Ken Cook […]

I’ve recently learned (thanks to a little birdie from Capitol Hill) that Tyson, Smithfield, and pals are on the rampage this morning, circulating memos and e-mails against two important livestock amendments to be offered today on the Farm Bill. These amendments — the Grassley competition amendment and the Tester amendment — would help make it […]

Following last fall’s crisis over E. coli contamination of spinach, the growers, distributors and retailers of salad mix started talking about improving their safety practices. A fair amount of activity in this area has been happening in California, including some bills in the legislature and voluntary standards like the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement. (Be […]

The stinginess and lack of ethics shown by Burger King and its contractors in balking over giving Florida tomato pickers a penny-a-pound raise is outrageous.
Eric Schlosser, the journalist who exposed the dirty underbelly of the fast-food industry in "Fast Food Nation" has a scathing op-ed in the Times today about the injustice. After reviewing […]

PBS Marketplace is looking for people engaged in the Farm Bill debate to share their experiences in attempting to shape the new legislation.

Michael Pollan has an op-ed in today’s New York Times that explains, in his trademark clear, wryly humorous style, why the current version of the Farm Bill the Senate is preparing to pass is “very much a farm bill in the traditional let-them-eat-high-fructose-corn-syrup mold.”