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Digest – News: Dairy cows on the moove, Big Corn throwdown, a locavore loses it
Industry pail-out: California's dairy industry announces a plan to cull 300,000 dairy cows, or roughly 1/6th of the state's herd, in an attempt to raise market prices for milk from the $0.97/gallon producers have received recently. Mass sell-offs have happened before, but often the cows were bought by other dairymen and -women to expand their herds.
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Buzzkill: Can native bees do the job?
With the health of honey bee colonies in dramatic decline, can farmers rely on native bees to pollinate their crops? On the right kind of farm — one with nearby natural habitat and organic management
Beer me: Trolling for craft brews in an ocean of Bud
Out of fairness, I should begin this post by admitting that I do not actually like beer. Never a big drinker, when the urge hits, my tastes veer toward wine and, OK, a nip of whiskey. But just as I appreciate (and, in fact,
Playing ketchup: Tomato industry concentration
Tomato season is over for most of the United States, so it's time to start shifting our tomato thoughts to canned, dried, and jarred tomatoes. Although tomatoes can be grown in all 50 states of the union, odds are 10-to-1
Dispatch from APHA: Searching for the silver lining
Day two of the American Public Health Association meeting found me carting my breakfast (a poorly-executed bagel) to a hyper-air conditioned room to learn about bacteria on meat. Not the most ambient setting for food consumption,
Canada’s current food-safety crisis
Canada is gearing up for a shift in its food system. Two things have happened to spur this possible upcoming shift in Canadians' buying and eating habits. First, Maple Leaf Foods, Canada's largest food processor, has announced that some of
Red alert! Americans are concerned about food safety!
Crank up the RSS feed! The news is out that Americans are worried about the safety of their food supply. This astonishing revelation comes to us via the Center for Food Integrity, an organization established just last year in Kansas City, Mo., "to increase
Centralization takes center stage at the Commonwealth Club
As part of the "How We Eat" series at the Commonwealth Club this month, Slow Food Nation Policy and Communications director Naomi Starkman moderated a thoughtful panel discussion
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WT… Oh, forget it
There was little commotion in the blogosphere as the WTO's Doha Round, which had been struggling to bail out its liberalization life raft for
Sick to our stomachs: Food industry spent $1.6 billion to influence children in 2006
Last November, I wrote about the appointment of eating psychology expert Brian Wansink to a key post at the USDA. I applauded his nomination
Salmonella shenanigans in Washington, D.C.
In a comment on my post about the FDA's new target in the salmonella investigation, Rebecca
Tomatoes off the hook, FDA aims at chili peppers
On July 17, the Food and Drug Administration lifted its warning about raw tomatoes after its investigation determined that
Crimes against “natural”: FDA helps healthwash HFCS
Conveniently timed with the Corn Refiners Association's multimillion-dollar campaign to sweeten consumers' appetite for high fructose corn syrup, the FDA has reversed its position on whether HFCS can be labeled "natural," reports Food
Calamity cowboys: On Iowa, obesity, and earthquakes
Living directly on top of the Hayward Fault, which seismologists claim is overdue for a major earthquake, I'm pretty familiar with the idea that there are losers (of which I may be one) and winners in moments of human tragedy. Here, the winner
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Industry’s high fructose corn syrup campaign leaves a sour taste
By Debra Eschmeyer Earlier last week the Corn Refiners Association launched a multimillion-dollar media campaign to defend high fructose corn syrup as a "quality" sweetener, in the face of mounting public
