Section » CAFOs
Arsenic found in Utah kids’ pee traced to their pet chickens’ feed
Poison - It's what's for breakfast!: A toxicologist for the Utah Department of Health tracked worrisome levels of arsenic in two children to the family’s backyard chicken coop — "along with the eggs that came out of it, the feed that went into the hens that laid them and, finally, widely used animal-feed additives containing arsenic." (
More articles
EPA to increase oversight over CAFO manure
Thanks in part to a lawsuit from the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Waterkeeper Alliance, the EPA has agreed to increase its oversight of manure discharges from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)*. The EPA estimates that CAFOs in the U.S.generate three times more bodily
Goldman Prize winners fight against CAFO pollution, shark finning and monocultures
The Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to six grassroots environmental heroes from around the world in San Francisco last Monday night. Three of the six 2010 winners are working directly in food-related areas. Lynn
Big Meat has tantrum over Oct 15 Michael Pollan talk at CalPoly
Harris Ranch feedlot photo from Mark Bittman's 2008 NY Times article, "Rethinking the Meat Guzzler" RIP, academic freedom: Writer Michael Pollan—aka "elitist," and apparently Agribiz Public Enemy No. 1—will now be part of a panel discussion at Cal Poly on Oct. 15 instead of giving a
Oklahoma v. poultry companies case gets underway
Taking CAFOs to court: A stretch of the Illinois River in Oklahoma has been under assault by CAFOs for many years, as poultry producers spread waste onto fields, leading to nutrient run-off that can cause algal blooms and other problems. In recent years, the river has been much cleaner, thanks in part
Pork prevention: What’s behind the NPPC bailout, or how the government keeps filling up Big Meat’s trough
During the Iowa flood disaster in the summer of 2008, I proposed that there are winners and losers in moments of human tragedy — those who pay the costs of dealing with an unsavory situation, and those who are on the receiving end
Bills in Michigan would legislate industrial animal rearing
Meddling in Michigan: The meat, dairy and egg industry in Michigan is trying to push a package of bills through the state legislature that will make their businesses much easier to run by reducing the public's ability to oppose agricultural projects, weaken animal welfare protections, impose industrial
Thanks, USDA! Coming soon: Laying hens that won’t try to kill each other
Time for a new Meatrix?: Lest we forget that the Department of Agriculture's role is to help out the food industry by any means possible, a team of scientists led by USDA Agricultural Research Service biologist Heng-wei Cheng and William M. Muir of Purdue University
The price of cheap meat: Antibiotic resistance
The good, the bad, and the buggy: A useful primer on antibiotic resistance, with two pages of illustrations, explains how bacteria develop resistance and pays special attention to the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from hospitals into the community, development of resistance
Comments Off • Read more »
Vilsack defends CAFOs at congressional hearing
No, we do want to go down that road: In a House appropriations subcommittee hearing yesterday with Secretary Vilsack on the stand, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) called out industrial livestock operations as "threats to human health" because of their pollution and contribution to antibiotic resistance.
Hi-Q Egg Products to Ohio EPA: F- you, dudes!
Hi-Q plays chicken with EPA: A 6 million-chicken egg farm proposed by Hi-Q Egg Products for Union County, Ohio, doesn't need to get a state water-pollution permit right away and might never need one, says the company. The EPA politely begs to disagree with Hi-Q's plan to spread 23.5 million gallons of
Comments Off • Read more »
Digest – News: Smithfield’s flu, organic for the masses, Vilsack reserves judgment
They're not confining everything, apparently: MSM's all over the swine flu (SJ Merc) and U.S. hog prices are tanking (Reuters), but few are talking
Straight to the superbug supersource: Q&A with Maryn McKenna about MRSA in people — and pigs
Everyone's up in arms about historian James McWilliams' New York Times op-ed last week, misleadingly headlined "Free-Range Trichinosis," about how a study found more pathogens in pastured pigs than factory ones. Many bloggers have
Digest – News: Perilous pork, the First Lettuce, food safety plateaus
Free-range throwdown: A New York Times op-ed turns the food-fear spotlight on pastured pork, covering a study that finds that "free-range pork can be more likely than caged pork to carry dangerous bacteria and parasites" including potentially-deadly Trichinosis. The author gets in a few more digs with
Digest – Features and blogs: Free-range response, literary seasonality, the Hamburg wish list
Fighting the Averyian Flu: Researchers at Johns Hopkins University look a little deeper at the NYT pork op-ed and find that the study mentioned was funded by the National Pork Board, which represents conventional producers, and that the Trichinosis "positive" pigs tested seropositive, meaning they have
