A round-up of insightful and informative features & blog posts we think Ethicurean readers will enjoy.

Digest: The scoop on China’s corner-cutting, Mexico goes GM, chocolate label underpinnings

Food Bill of Rights and Wrongs: Michael Pollan attempts to reframe the Farm Bill — that “resolutely unglamorous and head-hurtingly complicated piece of legislation” — as a chance to reform the food system so that it actually benefits the interests of eaters. In his usual clear-eyed, deceptively simple style, he explains in detail how the […]

“Boosting” pet food: The FDA says that the melamine used in recalled pet food may have been intentionally included by Chinese manufacturers to boost the apparent protein content. And in other disturbing developments, only two pet-food manufacturers who used the contaminated rice protein have recalled their products; two others have not. Meanwhile, some of the […]

“Vote with your fork” is a wonderfully simple mantra: we should opt for sustainable, organic, local, and ethical food whenever possible. But we’re not going to be able to “chew the right thing” if there’s no one growing it for us. Demand for SOLE food is way outstripping supply, and the gap is only going […]

Good news! The plot to get us to pay more for organic food has been foiled by our friends at the Heartland Institute, the Big Food-funded spin factory masquerading as some sort of grassroots libertarian nonprofit. (I especially love the Smokers’ Lounge section.)
Today I read an edifying article from Heartland about a months-old study commissioned […]

It seems that Canadian industrial hog farmers have forgotten why food exists.
They have forgotten that food is for eating, and not just for selling. It just so happened that due to the industrial revolution, and the creation and eventual popularization of city living, that many people who eat food stopped raising or growing their own […]

There’s a golf course worth of links coming at ya. Fore!
Pennies add up: McDonald’s has reached agreement with a Florida farmworkers organization to pay 1 cent more per pound for the tomatoes it buys from state farms. Think that’s nothing? It’s a 75 percent pay raise for the laborers. Time for Burger King to pony […]

Man of La Muncha and I are currently “owned” by a small tortoiseshell cat, Ms. Teeth and Claws.  Ms. Claws is our third cat; previous cats included a pretty black and white girl and a large Maine coon cat.  We have loved all our cats, and have always fed them “good” pet foods, figuring that […]

Fuel for the fire: Tom Philpott flames corn-based ethanol boosterism for what it is — an agribusiness boondoggle and an economic and environmental disaster in the making. (Gristmill) Related headline: Farmers to plant largest amount of corn since ’44
And now for some good news: The National Organic Standards Board has banned cloned progeny from being […]

Burger King announced today it will be moving to cage-free eggs and pork from cage-free sows. It is also going to make an effort to buy from poultry suppliers that use gas, known as “controlled atmospheric stunning,” instead of electric shocks for slaughtering chickens. The New York Times article doesn’t go into it, but the […]

Possible pet food culprit: Rat poison has been found in the tainted pet food that killed several animals and sparked a nationwide recall. Frankly, we’re surprised they were bothering to poison the rats, instead of grinding them up into pet food. USA Today Whoops, breaking news has it that the rodenticide — which is […]

Sierra Club Radio has a food-centric heavy lineup this week (MP3), kicking off with journalist Eric Schlosser, followed by tips for choosing nontoxic cookware and an interview with John Cloud, the reporter who did the recent cover story for Time about whether local was the new organic.
After he gets through explaining for the 349th time […]

Bravo to Wolfgang Puck!: The L.A. restauranteur is taking foie gras, battery eggs, and meat from caged animals off the menu at all of his 14 fine-dining restaurants, 82 casual cafes, and his packaged food business. He’ll also only sell seafood from certified sustainable fisheries, and will incorporate even more organic and local produce. San […]

First salvo in budget battle: The Senate Budget Committee chair issued his blueprint for federal spending yesterday, which included $15 billion more for Farm Bill agriculture spending between 2007 and 2012 than did the Congressional Budget Office baseline. Senate Ag Chair Tom Harkin says that’s not enough and vows to get more before the budget […]