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Everything looks better when your head’s in the sand: The USDA stops tracking pesticide use
When I was four, I ate my mother's houseplant. (I claimed to have thought it was salad.) As any responsible mother would, she freaked out and called poison control. The friendly folks at the 800 number — who must get these kinds of calls all the time, poor guys — immediately asked her the two most important questions one could ask in this situation:
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Gary Nabhan wants you to go native for SOLE food
Could native foods be the next big thing in eating? Some people, Gary Nabhan in particular, are working to push things in that direction. Nabhan, a noted conservation scientist at the
Smells like a free ride: EPA wants to let CAFOs off on emissions reporting
In an excellent 2000 report titled "The Price We Pay for Corporate Hogs," researcher Marlene Halverson of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy recounts the following
Coming home to industrial ag: A tour of the Central Valley
There’s an image that’s stuck with me from the cross-country drive that my dad and I took last summer. It was one of many late-night stints at the wheel, perhaps 11 p.m., and we were hurtling along through the Utah desert. A sign at the last gas station had warned us of a nearly 100-mile
Help for Michelle Obama
The March 10 issue of the New Yorker includes a profile of Michelle Obama, the refreshingly candid (and awesomely tall) potential next First Lady. Back in April, someone who was caucusing for
Digest – Blogs: Biotech & veggie protectionism, revenge of spent cows
Magi-non! line: Biotech seed producers are sick of France's pesky anti-GMO firebugs, so they're moving to friendlier climes in the Midwest and Brazil. The only problem with Andrew Leonard's funny headline — "Give us your poor, your tired, your genetic modification experiments" —
Why does Kaiser Permanente support both farmers markets and industrial “meal replacement systems”?
I stopped by Kaiser Permanente last Friday at the same time as its weekly farmers market, which the Oakland Medical Center hosts from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in partnership with the Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association. It was a pretty sparse
143 million pounds of beef recalled — but not to worry
It's rather unusual to get an email about an update from the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on midday Sunday of a holiday weekend. It's also rather unusual to go to the USDA's open cases website and find
The experts have spoken: Grass-fed beef is worth the cost
Consumers Union, the nonprofit advocacy group that tests products and publishes its results in Consumer Reports, says grass-fed beef is likely better for human and soil health. In the magazine’s March 2008 "claim check" column (not yet online), Consumer Reports asks, “Is
Digest – Blogs: Test your 2007 food-politics knowledge, Nestle on low-fat, ethics of hair mats
Attention regular Digest readers!!!: Get thee over to The Cleaner Plate Club, where Ali has concocted a most amusing "2007: The Food Quiz" for you, with multiple-choice questions like "How many pounds of
The jury is in: A review of Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food”
In December 2005 I quit smoking, after 12 years of a cigarette habit that sometimes reached a pack a day. After many, many failed attempts that included nicotine patches, Wellbutrin, and even hypnotherapy (I lit up five minutes after the session), I read a book by Allen Carr called “The Easy Way
Wired’s Infoporn on mapping the price of a calorie
The current issue of Wired (16.01) has an infographic feature I put together, with three visuals overlaying the price
Marilyn Manson says “Buy American”
and that "growing takes proteins; meat can be a tasty treat, like fish or human beings" in this surreal video on the food pyramid from the goth rocker: Via U.S. Food Policy AKPC_IDS += "2539,";
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Digest – News: Chickens hatching drug-resistant E. coli, clone-tracking proposal, food shortages
Add this one to the list of "our decrepit food factories": This month's issue of Environmental Health Perspectives says that antibiotic use in poultry processing has put workers at risk of contracting drug-resistant
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Spray it forward: Pesticide residues in U.S. food
The USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service has released its annual summary (PDF) for its Pesticide Data Program. And it scares me. In 2006, the PDP says it tested 13,658 samples of food and
