Section » Farm Bill
Digest – News: Apple-moth exposé, payment limit moving forward, food crisis
Holy smoking spraygun, Batman!!!: The company that makes one of the apple-moth pesticides that state officials are considering spraying over the Bay Area is coincidentally owned by a wealthy California agribusinessman — one who's also coincidentally been a generous contributor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials. Oh, and did
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Digest – Commentary: Eating local gains political clout, food prices, corn crisis
Locavore motion: "The buy local train is leaving the station, and it's time for USDA to hear the whistle and get on board," says Vermont Senator Ginny Lyons in this op-ed. (Times Argus
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Digest – News: Farm Bill deals, Utah milk labeling, dairy-cow Crohn’s connection
The Ethicureans were assisted in these posts by Leslie, on loan from the Eat Well Guide, and Jack of Fork & Bottle (who was not responsible for any typos you may find). If you only read
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Digest – News: EPA rolls over and smells the ammonia, corn contamination, Farm Bill stalled
We're slowly getting back up to speed, Digest-wise — many thanks to Leslie, on loan from the Eat Well Guide, for her help. This move stinks: Under pressure from factory-farming lobbyists and ag-state pols, the EPA is considering dropping
Digest – Rural: Farm Bill bloc, cattle prodding, H2O dear
The Digest editor is annoyingly still crippled, but our nice friends at the Center for Rural Affairs have contributed this round-up of important news regarding farm and rural issues. 153 just say no: Farm Bill negotiations are bumping and grinding along with no clear
Pesticides, like the huddled masses, yearn to be free
The Farm Bill is back. (Admit it -- you'd been missing it.) House and Senate ag staffers have taken to lurking in each other's offices and furrowing their brows over what could be a protracted conflict between members of the conference committee, that group of reps and senators assigned to turn the meat
Digest – Commentary: Obama’s and Clinton’s Big Ag donations, pro-GMO, it’s baaack
Yay! Now we don't have to do it: Tom Philpott contrasts the food and ag policies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. We guess he thinks it's buh-bye, Edwards. (Grist) "Frankenstein foods are not monsters": Why the EU should
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Digest – Commentary: Philpott on cheap-food schadenfreude, rBST booster, make our own damn Farm Bill
Because those who can't do, teach?: "If the end of cheap oil has so far been a bust for the environment, can the end of cheap food do any better?" asks Tom Philpott, who goes on to argue that pricier food probably won't equal more conscious consumption, lower obesity rates, or better environmental
An uncivil war: Mapping the defeat of subsidy reform
These days, votes in the Senate are usually either along party lines (51-49), or lopsided like 98-2 or 100-0. However, the vote on the Dorgan-Grassley amendment, which would have set a $250,000 limit for farm subsidy payments to any one farm, was unusual. The No votes were cast by 31 Republicans, 11
Digest: Special Farm Bill outrage edition
Our indefatigable Farm Bill-blogging friends at the Center for Rural Affairs have contributed this post. Advocates for farm bill reform have worked for well over a year in an effort to secure meaningful payment limits on farm program subsides. On Thursday we
Glass gets a little fuller: Farm Bill reins in FDA on cloned food
A piece of good news: Senator Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) and the Center for Food Safety just sent out press releases announcing that Milkulski's amendment, H.R. 2419, has made it through into the Farm Bill. The amendment stops the FDA from approving food from cloned animals until more studies have been
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Glass half full
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
Subsidy cap is blanched
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:
Urgent: Taking on Big Meat
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
Digest – News: Farm Bill foundering, FRESH Act fails, FDA-China pact
Farm Bill deja chew all over again: Both House Ag Chair Collin Peterson and his Senate counterpart Tom Harkin agree that there will be no major changes in payment limits when the 2007 Farm Bill finally gets passed. Insightful as usual, Peterson said that most Americans just want to know that whatever
