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ObFo looks back on Obama agriculture policy so far
100 days in 2,100 words: A thorough and amusing look at the Obama Administration's food&ag-related staff hires, food safety scandals, and the occasional stumble. (Hint: They have to do with the second item.) Eddie plugs for the creation of a big corps of volunteer food safety inspectors that could be trained under the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America
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Digest – Blogs, features and snacks: Pesticide perversions, subsidy love, the anti-Pollan
Small-town physician sees effects of Big Ag: an Indiana neonatologist finds that birth defects, including spina bifida, cleft pallet and lip, down syndrome, urogenital abnormalities, and club foot (among others) are more likely to occur in pregnancies that begin between April and July — the time period
Agrofuels are not the answer for CA’s low-carbon energy needs
This guest post has been unpublished at the request of the contributor due to timing issues. AKPC_IDS += "4307,";
‘Killer’ movie tells who to charge for the large
"Killer at Large," a new documentary DVD, is a veritable banquet of obesity information, serving up copious facts and personal tales about the American obesity epidemic that threatens to shorten the life span of the current generation of young people. Alas,
Digest – News: Plastics make kids fat, North Star stars in food safety, peanut payout
Chemical reaction: A long term study by Mount Sinai Medical Center on children in East Harlem links exposure to a class of chemicals called phthalates — found in products that list "fragrance" as an ingredient, and in soft plastics — with childhood obesity. The study found that the heaviest children
Digest – News: Gates Foundation exec picked for USDA research post, Roundup Ready losing potency
Get Shah-ty: The Obama administration has nominated Rajiv J. Shah to serve as Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics of the USDA. (NYT Diner’s Journal Blog) Shah is the director
There are much scarier food safety bills than HR 875 in Congress
If you care about food and farming and you use the Internet, you've probably received this particular e-mail. The title is something like, "BILL WOULD OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING!!!!" or "MONSANTO'S DREAM BILL!!!!" It appears, inevitably, in all caps. I have upwards of 30 versions in my inbox. Normally, it
While we were sleeping: Score one for the GMO lobby
Updated at 3:10 pacific to include the full language of the relevant section of the bill. Thanks, IM. Things have been busy around here lately, but that's no excuse. We've just been reminded that, like time, Monsanto stops for no man. Yesterday, eliciting not a ripple from the blogosphere, the Senate
Digest: Monsanto blog launched, more food news from White House
New media = new image?: Monsanto has been a punching bag in the blogosphere for years. We should know. Now, the biotech giant has not only launched an ad campaign aimed at food's "thought leaders," it's digging into its deep pockets to fund a new Facebook presence, Twitter stream, and a blog, Monsanto
Digest: Times et al on food movement’s “arrival,” dairy drama, Murphy profiled
Busy days; we're playing catch-up on news this week. Send URLs we shouldn't miss to 1 Comment • Read more »
Digest – Features & Blogs: Convention frenzy, local meat gets scrapped, and Michelle’s big announcement
O-yeah: Michelle Obama tells Oprah that she's planning a veggie garden on the lawn of the White House in order to "use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet." The President won't be
Digest – Blogs: Tomato truths, legislation lies, and the murky waters of sustainable shrimp
The price of tomatoes: Tom Philpott follows up on his trip to Immokalee, Florida with the second of a two-part post, examining how tomato pickers survive on $50 a day. The answer? With much difficulty. (Grist) That's the internet for
No comment, no say: lend your voice to shaping four big food & ag policies
Photo from Iowa, courtesy of factoryfarm.org. It's easy to get cynical about our ability to influence policy or policymakers - especially when we don't have lots of money or a well-dressed K St. lobby firm to throw around. But I'd venture to say that with all the change-making, democracy-taking action
Parallel universes: A rice farmer’s point of view on U.S.-European GMO attitudes
By Greg Massa I’m a California rice farmer, but recently in Germany I was a rock star. Or at least that’s what it felt like. Oddly, my celebrity status came from a speech I gave to European farmers about genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Digest – News & Features: Tomato pickers make Gourmet, MiPo in MoJo, Obama on payment limits
Update: now with working URLs! (sorry and thanks Patrick!) We Digest food-politics news both tasty and ewww for you twice a week. Send articles (and puns!) to t1 Comment • Read more »
