PSA – Wash Those Pre-Washed Salad Greens
Recent research from the Consumer Reports Magazine found that those bagged salad mixes, most claiming to be pre-washed and ready to eat, aren’t as clean as you’d like them to be. Thankfully, what they found wasn’t e coli, salmonella or anything as dreadful as that. Instead, in their sample of 208 bags (representing 16 brands) [...]
March 13, 2010
Tags: agriculture, education, factory farms, Health, heroes, waste Posted in: Fun Food Facts, Health, Science & Technology 
One Comment
Chestnuts and Wassailing, Blight and Good Old Fashioned Holiday Cheer
Okay, I’ll admit it. I actually like going to the mall at this time of the season. Even if I am not particularly interested in buying anything at the time, the holiday lights create a commercialized nostalgia that makes me all warm inside. And yes, I love Christmas music. I am the type of person [...]
November 14, 2009
Tags: agriculture, alcohol, food, food event Posted in: Science & Technology One Comment
Illegal Immigrants and Food Cost Or How Strict Immigration Policy Kills the American Farmer
For years now whenever someone made the battle cry, “Let’s get rid of all the illegal immigrants” I would counter with a question to directly jab where it hurts the most–the pocketbook. “Do you want to keep food prices as low as they are? How much of your paycheck are you willing to put for [...]
November 2, 2009
Tags: agriculture, food, policy Posted in: Politics No Comments
The Man Who Fed The World
Dubbed the father of the green revolution, Norman Borlaug helped to create high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties around the world. He is attributed with saving over one billion lives from starvation worldwide. As just one example of the profound changes he made in agriculture, between 1965 and 1970 wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan [...]
October 2, 2009
Tags: agriculture, change, education, farmers, heroes, innovation, nutrition Posted in: Health, Science & Technology No Comments
Dairy Farms Contaminate Water And Get Away With It
According to the EPA, agricultural runoff is single largest polluter of the nation’s rivers and streams. However, thanks to years of paltry EPA authority and the lax legislation imposed during the Bush administration, their hands are pretty much tied when it comes to stopping it. There are laws in place that have big [...]
September 21, 2009
Tags: agriculture, Barack Obama, change, cows, farmers, green, Health, moms, policy, USDA Posted in: Health, Politics One Comment
Naturally? Naturally. — The USDA To Work On What ‘Natural’ Means
Costello: Look, if I throw the ball to first base, somebody’s gotta get it. Now who has it?
Abbott: Naturally.
Costello: Who?
Abbott: Naturally.
Costello: Naturally?
Abbott: Naturally.
Costello: So I pick up the ball and I throw it to Naturally.
Abbott: No you don’t, you throw the ball to Who.
Costello: Naturally.
Abbott: That’s different.
Costello: That’s what I said.
The confusion and nonsensical back [...]
September 16, 2009
Tags: agriculture, farmers, marketing, USDA Posted in: Politics, Science & Technology No Comments
A Relentless Focus On Prevention, Or Something
Food safety and child nutrition were topics at this year’s National Food Policy Conference. Â Bringing together the food industry, public health officials, consumer advocacy groups, and the government, the conference makes a concerted effort to demonstrate progressive action on key issues facing the nation and its food supply.
The Child Nutrition Act is due to be [...]
September 14, 2009
Tags: agriculture, change, education, farmers, FDA, food safety, Health, nutrition, policy, USDA Posted in: Politics No Comments
The Future Of Health Care Is Fighting The Farm Lobby
In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Michael Pollan portends the entangled futures of health care, obesity, and insurance companies. Just as the insurance companies joined governmental efforts to rally against smoking, Pollan foresees insurance companies tackling obesity. This is necessarily after upcoming health care reforms.
Even the weaker versions of reform [...]
September 11, 2009
Tags: agriculture, Barack Obama, change, farmers, Health, Michael Pollan, nutrition, obesity, policy, subsidies Posted in: Health, Politics No Comments
Come On Down To The…USDA!
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan wants to be the “matchmaker” between the Obama administration and USDA program administrators. She recently sent out a memo, “Harnessing USDA rural development programs to support local and regional food systems,” (pdf) to her staff and interested third parties. It details how those programs can cash in on the [...]
August 31, 2009
Tags: agriculture, education, farmers, food event, policy, USDA Posted in: Health, Politics One Comment
Marion Nestle Talks Sugar And Ag Policy On The Colbert Report
According to the manufacturers of a huge amount of processed, sugar-laden foodstuffs, there is a sugar crisis in the United States. On August 5th, representatives of those companies wrote to the Secretary Vilsack at the USDA asking him to lift the stringent quotas on imported sugar. Marion Nestle, of course, has plenty to say [...]
August 26, 2009
Tags: agriculture, farmers, food event, policy, subsidies, sugar, USDA Posted in: Politics No Comments
