After shoppers and businesses shun biotech hormone that increases milk yields, agribusiness giant Monsanto looks to sell its Posilac business. Company says it will focus on its genetically modified seed. And: Sale of business means sale of Georgia facility, which employs 200 (click 'See also').
By David Biello
Scientific American 2008-08-07 (entry)
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With a backdrop of widespread food riots, ballooning prices and countries scrambling to feed themselves, export partners be damned, the one thing in our power is our own diet. It takes about five pounds of grain to produce a single pound of beef. Reducing meat consumption is as meaningful as using compact fluorescent bulbs or cloth shopping bags - it's time to start.
By Brandon Keim
Wired 2008-04-21 (entry)
Pathogens cling to iron oxide nanoparticles, purifying drinking water.
Grad student discovers cheap way to filter viruses and arsenic from drinking water, and tells the secret at American Chemical Society meeting. He uses glass fibers as a sturdy support for positively charged iron oxide nanoparticles, which attract pathogens with negative charge.
By Aaron Rowe
Wired 2008-04-12 (entry)
It's time to apply lessons from energy sector to food policies and create an OPEC-like group for grain. As biofuels cropland demand increases and climate change alters global harvests, Organization of Grain Exporting Countries could regulate grain stocks - and institutionalize food as a human right. And: Russia plans to form state grain trading company (click 'See also').
By Mike Stones
nutraingredients.com/Decision News Media 2008-08-11 (entry)
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Iowa slaughterhouse workers treatment is disgrace. Bush administration abandoned mercy and proportionality, devised new, harsher traps for illegal workers. By treating desperate employees as criminal class, government is attempting to inflate illegals' menace to level that justifies its rabid efforts to capture and punish them. And: Immigrants' stories (click 'See also').
The editors
The New York Times 2008-08-01 (entry)
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There's too much we don't know about what we eat, and food industry is largely to blame. After 9/11, food industry spent $2.6 million lobbying against stronger food safety rules that would have required source tracing. Bush administration backed business; this season, tomato growers alone lost $250 million so far in salmonella outbreak.
The editors
Reno Gazette-Journal (NV) 2008-07-28 (entry)
"And soon it was lunchtime/
Mom said I should ask about how poor kids could get fed/
So I got a book of tickets and a schedule and it read/
Monday - Hot Dog, Tuesday - Taco/
Wednesday - Hamburgers and Chocolate Milk/
Thursday - Sloppy Joes and doritos in a bag/
Friday was Pizza Day, the best day of the week/...
As time went on we figured out/
It was totally uncool/
To eat the welfare lunch/
Provided by the school/
So in poser-punker fashion/
We just mooched off all the kids/
And lived off eating candy bars/
And bags of nacho chips/
Monday - Hot Dog, Tuesday - Taco/
Wednesday - Hamburgers and Chocolate Milk/
Thursday - Sloppy Joes and doritos in a bag/
Friday was Pizza Day, the best day of the week/
It always came with salad and a side of cold green beans/
Hooray for Pizza Day/
Hooray for Pizza Day/
I miss Pizza Day./ "
— The Aquabats, "Pizza Day" lyrics
Summer tomatoes ripe and in vogue, says author/tomato farmer (click 'See also' for book review). Heirloom tomatoes, multi-colored and multi-cultural, replace Jersey beefsteaks in
regional cuisine. Think Hungarian heirloom tomato salad with black radishes, a salsa cruda of Oxhearts and grilled peaches.
By Tim Stark
The Washington Post 2008-08-13 (entry)
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Court papers show that Agriprocessors' human-resources employee helped distribute false green cards to Iowa slaughterhouse workers. In 2006, Swift official was charged with harboring illegals and failing to report crime after meatpacking raid. Companies seem to rely on a mid-level manager to create bogus documents, then claim ignorance.
By Rekha Basu
The Des Moines Register 2008-08-03 (entry)
Cool hobby of gardening teaches children skills that help them succeed.
Vegetable gardening has become wild and dangerous, a radical way to rebel against authority and subvert the dominant industrial-food paradigm, says longtime gardener, once the dweebiest of dorks who grew tomatoes outside his dorm room. Young people are flocking to the garden. We'll tend our veggies while we wait to see if our hobby is passing fad or lasting effort to diversify our food system. Click 'See also' for more columns.
By John Hershey
San Francisco Chronicle 2008-07-26 (entry)
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With 28 percent increase in donations of fruits and vegetables to food banks because of temporary tax break for farmers, ranchers and other small businesses, it's clear that Michigan representative's provision in pension bill should be made permanent.
By Vicki Escarra, President and CEO, America's Second Harvest
Detroit Free Press 2007-11-21 (entry)
"Contortions of logic and distortions of fact," writes a senator, who says oil prices and other factors add to grocery costs. And, an activist says sugar policy most needs reform, and forecasts even higher prices. All in response to The Wall Street Journal's "No farmer left behind" editorial.
By Kent Conrad; By Tom Schatz
The Wall Street Journal 2007-11-17 (entry)
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Wine producers everywhere need to follow Italy's lead and deliver better wine in a box. With U.S. poised to become largest market, consumers need to demand the switch to lighter packaging. It's the environmental and affordable thing to do. Once open, a box preserves wine for about four weeks, compared to a day or two for a bottle.
By Tyler Colman
The New York Times 2008-08-17 (entry)
Latin America is major food producer, but sometimes must import to prevent shortages. Political left turn was tied to food problem - Brazil's 'Zero Hunger' plan, Argentina's price controls, Venezuela's land reform. Assuring food security must avoid protectionism and requires new international regime of free trade for agricultural commodities.
By Khatchik Der Ghougassian
Journal of Turkish Weekly 2008-08-18 (entry)
With irreversible climate change expected in 100 months, everything we do matters. Individuals alone can't re-engineer Britain's fossil-fuel-dependent food, transport and energy systems; government must lead. Between 1938 and 1944, economy was re-engineered and there were dramatic cuts in resource use and household consumption. How countdown was calculated (click 'See also').
By Andrew Simms
The Guardian (UK) 2008-08-01 (entry)
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