Funny how much difference a week can make.  Just a few days into his term, President Obama gave America a new reason to look at the world through green-tinted shades by announcing his plan for tackling climate change, the New Energy for America plan.   The plan focuses on increasing the country’s energy independence by investing [...]

In mid-January, Future Harvest - A Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, held its 10th annual conference. More than 200 people gathered to learn about sustainable agriculture practices, and how to get more local, sustainable foods into groceries, schools, hospitals and even farmers markets (thanks to keynote speaker Nina Planck). This year’s attendance was evidence of the [...]

To continue that scary conversation about MRSA in pigs and farm workers, check out Andrew Schneider’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog entry.  After Schneider’s original report on the research of Dr. Tara Smith at the University of Iowa, he and Smith received plenty of feedback-most notably from FDA, CDC and USDA employees and members of Congress concerned [...]

A new study published by the University of Iowa connects Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Midwestern US swine farms and swine workers and suggests transmission between the two. Prior to the study, there was only knowledge of the prevalence of this bacterium in locations including the Netherlands and Canada. MRSA is resistant to a wide [...]

New Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, discussed the difficult economic issues facing the country, discrimination at the USDA, and health care and nutrition issues yesterday in a wide-ranging address to USDA employees. “The health care issue is a big issue…that’s why it’s important to promote a nutritious diet…and make sure children have access to healthy [...]

Work from students enrolled in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s “Food Production, Public Health and the Environment” course is reaching thousands of newspaper readers. In the recently-concluded course, three students took an assignment -writing a letter or op-ed-and had their work published in online and print versions of major newspapers.
John Berggren, student [...]

Several staff members and doctoral fellows from the Center for a Livable Future attended a national CAFO summit in New Bern, NC organized by the Waterkeeper Alliance.  The title of the summit was “Pure Farms, Pure Water,” which is the name of the Waterkeeper farm campaign.  A diverse group of people from the U.S. and [...]

In an op-ed published in yesterday’s online edition of the Baltimore Sun, a Center for a Livable Future researcher urges federal and state officials to stay away from the introduction of non-native species in the Chesapeake Bay
Dr. Sharron Nappier, a former CLF Fellow whose research on the Bay’s oyster population was supported by CLF, says [...]

 
As far as Senate confirmation hearings go, yesterday’s testimony by President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to become the next Secretary of Agriculture proved to be a big yawn. Questions asked of former two-term Iowa Governor Thomas Vilsack seemed soft, often patronizing, during the 2-1/2 hour question and answer session.
Watch a video of the entire testimony:
 

Sen. [...]

The California State Senate is poised today to announce a change in name of the Senate Agriculture Committee to a newly-organized Committee on Food and Agriculture. The new committee, formed by State Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, is charged with creating policy and conducting oversight with a focus on food [...]