It was meant to be the kickoff of a national conversation, but the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) sponsored meeting on chemical exposures and public health, held in Washington last week, felt more like an argument at times.
The meeting started off predictably enough—with Howard Frumkin, the director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health, [...]

The Center for a Livable Future has joined with several other environmental groups concerned that potential amendments to an Interior Appropriations Bill may hinder the Environmental Protection Agency’s reporting of greenhouse gas (CHG) emissions from concentrated animal feeding operations. Several CLF staffers signed a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), adapted from a joint letter [...]

A new take on global fertilizer use blames wealthy countries for over-polluting water ways and accelerating climate change while leaving poor countries with depleted soils and a lack of food.
The world’s use of fertilizer is extreme-in an article out this month in the journal SCIENCE, researchers highlight the disparities between fertilizer use in developed and [...]

Video games, fattening snack foods and the parents themselves are often blamed for the dramatic spike in overweight and obese kids during the past 30 years or so. But speakers at the National Conference on Childhood Obesity last week in Washington, D.C. attempted to frame the issue in a different light, looking at the bigger [...]

Despite its content, moviegoers’ appetites for “Food, Inc.” are only growing stronger. Just in its second week of limited-release, theaters are selling out of tickets for the documentary, which is highly critical of the industrial food system. Much of the demand may be attributed to the tidal wave of accolades from critics and writers in [...]

The perception of red meat consumption as masculine is heavily entrenched in Western culture, not unlike a weighty steel fork jabbed through a grizzled slab of tough, bloody steak. But new evidence suggests this association may originate more with monkeys and marketing than any real boost to manhood.
The role of nutritional need in motivating [...]

Last week at the American Medical Association’s 158th annual meeting in Chicago members passed a resolution that supports the advocacy of sustainable healthy food systems. This is a landmark time for environmentalists since the AMA had previously endorsed healthy food alternatives and minimizing the environmental impact of certain foods, but never before has it publicly [...]

During my TV-news days, I supported the old axiom; it must be a balanced report if we’re getting just as much negative feedback as we are positive responses. I found the same rule of thumb to hold true on Capitol Hill. Good legislation usually means each side had to make serious concessions, inevitably leaving a [...]

An interesting video on NPR by Photographer John Poole who visited an organic hog farm in Iowa. Watch the video and check out the story.

I’m heartened to learn that the “meatless Monday” concept has taken hold globally. It is welcome news that former Beatles mega-star Paul McCartney and his daughters launched a new Meat Free Monday campaign in the United Kingdom, just weeks after Belgium’s city of Ghent enacted its own “Veggie Day.” I praise Sir Paul and the [...]