When you hear Author David Kirby tell the stories behind the people in his latest book, you can’t help but to get caught up in his emotions. Tears welled up in his eyes several times last night as he described-often in graphic detail-to a riveted Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health audience, his experiences [...]

This past weekend, I witnessed hundreds of volunteers working in a very tangible way to take back the food system for a community. The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” This was a stride. Two high schools in Richmond, Calif in the [...]

Media outlets were buzzing this morning with the news that a Jackson County, MO, jury had awarded an $11 million verdict to farmers affected by a CAFO owned by Premium Standard Farms. This is the second time in the last 11 years that Premium Standard Farms has been sued for the noxious odors coming from [...]

As I was jogging past the group of giggling teenagers on a stoop, something struck my shoulder.  Curious, I picked up the offending projectile: a plastic bag, tied and filled with a dark, crumbly material.  The kids on the stoop burst out laughing.
“So what’s in the bag?”  I asked, playing along.
After a pause, one of [...]

Last weekend I had the pleasure of escaping the snow-ridden Mid Atlantic to travel to Athens, Georgia for the Georgia Organics conference. I was contacted months ago to come speak to them about what it means to “eat for the future” - the title of the program I run and an apt title for my [...]

The Meat Industry* hosted a Congressional briefing on Tuesday (2/23/2010) in Washington D.C. on antibiotics in livestock and poultry production. The purpose of the briefing was to uncover, in the moderator’s words, the ‘true science’ on antibiotics. Contrary to his assertion, there was very little science presented.
Instead, the briefing featured anecdotes from two veterinarians (Dr. [...]

Yesterday, CBS News’ Katie Couric had former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler and “Fast Food Nation” author Eric Schlosser on @katiecouric to discuss further last week’s two-part series on the overuse of antibiotics in industrial farm animal production. “There are real risks here, using drugs in a non-therapuetic context,” Dr. David Kessler said. “This [...]

Exactly two years from the largest meat recall in history, a California meatpacker has been ordered to recall over 4.9 million pounds of beef and veal products. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the expansion of a previous recall for Huntington Meat Packing, Inc., of Montebello, Calif., and said there is a pending [...]

I hope every lawmaker on Capitol Hill had a chance to watch CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric’s two-part investigative series on the risks of using antibiotics as growth promoters in food animals. After viewing both pieces it would be difficult for most people to question the immediate need to pass the Preservation of Antibiotics [...]

I recently attended the lecture series at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.  The topic of the talk was urban agriculture.  What I found most interesting was that the lecture series was targeted at architects, planners and builders; even though the topic seemed to be directed at the sustainable food movement.  I think this [...]