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 [...]

Watch CBS News Videos OnlineIn the first installment of a two-part series, CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric investigates the connection between the use of antibiotics in factory farms and the incidence of MRSA in humans. Couric talks to a worker at an Arkansas poultry processing facility who developed MRSA; discusses the use overuse of [...]

Monsanto conducted studies to evaluate the toxicity of genetically modified (GM) corn on rats as part of European regulatory registry of GM food and feed, prior to commercialization. To our knowledge, only a summary of the findings were made available to the public (for examples see European Food Safety Authority reports NK603, MON863). Greenpeace sued [...]

Last week I discussed why obesity experts, such as Drs. Kelly Brownell and David Kessler, believe highly processed foods are leading to excessive overeating. Until healthier unprocessed foods are more readily available and affordable, today I want to focus on one way we can thwart the cravings believed to be triggered by eating foods engineered [...]