Mark Bittman makes the point in his column at the New York Times today, that the biggest killer of Americans isn't guns but industrial agriculture. A point I have made repeatedly with my family over the years. ...the root of that dangerous diet is our system of hyper-industrial agriculture,…
Going through my email this morning turned up the latest from farm policy. White House has laid out a graphic there that speaks loads about the disconnect between reality and what should be our Subsidy in this country... I was really inspired by the diversity and nutritiousness of the crops…
Reading Mark Bittman's blog this morning I saw this lead-in to a link I had to follow: Here’s the thing. A lot of stuff isn’t directly about food, but TB – that’s tuberculosis – is becoming, has become, antibiotic-resistant. And a lot of antibiotic resistance may be because there are…
To a rancher like me, who raises cattle, goats and turkeys the traditional way (on grass), the studies show only that the prevailing methods of producing meat — that is, crowding animals together in factory farms, storing their waste in giant lagoons and cutting down forests to grow crops to feed them — cause substantial greenhouse gases. It could be, in fact, that a conscientious meat eater may have a more environmentally friendly diet than your average vegetarian.
I know we are all holding out great hopes for biofuels, but these nagging pieces keep showing up in the papers... The False Hope of Biofuels: "Biofuels such as ethanol made from corn, sugar cane, switchgrass and other crops are being touted as a 'green' solution for a large part…
Here's another article on the sustainable foods culture. The tie is to the book by Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Looks like another trip to the booksellers for me. Everthing I keep reading about "Omnivore" makes me want to check out the book. Common Ground: The Shortest Food Chain: "In the…
It looks like if there is a common thread running through recent posts it is the idea of buying local. My concern was originally in the way of food. I feel a bit leery of the commercialization of the organic movement. Call me a “Luddite” but when the big Agri-Business…
'Organic' Loses Its Freshness: Until recently, organic practices were sneered at by those in academia, in government and in chemical agribusiness -- now called 'conventional agriculture.' Thanks to a fast-growing demand for organic food, the sneers are now reserved for those who practice organics on a small scale. Long accustomed…
