Have you read (or written) something savory lately? Send your Digest tips to digest@ethicurean.com. Grass-fed meat still linked to climate change: Grass-fed cattle have a higher carbon footprint than grain-fed, says Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. Yes, you read that right. H...

Yeah OK, we’re listening: The WashPo’s Jane Black interviews new Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who says that being an overweight kid has given him insight into childhood nutrition problems, that in an ideal world all food would be purchased locally, and that the USDA needs to help b...

Canary in the empty reservoir: How the nation responds to the drought in California will offer us a template of how to respond to global climate change, opine former Calif. AgSec Richard Rominger and Roots of Change President Michael R. Dimock. (San Francisco Chronicle) Not all they’re cracked...

Measuring up: We’ve all heard the average number of miles that industrial food travels from farm to fork (1500), but is that the best way to weigh the environmental impact of our consumption choices? NY farmer Bob Comis proposes a conceptual shift to “pound-gallons,” a clunky-sound...

On Friday we published the first half of this epic attempt to compile a list of specific actions the new USDA could undertake in its first six months that would offer significant payoff in terms of real changes in the food system. After polling a cross-section of groups and individuals, we cherry-pi...

Busting a nut: With the list of recalled peanut products topping 400, the Department of Justice begins a criminal investigation of the processing company behind it. The Food and Drug Act prohibits companies from knowingly transporting contaminated products across state lines, something the Peanut Co...

Eating local, even below zero: More than a hundred people gathered in Ann Arbor, Michigan to plan for the growth of the region’s local food movement and feasted on local greens, squash, beans, meat, and other goodies. Organizers hope that the products of the 2009 Local Food Summit will “...

Above: National Agricultural Library archival image, shot from the Washington Monument in the mid-1920s; US Department of Agriculture greenhouses on the Mall are shown in foreground. The food system in this country has broken down like a rusty old tractor. Or more accurately, like a $250,000, bronto...

The FDA’s ass is GRAS: Great investigative piece about the controversy over bisphenol A, the chemical used to line baby bottles and canned food, among hundreds of other uses. Is it a scientific dispute? Not really, it’s mainly “a battle to protect a multibillion-dollar market from ...

You got salmonella in my peanut butter: As the salmonella scare continues with dozens of recalls by the FDA of truly frightening things like Little Debbie® Peanut Butter Toasties, the agency is urging people to avoid products made with peanut paste and peanut butter. Peanut butter in jars is probab...