Senator Tom Coburn thought that he was being awfully clever earlier this week when he spoke about wasteful pork barrel spending in the Omnibus Appropriations Act, and cited, as an example, spending for a program to deal with pollution coming from pig farms in Iowa. Pork barrel spending on pigs…...

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 ...

Manure, my favorite topic of conversation (particularly at parties), is pretty awesome. It has been a staple crop fertilizer virtually since humankind began cultivating its own food. It’s everything synthetic fertilizer wishes it could be: Chock full of nutrients, it is — assuming you raise ...

This post, from Ari LeVaux of Flash in the Pan, the weekly food column that rocks our world, was originally posted on Alternet. Thanks, Ari! When former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack’s name first surfaced as a possible Secretary of Agriculture, it triggered an outcry among progressive foodies. The...

Eaters unite: A fairly universal ‘harumph’ erupted from the sustainable-food community after the announcement of Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, as Obama’s USDA pick. As usual, Michael Pollan articulates why the community is pretty cynical but still holding out just a little ...

Agriculture policy in this country has been geared for 30-odd years toward one goal: the production of ever-cheaper food. But as is by now painfully obvious, cheap food has foisted its real costs onto the environment, public health, workers and animals. Taxpayers bear that burden indirectly in the f...

I’m close to finishing “Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds,” a new book by the fearsomely qualified Claire Hope Cummings. It’s excellent, but it paints such an enraging and depressing picture of just how badly we’re … well, screwed … that w...

The Ithaca Journal - www.theithacajournal.com - Ithaca, NY: Chemically treated human and municipal waste from the Syracuse metro area containing unregulated heavy metals and PCBs is being spread on fields in Schuyler County by Bergen Farms in a cost-saving move that has local residents alarmed and l...