Agriculture

News

Catch Wendell Berry Speaking with Bill Moyers

by PRW Staff — October 4, 2013 - 12:56pm
  • Topics: Agriculture, Arts / Culture, Environment

    • Bill Moyers profiles Wendell Berry, one of America's most influential writers, on an edition of his show Moyers & Company, which will be available on local public television stations starting on October 4, 2013.

    News

    Prions in Plants? New Concerns Regarding Chronic Wasting Disease

    by PRW Staff — October 3, 2013 - 6:36am
  • Topics: Mad Cow Disease, Agriculture, Environment, Food Rights Network

    • -- by Ron Seely, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

    Prions -- the infectious, deformed proteins that cause chronic wasting disease in deer -- can be taken up by plants such as alfalfa, corn and tomatoes, according to new research from the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

    News

    "Pandora's Lunchbox" -- Ingredients in Processed Food Products May Surprise You

    by Lisa Graves — August 13, 2013 - 8:05am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Children, Corporations, Food, Food Rights Network, Health, Marketing, Science

    • "The vitamin D in your milk ... is almost surely a derivative -- after many chemical stages -- from lanolin from Australian sheep wool, concocted in a factory in China. ... Vitamin A, is often synthesized from acetone, a principal ingredient in nail polish remover," notes George Kenney based on his interview with Melanie Warner, a former writer for the New York Times.

    News

    Raw Milk Supporters Rally in Baraboo, Wisconsin for Farmer Vernon Hershberger's Criminal Trial

    by Rebekah Wilce — May 22, 2013 - 6:28am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Raw Milk, Food, Food Rights Network

    • Farmer Vernon Hershberger's trial started May 20 in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and will most likely continue until May 24 at the earliest. Hershberger is a raw milk producer. As the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has reported, he is charged with four misdemeanor offenses: operating a retail food establishment without a license, operating a dairy farm as a milk producer without a license, operating as a dairy plant without a license, and violating a holding order. If convicted, the Amish father of ten children faces up to 30 months in county jail and fines of over $10,000.

    News

    Republican Governor Deals Blow to "Constitutionally Suspect" Tennessee "Ag Gag" Bill

    by Rebekah Wilce — May 14, 2013 - 5:39am
  • Topics: Agriculture, ALEC Exposed, Food, Politics

    • Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has vetoed a controversial "ag gag" bill that would hamstring citizen investigations documenting patterns of abuse of animals and regulatory violations. These investigations have led in the past to regulatory action and demanded industry changes.

    News

    NC Legislators Sneak in "Ag Gag" Bill as Butterball Employee Pleads Guilty to Animal Cruelty

    by Rebekah Wilce — April 10, 2013 - 6:17am
  • Topics: Agriculture, ALEC Exposed, Animal Rights, Food Rights Network, Politics

    • A three-week investigation at a Butterball turkey farm in North Carolina by an animal welfare activist with a hidden camera documented workers beating birds with metal bars, stomping and kicking them, and throwing them violently into metal cages by their necks (video below). Mercy for Animals, the non-profit organization responsible for the investigation, turned the footage over to prosecutors in December 2011, and the police raided the facility. Five workers were charged with criminal animal cruelty, and a top-level Department of Agriculture official was convicted for obstruction of justice in February 2012.

    News

    Bills to Label Genetically Engineered Foods Introduced in Illinois and Iowa

    by Rebekah Wilce — February 19, 2013 - 8:25am
  • Topics: Food Safety, Agriculture, Genetic Engineering, Food Rights Network

    • Bills were introduced in the Iowa and Illinois state senates last week that would require genetically engineered (GE) foods to be labeled. Iowa's bill would require labeling if a food contains more than nine-tenths of a percent GE ingredients, whereas Illinois' bill has a one percent threshold.

    News

    "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": Concerned Citizen Uncovers Whole Foods' Policy on Selling Food Grown in Sewage Sludge

    by Rebekah Wilce — December 18, 2012 - 8:57am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Sludge, Corporations, Food Rights Network

    • Don't fancy the thought of your spinach and carrots being grown in sewage sludge?

    Neither does Mario Ciasulli, a semi-retired electrical engineer living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Mario likes to cook, and enjoys good food. When he found out last year about the practice of spreading dried and heated human and industrial waste as "fertilizer" on food crops, he was upset.

    Guest Contributor

    Approval of New Chemical-Resistant GMOs Likely to Prompt Pesticide Escalation

    by Jill Richardson — August 28, 2012 - 6:45am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Genetic Engineering, Corporations, Food Rights Network

    • A decade and a half after farmers began planting the first genetically engineered (GE) crops, the future is clear. The scientists who pioneered genetic engineering thought of themselves as environmentalists, creating products that could reduce pesticide use. Instead, they have simply perpetuated the same "pesticide treadmill" as their pesticide-peddling counterparts resulting in the application of a greater volume of ever more toxic pesticides.

    News

    WTO Not So COOL: Rules Against Popular U.S. Meat Labeling Law

    by Rebekah Wilce — June 29, 2012 - 2:17pm
  • Topics: Food Safety, Agriculture, Food Rights Network, International

    • The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued a final ruling today against the U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law. This popular pro-consumer policy, which informs shoppers where meat and other foods were raised or grown, enjoys the support of 93% of Americans, according to a 2010 Consumers Union poll. Now Congress must gut or change the law to avoid the application of punitive trade sanctions.

    Syndicate content