"Poultry farms in the U.S. generate roughly 17 million tons of chicken manure annually, creating a huge disposal problem. Some energy researchers believe they have a solution: use that manure to create electricity…Critics worry that power plants fueled by poultry litter will emit high levels of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particulates, even with state-of-the-art pollution-control devices."
"A national opinion survey found that Americans are most concerned with how agriculture and food relates to health, rating issues of obesity, antibiotic resistance, and diet-related diabetes to be the most serious."
— Attitudes on Food & Farming: Two New Studies : Slow Food USA
"Love the community initiative… ‘The Baldwin Park city council just unanimously approved a nine-month moratorium on any new drive-thru restaurants in an effort to fight pollution from idling cars and shave down its citizens’ expanding waistlines. Almost half of Bald Park residents are overweight, and a third are clinically obese. As Baldwin Park city planner Salvador Lopez explained to The Independent, “We here in Baldwin Park have taken strides to create a healthy community, and allowing one more drive-thru is not going to meet that goal."
— Birthplace of the Drive-Thru Bans Any New Fast Food Restaurants | Sustainable Food | Change.org
"Lisa Kivirist is an inspiration… ‘For us women farmers our passions drive our work, something that fuels us 24/7 and blends those traditional boundaries of “work” and “leisure” into an energy drink like no other, driven by a collective spirit of wanting our work, our livelihood, to do more than just pay the bills. We want to transform our world into a better place.’"
— Civil Eats » Blog Archive » Another Farmer Jane! Lisa Kivirist
"The most notable trade barrier [between the US and Europe] has been the European ban on chlorine-bathed poultry. U.S. poultry producers frequently rely on a tasty chlorine rinse to kill the pathogens that, thanks to unsanitary slaughterhouse standards, regularly pervade our chicken. The EU — and until recently, Russia — has labeled such poultry unfit to eat, resulting in the American poultry industry losing an estimated $300 million in potential sales. American poultry producers have been outraged by this “injustice” for years, and earlier this year they urged the World Trade Organization to pursue legal action against the EU for losses incurred by the ban. The EU seems unfazed; it has no plans whatsoever to change the policy, nor its ban on beef treated with hormones."
— American Factory Farms Threatened As EU Sets Higher Meat Standards | Sustainable Food | Change.org
"Germany is abuzz with a growing problem—hive theft. Approximately 20 percent of the country’s one million honeybee colonies didn’t survive the winter, most German beekeepers blame the Varroa mite. In the U.S., bees are in the midst of a crisis dubbed colony collapse disorder, a mysterious affliction where bees fly away from their hives, never to return. Since 2006, some American beekeepers claim to have lost 30 to 90 percent of their hives. According to The National, about one-third of the food people consume is directly or indirectly dependent on honeybees for pollination. California’s almond crop alone uses about 1.4 million bee colonies every year, about one-half of America’s entire bee population. If honeybees across the globe continue to deteriorate, folks around the world could find themselves with empty pantries."
— Increased Bee Death Prompts Hive Thefts in Germany | Sustainable Food | Change.org
The U.S. ambassador to Ghana recently announced that since January, the U.S. has been importing much more cocoa than ever thanks to two new processing facilities built by ADM and Cargill, one of the top five global processors of cocoa beans. …
This means small farmers in Ghana, which along with the Ivory Coast produce about 60 percent of the world’s chocolate, will be pushed to produce more cocoa. Unless they are protected under Fair Trade contracts, rampant exploitation and slavery of workers will most likely continue. About 3.6 million West African children work on cocoa farms, many of whom make very little to no pay while under horrific conditions, according to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). This dire situation has led some to refer to cocoa produced in these regions as “blood chocolate.” According to a January report by the International Labor Rights Forum, chocolate companies like Mars and Cargill, which process 400,000 tons of cocoa each year, “have been able to control initiatives meant to eliminate forced, child and trafficked labor in West Africa’s cocoa industry.” More cocoa corporation consolidation has only further pressured farmers to keep costs low…
British companies Nestle UK and Cadbury have justly adopted Fair Tradecertification for their chocolate, and deserve our applause.
Hugh Grant, chairman of Monsanto, announced earlier this summer that he expected his company would record dramatically lower profits, largely because of generic competition from Chinese versions of its once-popular weedkiller Roundup. But he put an upbeat spin on the down news, telling Reuters that the company was reducing the importance of Roundup to concentrate on more lucrative matters. “By reducing the uncertainty associated with Roundup, we free Monsanto to grow on its fundamentals. What matters to our long-term growth is our seeds and [genetic] traits business, which is on track.”
Grant’s predictions were correct, but only partially. Last week Monsanto announced that its third-quarter earnings were down by 45 percent. But what about that all-important GMO seeds business? TheWall Street Journal reported that the company is planning to lower prices on two new lines of GMO soybeans and corn. American farmers haven’t taken to the seeds as eagerly as Monsanto had hoped.
"The final freedom I want to address today flows from the four I’ve already mentioned: the freedom to connect - the idea that governments should not prevent people from connecting to the internet, to websites, or to each other. The freedom to connect is like the freedom of assembly in cyber space. It allows individuals to get online, come together, and hopefully cooperate in the name of progress. Once you’re on the internet, you don’t need to be a tycoon or a rock star to have a huge impact on society."
— Hillary Clinton on internet freedom, January 21 | Foreign Policy (via giantrobotlasers) (via tedr) (via rahmin)
"Detroit is particularly well suited to become a pioneer in urban agriculture at a commercial scale."
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What Should We Do With a Semi-Abandoned U.S. City? » INFRASTRUCTURIST
Hantz Farms will use a trellised system that’s compact, highly efficient, and tourist-friendly. It won’t be like apple picking in Massachusetts, and that’s the point. Score wants visitors to Hantz Farms to see that agriculture is not just something that takes place in the countryside. They will be able to “walk down the row pushing a baby stroller,” he promises…For the most part the farms will focus on high-margin edibles: peaches, berries, plums, nectarines, and exotic greens. Score says that the first crops are likely to be lettuce and heirloom tomatoes.
(via jayparkinsonmd) (via rahmin)
