¡Join the fight!
This is a food and farming nerd's dream. Check this out:
The USDA's Food Environment Atlas
It's an interactive map that can show you, U.S. county by U.S. county: the number of farmers markets, percentage of farmers markets, availability of grocery stores, farm-to-school programs, adult diabetes rates, childhood preschool obesity rates. It's an incredible document. Take a look.
The USDA has also released a report tracking American eating habits over the last century.
Tomorrow marks the first of many, many, many joint Department of Justice and USDA antitrust workshops, held to hear from Americans about possible antitrust violations in the seed industry.
With farmers, competitors, activists, and consumers all diving off the top turnbuckle on Monsanto's head for the next year, this is going to get bloody -- and Big Media knows it. Look what just came over the wire from the LA Times:
In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, yesterday, four-hundred and fifty people showed up to offer 10 hours of testimony on state bills that would legalize the sale of raw milk in the Dairy State.
According to WSAU Radio in Wausau, "scientists, government officials, consumers, and farmers were among those testifying," and apparently the pros outnumbered the cons in the audience. The pro raw milk side was organized in large part by dairy farmer Vince Hundt, who bought a ton of paper hats for supporters of the legislation. Read more...
The raw milk fight has been heating up over the last year, with various states moving to legalize sales of raw milk. Raw milk dairy farmer Michael Schmidt's fight and win in Canada has certainly been encouraging to raw milk enthusiasts, and the publication of David Gumpert's Raw Milk Revolution, seems to have turned up the heat under the raw milk story, too.
But if I were looking for bigger watershed moments that mightactually change national opinion (or spark a deeper conversation), I'd watch the raw milk legalization debate in Wisconsin right now. Read more...
This Monday, your faithful blogger El Dragón (a.k.a Barth Anderson) will appear on Eco Chicago's Eco Chat at 8:00 PM Central. The featured guest is Jim Slama of Family Farmed, a powerhouse non-profit connecting farmers to solid markets. And I'll be there to, oh, I don't know, provide comic relief. Read more...
Chris Blanchard's report on the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference in la Crosse Wisconsin, held last weekend. Via his blog, Eat Better News Read more...
I was reading this Introduction to a new book by journalist David Kirby called Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms on Humans and the Environment," over at Firedoglake, a book that the author says has three years of research and writing behind it. The Introduction is offered as a blog post and I highly recommend checking it out. Read more...
Eric Utne has a bone to pick with Linden Hills Co-op, and pick he does, in the magazine that he formerly edited, The Utne Reader.
At issue? A $9.5 million per year natural foods grocery store here in Minneapolis, Linden Hills Co-op, is growing. It's also relocating less than a mile away to take advantage of that growth. Read more...
Katie Couric's CBS News series on antibiotic-use in livestock has turned up the grill under the US meat industry. This past week, Big Meat went to Washington DC to make its case that antibiotics are necessary and used responsibly in American agriculture. From Cattle Network: Read more...
The USDA extended its extension for hearing public comments on whether or not, upon appeal by Monsanto, that company's new GE RoundupReady alfalfa should be approved.
Now I know most of you Fair Food Fighters are opposed to GMOs and Monsanto. But have you actually written your comment on this matter? Sure, you've Tweeted about it, forwarded emails, Facebooked, and Dugg it, but have you written your letter? Read more...
El Dragón
