pigsI'm very fond of Lighthouse Farm and I'm excited to get there with the Twin Cities Crop Mob on July 17. It's a very small grass-fed beef, pork (that's the pork-to-be, at left), lamb, poultry, and egg operation, about an hour north of the Twin Cities. 

Lighthouse Farm does a terrific direct-market business. They sell their meat straight to you, and if you live in their delivery area, they will bring your order to your door, no additional charge. Read more...

Katie Couric took down big livestock farming last night on CBS, with that simple, explain-it-to-me cheeriness with which she took down Sarah Palin last year. In the first of a two part series on antibiotic-use in American agriculture, Couric repeatedly linked routine livestock antibiotics to the rise of drug-resistant staph (MRSA): Read more...

The following is reprinted by permission of the author, Melinda Hemmelgarn. Melinda writes the excellent Food Sleuth blog and printed this piece in Blog for Iowa. Read more...

I've been looking into "Issue 2" in Ohio and there's some pretty fascinating political maneuvering going on. If you live in an ag state, I advise you to familiarize yourself with the fight surrounding this issue, since, chances are, it's coming to your legislature, too.

What is it? Issue 2 is an initiative seeking to change that state's constitution to create a 13-member Livestock Board, which would be appointed by the governor and would oversee all matters concerning livestock management practices in the state of Ohio. Read more...

I'm so excited about Fair Food Fight's photo contest featuring my recipes -- have you checked this out yet?

What's fun about this contest is that you select one of my recipes (here), whip out the cell phone, and snap a pic of it -- either the ingredients, the finished product, you eating it, or whatever you like. It's a fun contest -- not a professional competition by any means -- so have a ball. I'm so eager to see what you Food Fighters do with these dishes!

You have till Friday -- the end of this week, so don't delay! Read more...

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Hrm. New research says that pigs might be able to contract novel H1N1 swine flu and that the virus could become endemic (entrenched) in pig farms. Via the excellent infectious disease news source CIDRAP: Read more...

That's right. Another food documentary! Read more...

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It's Father's Day, so I don't have much time to blog today, but I wanted to get the word out that Smithfield Foods (featured prominently in Food, Inc and in recent swine flu news) is threatening the maker of new documentary Pig Business with a defamation lawsuit. I heard about this from the person tweeting for Pig Business on Twitter. Read more...

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One of America's best writers on all matters microbiological, Maryn McKenna, has an excellent piece over at CIDRAP, describing the work of Hong Kong, UK, and US researchers who've come to the conclusion that novel H1N1 swine flu jumped to humans months ago.

The group also determined that livestock needs to be examined more closely for emerging diseases. Read more...

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One of America's best writers on all matters microbiological, Maryn McKenna, has an excellent piece over at CIDRAP, describing the work of Hong Kong, UK, and US researchers who've come to the conclusion that novel H1N1 swine flu jumped to humans months ago.

The group also determined that livestock needs to be examined more closely for emerging diseases. Read more...