Blogs
by Danielle Nierenberg on June 26, 2007 China’s food production has been in the news quite a bit over the last few years, thanks to avian flu and most recently the melamine-tainted pet food and livestock feed scandal. As a result, the nation’s director of food safety has been sentenced to death, and other heads are likely to roll, so to speak.
by Danielle Nierenberg on June 20, 2007 Earlier this week, the new U.S. non-profit Climate Counts launched a website that ranks companies based on their commitment (or lack thereof) to curbing climate change. According to the New York Times, the group “wants consumers to think about more than taste or service” as they make their buying decisions. The site ranks 56 companies from 0 to 100, and of the 17 food and food service companies listed, none scored higher than Unilever, with a 71. Even Stonyfield Farm, a well-known purveyor of organic yogurt, only came out with a score of 63, which CEO Gary Hirschberg (himself a committed environmentalist and a board member of Climate Counts) hopes to strengthen by investing more in renewable energy.
by Danielle Nierenberg on June 16, 2007 An article in the Wall Street Journal last Thursday announced an interesting—and potentially disturbing—plan from the American Electric Power Company (AEP), one of the largest electric utilities in the United States. According to the Journal, AEP spews out more carbon dioxide than any other U.S. company—some 145 million metric tons a year. And while the utility is “investigating various ways to curb its global-warming emissions” at its plants, it is also finding ways to cut emissions at another kind of factory: factory farms...
by Danielle Nierenberg on June 11, 2007 This week, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is meeting to discuss something most of us never think about: the world’s livestock genetic resources. Participants from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, NGOs, and representatives for pastoralists and livestock farmers are meeting in preparation for the First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources this September in Interlaken, Switzerland.
by Danielle Nierenberg on June 6, 2007 Last week's World Bank workshop on livestock's "long shadow" brought together a diverse crowd. In addition to Bank staff, U.N. representatives, animal welfare activists, and environmental NGOs, Dr. Steve Osofsky from the Wildlife Conservation Society spoke to the group. But why would a conservation organization be interested in livestock?
by Danielle Nierenberg on June 1, 2007 One of the top quotes of the day at Tuesday's livestock and the environment workshop at the World Bank was "intensify, but don't concentrate." Cees de Haan, an agriculture expert with more than 40 years of experience working on livestock science and development issues at the Bank, the International Livestock Research Institute, and other agencies, repeated this statement twice to those of us assembled to hear him speak.
by Danielle Nierenberg on May 30, 2007 How can livestock producers eliminate and/or pay for the air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation, and other externalities related to meat production? That was the question of the day at a workshop at the World Bank on Tuesday, where participants gathered to discuss the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report Livestock’s Long Shadow, released late last year.
by Danielle Nierenberg on May 25, 2007 An article in Wednesday’s New York Times food section laments the jump in U.S. beef prices (just as grilling season begins) and warns consumers that beef marbled with fat—the soft texture that consumers have come to expect—will be in short supply this summer.
by Danielle Nierenberg on May 23, 2007 A very strange thing is happening right now in livestock operations in the United States. As corn becomes a hot commodity for ethanol production, livestock producers are replacing some of their animal feed with products that would look more at home in the candy aisles of supermarkets.
by Danielle Nierenberg on May 22, 2007 Phew! The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has declared that some 80,000 chickens in Indiana that ate melamine-tainted feed are safe to eat. Pigs that were fed melamine in a number of states, including North Carolina, have also been cleared as safe for human consumption. What a relief. Or is it?
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