Danielle Nierenberg's blog

Nutrient pollution from farms and livestock hurts amphibians

Remember the uproar in 1995 when school kids in Minnesota began finding frogs with extra limbs? Speculation centered on pesticides, increased UV radiation, and infection from parasites—which ultimately turned out to be the “villain.”

Bigger farms, more disease, says FAO

On Monday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization predicted—in a surprising move for them—that the links between factory farming and disease are likely to worsen as human and livestock populations increase and our appetite for meat grows.

Want to slow global warming? Cut back on red meat.

It’s been an interesting month for folks like me who write about farm animals. First, the American Journal of Public Health printed an editorial saying our appetite for meat products can contribute to the spread of diseases like avian flu. Then today, The Lancet published a study declaring that eating less red meat can help curb climate change.

Farm animal diversity: Forgotten in Interlaken?

The first international technical conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, held last week in Interlaken, Switzerland, didn’t get much coverage from the mainstream media—unfortunately.

Can vegetarianism prevent bird flu?

Earlier this week, an MD I have long admired sent me an e-mail with the subject line, “I never thought I’d live to see the day.” When I opened his message, I found an excerpt from an editorial about zoonotic diseases in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

A Look Back at Summer: rBGH, Climate, and Animal Diseases

As summer draws to a close here in DC, it seems like an appropriate time to give a few updates on some of the issues we’ve previously covered in this blog.

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