Farm & Food File
A syndicated column by Alan Guebert
Food Labeling
Never Heard of CRISPR? You will.
Posted on December 30, 2015
Few sectors of the global economy are more hooked on gene modification technology than agriculture. Food powerhouses like the U.S., Brazil, and Argentina now grow genetically modified (GM) crops on 40, 23, and 13 percent, respectively, of their arable land and one in five farmable acres around the world grows GM crops.
Adoption of GM seeds […]
The Sounds of Science
Posted on November 23, 2015
Increasingly, farmers and ranchers agree that “sound science” is science that sounds good to them rather than science that is scientifically sound. Bad science, on the other hand, is science that sounds bad to them even if the majority of scientists agree on it.
For example, a Nov. 2014 poll by Purdue University and Iowa State […]
Sustainable Is What Sustainable Does
Posted on September 2, 2015
Everywhere you look, there’s a poetic irony to today’s high-speed rush toward “slow” food and agricultural sustainability.
For example, throughout the U.S. well-informed, well-intentioned shoppers see no inherent conflict in driving their tank-sized SUVs to the local organic cooperative to purchase sustainably-grown meat, fruit, dairy products, and vegetables.
Corporate America is little different. It spends billions on […]
A SAFE, Silly Trick
Posted on September 2, 2015
There’s little safety and virtually no accuracy in SAFE, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015, that passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, July 23.
It was written by Big Ag to protect Big Ag, not consumers, even though nine out of 10 American consumers want food labels to disclose the presence […]
Nature’s Calling; Anyone Listening?
Posted on July 15, 2015
Question: What came first, the chicken or the egg?
Answer: Neither; both arrived after a qualified veterinarian declared their farm disease-free following a complete depopulation because of an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI.
It’s no joke.
On June 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced that 192 “detections” of […]
Got Guts? Bet on TPP
Posted on July 15, 2015
Let’s go out on a small limb and make a big prediction: Not only will the U.S. Senate vote to give this president and the next one fast track trade authority, so too will the U.S. House of Representatives.
Moreover, and since we’re already on the limb, here are two more predictions: First, both the House […]
American Exceptionalism–Except for What We Grow
Posted on July 15, 2015
In the chaos that surrounded Congress leaving Washington, D.C. for a flag-waving Memorial Day holiday, your House Ag Committee found time May 20 to vote to kill Country of Origin Labeling, or COOL, for beef, pork, and chicken sold in the U.S.
If you carnivores out here are keeping score, the Ag Committee vote was the […]
Big Food’s Baloney
Posted on June 30, 2015
Sysco Corporation may not be a topic of dinner conversation most evenings anywhere in the U.S. but it is what many Americans are having for dinner—and lunch and breakfast—almost any day everywhere in America.
You may not have heard of Sysco, but you’ve seen ‘em.
Ever pull up to a local fast or fast casual restaurant, nearby […]
The COOL Facts
Posted on February 18, 2015
Country of origin labeling, or COOL, for meat, fruit, vegetables and nuts sold in the U.S. has been kicked around by the courts, politicians, international trade panels and special interest farm groups since it became law in 2008.
The only people who haven’t kicked it are American consumers. Polls consistently report that at least 85 percent […]
Welcome Back, Foodie
Posted on January 26, 2015
We didn’t know it back then but everyone on the big southern Illinois dairy farm of my youth was a foodie.
Of course there was no one named Bittman or Pollan or Waters to tell us we were foodies but there were people named Mom and Grandma and Aunt Nina whose food knocked your socks off […]
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The US isn’t the only democratic nation where the ill-intentioned make nation-altering change too quickly for the benefit of a politically privileged few. Brexit is a fool’s errand & UK farmers will soon be the first to learn that lesson. https://t.co/Ri8bev4wmi
Climate change, monopolistic practices & fair competition are neither right wing nor left wing. They’re mainstream and every farmer knows it. The problem is too few rely on science & law and too many rely on politics & gov’t subsidies. https://t.co/BHDE4KQ2Vc
Another killer post by @RiverRaccoon made especially so because incoming Sect’y of Ag will again be Iowan Tom Vilsack, Big AgBiz’s favorite do-little Dem. https://t.co/IrI0n4cppU
Since 2015, gov’t program payments to farmers & ranchers have totaled $118B excluding $20B asked for in new covid spending. Would anyone forego portion for better rural schools, hospitals, roads, Internet, lakes, rivers & soil? https://t.co/O61JrkH6ra
And he did nothing to slow or stop Big Agbiz concentration despite series of hearings around the US in his tenure that repeatedly made plain the need. Now, 10 yrs later, a handful of global giants run much of ag, food & rural US. https://t.co/YPcDxsTYSU