Farming

Bat Epidemic Could Lead to Higher Grocery Bills

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Apr 5th 2011 @ 4:00PM

Brown Bat Photo: Alamy

With the vampire craze currently sweeping Hollywood, you'd think bats would be getting a little more attention these days. The flying creatures of the night are in trouble -- and it could cause food costs to go way up, reports Fast Company.

Bats hunt insects, and their eating habits are a major boon for both organic and traditional farmers. Reuters estimates that bats' total value to agriculture is $22.9 billion annually. The little brown bat, Montana's most common bat species, eats about 1,200 insects per hour and in one 2006 study, bats in South-Central Texas were shown to have an annual pest control value of over $740,000 (29% of the value of the area's cotton crop), according to Fast Company.

They also pollinate crops -- papayas, mangos, and figs all benefit from our furry flying friends. But a deadly fungal infection --something called white-nose syndrome -- has put the U.S. bat population in jeopardy. According to Reuters, more than one million bats have died since the syndrome was discovered in 2006. But researchers aren't sure that it's simply white-nose syndrome that's to blame, since European bats with the same syndrome don't usually die.

Conservation groups and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service are on the case, but consumers should also be following the news closely. If we loose our bats, it's going to be a lot harder -- and more expensive -- to farm. And that means higher prices at the market.

Filed under: Farming, Food News

The End of Food Documentaries?

COMMENTS 5

by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Mar 15th 2011 @ 4:00PM

cattle agriculture Photo: Jeff J. Mitchell / Getty Images

Cramped cows and abused chickens are at risk of losing a powerful ally: filmmakers. A new bill up for House ruling in Iowa today would make whistle-blowing documentarians like Robert Kenner of "Food, Inc." fame criminals, reports the Iowa Independent. And similar action is on the table in Florida.

Any undercover videotaping or photographing of livestock or farm operations would be a classified aggravated misdemeanor calling for two years in prison and a penalty fine of up to $6,250; subsequent offenses would be class D felonies (five years and up to $7,500 in penalties). Tough break for journalism.

The risky work of undercover reporters has often led to legislation or at least further investigation of unjust acts, namely in the case of animal rights violations. We've all seen the videos -- cramped pigs with rail wounds; crippled chickens living in dark, feces-ridden barns. Heck, some even turned us vegetarian, or led us to greener (ahem, more humane) pastures. But that'd all be cutting room floor dust if this law were enacted mere years ago, or before YouTube turned it all insta-viral.

Filed under: Farming, Food News

New Potatoes Developed to Make Better Potato Chips

COMMENTS 7

by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Mar 1st 2011 @ 11:00AM

potato chips Photo: Jupiterimages

Americans love their potato chips -- in fact, about 13 percent of the nation's potatoes become them. Now, thanks to Cornell's potato-breeding program, we'll soon have two new varieties designed specifically for chip-making, reports The Cornell News Service.

Waneta and Lamoka potatoes, named after two twin lakes in the Finger Lakes region that Cornell calls home, both have long storage life and an appealing color when sliced. Since potatoes are usually harvested in the fall but don't head for the chipper till spring, it's important to have a potato that stores well. These new varieties are also resistant to common potato diseases in the area: golden nematode, which infects roots, and scab, which forms pits in the root vegetable.

Filed under: Farming, Food News

Veterans Come Home To Farming

COMMENTS 0

by Clare Leschin-Hoar, Posted Feb 11th 2011 @ 1:00PM

Photo: Farmer-Veteran Coalition

Here's an agricultural trend we can all get behind. Combat veterans are making the transition to civilian life by way of farming, reports Cooking Up A Story. Even better, they're not being asked to hoe that row on their own. Groups like California's Veterans Sustainable Agriculture Training program; Nebraska's Combat Boots to Cowboy Boots program and the California-based Farmer Veteran Coalition are providing training, funding and support to get veterans back on the land that they fought to protect.

"This is an excellent path for veterans," says Weldon Sleight, dean of University of Nebraska's College of Technical Agriculture (NCTA). "There are huge numbers of veterans that come from rural communities -- 17 percent of the U.S. population is rural, yet 45 percent of the military come from those communities."

The problem, he says, is that there are few economic opportunities in rural America, and many veterans end up in urban cities.

"They don't know how to go home, so we teach them that," said Sleight.

Filed under: Farming, Food Politics

GMO Alfalfa is Officially Approved

COMMENTS 132

by Jason Best, Posted Jan 31st 2011 @ 1:00PM

alfalfa in a field Photo: daryl_mitchell, Flickr

Got organic milk? Maybe not for long.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced its approval of "unrestricted planting" of genetically modified alfalfa sold by Monsanto, according to The Atlantic. So what does that have to do with organic milk?

Cows eat more alfalfa hay than anything else, and as a crop, alfalfa is what The Atlantic calls "notoriously promiscuous." Bees and other insects can spread alfalfa pollen for up to five miles, meaning it's only a matter of time before the unrestricted GMO alfalfa cross-pollinates with non-GMO varieties.

Filed under: Farming, Food Politics

Organic Milk Beats Conventional Milk for Nutrition, Says UK Study

COMMENTS 27

by Jan Ellen Spiegel, Posted Jan 19th 2011 @ 4:00PM

organic milk bottle Photo: sarah sosiak, Flickr

It's long been exasperating to the organic food industry -- the oft-stated belief that organic food is most notable for what it doesn't give you – all those yummy pesticides and chemicals. Nutritionally, common wisdom goes, organic food is no better for you than the conventional stuff.

Maybe not.

A study by researchers at Newcastle University,in England, published in the Journal of Dairy Science, has poked a hole in that thinking, showing that organic milk does have some nutritional advantages over conventional -- less saturated fat and more "good" fatty acids -- specifically omega-3s.

Testing 10 organic and 12 conventional milks sold in British grocery stores (not raw at the farm), seasonally over two years, lead researcher Gillian Butler found the organic milk more consistently showed healthier fat levels, which she believes is a result of the cows' greater reliance on grazing and their ingestion of larger amounts of clover -- typically planted in organic operations for the nitrogen that conventional fertilizers would otherwise provide.

Filed under: Science, Farming, Health & Medical

Egg Prices Falsely Inflated, Says Grocers Group

COMMENTS 46

by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Jan 12th 2011 @ 4:00PM

egg cartons Photo: bfraz, Flickr

As if we didn't have enough reason to distrust our egg supply (remember the recall in November?), now we know why prices have gone up. And grocery wholesalers are suing.

Word is, four industry trade groups -- United Egg Producers, United Egg Association, United States Egg Marketers and the Missouri Egg Council -- conspired to manipulate supply to increase demand, thereby falsely inflating the price of eggs in the U.S. The prominent egg producers include Land O'Lakes, Cal-Maine Foods, Hillandale Farms and Ohio Fresh Eggs, among 14 others, according to a press release sent out by prosecuting firm Stueve Siegel Hanson, representing Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc, among six others.

In order to cut down on supply, producers allegedly agreed to kill off hens, which resulted in at least a 40 percent increase in egg prices in 2008, reports the L.A. Times from the following civil complaint filed by Sodexo Inc. The trade groups also increased exports (to further dwindle U.S. supply) and reduced the number of hens per cage, which they marketed as a move towards animal health. That's just wrong.

The plan is said to have gone down as early as 1999, says The Kansas City Star (home of the lawsuit), and since then, egg prices have more than doubled, with a peak of $2.20 per dozen in March 2008 from $1 a dozen in March 2002.

Filed under: Farming, Business, Food News

Strawberry Pesticide Approved: Fruit Lovers, Beware

COMMENTS 5

by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Jan 10th 2011 @ 3:00PM

strawberry plants Photo: phoenixlily, Flickr

The newest pesticide to be approved? It's a nasty one. Methyl iodide, for use on strawberry fields. The highly reactive stuff has been deemed toxic and carcinogenic but is now licensed in 47 states, including, most recently, California, where most of our country's strawberries are grown. Environmental groups and farmworkers are in an uproar.

The San Francisco Chronicle notes that even though "more than two dozen California legislators and 54 scientists, including six Nobel laureates," signed a letter opposing registration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved of the pesticide as an alternative to methyl bromide "which was being phased out because it was found to damage the ozone layer" back in 2007.

California approved use of the chemical late last month, right before Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger left office, but opposing groups -- "Earthjustice and California Rural Legal Assistance Inc. on behalf of the United Farm Workers of America and several pesticide reform groups" -- filed suit on account of an "irresponsible and illegal" decision by the state to approve such a toxic product, which "violates the California Environmental Quality Act, the California Birth Defects Prevention Act and the Pesticide Contamination Prevention Act."

Produced by Arysta Life-Science Corp, methyl iodide is said to be injected into the ground and can be applied to the plant and the fruit but claims no detectable effect on the fruit. Farmworkers feeling the burning effects in their eyes and throats would disagree.

Filed under: Farming, Food Politics

Kiss Bananas Good-bye?

COMMENTS 21

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Jan 4th 2011 @ 2:00PM

bananas Photo: Getty Images

Should you prepare to buy your last bunch of bananas? According to a recent story in The New Yorker, the answer may be yes. The problem (which has also been deftly reported by writer Craig Canine, in Gourmet magazine and in an award-winning 2005 story for Smithsonian), is that growers have been relying on a single variety, the Cavendish and its genetic clones. What happens when you have a crop without genetic diversity? A disease, such as fungus Tropical Race Four, which is now running rampant, can take down an entire fruit. It wouldn't be the first time.

The Cavendish became popular with good reason: "They are the only variety that provides farmers with a high yield of palatable fruit that can endure overseas trips without ripening too quickly or bruising too easily," says New Yorker writer Mike Peed. Canine, who visited a Belgian lab that houses the world's largest collection of banana varieties, tasted some of the varieties that may one day replace the Cavendish, including the Yangambi Km5, which just so happens to be hundreds of years old. "When I tasted it, I imagined I was tasting the future," Canine wrote.

So will we be eating the Yangambi 5 on our Corn Flakes in a few years?

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Filed under: Farming, Food News, Food Politics

So Where's The Good Beef? Five Labels For The Humanely Raised

COMMENTS 2

by Jessie Cacciola, Posted Dec 24th 2010 @ 1:00PM

beef meat counter Photo: brian.ch, Flickr

Ever since man made the crossbow, he decided it a necessary evil to kill or raise an animal for food. It's not something most of us think about much since few of us need to do it ourselves. But the more that recalls, seedy reports and gruesome videos surface, like the recent undercover clips at Smithfield Foods, we're reminded that we very much need to be aware of where our meat comes from and how the animals are treated before they become ribs, steaks and drumsticks. Or how chickens are housed and treated while producing the eggs that will become tomorrow's omelet.

That's a lot easier now. There are at least five labels out there letting consumers know which meat comes from humanely raised livestock. And thanks to a new report (.pdf) released this week by Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC), each organization's standards have been categorized in a comparison chart so we know exactly what conditions are factored in to warrant certification for cattle, chickens and pigs. This includes air quality, slaughter method and whether livestock are finished on feedlots. They even specify how many hours a chicken should have darkness (because under fluorescent lights, chickens continue to eat if they think it's day, and factory farms love to fatten chickens in a hurry).

HFAC/Certified Humane and Animal Welfare Approved require the most humane practices and are the most transparent (with no conflicts of interest) of the five labels, which also include USDA/Organic, American Humane Certified and Global Animal Partnership (that is, Whole Foods Market).

Filed under: Farming, Health & Medical