Meat and milk from cloned animals is safe for human consumption, the US food regulator said in a draft ruling.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that cloned cattle, pigs and goats produced food “as safe as the food we eat every day”.
The recommendation, coming after a five-year study, is a major step towards allowing food from animals onto US supermarket shelves.
A public consultation period will take place before final approval is given. Opponents say a majority of US consumers are against animal cloning. Continue Reading »
The humble cow pat could become the latest weapon in the fight against global warming. An agricultural college is using methane from the muck produced by its dairy herd to power its working farm.
The dairy cows at Walford and North Shropshire College are housed for eight months a year and their dung is collected and pumped into a digester.
There it is converted into methane and used to power a generator. This produces enough energy to run the farm. Continue Reading »
From Rolling Stone Magzine…
Smithfield Foods, the largest and most profitable pork processor in the world, killed 27 million hogs last year. That’s a number worth considering. A slaughter-weight hog is fifty percent heavier than a person. The logistical challenge of processing that many pigs each year is roughly equivalent to butchering and boxing the entire human populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Columbus, Austin, Memphis, Baltimore, Fort Worth, Charlotte, El Paso, Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston, Denver, Louisville, Washington, D.C., Nashville, Las Vegas, Portland, Oklahoma City and Tucson.
Smithfield Foods actually faces a more difficult task than transmogrifying the populations of America’s thirty-two largest cities into edible packages of meat. Hogs produce three times more excrement than human beings do. The 500,000 pigs at a single Smithfield subsidiary in Utah generate more fecal matter each year than the 1.5 million inhabitants of Manhattan. The best estimates put Smithfield’s total waste discharge at 26 million tons a year. That would fill four Yankee Stadiums. Even when divided among the many small pig production units that surround the company’s slaughterhouses, that is not a containable amount. Continue Reading »
The climate in North America is moving northwards. This image from ArborDay.org shows changes to the USDA ‘hardiness’ zones: 
The ‘Bagpuss’ stripes show that most of the USA has warmed sufficiently to grow plants a whole ‘class’ more ‘tender’ than 16 years ago. This means that people in the northern continental states will now be able to grow fruiting peach trees, where previously their winters were too harsh.
“The new 2006 arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map is consistent with the consensus of climate scientists that global warming is underway.”
From BBC News website…
Traditional Cheddar cheese-makers say their future could be in doubt because the European Commission has banned them from using a pesticide.
They are angry that European legislation now prohibits them from using methyl bromide to kill mites. Continue Reading »
8% of water used by humans goes into livestock production
18% of global green gas emissions are generated by the livestock sector
20% of terrestial animal biomass is livestock
20% of pastures and rangelands are degraded by livestock
26% of ice-free land is occupied by livestock
30% of land once home to wildlife is now occupied by livestock
33% of cropland produces feed for livestock
37% of anthropogenic methane emissions are generated by the livestock sector
37% of pesticides are used in livestock production
50% of antibiotics are used in livestock production
65% of anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions comes from the livestock sector
70% of agricultural land is occupied by livestock
70% of deforested land is converted to pastures Continue Reading »
Globalization of livestock markets biggest single factor in erosion of farm animal diversity
15 December 2006, Rome – Around 20 percent of animal breeds are at risk of extinction, with one breed lost each month, FAO said today. (FAO = Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations)
Of the more than 7,600 breeds in FAO’s global database of farm animal genetic resources, 190 have become extinct in the past 15 years and a further 1,500 are considered at risk of extinction.
Some 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have been lost over the last five years, according to a draft document presented this week in Rome, when over 150 participants from more than 90 countries met at FAO headquarters to review the report’s findings and to discuss priorities for action to reverse the loss of animal genetic diversity worldwide. Continue Reading »
This is from a US-based website, and whilst it may be more of an immediate concern in the USA, we know that multinational biotech corps are putting immense pressure on UK and other EU governments to accept the GM arguments…
In every FDA (Food & Drug Administration - the US equivalent to our DEFRA) decision involving genetically modified foods, those making the decision were either former or future employees of the genetic-engineering companies. To determine the safety of these foods, the FDA typically just takes the word of the company.
Further, the FDA has increased the allowable residue of Roundup on crops by 330%. So Monsanto can make genetically engineered crops resistant to their toxic chemicals and sell more chemical as well as seeds. You get to eat both the genetically altered “food” and the added chemicals. What a scheme. Monsanto is making a killing on these seeds and chemicals. Continue Reading »
From the FAO (Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations)
Remedies urgently needed
29 November 2006, Rome - Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars?
Surprise!
According to a new report published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.
Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
With increased prosperity, people are consuming more meat and dairy products every year. Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tonnes in 1999/2001 to 465 million tonnes in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tonnes. Continue Reading »
The mainstream news is reporting that the UK Government, through Environment Secretary David Milliband, are considering personal carbon rationing. The BBC story reports “An annual allowance would be allocated, with [a carbon credit] card being swiped on various items such as travel, energy or food. … people who used less than their allowance could sell any surplus to those who wanted more.”
This kind of carbon rationing scheme was set out in detail by Mayer Hillman in his 2004 book How to Save the Planet - he calls carbon rationing ‘a gift horse’ which will improve our quality of life. The Green Party was the first to adopt carbon rationing as official policy (under the title ‘tradable quotas’). But the Green Party has signed up to the Contract and Converge framework - personal carbon quotas are just one possible element in putting C&C into practice.
Do our elected representatives have the political will to bring in effective climate change emissions controls? (Can they acknowledge past mistakes, and give credit where due?)