Food and Farming
Eat Real
Is it just my friends, or is nearly everyone on an absurd diet these days? One friend says she's on a "primal" diet. She's trying to eat like cavemen and will devour wild game when she can get it. Another goes on a month-long "detox" fast each year. Somehow, he...
Casting a Spotlight on Frankenfoods
Do you have a right to know how your food is produced? Look at any label on something made for human consumption. Whether it's a bite-sized candy bar, a box of cereal, or a gallon of pickles, you'll see lots of information: a list of ingredients, allergen warnings,...
Catching Monsanto’s Drift
Bob Dylan once sent a two-word lyric to Ben Harper, a talented songwriter he admired. "Well well," was the lyric, and Dylan challenged Harper to make a song of it. He did! By adding another "well" to the title, Harper wrote "Well, well, well" — a stinging lament about...
A Rotten Bacon Behemoth
American consumers may not even notice the change if a newly proposed takeover by China's largest meat processor of our nation's leading pork company goes through. But the $4.7 billion transaction would certainly show up on our plates: in the form of farmer...
Feeding the Economy
I never paid much attention to the food stamp debate in Congress before. But I'm on food stamps myself these days, so I'm tuning in this time around. Officially called SNAP — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — food stamps are one of those things that...
A Frog-Jumping Double Standard on Food Subsidies
I'll bet that Mark Twain, who wrote "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," would've loved a current saga. I call it "The Jumping Congress Critter of Frog Jump." The critter's name is Representative Stephen Fincher. He's a millionaire, agribusiness...
Food Stamps SOS
How I Fell for Farmers’ Markets
I'll never forget the first time I went to a farmers' market. I hated it. Like many who buy food only from the grocery store, I didn't realize that local farmers can't produce every food all year round. I didn't expect pineapples or anything, but the extremely limited...
Faking Farm Savings
Sometimes it appears common sense and reality can't penetrate the Capitol's marble-lined walls. This financially costly phenomenon struck when both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees recently passed their versions of the Farm Bill. Instead of debating where...
Censoring Our Food
Standing outside a slaughterhouse in Draper City, Utah, Amy Meyer was horrified by what she saw. Cows struggled to stay out of the plant and employees hauled one cow that appeared sick or injured in a tractor. While standing on public property, Meyer pulled out her...
