Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture grew 14 percent in 20 years
Livestock accounted for slightly more than half of the 14 percent increase in global greenhouse gas emissions by agriculture from 2000 to 2021, said a Food and Agriculture Organization report on Wednesday. The carbon footprint of cattle and sheep was several times higher than the footprint for pigs, chickens, and dairy, when calculated per kilogram of product, said the FAO’s Statistical Yearbook, released on the eve of the UN climate summit.
Trump, Congress make it harder for CAFO neighbors to know what they’re inhaling
Recent actions by the GOP-controlled Congress and the Trump administration have exempted big livestock operations from reporting air emissions, according to the latest story from FERN, published with Mother Jones. (No paywall)
Rider puts USDA in charge of lab-grown meat
More than a century ago, Congress put the USDA in charge of meat safety, including regulation of slaughterhouses and packing plants. A rider on the USDA-FDA funding bill for fiscal 2019, scheduled for a House Appropriations Committee vote on Wednesday, would expand the USDA's food safety portfolio to cover lab-grown meat, variously called clean meat by proponents and fake meat by ranchers.
After three delays, USDA withdraws animal welfare rule for organic farms
The Agriculture Department carried out its plan, announced in the early months of the Trump administration, to kill a 2017 regulation that would have given livestock on organic farms more elbow room than factory farms routinely allow for chickens, hogs, and cattle.
An unlikely climate push in rural America
Hog giant Smithfield Foods has launched a program to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2025, but it is doing so largely by focusing on the fertilizer applications of its grain farmers. While that’s an important step, it also sidesteps the biggest source of the company’s emissions — its 19 million hogs, FERN’s latest story, in partnership with The WorldPost, reported. (No paywall)
Farm states sue Massachusetts over its livestock welfare law
Thirteen agricultural states filed suit in U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of overturning a Massachusetts law that effectively bans the sale of eggs, pork, and veal produced by farms that use “battery” cages for hens, sow crates in hog operations, and veal-calf stalls.
Sales of antibiotics for livestock drop for the first time, FDA data show
The amount of antibiotics sold for use in livestock in the United States has dropped for the first time since data collection began, according to FDA numbers. The data also show for the first time which types of meat animals are receiving the most antibiotics. (No paywall)
WHO urges drastic cuts in use of antibiotics in agriculture and aquaculture
In a major new statement about the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture, the World Health Organization is urging livestock agriculture and fish farming worldwide to sharply cut antibiotic use, reserving the precious drugs for animals that are sick and then choosing only antibiotics that are not important to human medicine. (No paywall)
Conventional agriculture wants to overturn organic livestock rule
The National Pork Producers Council, representing conventional agriculture, called on Congress and the incoming Trump administration to overturn a new USDA animal-welfare rule for organic farms, a small part of U.S. food production. House Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway said he hoped Trump officials "will immediately withdraw this rule but stand ready with my colleagues on the Hill to roll back the regulation if necessary."
Vilsack ‘can’t guarantee’ organic animal welfare regs will get done
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack hopes that new proposed organic regulations for animal welfare will be complete before President Obama leaves office in January, but isn't sure. “I’m hopeful that we get them done,” USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a report by Harvest Public Media. “I can’t guarantee that they’ll get done, but I’m hopeful they get done.”
USDA spells it out: Grass-fed beef comes from cattle fed only grass
Eight months after one USDA agency rescinded its standard for grass-fed beef, a sister agency published a "labeling guideline" — open to public comment for 60 days — that says the term is available only for beef from cattle "that were only (100 percent) fed grass (forage) after being weaned." A small-farm group said the step would "preserve the label's strong reputation."
UN makes historic commitment to fight antibiotic resistance
On September 21, the United Nations General Assembly took an historic step: It acted on the danger posed by antibiotic resistance, which is rising around the world, killing an estimated 700,000 people each year. The U.N. action was only the fourth time that the General Assembly, which usually addresses economic and social issues, had ever considered a health problem. Its all-day “high-level meeting,” in which representatives of 70 governments shared their concerns about controlling resistance, resulted in a commitment by all 193 member nations to begin working on the problem. The first step was to create a “coordination group” to bring all the international efforts in line.
FAO offers a helping hand in preventing antibiotic misuse
Antibiotics play a crucial role in treating disease in farm animals and plants, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in releasing an "action plan" to promote prudent use of antimicrobials. "Their use is essential to food security, to our well-being and to animal welfare," said the FAO, but the emergence of bacteria resistant to antibiotics is a threat to human health.
Bacterial strain found in U.S. that resists two last-ditch antibiotics
A patient treated at a New Jersey hospital carried a strain of E. coli bacteria that is resistant to colistin and carbapenem, two antibiotics that are administered as last-resort drugs against disease and infection. It was the first time that a resistance to two last-ditch antibiotics was found in the United States, and the detection "means there's likely more out there," says medical news site Stat.
Lower livestock prices darken expectations in farm country
Crop and livestock producers are less optimistic about the economic outlook for the farm sector, according to the Ag Economy Barometer sponsored by Purdue and the CME Group. The chief reason was a decline in cattle prices during May, said Purdue economist Jim Mintert.