meat
Put cancer warning on processed meat, consumer group asks USDA
Pointing to a WHO agency finding that processed meat is "carcinogenic to humans," the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned USDA to require a cancer warning label on packages of bacon, ham, hot dogs and other processed red meat and poultry. Michael Jacobson, leader of the consumer group, said chances are slim the incoming Trump administration will agree with the petition, "but at CSPI we're used to taking the long view."
World food prices tick upward for third month in a row
Sharply higher prices for cheese, butter and sugar pushed up the FAO Food Price Index by 0.7 percent, continuing an unbroken rise from July. The index, which tracks prices for five groups of foods, has been on the rise throughout this year and is now 9 percent higher than one year ago.
The future of ‘meat’: A Q&A with Bruce Friedrich
Bruce Friedrich is executive director of the Good Food Institute, which collaborates with scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors to develop and promote plant-based alternatives to meat, milk and eggs. FERN’s Kristina Johnson called Friedrich to ask him about the future of plant-based proteins.
‘Single origin’ cuts take a small slice of meat market
It could be capsulized as "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Steak." At the meat counter and online, retailers "are taking the local food craze to new heights," says the Wall Street Journal, by selling cuts of meat that can be traced to an individual animal on a specific farm. It's called "single origin" meat.
Average grocery tab will be 8-percent cheaper this fall, says AFBF survey
When the largest U.S. farm group sent 59 shoppers into supermarkets to check the prices of food for a fall meal, they found the tally, on average, was down by a surprisingly large eight percent from a year ago.
How many CAFOs are in the U.S? It’s anyone’s guess.
Due to privacy laws that have stymied regulators, no one can say for sure how many CAFOs are in the U.S., much less how large the animal operations really are, says Inside Climate News. “Thousands of industrial farms across the country release contaminants into the nation's water and airways, but in many states like North Carolina, the public has limited access to information about them."
China tries to improve its rep with animal-welfare guidelines
Chinese officials in Shangdong Province have ratified the country’s first government-backed recommendations for how to slaughter chickens, says the New York Times. The guidelines, which were are not mandatory, are both an attempt to quell activists’ concerns and corner the export poultry market, which increasingly calls for more humane animal production.
A meatpacking worker’s life is worth ’embarrassingly’ little
The fines for safety lapses are so low that meatpacking companies have little incentive to improve working conditions, says a story by Harvest Public Media on NPR. When Ralph Horner, an employee at JBS’s Greeley, Colorado beef facility was caught on a conveyer built and chocked to death, JBS paid just $38,500 in fines. And that was more than most cases, according to Herb Gibson, director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Denver office, which sends inspectors to the massive Greeley plant. Every day, the plant’s 3,000 employees process roughly 5,600 head of cattle.
Superbug heralds ‘truly pan-drug resistant bacteria’
A gene that protects bacteria against the last-resort antibiotics used against disease in humans "has been found in the United States for the first time — in a person and, separately, in a stored sample taken from a slaughtered pig," said Maryn McKenna at National Geographic's Germination Blog. Defense Department researchers say in a scientific journal the discovery "heralds the emergence of truly pan-drug resistant bacteria."
Muslim workers suing Cargill over right to pray
In Fort Morgan, Colorado 130 former employees at a Cargill meatpacking plant are suing the company for religious discrimination, says The New York Times.
Biggest food and farming stories of 2015 will roll into next year
Looking back on 2015, editors at FERN listed more a dozen newsworthy stories from the year that could have lasting effects. Here's a look at them, starting with half a dozen top-tier developments, including the FDA's approval of the first genetically engineered animal.
Cooking temperatures may raise cancer risk
Researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center say diets high in meat may lead to an increased risk of the most common kind of kidney cancer through consumption of carcinogenic compounds created by cooking techniques such as barbecuing and pan frying.
WHO cancer rating amplifies message to limit meat intake
The identification of processed meat and red meat as cancer hazards buttresses public health recommendations to limit meat consumption, said the director of the WHO agency that investigated meat. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans" - its strongest ranking - and red meat as "probably carcinogenic to humans," the second-strongest ranking. The meat industry disputed the evidence and accused IARC of scare-mongering.
WHO agency finds cancer hazard in processed and red meat
The WHO's cancer agency, in a decision certain to intensify the debate over the American diet, classified processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans" and red meat as "probably carcinogenic to humans."
China to pursue richer diet despite slowing economy
Chinese consumers are eating more and more meat - per capita consumption soared by 24 percent in the past decade, says a report by PwC UK. An additional 30-percent rise would be needed to match the consumption rates in Taiwan of 74 kg a year, "a realistic long-term extrapolation."
Researcher attempts to grow chicken meat in a lab
A bioengineer at Tel Aviv University "is midway through an experiment that could end in a recipe for the world's first lab-grown chicken breast," says Civil Eats. "If all goes according to plan, no chickens will be harmed in the process."
South Africa unfair to U.S. chicken and pork, say ag groups
Trade groups speaking for U.S. chicken and hog farmers asked the government to withdraw, or at a minimum restrict, trade benefits for South Africa until it provides more access for U.S. meat imports, reports Feedstuffs.
JBS in deal to buy Cargill’s pork farms and packing plants
The giant Brazilian meatpacker JBS, a relative newcomer to North America, will buy the pork operations of agribusiness rival Cargill for $1.45 billion, the companies announced.
Reports of three new human cases of bird flu include California child
Arizona health officials said two workers employed at poultry farms have recovered from mild cases of bird flu while the public health agency in Marin County, north of San Francisco, said it was investigating a possible bird flu infection of a child. If confirmed by the CDC, the U.S. total for bird flu infections would rise to 61 people in eight states this year.