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Fund Good Food The Kellogg Foundation announced $32 million worth of grants in the local food arena last week, to be spent over the next three years in nine communities across the country.
Or Not Many are disappointed by the results of the World Hunger Summit in Rome this week, where few leaders from wealthier countries [...]

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The shows (Bones and CSI: Miami) aren’t intended to be in-depth examinations of contemporary food production. But the stories include some good information about the ills of industrial ag – and we’re always glad when these issues percolate into the public consciousness.

Naturally, after viewing both programs, I felt compelled to pin them head-to-head in an epic showdown for the Best Industrial-Ag-Themed Cop Show Episode of 2009 Award.

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Can’t Reach the Summit Only one G8 leader has confirmed attendance at next week’s Hunger Summit in Rome (Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, who’s hosting) and many stakeholders are not impressed.
GM Export Snafus The EU doesn’t want our GMO soy (or anything else) but that’s not stopping traces of it from winding up in the feedbins of [...]

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Eating Animals, the searing indictment of factory farming that Jonathan Safran Foer spent three years painstakingly researching, has got the champions of cheap chuck circling their wagons and denouncing the celebrated novelist’s latest work as just another piece of fiction.
Chuck Jolley, writing for the Cattle News Network, even questions Foer’s very identity, describing him as [...]

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Processing —> Depression? A new study from London’s University College indicates that a diet high in processed foods may lead to depression.
Processing —> Diabetes? Diets high in processed meats “may increase the risk of developing type-2 diabetes by 40 per cent, according to a new meta-analysis from Norway and the US.” This article suggests that [...]

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No H1N1 here, but who would know? The Washington Post reports that pork producers are testing less for swine flu (as well as other infectious ailments, like MRSA) than they were before the virus made its global debut last spring. Hat tip to Tom Philpott @ Grist.

Welcome to Farmville, Pop: 62 million If your experience with the Facebook sensation is anything like mine, it’s been limited to “hiding” notices about friends’ wandering cows, and apparently, we’re missing out on something. Takeaway: Online faux farmers outnumber actual farmers 60 to 1.

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When I got there, I took a “field trip” out of Des Moines to a number of farms and I was struck by the conflicting feelings that the visual of miles upon miles of corn evoked in me. On the one hand, a pastoral wholesomeness that rang with my heart, though not with my head. On the other, the cliche: Children of the Corn. To be sure, while the Midwestern landscape is bereft of the overstimulation of the city and full of some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, there is also some creepy stuff going on there, namely an unhealthy amount of genetically modified corn and soy, a staggering number of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and a lot of industry influence.

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Can Local Food Fix the Economy? Wayne Roberts makes a strong case in the affirmative at Alternatives.

A COOL Introduction for US Dairy Farmers Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), along with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have introduced the Dairy COOL Act, which would add dairy products to the list of foods required to display Country of Origin Labeling. As the dairy industry has struggled to survive this year, signs point to a surge in imported dairy as one culprit in flagging prices.

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The No Impact Project week’s in full swing now, and those of us who’ve signed on are taking a closer look at our carbon “foodprint” today. So I asked Colin to tell us a bit more about his year-long adventure in ecological eating:

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Touché! Last week, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa took his reaction to Time magazine’s recent article “Getting Real About the High Cost of Cheap Food” (frankly, some of the best reporting I’ve seen from Time on food issues) to the Senate floor.  This week, the Center for a Livable Future let loose a fiercely factual [...]

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