All 193 UN states will sign a declaration today to fight the spread of drug-resistant 'superbugs', writes Alastair Kenneil. The problem is often blamed on over­prescription of antibiotics by doctors. But that's to ignore the massive use of antibiotics on animals in factory farms, both to prevent infection and to assist weight gain - turning farms into superbug breeding centres.
To stop antibiotic resistant superbugs, keep off factory farmed meat! Alastair Kenneil | 21st September 2016 Comment Health Farming Animal Welfare UK Un piglets behind bars-cut.jpg All 193 UN states …
Thousands of British farm animals are subjected to needless pain and distress - six times a day on average - as they are slaughtered according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
… the past two years, including instances of chickens being boiled alive and trucks of … afterwards. Inspectors recorded cases of chickens and pigs being immersed into tanks of … slaughterhouses already dead. In one case 574 chickens, from a load of 6,072 birds, died …
The purported mission of the Cornell Alliance for Science is to explain the science underlying biotechnology and GMOs, writes Jonathan Latham. So with a debate on the issue taking place tomorrow, 5th October, on the Cornell campus, how come CAS can't find a single speaker prepared to defend their zealously pro-GM stance?
GMO debate: why are Cornell biotech boosters 'chicken'? Jonathan Latham | 4th October 2016 Comment GMOs Health Farming Food Academia Finance chair-cut.jpg The purported mission of the Cornell …
Meat is responsible for about 30% of all 'wasted calories', writes Mike Berners-Lee, so with food causing a third of all greenhouse emissions, eating less meat is one of the most effective things we can do to reduce our climate impact. But no less important is to switch from high to low-impact meats - and to do all we can to cut food waste in our kitchens.
… meat producer, partly because chickens don't ruminate, or chew the cud …
Ethical Foodie chef TIM MADDAMS puts the blame for the animal welfare abuses we reported recently at the door of consumers who are turning a blind eye to the true cost of cheap meat
The Ethical Foodie: We should 'meat' less often... Tim Maddams | 4th October 2016 Comment Animal Welfare Meat Food And Farming Supermarkets Consumer Choice ethical foodie.jpg Ethical Foodie chef TIM …
In Brazil's microcephaly epidemic, one vital question remains unanswered: how did the Zika virus suddenly learn how to disrupt the development of human embryos? The answer may lie in a sequence of 'jumping DNA' used to engineer the virus's mosquito vector - and released into the wild four years ago in the precise area of Brazil where the microcephaly crisis is most acute.
… is routinely used to prevent infections in chickens, especially in the cheap, mass …
Birds eggs are wonderful, as Tim Birkhead makes clear in his new book. But they are also enigmatic, mysterious, their secrets not lightly surrendered. Every kind of egg is perfect in its own way, writes Martin Spray, but the logic that underlies their characteristic designs, colours and shapes eludes the most assiduous of oologists.
The most perfect thing - inside (and outside) a bird's egg Martin Spray | 7th June 2016 Reviews Birds Science the-most-perfect-thing-cut.jpg Birds eggs are wonderful, as Tim Birkhead makes clear in …
Oxford researchers have quantified the benefits of the world becoming vegetarian, writes Marco Springmann. Their study shows that simple changes - like moving to diets low in meat and high in fruit and vegetables - could lead to significant reduction in mortality and health care costs, while cutting food sector greenhouse gas emissions by two thirds.
… you healthier. That's obvious enough. But as chickens and cows themselves eat food and burn …
A coalition of fishing, consumer, and environmental groups are suing the FDA for its 'unlawful' approval of Aquabounty's GM salmon, as it relied on treating the fish as an 'animal drug' under a 1938 law, and ignored serious risks to wild salmon and fishing communities.
… engineered fish and shellfish, as well as chickens, cows, sheep, goats, rabbits and pigs …
A once quiet voice, hard to distinguish against the grinding machine of intensive food production is now shouting above the noise. LAURA BRIGGS reports on the growing interest in grass as a feeding option
… their cattle in feedlots, keeping their chickens in overcrowded sheds, and …
Hot on the heels of the recent revelations of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on UK meat, a new Early Day Motion in the House of Commons calls on supermarkets to prohibit 'routine mass-medication of livestock' in their supply chains, and commit to 'drastic reductions' in farm use of critically important antibiotics. Make sure your MP signs!
Supermarkets must act on farm antibiotics! Emma Rose | 11th October 2016 Comment Health Farming Consumerism Politics UK meat-cut.jpg Hot on the heels of the recent revelations of antibiotic-resistant …
There's no such thing as 'healthy food' if it's not produced by sustainable farming systems on living soils, Patrick Holden told the recent 'Food: The Forgotten Medicine' conference. But after 70 years of industrial farming, there's a huge job to be done to restore our depleted soils and the impoverished genetic diversity of our seeds and crops.
Good nutrition begins in healthy soils Patrick Holden | 7th September 2016 Comment Food Farming Health GMOs Pesticides jerusalem-arts-cut.jpg There's no such thing as 'healthy food' if it's not …
Star Wars' actress ‘Princess Leia' Carrie Fisher joined animal-loving celebrities & MP's to present a petition created by Humane Society International (HIS) and featuring almost 12 million signatures to The Chinese Embassy in London, requesting an end to the gruesome annual Yulin dog & cat eating festival in China.
Wildlife Presenter Anneka Svenska and actress Star War's Carrie Fisher join ‘forces' to stop Yulin Dog Meat Trade 8th June 2016 Activism Animal Rights China Activists Campaigning Animal Cruelty …
India's food system, essentially clean just a generation ago, has been comprehensively contaminated with sugar, bad fats, synthetic additives, GMOs and pesticides under the country's neoliberal 'great leap forwards', writes Colin Todhunter. The result? a surge in obesity, diabetes and cancer incidence, but no let-up in the under-nutrition of those too poor to join in the over-consumption.
… entire population was fed on native eggs and chickens produced by family farmers. Now, most …
If you want to make a difference to waste and the environment then you need to think about what you will eat when you're travelling - both for business and for pleasure. It won't be easy, it'll take some planning but the difference you make will be huge writes, TIM MADDAMS our New Voices Ethical Foodie columnist
The Ethical Foodie: Pack up and ship more ethically out? TIM MADDAMS | 24th August 2016 Comment Ethical Foodie Coffee Sustainble Eating Sandwiches Motorway Service Stations fresh sandwiches copy …
Rooted in the Andean principles of sharing, resilience and 'Vivir Bien' (Living Well), Bolivian activists in the world's highest capital city are building cooperative, grassroots alternatives to the profit-oriented economy, writes Sian Cowman. Their weekly lunch party is just the most visible way in which they are challenging the injustice of capitalism and the fragmentation it inflicts on communities.
Abundance for everybody - 'conscious food' supports a thriving urban activist community in Bolivia Sian Cowman | 20th July 2016 Ethical Living Bolvia Food Society Green Economy Indigenous Peoples the …
How do you solve a problem like deforestation? By a change of diet, writes Laura Kehoe. Scientists have discovered that we can feed the world and stop destroying forests by eating less meat. If we all went vegetarian that would reduce deforestation by 94%. And if we went the whole way to veganism enough land would be freed up for a new forest the size of the Amazon, and allow a widespread shift to organic farming systems.
… pigs require a grain to meat ratio of 9:1 and chickens, relatively less wasteful, are 3:1. …
The TTIP 'trade agreement between the US and the EU would devastate EU farms as it opens them up to competition from larger, less regulated US operations, writes Dario Sarmadi. This is the conclusion of a new study to be published tomorrow, which also finds that small-scale farmers would be the first to go - with the big winners the large agri-food corporations.
TTIP: the downfall of European agriculture? Dario Sarmadi EurActiv.de | 14th January 2016 News Trade Farming Food EU USA GMOs Economics Health german-farms-cut.jpg The TTIP 'trade agreement between …
With the coming of summer, South Korea's 'Boknal' dog-eating festival is under way, writes Anneka Svenska. Known for the extreme cruelty deliberately inflicted on dogs to improve the taste of their meat, Boknal is a barbaric relic rooted in ignorance and pseudo-medical superstition whose time is well and truly up.
Korea's disgusting dog-eating 'festival' must end Anneka Svenska | 11th July 2016 Comment Korea Food Health Animal Welfare dog-elixir2-cut.jpg With the coming of summer, South Korea's 'Boknal' …
Regulatory failures are allowing Danish pigs infected with lethal antibiotic-resistant bacteria into British farms, writes Andrew Wasley, with contaminated pork found in UK supermarkets, and three human infections recorded. The official response? Deny there's a problem, take no action, and hope for the best. Six people may have died from the bug in Denmark, but the UK is safe, surely?
… infection has been found in cattle, horses, chickens and turkeys, but pigs are the primary …
At a time when the Labour Party is discovering its egalitarian roots, inequality is as much of an issue in the countryside as in the city, states this 'Rural Manifesto' from the Land Workers Alliance and The Land. The neglect and exclusion of Britain's rural poor and landless farmers must end.
Equality in the countryside Land Workers Alliance The Land | 7th January 2016 Comment The Land Farming UK Politics rural.png At a time when the Labour Party is discovering its egalitarian roots, …
La Guajira, a dusty but spartanly beautiful region in Colombia's desert north is in the grips of a crisis. Climate change, desertification and water shortages have combined to create a perfect storm for the local rural community: a drought so severe some places did not feel a drop of rain for three years writes LAURA DIXON
… are dying. My grandma had sheep, goats, chickens, but what are we going to give them?" …
One of the biggest threats facing marine life is the 'microplastic' particles found in ocean ecosystems from bottom to top of food chains. Just back from a voyage of environmental exploration in the tropical Atlantic sampling the waters to build up a global picture of this ubiquitous pollutant, Ana Stanič writes of the joys and trials of life on the waves, and the need to keep our oceans clean.
In search of the unseen: an investigation into plastics in our oceans Ana Stanič | 21st February 2016 Ethical Living Oceans Pollution Waste Science 360-kmq.jpg One of the biggest threats facing …
The President-elect may be determined to lead America down an environmentally damaging path, writes Andrew J. Hoffman. But he may find few in the corporate world, where a growing number of major players are committed to eliminating CO2 emissions and making sustainability a core element of their business systems and supply chains, leading to global green transformation.
Trump, carbon neutrality and the next phase of business sustainability Andrew J. Hoffman University of Michigan | 14th December 2016 Comment Green Economy Fossil Fuels Climate Change Sustainability …