Mapping America’s Factory Farms
Food & Water Watch now proudly unveils the latest version of our Factory Farm Map, which charts the concentration of factory-farmed animals across the country.
It’s called the food “industry” for a reason. If you’ve seen Food Inc., you understand why. In that film, and here at Food & Water Watch, some careful analysis reveals the massive network of production and distribution that has become our food system. Thanks to advertising, marketing and fancy packaging, the images we create for ourselves of the places where our food comes from are often in direct contrast to the reality of where most of it is produced. Much of the time, we may be thinking farm, but we’re really getting factory.
Read the rest of this page »
Republicans and Democrats Unite Against GE Salmon
Today, as we await the results of elections that once again reflect the stark contrast between the ideologies of the Democratic and Republican parties, one issue has inspired bipartisan cooperation. Even in the face of midterm elections, both sides of the aisle have managed to set aside their differences to address a critical issue facing consumers. Democrats and Republicans alike are reminding the FDA that the public is not happy with their haphazard consideration of whether to approve genetically-engineered salmon — the first ever GE animal — for public consumption.
Read the rest of this page »
CNN Goes Consolidated Egg Shopping
CNN's Brian Todd interviews our own Patty Lovera, food director, about how food contamination—like the Wright Egg salmonella outbreak—can spread so quickly. None of the eggs in the background were affected by the recall.
The Wright County Egg recall has continued to raise interesting questions about food safety issues across our industrial food system. Various news stations have been contacting our offices for the past week to ask how food contamination can spread so quickly across the country. CNN’s Brian Todd asked our food director, Patty Lovera, to meet him at a grocery store just outside of downtown Washington, D.C., to discuss the recall (we’ll provide the link as soon as the story airs), so I tagged along.
Read the rest of this page »
A Bad Egg for Every American?
Investigations into a multi-state outbreak of salmonella have triggered a major recall of eggs involving 17 states and 380 million eggs—that's one bad egg per person in the United States.
By now, many of us have developed an unnatural but necessary fear of French toast, cake, omelets, egg salad sandwiches and more. Investigations into a multi-state outbreak of salmonella have triggered a major recall of eggs involving 17 states and 380 million eggs (one egg per person in the United States, plus several omelets), and those numbers could continue to grow. The affected eggs were packaged as far back as mid-May—an entire season ago.
Read the rest of this page »
Chicago: Rising Above the Twinkie
My first trip to Chicago! People are pretty food smart around here. (Fun fact: the largest public library in the world is Chicago’s Harold Washington Library Center. It contains over 2 million books.) Saturday was a day packed with locally grown food and community activities in the Chicago area. We started up north at the Downtown Evanston Farmers’ Market, where we set up bright and early for a series of cooking demonstrations that were scheduled throughout the morning. They definitely had one of the largest selections of the freshest and ripest produce I have ever seen at a farmer’s market. One farmer had 36 different varieties of European potatoes!
The cow has landed! The Chef Rocky Road Tour hits Chicago for a weekend of food activism.
Read the rest of this page »
Fair Farming in Ohio
The Rocky Road Crew visits Farmer Dick Jensen's Flying J Farms.
We had a blast in Pittsburgh yesterday, but the road show must go on. We got back on the highway early on Wednesday morning, and headed to Columbus. Hang on, Sloopy! (Ohio’s official state rock song.) Our first stop was at the Ohio State Fair, cow suits and all. (If you haven’t yet seen the cow suits, they are as versatile as they are refined.) The plan was to talk to fair-goers about the Department of Justice and USDA hearings being held this summer to investigate the lack of competition in agricultural markets. Needless to say, big agribusiness isn’t a fan.
Read the rest of this page »
Rocky Road Trippin’
Chef Rocky Barnette and some of our staff from the outreach team will be hitting the road for 11 days of food philosophy.
One of the best traditions of summertime is the road trip. At Food & Water Watch, our version is called the Chef Rocky Road Trip! Tomorrow, Chef Rocky Barnette and some of our staff from the outreach team will be hitting the road for 11 days of food philosophy. They are driving across the country to explore the current state of our food system by visiting a few farms and food festivals, cooking up some delectable recipes from sustainable ingredients, and talking to people about the policies and practices that affect our food choices—namely, the Farm Bill.
Read the rest of this page »
