NEWS

*Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned

I can’t say how this article made me feel except that I wish every person in America would read it and consider the ramifications of a system where a foods safety is based, not on its quality, but on its relative content of pathogens. Eight years ago, federal officials were struggling to remove potentially deadly E. coli from hamburgers when an entrepreneurial company from South Dakota came up with a novel idea: injecting beef with ammonia. Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the company’s ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli “to an undetectable level.” They decided it was so effective that in 2007, when the department began routine testing of meat used in hamburger sold to the general public, they exempted Beef Products.

*Pressure rises to stop antibiotics in agriculture

Some U.S. lawmakers are fighting for a new law that would ban farmers from feeding antibiotics to their animals unless they are sick. Farmers and drugmakers are battling back. Pharmaceutical companies have spent $135 million lobbying so far this year, and agribusiness companies another $70 million, on a handful of issues including fighting the proposed new limits.

*Artificial Sweeteners Could Make You Gain Weight
A study by scientists in the US suggests that eating artificial sweeteners could make people put on weight because experiments on laboratory rats showed that those eating food sweetened with artificial sweeteners ate more calories than their counterparts whose food was sweetened with normal sugar.
*Bringing Fresh Produce to the Corner Store
cities are implementing programs to promote consumption of fresh foods in areas with less access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
*Jamie Oliver Puts America’s Diet on a Diet
[Jaime Oliver] has made it his mission in recent years to break people’s dependence on fast food, believing that if they can learn to cook just a handful of dishes, they’ll get hooked on eating healthfully.
*Health Ills Abound as Farm Runoff Fouls Wells
How feedlots can endanger our health.