Tag Archives: USDA

White House Meeting Elicits Pledges to Reduce Antibiotic Use

Posted on by
Reply

The Obama administration convened representatives of hospitals, food producers, professional medical societies and restaurant chains on Tuesday and extracted pledges to reduce the use of lifesaving antibiotics, whose effectiveness is waning because of overuse.

The meeting at the White House highlighted the problem of antibioticresistance, a public health crisis that every year kills at least 23,000 of the more than two million Americans who fall ill from infections that are impervious to the drugs.

The event was part of a series of efforts that began in the fall whenPresident Obama’s science advisers announced a national strategy to curb the overuse of antibiotics. It was the first time a presidential administration had taken on the problem, but consumer advocates said the strategy so far has fallen short of getting tough on antibiotic use in agriculture.

The FDA Bans Trans-Fats in Restaurants

Posted on by
Reply

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue restrictions this month to snuff out the artery-clogging fats that ex-Mayor Mike Bloomberg banned in New York City eateries nearly a decade ago, sources say.

It was Bloomberg who led the charge to ban trans-fats, which have been outlawed in NYC restaurants since 2006.

You Can’t Always Trust a Title – The Good News About E. Coli Food Poisoning

Posted on by
Reply

Fewer Americans are getting sick from a nasty germ sometimes found in undercooked hamburgers, the government reported Thursday.

The latest report card on food poisoning shows illnesses from a dangerous form of E. coli bacteria have fallen 20 percent in the last few years

Egg Farms Hit Hard as Bird Flu Affects Millions of Hens

Posted on by
Reply

Yet again, another example of how they WAY in which we farm in the country exposes us to great risk.

Mr. Dean, a son of the founder of one of the country’s biggest egg producers, the Center Fresh Group, must kill and dispose of about 5.5 million laying hens housed in 26 metal barns that rise among the rolling corn and soybean fields here.

Deadly avian flu viruses have affected more than 33 million turkeys, chickens and ducks in more than a dozen states since December. The toll at Center Fresh farms alone accounts for nearly 17 percent of the nation’s poultry that has either been killed by bird flu or is being euthanized to prevent its spread.

The lasting and deepening of one company’s massive blunder

Posted on by
Reply

Blue Bell Creameries to Lay Off 1,450 Workers After Listeria Recall:

It’s easy to think that there is some big company lurking in the shadows getting in trouble for what they did and while that may or may not be true, what is real, is the lives of the people not only affected by the disease caused by the listeria outbreak, but also the lives of the workers that made the ice cream, who are now out of a job.

Blue Bell Creameries’ listeria crisis is bad news for ice cream lovers and for the company’s employees as well. Last month, Blue Bell voluntarily recalled all of its ice cream after it was found that some of the products contained Listeria, which resulted in ten illnesses and three deaths. Now, according to the USA Today, 1,450 of Blue Bell’s 3,900 person workforce will be laid off to help the company save money. 750 full-time employees will lose their jobs alongside 700 part-time workers. An additional 1,400 staff members will be furloughed. 

Big Meat: The indie butcher business grows up – Quartz

Posted on by
Reply

Big Meat: The indie butcher business grows up – Quartz.

 

It turns out the challenge facing the meat business doesn’t come from the consumer side. Americans like meat. They didn’t need a primal food craze to convince them of that. But in places where the animals don’t come with a provenance, the butchery trade doesn’t attract new entrants because the labor economics just plain suck.