When might it be punishable to report a criminal activity? When it takes place inside a poultry warehouse, slaughterhouse, or on a cattle feedlot. That's the upshot of a new wave of so-called "ag-gag" bills passed in state legislatures around the nation, the latest of which, AB 343, was introduced...

The Farm Bill is a 700-page hodgepodge of laws, regulations, guidelines and payouts covering all manner of U.S. agriculture, conservation and nutrition programs. And by the end of September, Congress is supposed to re-authorize this mess, or some variant of it, for another five-plus years.

A rational, coherent blueprint for...

From the cream in our Monday morning coffee to the roast chicken at Sunday night dinner, we accrue an incalculable debt to food animals. We depend on them for nourishment. We gather festively around the cooking of a turkey or ham during holidays. Yet many people do not realize that...

In late April, a trio of Republican senators -- John McCain (AZ), Saxby Chambliss (GA), and Pat Roberts (KS) -- wrote an angry letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, debunking a recent USDA program called "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food." This initiative distributes grant money and...

The Child Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization by September 30. This is a federal government policy that sets the rules and standards and uses tax dollars to -- among other things -- provide a daily reimbursement for school lunches. Right now this...

It seems like not a week goes by without industrial animal food production somehow making headlines -- the H1N1 flu pandemic, astounding meat recalls, high levels of arsenic in chicken feed, or any of a dozen other concerns. One recent story that should have generated some rather large waves, however,...

Amidst the euphoria swirling around this historic inauguration was the passing of Norwegian philosopher, Arne Naess, on January 13. Perhaps best known for coining the term "Deep Ecology," Naess was one of Europe's most well respected and prolific philosophers of the 20th century. His writings and lectures spanned Spinoza, the...

The American public's demands for a radical new direction in the country's food and farm policy are beginning to gain some rather serious volume. It's a new year, a new administration is assembling, and the unrequited expectations of the last eight years are being...