Agribusiness

The Shah Appointment at USAID

Mira Kamdar | Posted 11.16.2009 | Green

Read More: John F. Kennedy, Usaid, Clinton Global Initiative, Food Crisis, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Obama, Hillary Clinton, United States, Cold War, Rockefeller Foundation, Rajiv Shah, Gates Foundation, Foreign Policy, Green News
Mira Kamdar

With the appointment of Rajiv Shah to head USAID, it's deja-vu all over again for the Obama administration. Welcome to Camelot redux, the 1960's re-engineered for the 2010s.

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Women Farmers in the Developing World

Dan Silverstein | Posted 11.10.2009 | World

Read More: Unifem, Developing World, Women in Agriculture, Agra, World Bank, Tom Vilsak, Agribusiness, Micro-Finance, Department of Agriculture, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, African Development Bank, Gender Governance, Women, Grameen Bank, UNDevelopment Program, Food and Agricultural Organization, Sub-Saharan Africa, Agricultural Development, Decade for Women, Beijing Conference, Un, Green Heron Tools, Catherine Bertini, Gender Mainstreaming, Usaid, World Food Program, Dfid, World News
Dan Silverstein

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 80% of agricultural workers are women. According to the World Bank,They raise 90% of the food, but receive only 10% of credit extended for agricultural loans.

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Sustainable Agriculture: The Unrecognized Key to Reversing Climate Change

Andrew Kimbrell | Posted 11.12.2009 | Green

Read More: Barbara Boxer, Copenhagen 2009, John Kerry, World Bank, United Nations, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainability, Agribusiness, Climate Change, Gmo, Industrial Agriculture, Global Warming, Green News
Andrew Kimbrell

Even though research concludes that industrial agriculture is one of the major contributors to global warming, neither international nor U.S. domestic policies are adequately addressing this sector.

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Big Ag To Sway Ohio Voters On Treatment Of Farm Animals

Mother Jones | Kevin Drum | Posted 11.02.2009 | Green

Read More: Food Production, Big Ag, Agribusiness, Caged Animals, Humane Treatment of Animals, Meat Industry, Ohio, Food Politics, Issue 2, Green News

Ohio voters will hit the polls Tuesday to decide the fate of an agribusiness-backed proposal that would amend the state constitution and create a boar...

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VIDEO: Vote Against Corporate Agribusiness

Bob Cesca | Posted 11.02.2009 | Green

Read More: Department of Agriculture, Issue 2, Regulations, Lobbyists, Organic Food, Ohio, Factory Farms, Food, Agribusiness, Corporations, Green News
Bob Cesca

Issue 2 will amend Ohio's state constitution to create a small regulatory panel to oversee all of Ohio's livestock. Corporate agribusinesses love the idea, but family farms will be crushed.

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We Can't Reform Health Care without Reforming Food

Bob Cesca | Posted 10.29.2009 | Green

Read More: Big Food, Issue 2, Animal Rights, Humane Society, Rick Berman, Agriculture, Ohio, Illegal Immigration, Center for Consumer Freedom, Human Trafficking, Farms, Corporations, Rachel Maddow, Health Care Reform, Agribusiness, Food, Politics and Food, Health Care, Food Politics, Green News
Bob Cesca

Without any real changes in how our food is produced, the health care system will continue to bloat and fall apart. Not unlike the insides of an average American body.

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The Adventure of the Strangled Gulf

John DeCock | Posted 10.15.2009 | Green

Read More: Fertilizer, Agribusiness, Pesticides, Ethanol, Ocean Dead Zones, Toxics, Dead Zone, Green News
John DeCock

I requested of Holmes an elucidation as to how residents of the rural Midwestern United States could be responsible for a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. "It's elementary," he said with aplomb.

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Vilsack Mistakenly Pitched "GMOs-Feed-The-World" to an Audience of Experts--Oops

Jeffrey Smith | Posted 10.14.2009 | Green

Read More: American Academy of Environmental Medicine, Hans Herren, Ge, Secretary Vilsack, Iaastd, Bill Gates, Small Farmers, The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, GM Food, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Global Population, Usda, Dupont, Monsanto, Biotechnology, Hunger, World Food Prize, Union of Concerned Scientists, GE Food, Local Food Systems, GM Crops, Science and Technology for Development, GE Crops, Feed the World, Syngenta, Agribusiness, Community Food Security Coalition, Gmos, Vilsack, Genetically Modified Foods, Green News
Jeffrey Smith

It is clear to the experts that the current generation of GMOs do not live up to the hype continuously broadcast by biotech companies and their promotional East Coast wing--the federal government.

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Global Harvest Initiative Seeks Not to Feed People, But to Bolster Big Agriculture's Profits

Paula Crossfield | Posted 11.22.2009 | Green

Read More: Dupont, Hunger, Monsanto, Global Harvest Initiative, Dan Glickman, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Richard Lugar, Adm, Norman Borlaug, Green News
Paula Crossfield

Hunger looks on the surface to be the most bipartisan policy issue on our collective plates. We can all agree to the fact that hunger today is a global tragedy. But from there the discussion diverges.

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The Payoff Patriots

Vanessa Carmichael | Posted 11.11.2009 | Politics

Read More: Taxes, Federal Bailouts, Farm Bill, Federal Budget Deficit, Corn, Health Care Reform, Agribusiness, Health Care, Federal Budget, Politics News
Vanessa Carmichael

While many in the heartland fashion themselves as fiscally conservative, the reality of federal spending tells a different story.

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Growing Businesses in African Soil

Dan Silverstein | Posted 09.28.2009 | Business

Read More: G8, Trade Missions, Sub-Saharan Africa, Agricultural Development, Agricultural Policy, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Agribusiness, World Food Programme, UN Office for Partnerships, Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary, Usaid, World Economic Forum, Fao, State Universities, Land Grant Colleges, Business News
Dan Silverstein

It's in our own self-interest to jump start agricultural development with the goal of creating markets for ourselves.

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Healthcare and Food Policy: Part of the Same Conversation

Paula Crossfield | Posted 08.27.2009 | Green

Read More: Robert Reich, Lobbyists, Food Policy, Agribusiness, Health Insurance, Subsidies, Healthcare Reform, Single Payer, Barack Obama, Healthcare, Campaign Finance, Bill Moyers, Green News
Paula Crossfield

The critics of single-payer are either paid to tell you this, or are brainwashed by the multi-million dollar lobbying and advertising paid for by insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry.

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An Interview With Nick Reding, Author of Methland

Patrick Sauer | Posted 08.20.2009 | Media

Read More: Nick Reding, Iowa, Methamphetamine, Meth, Politics, Agribusiness, Pharmaceutical Industry, Big Pharma, Big Ag, Farming, Local Food, Local Farmers, Frank Rich, New York Times, Methland, Oelwein, Media News
Patrick Sauer

Oelwein is a microcosm of small town everywhere, but Methland shows that the drug abuse is a symptom, not the cause, of the deeply ingrained problems facing rural America.

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Making Sure Our Antibiotics Work

Rep. Louise Slaughter | Posted 08.08.2009 | Politics

Read More: Antibiotic Resistance, House of Representatives, Superbugs, Mrsa, Agriculture, Antibiotics, Louise Slaughter, Agribusiness, Industrial Agriculture, Pamta, Politics News
Rep. Louise Slaughter

We are losing the ability to treat human infections and diseases because we have misused one of the greatest scientific products ever created.

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Could This Be Africa's Next Cash Crop?

Lola Olley | Posted 07.30.2009 | World

Read More: Uganda, Developing World, Africa, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Bill-and-Melinda-Gates-Foundation, Burundi, Kenya, Congo, Rwanda, World News
Lola Olley

Cassava can be made into everything from flour to tapioca and could create a positive domino effect in Africa with economic empowerment leading to a reduced need for foreign food aid.

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Thinking Outside the Box on Health Care Reform

Barry Sears | Posted 07.27.2009 | Living

Read More: Diet Tips, Dieting, Corn, Health, Big Corn, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Diet, Health Care, Industrial Agriculture, Living News
Barry Sears

With all the rhetoric about health care reform, no one seems to have asked the question, "Why are Americans so sick in the first place?"

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How Sweet It Is... Brazil's Sugar Ethanol Fuels China's Recovery

Eric Ehrmann | Posted 07.20.2009 | World

Read More: Brazil, Sugar Ethanol, Obama, Opec, Monroe Doctrine, Wal-Mart, Big Oil, Jim Owens, Agribusiness, Wto, Robert Zoellick, Ethanol, Caterpillar, Iraq, Hillary Clinton, China, Hugo Chavez, Petrobras, Imf, Energy, World News
Eric Ehrmann

Ethanol trade has helped make China Brazil's top trade partner, replacing Uncle Sam, who had been top dog ever since Herbert Hoover was in the White House.

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Message to Obama: Bust-up the Agribusiness Trusts

Paula Crossfield | Posted 06.21.2009 | Green

Read More: Anti-Trust, Gmos, Trust-Busting, Factory Farms, Agribusiness, Food Safety, Barack Obama, Monsanto, Green News
Paula Crossfield

Cargill, ADM, Monsanto, Tyson and Smithfield are probably breaking the law, and that law needs to be enforced.

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Guns, Germs, and Squeals

Joseph LeDoux | Posted 06.12.2009 | Living

Read More: Farmer's Markets, Brain, Brains, Swine Flu, Agribusiness, Rodeo, Green Living, Childhood Memories, USDA Policy, Memory, Cajun Food, Living News
Joseph LeDoux

I learned what a brain was by digging bullets out of them as a kid in my father's meat market. That was before mad cow disease, when most people thought cow brains were a tasty delight.

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Not Swine Flu, Not H1N1 Virus -- Introducing Factory Farm Flu 1

John DeCock | Posted 06.08.2009 | Green

Read More: Agribiz, Factory Farming, Cafos, Swine Flu, Cafo, Factory Farms, Agribusiness, Meat, H1n1, Green News
John DeCock

The name Factory Farm Flu 1 is less than accurate; many diseases have been transmitted from animals to humans by Confined Animal Feeding Operations. But we have to start somewhere.

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It's Time to Take the Pharma Out of Farming

Steve Ells | Posted 04.25.2009 | Green

Read More: Farming, Food Matters, Politics of Food, Sustainable Food, Agriculture, Antibiotics, Farm Animals, Chipotle, Agribusiness, Sustainable Agriculture, Food, Animals, Meat, Industrial Agriculture, Green News
Steve Ells

Antibiotic use is not a prerequisite to life on the farm, but rather a threat to life itself. Let's preserve these drugs for the sick animals and humans who need them.

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Tomorrow's Info Today: Staying Ahead of the News Cycle

Randall Amster | Posted 04.12.2009 | Media

Read More: The Future, Future, Media News, Unified Theory, Information Overload, Green Collar Economy, Green Jobs, Rush Limbaugh, Current Events, Economy, Victory Gardens, Information Age, The Commons, Teleportation, Recession, Star Trek, Nature, Privatization, Agribusiness, Robotics, Gardening, Gmo, Robots, Vulture Capitalism, Humor, Speculation, New Media, Humor and Satire, Media News
Randall Amster

From now on, I will only get my news from future-based sources, and thus seek to remain ahead of the curve. Outlandish, you say? Impossible? You are obviously so behind the times.

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Obama's Choice of Vilsack: AgriBusiness as Usual at USDA?

Andrew Kimbrell | Posted 01.23.2009 | Politics

Read More: President Obama, Tom Vilsack, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Obama Picks Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary, Iowa Governor Agriculture Secretary, Obama's Cabinet, Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary, Barack Obama, Politics News
Andrew Kimbrell

Today, the lukewarm reception Vilsack initially received has turned into real heat as the Obama transition team finds itself in the fire over the former Governor's appointment.

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Philippines: Local Farmers Battle Agribusiness Corporations Over Aerial Spraying Case

Profits Vs Public Health | Posted 01.23.2009 | World

Read More: Davao Province, Local Food, Sigatoka, Aerial Spraying Philippines, Local Food Movement, Agribusiness, Asia, Philippines, Local Farmers, Ashley Dupre, World News

MANILA, Dec 23 (IPS) - Cecilia Moran never thought that she would one day have to give up farming owing to poor health. She grew up helping her father...

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Maybe Vilsack Won't Suck?

Kerry Trueman | Posted 01.18.2009 | Green

Read More: Monsanto, Biofuels, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, Obama's Cabinet, Denise O'Brien, Agribusiness, Sustainable Agriculture, Ethanol, President Obama, Obama Picks Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary, Iowa Governor Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary, Obama Cabinet, Tom Vilsack and Barack Obama, Green News
Kerry Trueman

I honestly don't know what to make of the Vilsack nomination, so I asked Denise O'Brien, the organic farmer who ran for Iowa's Secretary of Agriculture in 2006, to share her invaluable Iowan insights.

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