State bills to require labeling of genetically engineered food are encountering a bumpy road. A house committee in Colorado heard five hours of testimony last week before voting to kill a GE food labeling bill by a 7-to-2 vote. The public hearing pitted the state’s agricultural interests against consumers favoring the “right to know.” A… Continue Reading
Opinion
For the fourth straight year, a bill that legalizes on-farm sales of unpasteurized milk or milk products directly to individuals has been introduced in the Iowa House. The bill, HSB131, would also allow the dairy farmer to deliver the unpasteurized milk to the consumer, as well as sell it at farmers markets. Current Iowa law… Continue Reading
Today Colorado’s Jared Polis will announce, outside a reborn organic retail store in Boulder, that he is introducing a federal bill in Congress to mandate the labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms in all 50 states. And next Tuesday, the Maryland House Health and Government Operations Committee will hold a public hearing on state… Continue Reading
A former manager at the Iowa farm responsible for the largest egg recall in history and the 2010 Salmonella outbreak that sickened nearly 2,000 people will plead guilty to conspiring to bribe a federal inspector to overlook health violations at the facility. Tony Wasmund, former employee of Wright County Egg — one of the two… Continue Reading
The company that took over Iowa’s two most troubled egg businesses now has food safety problems of it own to deal with at its recently acquired facilities. Centrum Valley Farms acquired all the Iowa egg production facilities formerly operated by Austin “Jack” DeCoster and his son Peter — site of the nation’s largest egg recall… Continue Reading
Utah this week became the second state to impose criminal sanctions against anyone taking photos or making videos inside factory farms without permission. Coming less than a month after Iowa became the first state to adopt a so-called “ag-gag” law, the Utah bill signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert is designed to thwart animal… Continue Reading
Four years ago, undercover video recorded workers on forklifts forcing “downer” cows into slaughter at the Hallmark and Westland meat plant in Chino, CA, which at the time was a top supplier to the National School Lunch program. The sting, by the Humane Society of the United States, put Hallmark and Westland out of business…. Continue Reading
The heartland states of Iowa and Indiana are entertaining changes to their raw milk laws, but with far differing approaches. In Iowa, which is bordered by Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota, lawmakers are considering allowing on-farm sales to make the state’s approach more consistent with its neighbors. The Indiana Assembly meanwhile is on… Continue Reading
Let this be the last word on the Iowa caucuses. Believe me, no one is happier to have this quadrennial event over. For years, we’ve seen presidential candidates from both parties go to Iowa and make like pigs, rolling around in the mud or doing any other trick to endear themselves with the Hawkeye caucuses. … Continue Reading
The multistate outbreak of listeriosis linked to cantaloupes now includes another death — this one in Wyoming — and a miscarriage in Iowa, along with another melon recall by a western New York distributor supplied by Colorado’s Jensen Farms. At the start of the week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had confirmed… Continue Reading
For the first time in five years, the state restaurant inspection posted on the wall at Taylor’s Maid-Rite in Marshalltown, IA does not contain an active “red” violation. In its most recent inspection on July 13, Taylor’s Maid-Rite was not written up for cross contamination in the cooking vessel it uses to make its… Continue Reading