Ruminations

The U.S. FDA periodically reviews dietary guidelines, which seem to both confuse and enrage Americans about what they should be eating. Beginning in 1980, when the federal guidelines said to cut back on meat and dairy products, Americans did that. But we as a society are fatter and unhealthier than ever. What is a healthy diet? An article from the City Journal Website ponders this question.

The author, Steven Malanga, cites recent studies at the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, which found “no link between the amount of saturated fat that a person consumed and the risk of heart disease. … researchers at Harvard released their own analysis of data from 20 studies around the world, concluding that those who eat four ounces of fresh (not processed) red meat every day face no increased risk of heart disease. … According to Scientific American, growing research into carbohydrate-based diets has demonstrated that the medical establishment may have harmed Americans by steering them toward carbs.”

This is a very interesting article, and we wonder if returning to the foods that our grandparents ate might not be the best approach.

Here’s the link: http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_3_snd-dietary-guidelines.html

Filed by admin at 2:44 pm under Nutrition, Diet & Food Politics
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An article in the July 13 issue of the New York Times by Carl Zimmer reports on researchers’ study of microbes in the fight against diseases. Microbes are critical to our success as grass farmers as well.

An astonishing statistic is that we have more than ten times more microbes than human cells in our bodies. Yet, they are little understood. Now an international team of researchers are cataloging the DNA of these microbes.

Read more.

Filed by admin at 9:21 am under Uncategorized
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Dirt! The Movie is a film by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow and is inspired by William Bryant Logan’s acclaimed book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth. Find out how industrial farming, mining and urban development have led us toward cataclysmic droughts, starvation, floods and climate change. Dirt is a part of everything we eat, drink and breathe. That’s why we should stop treating it like, well, dirt.

Find out more at the film’s website: http://www.dirtthemovie.org/

Filed by admin at 8:37 am under Food Safety, Sustainable Agriculture & Policy
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In exciting news, researchers have shown that frozen semen can remain viable over extended periods. Specifically, scientists from LSU’s Ag Center have produced calves from Angus bull semen that was frozen for more than 40 years.

With such techniques, scientists have developed technologies that have improved the efficiency of livestock production. For example, insemination of dairy cattle with frozen semen has resulted in a marked increase milk production per cow since the mid 1960s.

Read more here from the cattlenetwork.com.

Filed by admin at 8:33 am under Better Beef
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Filed by admin at 8:25 am under Better Beef, Sustainable Agriculture & Policy
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Argentina was so far ahead of us in the 100% grass-fed beef business (90% of their cattle were raised on 100% grass), but is now rapidly sliding backward to where only about 45% to 50% of their beef will be 100% grass—the rest is going to American-style feedlots.

According to a recent article in MeatTradeNewsDaily.com, Rodrigo Troncoso, general manager of the Argentina Feedlot Chamber, predicts, “Five years from now, 80% of Argentina’s cattle are going to be finished in feedlots.” The reason? A national policy intended to keep beef prices low in the country with the largest per-capita beef consumption.

What a shame. Read the complete article here.

Filed by admin at 8:11 am under Beef Marketing
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Donald Kennedy, former commissioner of the U.S. FDA, writes in a NYTimes editorial that since the U.S. Congress has passed major health care legislation, now is the time to focus on the widespread use of antibiotics on the animals we consume, which leads to development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria that infect humans. This is a major problem.

He points out that in Denmark since the late 1990s, when that country banned the use of antibiotics in farm animals except for therapeutic purposes, the numbers  of resistant bacteria in Danish livestock shrank considerably. Members of he American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Pharmacists Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Public Health Association and the National Association of County and City Health Officials all are urging Congress to phase out the non-therapeutic use in livestock of antibiotics that are important to humans.

We agree. To read the complete editorial, click here.

Filed by admin at 8:03 am under Nutrition, Diet & Food Politics
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Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and well known in the field of humane animal handling, is ranked #32 in Time Magazine’s 2010 list of 100 leaders, artists, innovators and icons who are the most influential people in the world. This is based on popular vote.

Click here for the complete list.

Filed by admin at 7:54 am under Uncategorized
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According to an article in FoodSystemsInsider.com, “Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has indicated he will sign a bill the Legislature passed late last month allowing farms to sell raw milk directly to consumers through 2011. … The federal government doesn’t allow sales of raw milk because of concerns about food-borne illness, but states can allow them as long as the milk doesn’t cross state lines.”

Opposing the bill is the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association because of fear that an outbreak of disease could damage the state’s reputation for producing safe dairy products.

This will be interesting to follow in the coming months and years. Read more here.

Filed by admin at 4:22 pm under Nutrition, Diet & Food Politics
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A New York Times Editorial discusses the problems with genetically modified crops and their increasing resistance to so-called benign herbicides.

“The trouble with genetically engineered seeds is not the technology itself — bringing genetic traits from one species into another. It is the way this technology has forced farmers to rely almost exclusively on a single herbicide, and on an industrial scale. Herbicides are like antibiotics. Overuse them, and they become ineffective. … The solution is more diverse crops and cultivation practices, and a wider array of seeds, including non-genetically engineered ones. The unpalatable alternative is the re-introduction of far less benign herbicides. ”

Here’s the complete editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/opinion/17mon3.html?emc=eta1

Filed by admin at 4:17 pm under GMO Issues
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