Food safety

MIGHTY MONSANTO GIVES UP

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Tue., 9/2/08

Every now and then, citizen activism defeats the forces of avarice and arrogance. Here's a story of how children, organic farmers, and cows have just triumphed over mighty Monsanto and its political handmaidens.

For years, this biotech behemoth has thrown its... [read more]

SPECULATORS AND OUR FOOD: EIEIO!

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Sun., 7/13/08

Hedge-fund schemers and Wall Street manipulators--the very characters who brought us the Great American Housing Collapse--have a new target for their fast-buck profiteering: farming. EIEIO!

Speculators have long messed with farmers by artificially manipulating prices on everything from corn to soybeans.... [read more]

THE PRICE OF SHRIMP

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Mon., 6/2/08

"Giant shrimp" is said to be an oxymoron, but it's also moronic that we've let shrimp become a giant problem in our world.

Welcome to the costly consequences of a globalized food supply. Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the... [read more]

WHY CLONING?

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Mon., 6/2/08

The latest advance of science is the cloning of animals. "We can make every cow precisely like its progenitor," exult the lab techs working for corporate cloners. "This eliminates uncertainty in meat production, for every cut can be the exact... [read more]

THE E.COLI LOOPHOLE

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Mon., 12/17/07

Step right up, consumers, and get your special USDA-approved beef with our secret ingredient of E. coli 0157:H7!

Wait. Isn't that the bacteria that lives in cow intestines and cow manure and often contaminates beef at those huge corporate slaughterhouses? A... [read more]

This is the Marx Brothers, bumbling around Animal Farm!

September 2007

A FRIEND OF MINE TELLS A STORY about the political demise in the 1950s of an entrenched Oklahoma state representative, whom we'll call Elmer Goodenuff.

Rep. Goodenuff, who chaired the ag committee, had been in office so long that he'd grown tight with the Capitol crowd, but he had lost touch with the folks back in his rural district. Thus, when some supermarket lobbyists asked him to sponsor a bill requiring that all egg producers be regulated by the state and have to pay an egg-grading fee, he saw no problem with the measure. It was for the public's health, the lobbyists told him. His constituents, however, did have a problem with it. In those days, many small farmers made their spending money by selling eggs fresh out of their chicken yards--yet here was ol' Elmer hitting them with a bureaucratic rigmarole and a fee that would make their little egg stands more trouble than they were worth. It turns out that the supermarket lobbyists' real agenda had been to get rid of all these bothersome mom-and-pop competitors.

Suddenly, the chairman found himself facing political opposition-a young lawyer from the home district had filed to run against him. Shortly afterward, the two candidates came together for a debate at the county fair. The lawyer spoke first, limiting his talk to only three sentences: "Hidy folks, I'm so-and-so, and I'll make you a good state representative. If you give me the chance, I'll fight for you...not for the special interests. Now I yield the balance of my time to Mr. Goodenuff, so he can explain his egg bill to you." Still clueless, Elmer did try to explain it, but his explanation was hardly good enough--the more he talked, the more votes he lost. His egg bill retired him. [ read more ]

COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN LABELING

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Fri., 8/3/07

Most consumers assume that since the USA is the greatest food producer in the world, the steaks, veggies, and other foods we buy at the supermarket come out of America's own good soil. But chances are good that they come... [read more]

Why import so much food?

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Fri., 6/1/07

Meanwhile, people are upset that a chemical additive in pet food imported from China is poisoning their little Fidos and Fluffies. The same additive has also been found in feed for chickens and hogs. Why isn't the FDA protecting us?... [read more]

WHAT’S HAPPENING TO OUR BEES?

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Mon., 4/30/07

Bees are dying. Dying all across America. Lots and lots of bees.

Starting in Florida last fall, the great bee die-off has spread to 24 states. Whole colonies are dying. In western states, commercial beekeepers report up to a 60... [read more]

THE "ORGANIC CLONE"

Cowboy hat By Jim Hightower - Tue., 4/3/07

Got milk? This advertising slogan has taken on a new meaning since biotech profiteers started messing with the very nature of milk.

Bioengineering industrialists are attempting to fill our cereal bowls with milk from cloned cows.And they want to label... [read more]