Food & Energy
Few books about America’s industrial agriculture system and food industry uncover the billionaires behind its biggest corporations.
But a new exposé by Austin Frerick, a former tax economist at the U.S. Treasury Department and current fellow at Yale University’s Thurman Arnold Project, reveals the amassed fortunes of Big Ag’s most powerful families.
“Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry” exposes these ill-gotten gains and a cadre of complicit government players who made it all possible.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dismal Census of Agriculture (Feb. 13) disclosed that 141,733 farms shuttered between 2017 and 2022.
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Read MoreFood companies are using bright colours and cartoon characters in an “unethical” effort to manipulate children into wanting the sweets and crisps they make, a report has claimed.
Bite Back, a campaign group that is part of the chef Jamie Oliver’s empire, asked nutrition experts to analyse 262 sweet food products sold in the UK with packaging likely to appeal to children made by the 10 biggest food companies.
Oliver has accused food manufacturers of deliberately using packaging that is designed to “capture young minds” in order to sell more junk food.
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Read MoreIn February 2021, in the midst of the deadly second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Grégory Doucet, mayor of Lyon, France, temporarily took red meat off the menus of the city’s school cafeterias. While the change was environmentally friendly, the decision was driven by social distancing protocols: Preparing one hot meal that could be served to meat-eaters, vegetarians, and those with religious restrictions rather than serving multiple options was safer and more efficient.
The response from the French agricultural establishment was hysterical. “We need to stop putting ideology on our children’s plates!,” then-Minister of Agriculture Julien Denormandie tweeted. Livestock farmers clogged Lyon’s downtown with tractors and paraded cows in front of city hall, brandishing banners declaring, “Stopping meat is a guarantee of weakness against future viruses.” An impromptu coalition of livestock producers, politicians, and parents unsuccessfully petitioned the city’s court to overturn the change.
This year, it has become clear these protests have the power to transform Europe’s future.
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Read MoreAs America faces an unlikely bird flu ‘outbreak’ in chickens and cows, many are speculating on when this rare illness will jump to humans. Jefferey Jaxen looked into the previous gain-of-function lab work on H5N1 funded by Tony Fauci and NIAID, and found something very interesting.
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Read MoreVirtually everyone tends to make suboptimal food choices when experiencing dysregulation, expert says.
Reaching for that pint of ice cream or bag of chips may be about more than just satisfying a craving.
The foods we crave and consume often serve as emotional Band-Aids, soothing our anxieties and providing a sense of comfort or control. But have you ever wondered what biological forces drive these dietary decisions?
It turns out that our autonomic nervous systems, the subconscious sentinels constantly scanning for threats, play a profound role. This deep-rooted surveillance mechanism doesn’t distinguish physical from emotional dangers, so when we feel overwhelmed, food can offer a fleeting oasis, firing off the same neural pathways as social connection.
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Read MoreB.C.’s first hands-free vertical farm launches in Pitt Meadows (includes a virtual tour)
A newly launched vertical farming enterprise in Pitt Meadows, B.C., is hoping to ease food security in the province, as it offers locally grown, environmentally sustainable produce.
The operation, called UP Vertical Farms, is growing baby leafy greens vertically — on shelves stacked atop one another, on a piece of land a fraction of the size needed for traditional farming. According to a news release, the company says it could produce 6.3 million bags of greens per year, which would be sold in grocery stores throughout Western Canada.
Rashti said the facility uses 99 per cent less agricultural land, 99 per cent less freshwater and 99 per cent less fertilizer than traditional farming practices.
“It’s good food for the people and the planet.”
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Read MoreLocally grown, year-round, in ideal conditions in Pitt Meadows, BC, our fresh and nutritious greens are not only bursting with flavor, but offer a taste that is unparalleled. Assuring an abundance of delicious greens, our commercial scale indoor farming operations contribute to food security in our produce sector and our community.
Never touched by pesticides, herbicides, manure fertilizers, genetic modification or soil, everything we grow-from our tender butter lettuce to our crispy baby romaine and gorgeous red leaf lettuce-stays fresh and ready to eat right off the shelf.
Our specialized indoor growing methods provide optimal conditions throughout the growing and packing cycle to ensure our greens are always bright and vibrant. We fine tune the taste and appearance of our leaves by dialling our bright kaleidoscope of lights up or down. These small but important adjustments make our greens a little sweeter or a little spicier, darker or lighter, to your taste.
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Read MorePublic support for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s proposed withdrawal from the Canada Pension Plan depends on the math, says in-house federal research. New data coincided yesterday with a private Commons bill to block any Alberta pension pull-out.
“A small number were aware of a recent proposal by the Government of Alberta to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan and create a provincially operated Alberta Pension Plan,” said a Privy Council report. Of those familiar with the proposal, opinion varied depending on Alberta’s take.
The national plan has $590.8 billion under management. Alberta’s share is being calculated by Canada’s Chief Actuary and the Parliamentary Budget Office. Premier Smith in an Alberta Pension Plan Analysis Of Costs, Benefits, Risks And Considerations last August 1 put Alberta’s share at 53 percent or $313 billion.
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Read MoreCabinet does not know how much plastic pollution there is in Canada despite budgeting millions to eliminate it, a federal report said yesterday. It follows in-house research showing few Canadians rate plastic waste a serious problem.
“Information on the amount of plastic waste that is leaked into the environment was incomplete,” Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco wrote in a report tabled in Parliament. Cabinet has budgeted $279 million to eliminate plastic waste estimated at four tonnes annually.
“In 2019 a study commissioned by the department concluded around one percent of Canada’s plastic waste in 2016 entered the environment as pollution,” said the report Zero Plastic Waste. “The study recognized this number was an estimate. It was drawn from a study that did not include plastic pollution from aquatic based sources.”
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Read MoreNewfoundland and Labrador’s Liberal Premier Andrew Furey voiced strong opposition to the federal Liberal’s carbon tax policy, and accusing them of “jurisdictional creep.”
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