Agribusiness

Ethanol, antibiotics and what we don’t know

Alarming research coming out of the University of Minnesota raises concerns over the public health impacts of antibiotic use in ethanol production. 

A Farm Bill idea that helps farmers and consumers

Agriculture, like the rest of the economy, sits in the midst of a marketplace dominated by a handful of big corporations. Farmers and most livestock producers have little to no say in what prices they are paid (regardless of costs), and similarly grocery store prices for consumers are non-negotiable.

Arsenic: now appearing in infant formula

A new peer-reviewed study released yesterday (Read our respo

Building markets for Ag in the Middle

Farming is a tough way to make a living and no segment of the American farm community has been harder hit in recent decades than the farmers known as Ag in the Middle (AITM).  These are the producers of fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy and meat products that are too big to sell directly to consumers and too small to effectively compete with agri

Antibiotics in pork production: No pig in a poke

A rapidly growing body of evidence is spotlighting the overuse of antibiotics—and the antibiotic-resistant bacteria it breeds—in pork production as a widespread and serious danger to the American food supply and public health.

FDA limits antibiotics in livestock: Better late than never

Today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a ban for unapproved uses of cephalosporins in food animals. Cephalosporins, a class of critically important human antibiotics, are also widely used in livestock and poultry—in 2010 alone, nearly 54,094 lbs. were used in U.S.

FDA finally acts to ban unapproved use in food animals of critical human antibiotics

Keep Antibiotics Working (KAW) today applauded the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for prohibiting some off-label or “extralabel” use of cephalosporin antibiotics in food-producing animals, more than three years after that order was first issued but withdrawn.