Food and Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture practices can protect the environment and produce high-quality, safe, and affordable food. Our goal is to promote such practices while eliminating harmful CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) and strengthening government oversight of genetically engineered food.
Features
Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops
As the world grapples with concerns about food availability, this groundbreaking UCS report debunks widespread myths about the superiority of GE crop yields.
Green Cuisine: Earth-Friendly, Healthy Recipes from Top Chefs and Local Farmers
Check out the latest issue of UCS's recurring web feature on sustainable foods. In this issue, you can pick up a free recipe and get a slideshow tour of the farmers and chefs who make responsible hog production a success.
The Real Scoop
The Real Scoop by Doug Gurian-Sherman, offers a science-based perspective on industrial-style agriculture approaches, including confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), genetic engineering, and other methods with enormous impacts on human health, the environment, and society.
FEED
FEED is a free email newsletter that will keep you informed about food production and safety issues.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) for Meat and Eggs
A new trend within the CSA movement— meat CSAs or buying clubs— offers consumers one more way of providing their families with fresh, local foods produced in a sustainable manner.
Successes
Recent successes in Food & Agriculture include:
- Shaping legislation that supports organic and sustainable agriculture
- Achieving a meaningful label for grass-fed meat
- Preventing a valuable human medicine from being used routinely in animal agriculture
- Pressing for a ban on the outdoor production of drugs and industrial chemicals in food crops
- Strengthening oversight of pharma crops and cloning
Analysis
CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations
When it comes to most of the meat, dairy, and eggs produced in the United States, there's truly no such thing as a free lunch. In this new report, UCS exposes the billions of dollars in environmental, health, and economic costs imposed on society by Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).
Greener Pastures: How Grass-fed Beef and Milk Contribute to Healthy Eating
Americans love their beef and milk. With about 70 percent of the population consuming one or the other several times a week, the United States is the largest beef producer and one of the largest dairy producers in the world. But this love affair has serious consequences for the health of consumers, the environment, and the cattle themselves.
Campaigns
Protect Our Food: A Campaign to Take the Harm out of Pharma and Industrial Crops
Help UCS convince the USDA to ban the outdoor use of food crops to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals.
The Preservation of Antibiotcs for Medical Treatment Act of 2009
Mounting scientific evidence shows that the routine feeding of antibiotics to farm animals that are not sick promotes development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can be transferred to people, making it harder to treat bacterial infections in humans.
Resources
FEED
FEED is a free email newsletter that will keep you informed about food production and safety issues.
Grass-Fed Beef and Dairy Video
Raising cattle on pasture lessens environmental damage, improves animal health, and reduces antibiotic use.
Pharma Crop Approvals in the United States
Use this database to see what pharmaceutical and industrial (pharma) crop production the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has allowed in your state.
Genetically Engineered Foods Allowed on the Market
A complete listing of genetically engineered foods currently allowed on the US market.
