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Contents
- Maine prefers meat without unnecessary antibiotics
- Wal-Mart decision to go organic gets wary reception
- Are there pharma crops in your state?
- Hops help chickens gain weight
- Allergen-free soybeans without genetic engineering
1. Maine prefers meat without unnecessary antibiotics
This month, Maine becomes the first state to adopt a policy that encourages food purchasers for state institutions—including universities, prisons, and government offices—to give preference to meat producers who raise animals without routinely adding antibiotics to their feed. Maine joins a growing number of restaurant chains, supermarkets, hospitals, and other large-scale food purchasers taking positive steps to preserve the future effectiveness of antibiotics important in human medicine. The purchasing preference policy is one of six steps the state of Maine is taking to address the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. The overuse of antibiotics in livestock is a concern because bacteria that are constantly exposed to antibiotics develop resistance to these drugs. When humans get sick from resistant bacteria, the antibiotics prescribed will no longer work. Read more about the Maine policy.
2. Wal-Mart decision to go organic gets wary reception
Starting this summer, the nation's largest retailer will offer a wide range of organic products, at prices only 10 percent above those for conventional food (compared to the usual 20-30 percent premium on organic products). According to The New York Times, the decision, which could have big repercussions for the organic industry, has met with mixed reviews. Wal-Mart's massive buying power means that tens of thousands of acres that would have been treated with pesticides will instead be cultivated organically, and organic food will be readily available to people who would not otherwise have access to it. But Wal-Mart's singular devotion to low prices could mean that the company will buy from countries like China or Argentina, burning fossil fuels to import food from overseas. Even if Wal-Mart does buy American, it's likely to buy from giant organic corporations, driving small-scale organic farmers like the ones who pioneered the movement out of business. To read the Times article reprinted on the Cornucopia Institute's webpage, visit http://cornucopia.org/index.php/123.
3. Are there pharma crops in your state?
Pharma and industrial crops are genetically engineered to produce products like drugs and plastics. Most pharma crops are corn or other food crops. UCS has concluded that it will be virtually impossible to keep these crops—not meant for consumption—out of the food supply. To find out if pharma crops have been approved for planting in your state, visit our newly updated pharma crop database.
4. Hops help chickens gain weight
Chicken feed containing hops—plants with antimicrobial properties used in beer brewing—helped chicks gain weight in a study conducted at the University of Arkansas. Of three groups of chicks fed antibiotics, hops, and plain chicken feed, the chicks who received antibiotics gained the most weight, but those fed hops still gained significantly more weight than those who received plain chicken feed. The findings suggest that hops could replace growth-promoting antibiotics without greatly increasing the time it takes for chicks to reach market weight. Read the study in the International Journal of Poultry Science (pdf).
5. Allergen-free soybeans without genetic engineering
Researchers have identified two soybean varieties that do not contain the primary protein that causes soy allergies. The scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Donald Danforth Plant Science Centre in St. Louis screened more than 16,000 soybean lines. The two varieties will be made available without patents to breeders who are seeking to produce allergen-free soybeans without genetic engineering. Crop Science will publish the findings later this year. Read more about the soybeans.
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