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As promised, the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. appealed to an expanded panel of a federal appeals court in San Francisco today to allow it to keep operating at Point Reyes National Seashore. The oyster farm and owner Kevin Lunny asked an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a decision in which a smaller panel of the court ruled against the company by a 2 to 1 vote in September. In that ruling, the smaller panel upheld a federal trial judge’s denial of a preliminary injunction that would have allowed the oyster harvesting to continue...

Nearly 600 pets have died and more than 3,600 have been sickened in an ongoing, mysterious outbreak of illnesses tied to jerky treats made in China, federal animal health officials said Tuesday. Most of the cases have been in dogs of all breeds, ages and sizes, although 10 cats have been sickened, too. The pace of the reported illnesses appears to have slowed, but federal Food and Drug Administration officials are now seeking extra help from veterinarians and pet owners in solving the ongoing puzzle.“To date, testing for contaminants in jerky treats has not revealed a cause for the illnesses,” Martine...

A record-breaking storm that dumped 4 feet of snow in parts of western South Dakota left ranchers dealing with heavy losses, in some cases perhaps up to half their herds, as they assess how many of their cattle died during the unseasonably early blizzard. Meanwhile, utility companies were working to restore power to tens of thousands of people still without electricity Monday after the weekend storm that was part of a powerful weather system that also buried parts of Wyoming and Colorado with snow and produced destructive tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa. At least four deaths were attributed to the...

Hungry lags were ordered to stop snaring the pests and cooking them in their microwaves - because it upsets the prison's staffInmates at a jail overrun by rabbits have been hit by a bunny boiling ban after the governor found they were EATING them. Hungry lags were ordered to stop snaring the pests and cooking them in their microwaves - because it upsets the prison's staff. The jailbirds' culinary caper emerged after the Sunday Mirror revealed last week how the grounds of Ford open prison were being dug up by around 5,000 of the creatures. Pest controllers were called in...

Generations of American cooks are wrong. They learned their wrongity wrongity wrong habits from their parents, or from public television’s Julia Child. Their terrible, filthy habit is rinsing poultry before cooking. Public health experts estimate that as many as 90% of Americans do it, and they want us to cut it out. Poultry-washing makes intuitive sense: you don’t know where that bird has been or what kind of bacteria are crawling on the outside. Julia Child herself admitted that washing a chicken before roasting it felt cleaner, even if the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the government agency in charge of...

NIH scientists identify possible treatment target for type 2 diabetesResearchers at the National Institutes of Health have clarified in rodent and test tube experiments the role that inflammation plays in type 2 diabetes, and revealed a possible molecular target for treating the disease. The researchers say some natural messenger chemicals in the body are involved in an inflammatory chain that can kill cells in the pancreas, which produces insulin. A report of the finding appears online in Nature Medicine.“This study is a significant milestone in an ongoing exploration of the endocannabinoid system’s role in the metabolic complications of obesity,” says...

Because there are apparently not enough studies to convince the Food and Drug Administration that controversial chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA) should not be used in just about every form of food packaging, yet another study has been published linking BPA to childhood obesity. Meanwhile, a separate study released today showed a possible connection between a widely used plasticizer and diabetes. Both studies are to be published in the September 2013 edition of the journal Pediatrics and are currently available for free online. The first study [PDF] investigated the relationship between levels of BPA in urine and subjects’ body mass index (BMI),...

SPOILAGE IN CANNED FOOD PRODUCTS By: Stephanie Hoffman, CSU Food Science Graduate Student - Fall 2008 The safety of commercially canned foods is generally not of concern to consumers, but recent national recalls of canned chili products and institutional-size cans of vegetables due to potential contamination with Clostridium botulinum is a reminder that store-bought canned goods can be implicated in foodborne illness outbreaks. These were the first recalls of commercially canned foods in the U.S. linked to botulism in 33 years and improper processing that allowed the survival of C. botulinum spores appears to have been the cause. Home canners...

MADISON – The state Department of Justice wants dairy farmer and raw milk provider Vernon Hershberger behind bars.Now.Two weeks after a jury acquitted [1] Hershberger of three licensing violation charges, the state’s prosecuting attorney Eric Defort on Friday moved to [2] revoke [2] Hershberger’s bail for violating the court’s terms of release. The state had demanded the Loganville dairy farmer stop selling raw milk to members of his farm’s buyer’s club without licenses from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection – precisely the charges he was cleared of.That hearing is scheduled for next Thursday at 1 p.m., the...

Domino’s Pizza has hired a creative agency called T + Biscuits to test the feasibility of octocopter drones that deliver a hot, delicious pizza to your doorstep. Heavily branded as the DomiCopter, the current prototype can deliver two, large pizzas in about ten minutes within a four mile radius of the store. While future versions could hypothetically use GPS coordinates to deliver the pie, the existing model is piloted from the ground by someone experienced in drone flight. Other names previously batted around for the DomiCopter included the Pepperdroney and the Flyin’ Hawaiian. The DomiCopter has eight spinning blades and...

On Memorial Day weekend, 2 million people marched in protests against seed giant Monsanto for the purpose of bringing awareness to hazards from genetically modified food, which it and other companies manufacture. Organizer Tami Canal said protests were held in 436 cities in 52 countries. Genetically modified plants are grown from genetically modified, or engineered, seeds, which are created to resist insecticides and herbicides so that crops can be grown to withstand a weed-killing pesticide or integrate a bacterial toxin that can ward off pests. The Chicago Tribune reported that because genetically modified organisms are not listed on food or...

–The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced today that test results of plant samples from an Oregon farm indicate the presence of genetically engineered (GE) glyphosate-resistant wheat plants. Further testing by USDA laboratories indicates the presence of the same GE glyphosate-resistant wheat variety that Monsanto was authorized to field test in 16 states from 1998 to 2005. APHIS launched a formal investigation after being notified by an Oregon State University scientist that initial tests of wheat samples from an Oregon farm indicated the possible presence of GE glyphosate-resistant wheat plants. There are no...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Protesters rallied in dozens of cities Saturday as part of a global protest against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces, organizers said. Organizers said "March Against Monsanto" protests were held in 52 countries and 436 cities, including Los Angeles where demonstrators waved signs that read "Real Food 4 Real People" and "Label GMOs, It's Our Right to Know."… The U.S. Senate this week overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would allow states to require labeling of genetically modified foods.

This is a Call to Action for a Non-Hierarchical Occupation of Monsanto Everywhere Whether you like it or not, chances are Monsanto contaminated the food you ate today with chemicals and unlabeled GMOs. Monsanto controls much of the world's food supply at the expense of food democracy worldwide. This site is dedicated to empowering citizens of the world to take action against Monsanto & it's enablers like the FDA, USDA, EPA, GMA, BIO, and the processed food companies that use Monsanto's products. We urge you to help organize and attend the closest March Against Monsanto taking place on Saturday, May...

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- Maine's Marine Patrol has cited a New Hampshire man for having tens of thousands of dollars' worth of baby eels without a license in what's being called the biggest case of illegal eel possession in the history of the fishery. Officials said Monday that 41-year-old Phillip Parker, of Candia, N.H., was summonsed last Wednesday in Newport with 41 pounds of eels, known as elvers. Fishermen have been getting about $2,000 per pound for their catch this season.

Montana legalises cooking and eating roadkill Montana has become the first US state to allow drivers to cook and serve carrion picked up from road accidents under a 'you kill it, you grill it' law. By Philip Sherwell, New York 7:10PM BST 07 Apr 2013 Lawmakers in the US state have overwhelmingly passed a bill allowing locals to salvage meat from the carcasses of wild animals killed in road accidents. When signed into law by the governor, Montana could become "the ultimate drive-through destination for adventurous foodies", the website Huffington Post noted. Steve Lavin, the legislator who introduced the bill,...

The past week has seen a tsunami of stories about the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act,” more accurately known as Section 735 of HR 933. It’s a tiny provision attached to a massive agricultural spending bill signed into law by President Obama last week. According to detractors, Section 735 is the “most dangerous food act ever” and a “terrifying piece of policy.” Why? Because, among other claims, it purportedly allows biotech companies to sell seeds that can cause serious consumer health problems. Here is how Gawker frames it: "Section 735 effectively shields large biotech companies, like Monsanto, from the federal courts...

WASHINGTON, DC - President Barack Obama signed a spending bill, HR 933, into law, the "Monsanto Protection Act," that strips federal courts of the authority to immediately halt the planting and sale of genetically modified (GMO) seed crop regardless of any consumer health concerns. "The provision would strip federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and planting of an illegal, potentially hazardous GE crop while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) assesses those potential hazards," explains a letter to the House that has been signed by dozens of food businesses and retailers, as well as interest groups and...

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that we regret to inform you that late last night President Barack Obama signed H.R. 933, which contained the Monsanto Protection Act into law. This is an outrage that will not go unanswered. While we are still waiting to hear from the administration all the final details, we understand at this time that Section 735, the Monsanto biotech rider is intact. President Obama knowingly signed the Monsanto Protection Act over the insistence of more than 250,000 Americans who signed an urgent letter asking that he use his executive authority to veto...

(WASHINGTON) -- The sequester likely won’t cause meat and poultry shortages for a while — thanks, in part, to union negotiations and USDA inspectors’ lack of email access. Furloughs to Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors at the U.S. Department of Agriculture could force meat and poultry plants to stop production — with no inspectors to approve products, they can’t be sold — but Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee that those furloughs probably won’t happen until later this year. “We are looking at a several-month period, if you will, before a furlough will be imposed,”...