Free Republic

Barack Obama’s pick for “regulatory czar,” Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein, may be the incoming president’s most popular appointment so far. Judging from his resume -- best-selling author, “pre-eminent legal scholar of our time,” and an endorsement from The Wall Street Journal -- we can almost understand why. Almost. Because as we’re telling the media today, there’s one troubling portion of the new Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator’s C.V. that has seems to have flown under everyone’s radar: Cass Sunstein is a radical animal rights activist. Don’t believe us? Sunstein has made no secret of his...

ITHACA, N.Y.,Researchers at Cornell University conducted a study about biting versus chewing habits in children and found that kids who eat chicken on the bone are more likely to disobey adults and be aggressive. The study, which was published in Eating Behaviors, found that children were “twice as likely to disobey adults and twice as aggressive toward other kids” when eating food they had to hold and bite. Researches found that children were more docile when eating cut-up pieces of food, results which would seem to indicate that there is a connection between having to use teeth to eat and...

It was Winston Churchill, of all people, who predicted the ultimate culinary revolution. Way back in 1932, he stated that: “Fifty years hence, we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order eat the breast or the wing, by growing these parts separately in a suitable medium.” It has taken a few decades longer than Churchill imagined, but his prediction might just be coming true – and not before time. Humans now kill about 1,600 birds and mammals every second for food, and that number will grow hugely as the global population – currently 7.1 billion –...

Yes, that would be the US Department of Agriculture, which is supposed to promote agriculture. Agriculture includes cattle ranching as well as farming (and dairies!). One of the most significant duties of the USDA is to rate the quality of meat so that consumers can be sure they’re eating healthy food. So why did the USDA send out a message to its employees discouraging the consumption of meat, using United Nations material? Senator Jerry Moran, a Republican who represents cattle-ranch-heavy Kansas, asked that question on the floor of the Senate yesterday:

Australia good? Japan bad? History understands that when it comes to whaling, hypocrisy and censorship are more than just friends. In Australia, they’re close allies. Once we were whalers. Still our whaling history is scrubbed out of textbooks or minimised, without justification. One can also watch hours of Australian television, dedicated to demonising Japanese whalers, without ever learning about the many ways in which our whaling industry contributed to Australia’s prosperity. Along with edited histories, lazy school curriculum standards, and a cosy ignorance comes a new self-righteousness, a new superiority - I sniff therefore I am! “Tasmania alone in the...

OAK BROOK, Ill. (AP) - McDonald's says it's considering more humane methods to slaughter chickens it buys for its restaurants. The fast-food giant says it's studying the possibility of "controlled atmosphere killing," in which chickens are put to sleep with an inert gas, such as nitrogen or argon. Bob Langert, McDonald's senior director of social responsibility says the company's animal welfare council suggested a study of the newer method. It would replace a slaughtering process in which chickens are hung by their legs on a moving conveyor line and pulled through an electrified vat of water. Some of McDonald's European...

Two studies by University of Illinois food science and human nutrition professor Sharon Donovan show that the soy isoflavone genistein, in amounts present in commercial soy infant formulas, may inhibit intestinal cell growth in babies. So what are we to think about soy in a baby's diet? Donovan said it's an important question to ask because almost 25 percent of formula-fed babies in the United States consume soy formula. Although babies on soy formula appear to grow normally, these formulas contain very high concentrations of genistein, from 32 to 45 milligrams, which is higher than the amount found to affect...

ATLANTA -- A widely reported government study that said obesity is about to overtake smoking as the No. 1 cause of death in the United States contained statistical errors and may have overstated the problem, health officials acknowledged today. The government is working on a rare correction to the study. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in March in a study co-authored by its director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, that a poor diet and physical inactivity were responsible for 400,000 deaths in 2000, a 33 percent jump from 1990. However, the CDC admitted today that it made an error...

Research mulls animal worth By JEFF WRIGHT The Register-Guard   Recommend this story to others.   Vegetarians often claim the higher moral ground when it comes to what they eat, and who can argue? By avoiding meat, they're not contributing to the slaughter of millions of animals each year. Or are they? Steven Davis, a longtime professor of animal science at Oregon State University in Corvallis, isn't so sure. Steven Davis, Oregon State University professor of animal science, pays a visit to one of the herds of cattle at the OSU research facility.Photo: CHRIS PIETSCH / The Register-Guard In research that...