The American Diet of Meat

David Cassuto With a hat tip to Scu and a huzzah to the NY Times, this graphic speaks for itself:

Law, Food, & Vegas

David Cassuto (also up in GreenLaw) Alas, blogging has paid a heavy price for what has been and continues to be a very busy semester.  But it’s been busy in a good way.  To wit, I am recently returned from both Las Vegas and Rio.  I’ll discuss Rio in my next post but first, to [...]

The Agribusiness Lobby Wins Again

Jacqueline McMahon Well, there go the rights of farmed animals and whistleblowers in Iowa.  On March 17, 2011, the Republican-dominated Iowa House of Representative voted 65-27 to approve a bill criminalizing secretly recording factory farm practices.  Under the bill, House File 589 § 9, drolly named “Animal Facility Interference,” any person who produces, possesses or [...]

Wolves have their day in court…again

First, anyone who aspires to be a judge should take a gander at this. Here’s the latest on the complex legal maneuvers surrounding the wolf issue in the northern Rockies. A small cadre of “anti-wolf protesters” showed up outside the courthouse in Missoula, MT yesterday–to view the rest of their signs, click here.

Fashion, fishin’, & factory farming: Fowl play in the news

Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations Today it was corndogs. Two days ago it was feathers.  More often than not, something I read in the local morning paper gets my goat. It’s not that I go looking for the dark side, mind you. Whether an article deals with fun, food, or fashion, if the news-maker relies on animal [...]

Going Dutch – National Debate on Factory Farming

Laurens Peters As is the case in many countries, Holland’s factory farming business has always been largely hidden from the ordinary consumer’s view. This is no small feat in a country that slaughters half a billion farm animals per year. Holland is as densely populated as New Jersey, less than twice its size. Over the [...]

Minding the GAP Program

    William Sheehan In a market awash with vague and misguiding advertising regarding the treatment of animals raised for slaughter, Whole Foods’ proposed GAP Program is a breath of fresh air. Whole Foods announced that it will rate food items that use animal products on a 5-step scale, established by the Global Animal Partnership, [...]

Bad luck for the bunny

Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations At first glance, the Chinese Lunar New Year and Easter have little in common.  On second glance, a long-eared furry creature hops through both. Is it possible to celebrate a new year and wax sentimental about a candy-bearing bunny while ignoring the atrocities faced by the family Leporidae? The Chinese new year [...]

Eating Live Lobsters: Painful or Delicious?

Lili Corn I recently received an email advertising a hot new delicacy at a swanky New York City restaurant and couldn’t wait to share the news! Apparently, the best way to eat a spiny lobster is while it’s still alive (I was promised the opportunity to “pick belly sashimi out of its still moving body”).  [...]

The Donation Loophole in the Lacey Act – A Win for Animal Smugglers?

Jacqueline McMahon In the United States, animal smuggling is a $10 billion industry.  Worldwide, animal smuggling is seen by participants as a “low risk, high profit” business because of the limited breadth of domestic legislation, undermanned agencies, and lax penalties.  The U.S. Lacey Act, one of the key pieces of legislation designed at targeting animal [...]

Killing the Holy Grail: Fisher, wolverine trapping continues

  Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations Last autumn, on a remote forest road in Montana’s northern Bitterroot Mountains, I saw my first fisher. The luxuriously-coated, dark brown carnivore–a member of the weasel family–had just caught lunch. As he dragged his prey into the forest, I wished him safe passage through the coming trapping season. A few years [...]