Southern New England Livestock Conference
The second Southern New England Livestock Conference will be held at the Bristol County Agriculture High School in Dighton, MA, on January 28, 2018.
Southern New England Livestock Conference
The second Southern New England Livestock Conference will be held at the Bristol County Agriculture High School in Dighton, MA, on January 28, 2018.
Country Living Expo and Cattlemen’s Winterschool
Country Living Expo and Cattlemen's Winterschool is a one-day event (1/28/17) held in Stanwood, WA. The conference is geared toward small-scale livestock producers who can network and attend classes on a variety of topics. AWA will be in attendance and offering information about our free certification program.
Country Living Expo and Cattlemen’s Winterschool
Country Living Expo and Cattlemen's Winterschool is a one-day event (1/28/17) held in Stanwood, WA. The conference is geared toward small-scale livestock producers who can network and attend classes on a variety of topics. AWA will be in attendance and offering information about our free certification program.
Farming’s Bitter Pill: Has the FDA flouted its own evidence about the safety of farm antibiotics?
A damning new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reveals that our Government has been ignoring the very real risks to public health from routine antibiotic abuse in intensive livestock farming.
According to the NRDC’s new report, Playing Chicken With Antibiotics, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—whose key remit it to protect public health—permitted the nontherapeutic use of 30 medicinally important antibiotics, including 18 rated as “high risk” to human health, on industrial farming operations despite knowing this could pose a direct threat to human health through the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria. It makes truly somber reading for anyone concerned about future public health—and the independence of our Government agencies from vested corporate interests.
Why Walmart Must Help to End Antibiotic Abuse In Farming
In this era of uninformed, “silver bullet” solutions to the plague that is industrial farming, it’s great to see that Dan Imhoff—the author of the seminal book CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories—is making a stand against the reckless abuse of antibiotics in industrial livestock production. And he’s making real sense, too.
In a bold move, Imhoff has launched a new public petition which targets the largest—and yet possibly the most responsive—player when it comes to U.S. meat production and consumption: Walmart, our nation’s largest retailer.
Food Claims: Who can you trust?
Despite the recent recession, it’s great to see that demand for high-welfare, sustainable meats, dairy products, and eggs continues to grow. As the public wakes up to the negative impacts of intensive farming, they’re looking for food labels that provide real assurances that the food they buy is healthful, and produced with animal welfare and the environment in mind.
Many different businesses have now set up programs to offer consumers certain assurances about the food they buy. It goes without saying that the many different labels offered by food businesses vary enormously in terms of their scope and operation. However, most of the claims are centered on claims that farmers are using humane, sustainable farming practices, or that animals are fed a strictly controlled diet, or that medications or hormones are restricted or even prohibited. Since it’s impossible for each of us to go out and check the farms ourselves, we effectively take it on face value that the food label we choose to support really does deliver the benefits that it promises.
