Food

"At the annual SXSW Eco, a conference in Austin, Texas, you'll find a lot of serious discussion of the rapid decline of the Earth's ecosystems."

"As sea ice melts and permafrost thaws, indigenous traditions are being forced to change, say researchers."

"A majority of U.S. packaged foods labeled as 'natural' and tested by Consumer Reports actually contained a substantial level of genetically modified ingredients, according to a report issued Tuesday by the non-profit product testing group."

"On May 6, 2014, as I read through the morning's incoming email, a Food Safety Alert from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing a "voluntary recall of mangoes due to possible health risk" from the bacteria Listeria caught my eye. This grabbed my attention because at the time, a handsome sunset-hued mango, purchased several days before at my neighborhood market in Portland, Oregon, was ripening on the kitchen counter."

"Government inspectors all over the country are supposed to ensure the meat we eat is safe. But according to a growing chorus of current and former inspectors - and a number of watchdog groups - the U-S meat inspection system isn’t doing its job."

After an outbreak of drug-resistant salmonella in 2013 was traced to Foster Farms chickens, the Natural Resources Defense Council used the Freedom of Information Act to get records of the firm's food-safety violations. As a result of the pressure, Foster Farms says it has cleaned up its act and is using less antibiotics.

"Perdue Farms says it has ditched the common practice of injecting antibiotics into eggs that are just about to hatch. And public health advocates are cheering. They've been campaigning against the widespread use of antibiotics in agriculture, arguing that it's adding to the plague of antibiotic-resistant bacteria."

"The largest food safety overhaul in generations is being starved of funding needed to enforce a host of new regulations for factories, farms and importers, safety advocates warn."

""Big food producers are moving to try to head off criticism of how they use additives, with a main industry group saying it plans to give more information to regulators about how companies determine the safety of the thousands of chemicals and other ingredients in processed foods."

"Tyson Foods could lose around $500 million in government contracts if found guilty in and ongoing criminal probe by the Environmental Protection Agency over the recent release of toxic chemicals at a plant in Monett, Mo."