Antibiotic use in livestock going up, up, up – Avinash Kar

This morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the latest report on sales of antibiotics for livestock use, that is, for use in meat and poultry production in 2013. The news follows the trends of the last few years, showing yet another increase in the numbers. Some lowlights: Livestock antibiotic sales have gone up from about 16,115 tons in 2012 to a …

Ukraine: Putin Slams the Door in NATO’s Face – Michael Payne

What’s been going on in Ukraine represents a monumental turning point in the balance of world geopolitical/military power. Why? Well, it’s simply this: Ukraine will very likely go down in history as the country where America, the supposed sole superpower in the world, was checkmated and met its match at the hands of the other superpower in the world – …

California Water Authorities Using Smart Meter Data as Evidence to Impose Fines

The smart grid isn’t coming. It’s already here. Everywhere people’s houses are being fitted if they already haven’t with smart electric meters and smart water meters. These meters communicate real-time usage data via radio frequency (which comes with its own set of health problems). Essentially, consumption of utilities in your home is being big brother tracked and traced at all times …

Boycott, Divest and Sanction Corporations That Feed on Prisons

All attempts to reform mass incarceration through the traditional mechanisms of electoral politics, the courts and state and federal legislatures are useless. Corporations, which have turned mass incarceration into a huge revenue stream and which have unchecked political and economic power, have no intention of diminishing their profits. And in a system where money has replaced the vote, where corporate …

Can Evil Be Defeated?

John W. Whitehead is a constitutional attorney. As head of the Rutherford Institute he is actively involved in defending our civil liberties. Being actively involved in legal cases, he experiences first hand the transformation of law from a shield of the American people into a weapon in the hands of the government. American civil liberty was seriously eroded prior to …

Factory Farm Meat: Why Vegetarians, Ranchers and Conscious Omnivores Need to Unite

For the first time since the advent of industrial agriculture, the federal government is considering advising Americans to eat “less red and processed meat.” That advice is the outcome of studies conducted by an independent panel of “experts” which was asked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for recommended changes to the …

What Will the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Endorse Next? Candy?

The AND seems to be proving its own lack of credibility by endorsing Kraft Singles—and then claiming it’s not actually an endorsement. State-based Action Alerts! Last week, the New York Times reported [1] that Kraft Singles—the individually wrapped slices of “cheese product” popular in school lunches—were the first product to boast the AND’s new “Kids Eat Right” label. The label is part of a wider AND …

The Failure of Modern Industrial Agriculture

Americans are being subjected to an ongoing multimillion-dollar propaganda campaign designed to “increase confidence and trust in today’s agriculture.” Food Dialogues, just one example of this broader trend, is a campaign sponsored by the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance—an industry organization whose funders and board members include Monsanto, DuPont, and John Deere. The campaign features the “faces of farming and ranching”—articulate, …

Is ‘Sustainable Beef’ an Oxymoron?

In the face sagging beef sales, a slew of U.S. beef industry stakeholders have formed the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB) to figure out how to source beef that’s, well, more “sustainable.” And although the USRSB’s intentions might be good, Americans can’t have their steak and eat it, too. That’s because the vast amount of resources it takes to produce enough beef for the country …

China Has Announced Plans For A ‘World Currency’

The Chinese do not plan to live in a world dominated by the U.S. dollar for much longer.  Chinese leaders have been calling for the U.S. dollar to be replaced as the primary global reserve currency for a long time, but up until now they have never been very specific about what they would put in place of it.  Many have …