Category Archives: North America

US nutrition experts say limits on saturated fats should no longer be recommended to reduce heart disease
Consumption / Diet / Event report / Human Health / News clipping / North America / Nutrition / USA

US nutrition experts say limits on saturated fats should no longer be recommended to reduce heart disease

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Following a two-day, DC-based workshop entitled “Saturated Fats: A Food or Nutrient Approach?” a group of leading nutrition scientists, mainly from the U.S., released a consensus statement detailing their findings on the latest research regarding the intake of saturated-fats and heart disease. After reviewing the evidence, the expert group agreed that the most rigorous and current science fails to support a continuation of the government’s policy limiting consumption of saturated fats. Continue reading →

(Enteric methane) greenhouse gas emissions in cows are cut 25% with feed supplement (3-NOP)
Animal Feeding / Cattle / Climate Change / Dairying / GHG emissions / Livestock / News clipping / North America / Science paper / USA

(Enteric methane) greenhouse gas emissions in cows are cut 25% with feed supplement (3-NOP)

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The addition of 3-Nitrooxypropanol to the feed of dairy cows reduced their enteric methane emissions by about 25% in a recently published study—one in a series of Penn State studies of the investigational substance in the United States—which might be an early step toward it being approved for use in this country. Continue reading →

Beef cattle grazing on American rangelands—not feedlots—could be net carbon sink
Animal Production / Cattle / Climate Change / Environment / North America / Rangelands / Science paper / Soils / USA

Beef cattle grazing on American rangelands—not feedlots—could be net carbon sink

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A new research paper by Michigan State University scientists analyses the impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems and finds that eEmissions from the multi-paddock grazing system were offset completely by soil carbon sequestration and that soil carbon sequestration from well-managed grazing may help to mitigate climate change. Continue reading →

Tightened rules for use of antibiotics by livestock producers go into effect in the United States
Agri-Health / AMR / Animal Production / Article / Disease Control / Human Health / North America / USA

Tightened rules for use of antibiotics by livestock producers go into effect in the United States

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From the United States comes this good news about a new rule that has gone into effect curtailing use of antibiotics in livestock production with the aim of reducing the rise of antimicrobial resistance to drugs of medical importance. Continue reading →

Fighting climate change in a post-modernist world of pop art politics—Opinion by Phil Thornton
CCAFS / Climate Change / Environment / Europe / ILRI / North America / Opinion piece / Policy / Research / SLS / UK / USA

Fighting climate change in a post-modernist world of pop art politics—Opinion by Phil Thornton

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Phil Thornton leads CGIAR research on institutions and policies for climate-resilient food systems. He makes the case for better and closer scientist-citizen engagement in an opinion piece published this week in the wake of this year’s national political election results in Australia, the UK and the USA. Continue reading →

Food and food systems thinkers advocate a national ‘food policy’ for the US–and maybe the rest of us?
Agri-Health / Agriculture / Consumption / Environment / Human Health / North America / Opinion piece / Policy / USA

Food and food systems thinkers advocate a national ‘food policy’ for the US–and maybe the rest of us?

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Did you miss this call for a US national food policy by Mark Bittman, New York Times columnist and lead food writer; Michael Pollan, leading food, food systems and food science author; Ricardo Salvador, director of food and environment at the Union of Concerned Scientists; and Olivier de Schutter, former UN special rapporteur on the right to food. Continue reading →

Animal Production / Cattle / Intensification / Livestock Systems / North America / Opinion piece / USA

Beef feedlots: Polluters or efficient use of resources?

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There’s been an interesting debate published in the Wall Street Journal this week on whether feedlot beef is bad for the environment. Robert Martin, director of the Food System Policy Program at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, says the pollution spreads for miles. Jude Capper, a livestock sustainability expert based in Britain, says the beef industry keeps things safe Continue reading →

Animal Breeding / Animal Products / Article / Books and chapters / Chickens / Consumption / Genetics / ILRI / Indigenous Breeds / Intensification / LiveGene / North America / Poultry / Trade / USA

How a ‘Chicken of Tomorrow’ breeding contest turned America’s backyard birds into a giant global industry

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New Yorker cover by Tom Gauld (via Pinterest). The following fascinating recent history of the chicken in America is taken from a 2014 essay by Andrew Lawler published in Aeon (check out this online science and cultural magazine, founded in London in 2012, if you haven’t yet): Chicken of tomorrow: How a massive breeding contest turned … Continue reading →