Agriculture Sector

McDonald's Debuts Fish McBites!

For a limited time, NYC area McDonald's restaurants will carry Fish McBites, a fishy answer to Chicken McNuggets. They're "poppable, crispy pieces of Alaskan Pollock and come in three sizes--Snack (3 oz.), Regular (5 oz.), and Shareable (10 oz.) "Fish McBites will be the first menu item offered by ... More >>

Bacon Shortage Expected Next Year: Sorry, Brunch Just Got A Lot Less Fun

Wake up and smell the bacon, because you might not be able to get your hands on the stuff as often anymore. The National Pig Association reports that there will be a world shortage of pork next year due to drought conditions that decimated the corn and soybean crop. According to their release: New ... More >>

Estrogens in Dairy Wastewater Persist for Years

The Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has conducted a study showing that wastewater from large dairy farms is very high in estrogens which can persist for months, or even years. The levels found by the study are high enough to lower the sperm counts of fish living i ... More >>

Robot Chicken (Deboners)

There's a really interesting story in the Wall Street Journal about the work of Gary McMurray. The robot builder once built military robots to help locate terrorist bombs but has spent the last eight years building...robot chicken deboners. These robots are meant to precisely separate chicken meat ... More >>

Andrew Coté, NYC Beekeeper, on Urban Apiculture (And Getting Bees in His Nose!)

Last week, the Voice brought you news of bees(!), which have been swarming New York with the onset of warm weather. If the thought of thousands of stinging insects flying around the city en masse sounds scary, fear not! We had the chance to catch up with Andrew Coté, often billed as the city's "bu ... More >>

Is Your Definition of Organic the Same as the USDA's? Cornucopia Institute Declares an Organic Watergate

The Wisconsin-based Cornucopia Institute is one of the country's leading preservers of the organic flame - a think-tank and advocacy group that benefits the small, family-owned farms that were once in the vanguard of the organic movement. Of course, big agribusiness has long since infiltrated (some ... More >>

FDA Calls for Reduced Use of Antibiotics in Animals

After 35 years of urging farmers and ranchers to curb their use of antibiotics as growth inducers in animals, the FDA has announced a new collaboration with drug companies, vets and livestock producers to limit the practice.

Organic Farmers Challenge Monsanto Patents in NY Court Hearing

A U.S. District Court hearing in downtown New York today could determine the eventual fate of several organic farmers from across the country, including some in upstate New York. The hearing centered on a "pre-emptive" suit led by the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGTA), against agr ... More >>

Target to Sell Only Sustainable Seafood by 2015

​First of all, Target sells seafood? Second of all, this is good news considering the deplorable state of our oceans right now. Overfishing has depleted populations of fish like cod and tuna to dangerous lows, making the fact that a chain with 1,762 locations is committing itself to sustainabl ... More >>

Bad News From the Bees in Queen of the Sun

What's Happening This Week: Taste Brooklyn, FiDi; Meet a Pig Farmer

As you may know, our weekly dining and drinking newsletter features all the coolest epicurean events in the city. Sign up for it here! Tasting Brooklyn Century Loft Tuesday, April 5 at 6:30 p.m. Sample dishes from the borough's best restaurants and food purveyors, including Barrio Foods, Clover Clu ... More >>

Wavy Gravy Gets Clobbered at MSG

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. August 12, 1971, Vol. XVI, No. 32 Who clubbed the clown? By Ron Rosenbaum Wavy Gravy, recovering from amoebic dysentery, tropical fever, opium addiction, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and a severe spinal condition, was out of Roosevelt Hosp ... More >>

The Single Best Genetically Modified Crop Simile We've Ever Heard

Oh, Monsanto!​"To me, using GMO crops is like making love to a toxic blow-up doll every night." --Fourth-generation farmer Eric Herm, explaining to Leonard Lopate earlier today why he has no plans to use genetically modified crops on his Texas farm. Have a tip or restaurant-related news? Send ... More >>

Here's the 2010 Dirty Dozen Seafood (Dubious) Honor Roll

Copyright GreenpeaceBluefin tuna: don't eat it.​Navigating the increasingly murky waters of sustainable seafood isn't an easy task, particularly when it's abetted by grocery stores whose eco-conscious posturing doesn't quite extend to what's being sold at their fish counters. Fortunately, Food ... More >>

Woodstock A Month Later: Going Back to See Max Yasgur's Farm

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. September 25, 1969, Vol. XIV, No. 50 The Undulating Hillside: Going Back to Bethel by Mark Perlgut I went back to Bethel a couple of weeks ago. I said to myself, I'm visiting friends nearby and I might as well go back to the incredibl ... More >>

Lucian Truscott IV Makes his Voice Debut

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. January 2, 1969, Vol. XIV, No. 12 A Stockingful of Love, But No Re-admission by Lucian Truscott IV "Wow!" I thought. A free thing on Christmas at the Electric Circus. How East Villageish and community closeness and everybody will be to ... More >>

Hugh Romney, Before He Was Wavy Gravy

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. December 19, 1968, Vol. XIV, No. 10 The Hog Farm Commune: A Geodesic Christmas by Joe Pilati The 365-day expanse the Yippies have already designated "Year of the Pig" is almost upon us. It will be a time of bemoaning Richard the Chicke ... More >>

The New York Health Department Has Lifted Its Beekeeping Ban

Here's some very sweet news for local beekeepers and those hoping to acquire some hives of their own: Earlier today, the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene voted unanimously to lift its decade-old beekeeping ban, which had lumped honeybees together with such dangerous creatures as poi ... More >>

Super Secret 'Nduja Hits the Sausage Big Time; Food TV Is Prime Time's Darling

​Tabla is among a number of restaurants using psychological principles to overhaul their menus, such as dropping the dollar sign from prices or naming a dish after the chef's mom. [NY Times] 2009 was the year 'nduja, the spicy smoked meat with a cult following, became the "Lady Gaga of pork ... More >>

American Catfish Farmers Want Vietnamese Catfish to be Called Catfish

If it looks like a catfish and tastes like a catfish...​What, exactly, is a catfish? That's the question that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is being forced to consider, thanks to the efforts of American catfish farmers to get Vietnamese catfish labeled as catfish. The farmers are lobbying ... More >>

The Times Magazine's Year in Ideas: Food & Drink Edition

JelleS/flickr​ The greatest ideas of 2009, according to the Times Magazine, include the conclusion that empty beer bottles make better weapons than full ones. Swiss forensic pathologist Stephan Bolliger endeavored to discover whether a beer bottle could be used to crack open a human skull. Bo ... More >>

Yes In My Backyard: Download Naam's "Skyling Slip"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. Diane Suarez​Brooklyn kraut-metal crushers Naam take the trippiest part of your favorite Hawkwind song and stretch it like space-taffy into hypnotic, riff-driven mush. Recorded at an abandoned dairy ... More >>

At the Greenmarket: Smoked Bluefish

Smoked bluefish salad with cherry tomatoes​ ​ Ever since Sam Sifton's reminder of just how good bluefish can be, it seems like the grayish, dense, oily, and delicious fish is everywhere--at every fish market in town for $6 a pound; mashed into rillettes at Fort Defiance; and either fresh ... More >>

No Farm, No Foul? Farmed Salmon on Drugs, Possibly Mad

izik/flickr​ While it's not all bad news for fish lovers these days, navigating your local fish market can still feel like walking through a minefield of over-harvested, unsustainable choices. Now, Gourmet reports that we should also be worried about rife antibiotic use in certain fish farms. ... More >>

Food Inc. Producer Talks to Jon Stewart

Filmmaker Robert Kenner made an appearance on The Daily Show to talk about Food Inc., which is now playing in select theaters across the country. Jon Stewart, who joked that he hadn't eaten since seeing the movie, called the industrial farming practices depicted in the film "the Abu Grahib of anim ... More >>

Beekeepers Swarm Water Taxi Beach; Toll House Recall A Wake-up Call

Beekeepers swarmed Water Taxi Beach Monday night for the Beekeepers Ball, which kicked off Pollinator Week, a week dedicated to promoting beekeeping. Beekeeping is illegal in New York City, but a bill to lift the ban has been introduced and is currently awaiting a hearing. [NY Times] Fast-food chai ... More >>

Tainted Cookie Dough; Bees In Brooklyn; A Car Made of Food

The latest food safety debacle involves Nestle's refrigerated cookie dough, which was recalled after 65 people in 29 states got sick. Microbiologists and food safety investigators are stumped as to how the E. coli 0157 strain, a bacterium that lives in the intestines of cattle, managed to find its w ... More >>

Organic Farmers Suffer Losses; Prisoners Excercise Their Green Thumbs

Organic farmers are feeling the sting of the organic food trend slowing. Dairy farmers, especially, are suffering, and many have been told to cut milk production by up to 20 percent. The slowdown, combined with the high cost of transporting organic feed from the Midwest has caused 32 dairy farms in ... More >>

No Fish by 2048? The End of the Line--Interview with Journalist Charles Clover

Photo courtesy The End of the Line "Imagine a world without fish." That's the tagline of The End of the Line, a documentary that landed on my desk last week. The press release goes on to say that if we continue to overfish the oceans at the current rate, there will essentially be no fish to eat by ... More >>

Joy of Cooking Getting Fat

A study comparing the 1931 Joy of Cooking to the 2006 edition found a 63% increase in calories in 17 of the recipes.[LA Times]Low milk prices are leading farmers to slaughter hundreds of thousands of dairy cows for meat because they can no longer afford to feed the animals.[AP via Chicago Tribune]Af ... More >>

I, Locavore -- Part One

A Flood of Profits

Test Tube Meat?

Our Man Sietsema and the Very Small Piglet

Thanksgiving: Dude, Where's Your Turkey?

Slaughterhouse Jive: Jesus, Muhammad, Al Qaeda, and the World Series

'Black Gold'

Faithing the Facts

Busy World's wordplay belies lofty themes; Pig Farm's just a boar

Hog Farm's Wayward Bus

Pilgrims & Profiteers on A Cross-Country Crusade

The Roberts file

The Supreme Court nominee: A conservative lawyer in King Dubya's court

Morning Report 7/6/05
Emancipation Proclamation

A Chicken in Every Plot

Mixed Harvest: Farming Doc Reaps Details, Misses Context

Demme's Stirring Tribute To a Late Haitian Free-Speech Hero

Slaughterhouse Jive

Where's the Beef? Good Question.

Slaughterhouse Politics

Ranchers Fought Rules That Might Have Prevented Mad Cow

Toxic to the Tongue

How Big Business Feeds You Hazardous Food

The DNA Bomb

Modified Crops are In the Crosshairs Now. You May Be Next.

So Shad

A Great Hudson River Fishery Faces Its End

Scales of Justice

Striped Bass May Be New York’s Newest Contraband