"PORK" The other white meat....

If you are a pork lover like me you should try Kurobuta Pork. Kurobuta Pork is a Japanese name for a certain quality of pork. The style of pig that it comes from is Berkshire pigs. Kurobuta Pork is darker than standard pork, with a richer taste, soft white fat, and good marbling throughout. It is never injected with brine water "seasoning", as much pork is. It is very expensive. Pork being sold as Kurobuta in the United States is raised by Snake River Farms and Eden Farms. Pork being sold as Kurobuta in the UK is being raised in Worcestershire. The royal family at Windsor Castle maintained a large herd of Black Berkshire. The pigs there and the United States are fed beer and grain, and allow the pigs to go swimming this method is not part of the breeding tactics in Japan. Not to say the only real Kurobuta Pork is raised in Japan but the raising methods is different in other Countries. Berkshires are early-maturing black pigs and often have white on their legs, faces, and the tips or their tails. The snouts are dished and are of medium length. The ears are fairly large and are erect or slightly leaned forward. They have fine wrinkle-free necks and well-sloped shoulder blades. They have short, straight legs and a straight underline belly. I suggest if you’re a pork lover and you ever have the chance to try this style of pork do so!

What's in Your Meat? FDA Reveals Antibiotic Use in Livestock

Until now, we've only guessed the amount of antibiotics used were high to keep our pig, cattle and poultry stocks healthy. In fact, the Animal Health Institute predicted 11.1 million kilograms were used nationwide in 2005. But the Food and Drug Administration's records don't go back that far.For the first time, the FDA has released an estimate. In 2009 alone, "13.1 million kilograms of antimicrobial drugs were sold or distributed for use in food-producing animals" in the U.S., cites Livable Future from the report (.pdf) made available to the public last Thursday. There's also a chart listing approved antibiotics in each drug class.That 13.1 million kilograms is just short of 29 million pounds. "That's a lot," writes Maryn McKenna on her Wired magazine blog. (McKenna is a journalist specializing in infectious diseases, and the author of Superbug, notes Food Safety News.)We think of antibiotics as a good thing, something to rid ourselves of disease, but overuse can lower resistance, and that's exactly what we're seeing in meat production. This in turn calls for stronger antibiotics, which don't just stay with the animal. It carries through to the land and those working on it, not to mention its unidentified consequences to those who consume the meat.Nutritionist Marion Nestle notes in The Atlantic that since this is the first report, "it is not possible to say whether the numbers are going up or down. But the agency is now requiring meat producers to report on antibiotic use so we now have a baseline for measuring progress."

Japan Sets Radiation Limits for Fish

Japanese officials have found radioactive iodine at 7.5 million times the legal limit in seawater near the crippled Fukushima plant. That staggering number has prompted the Japanese government to set radiation safety standards for the first time for seafood -- 2,000 bequerels of iodine per kilogram of fish.

Kounago fish caught on Friday, approximately 50 miles from the nuclear plant, were found to contain 4,080 bequerels of radioactive iodine-131 and 526 bequerels of cesium 137. According to the Wall Street Journal, those results were the first clear indication that fish were being contaminated as a result of leaks from the Daiichi plant.

Nichols Fisher, a professor of marine sciences at SUNY at Stony Brook told the New York Times that according to some radiation safety guidelines, people could eat 35 pounds of fish per year containing the level of cesium 137 detected in the Japanese fish.

"So you're not going to die from eating it right away, but we're getting to levels where I would think twice about eating it," he was quoted as saying.
The current radiation leak is coming from the No. 2 reactor. The Los Angeles Times reports that workers at the plant have been releasing water into the Pacific Ocean to make room for on-site storage tanks that will hold more highly contaminated water. While iodine-131 has a half life of eight days and will eventually dissipate, scientists are especially concerned about the levels of cesium-137 which could linger in the area for decades.

Fukushima is not considered a major fishing area for Japan, but according to CBS News, fishermen are worried that demand will collapse for seafood caught elsewhere.

"Even if the government says the fish is safe, people won't want to buy seafood from Fukushima," fisherman Ichiro Yamagata told CBS News. "We probably can't fish there for 10 to 20 years."

Seaweed, which can concentrate levels of radioactive elements as it grows is also of concern for Japanese consumers. The nuclear disaster is threatening the livelihood of coastal seaweed farmers as well.

"We have to live day by day, " Mitsue Murakami, a seaweed, scallop and oyster farmer on the island of Oshima, 90 miles north of Fukushima told NPR. "We won't know for years how much radiation exposure people received. The thing I'm most worried about today is if people stop buying our seaweed and scallops because they're afraid of radiation."

Bat Epidemic Could Lead to Higher Grocery Bills

With the vampire craze currently sweeping Hollywood, you'd think bats would be getting a little more attention these days. The flying creatures of the night are in trouble -- and it could cause food costs to go way up, reports Fast Company.

Bats hunt insects, and their eating habits are a major boon for both organic and traditional farmers. Reuters estimates that bats' total value to agriculture is $22.9 billion annually. The little brown bat, Montana's most common bat species, eats about 1,200 insects per hour and in one 2006 study, bats in South-Central Texas were shown to have an annual pest control value of over $740,000 (29% of the value of the area's cotton crop), according to Fast Company.

They also pollinate crops -- papayas, mangos, and figs all benefit from our furry flying friends. But a deadly fungal infection --something called white-nose syndrome -- has put the U.S. bat population in jeopardy. According to Reuters, more than one million bats have died since the syndrome was discovered in 2006. But researchers aren't sure that it's simply white-nose syndrome that's to blame, since European bats with the same syndrome don't usually die.

Conservation groups and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service are on the case, but consumers should also be following the news closely. If we loose our bats, it's going to be a lot harder -- and more expensive -- to farm. And that means higher prices at the market.

Read more: http://www.slashfood.com/2011/04/05/bat-epidemic-could-lead-to-higher-grocery-bills/#ixzz1hfqJQHOv

Taco Bell, KFC lobby federal government to subsidize fast food through food stamps

According to a recent report in USA Today, Louisville, Ky. based Yum! Brands, which owns Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver restaurant, and Pizza Hut, is lobbying the federal government to permit SNAP enrollees to use food stamps at their restaurants. And they claim doing so will help prevent hunger.

But many in opposition are decrying the proposition as ridiculous, and a blatant misuse of public funds in support of junk foods rather than health foods.

"It's preposterous that a company like Yum! Brands would even be considered for inclusion in a program meant for supplemental nutrition," said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

If the federal government ends up granting the fast food industry inclusion in the food stamps program, it will essentially be funneling taxpayer money into a system that promotes both abuse of the system and ill health. After all, fast food is laden with toxic chemicals and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and contains little to no nutritional value.

And if participation in the food stamp program continues to rise -- which is expected, based on a continually plummeting economy -- the end result will essentially be a government-run system of food distribution in which most Americans have no choice but to eat the garbage peddled by their local fast food joints.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033559_food_stamps_Taco_Bell.html#ixzz1gKsCkvSR