US Scrutinizes Calif. Meat Packer

It's a cheap, relatively healthy meat option for the poor: Josh Ozersky

(NEWSER) - When Congress lifted the ban on funding horse meat inspections , no one exactly cheered, because Americans find the idea of eating horse meat “gross.” But maybe it’s time to get over “our national revulsion” against the stuff, writes Josh Ozersky in Time . For one thing, since horse meat is so unpopular, it would be cheaper than most other meat—meaning that “the poorest Americans could eat fresh meat more frequently." More»

A butcher, hunter, and rancher discuss the ethics of eating animals

(NEWSER) - For long stretches of their lives, Nicolette Niman, Tovar Cerulli and Joshua Applestone were all vegetarians or vegans. Now, they’re a rancher, a hunter, and a butcher, respectively, who “firmly believe food from animals can be healthful, environmentally appropriate, and ethical,” they write in the Atlantic . Their stories:

• Nicolette: She became vegan “after hearing that beef was deforesting the Amazon,” but eventually “learned that animals were essential to sustainable farms.” They increase soil fertility and convert otherwise inedible vegetation and uncultivated land into food.
• Tovar: He became a vegan after listening to Buddhist teachings, but eventually “realized that all food has its costs. From habitat destruction to combines that inadvertently mince rabbits … crop production is far from harmless.” What matters, he decided, “wasn’t what we ate, but how that food came to our plates.”
• Joshua: He was a vegetarian until he met his wife and opened a meat company. “Once I saw how the meat we were selling had been raised, and met the farmers who were striving to raise animals sustainably … I realized I didn’t have a problem with meat. I had a problem with the inhumane practices of the commercial meat industry."

Congress lifts ban on funding horse meat inspections

(NEWSER) - When Congress passed a spending bill earlier this month to keep the government from shutting down, it quietly lifted a funding ban on horse meat inspections—meaning horses can once again be butchered in the US for human consumption, and slaughterhouses could open within 30 to 90 days. The US has no outright ban on horse slaughter, although two states do ban it and many others regulate the sale of horse meat, but funding for horse meat inspections was cut off in 2006. Congress did not allocate new money to pay for inspections, meaning the USDA would have to find the money within its own struggling budget. More»

In school lunches, at least

(NEWSER) - Thanks to Congress, pizza is still considered a vegetable—at least where school lunches are concerned. Proposed new school lunch standards from the USDA would have limited potatoes in school lunches (think French fries) and stopped counting less than a half-cup of tomato sauce as a vegetable (think pizza), but food companies complained via $5.6 million worth of lobbying, Talking Points Memo reports. A spending bill released yesterday rejects those suggestions, ensuring pizza and French fries will continue to be served. More»

Thwarts Obama's attempts to limit them for childrens' health

(NEWSER) - The Senate yesterday subtly thwarted an Obama administration proposal to limit the amount of potatoes and other starchy vegetables school children scarf down, inserting an amendment into an Agriculture Department spending bill prohibiting the Department from setting “any maximum limits on the serving of vegetables in school meal programs." The amendment passed by unanimous consent, the New York Times reports. The administration had wanted to limit “starchy vegetables” to one cup per student per week. More»