Agriculture Sector

Dairy Industry Aims to Use Aspartame Secretly

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation want to be able to use aspartame without having to include it on product labels, as is currently required by law. The FDA has been ignoring the petition, which was filed in 2009. Until now. The agency is co ... More >>

Publix Sells Shark Meat: Eat or Avoid?

Since before Jaws used the Jersey shore as an all-you-can-eat buffet, sharks have held a reputation as the monsters of the sea. But no matter how intimidating they appear, the water-bound predators still fall below humans on the food chain. In fact, shark meat is legally sold at certain retailers, ... More >>

Publix Seafood Practices Rank 19 of 20 Stores Analyzed, Greenpeace Says

Wikimedia CCPublix seafood practices score a failing grade of 2.7 out of 10, according to the environmental group Greenpeace. A study by the organization's Carting Away the Oceans project (CATO) analyzed major grocers such as Target, Safeway, Whole Foods, and Winn-Dixie. Publix landed at 19 among th ... More >>

Sustain, Gotham Steak, City Hall and More: Misleading Salmon Descriptions

via Flickr CCSustain Restaurant Bar has developed a brand synonymous with greener eating. Deconstructed branches line its walls and lamps in natural shapes light up its vast open space, all contributing to a signature earthy feel. The menu lists ingredients with sources and location, and the resta ... More >>

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen offers rom-com shenanigans

Farmworkers To Picket Publix On International Human Rights Day

Farm workers will protest Publix on International Human Rights Day​The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) are planning to picket the newly opened Publix on KIllian Parkway and SW 104th Street on December 11th, International Human Rights Day.The protesters, comprised of dozens of farm workers fro ... More >>

PETA and Thanksgiving: Talking Turkey

​People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has a long history of being controversial. Their polarizing anti-meat, anti-research, and anti-fur campaigns can be harsh, in-your-face, and brilliant.  And there's no better time for PETA to activate its campaign machine than during Than ... More >>

Tomatoland: Barry Estabrook Describes Why Florida Sucks at Agriculture

Apparently, when it comes to agriculture and civil rights, Florida just can't do anything right. In the new book, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, journalist Barry Estabrook traces the history of the tomato and discusses the ecological and human co ... More >>

David Rukin: PETA Is Wrong, Beekeeping Is Not Animal Abuse

Florida beekeeper David Rukin​There's a perception in the vegan/vegetarian community that beekeepers are perpetrators of animal abuse. They mishandle bees, stealing from them and working them into the ground by harvesting their hard-earned product. David Rukin, one of Florida's most prolific beeke ... More >>

The International Watermelon Conference is Not Seedy

Creative Commons: North Carolina State University​This weekend, the Second Annual International Watermelon Conference rolls into town at The Eden Roc Resort & Spa, and the roster reads like one big juicy party! While it's billed as a summit focusing on "the challenges and opportunities f ... More >>

Spilling the Beans

Irate Radio

November is Sticky Peanut Butter Month

​November is national peanut butter lover's month. Even with peanut allergies on the rise, peanut butter is found in about 75 percent of all American homes.This American pantry staple dates back to the Incas who created a paste-like substance from peanuts. The first American commercial peanut crop ... More >>

Immokalee Workers Win $$ for Farm Laborers

​The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Pacific Tomato Growers, one of the biggest U.S. tomato firms, has agreed to pass on a penny per pound surcharge to workers.McDonald's and others had offered to pay the charge after federal authorities compared the lot of Central American workers in tomato ... More >>

Florida Tomatoes Declared "Tastiest In Years" -- By The Florida Tomato Marketers

Lee KleinPhoto of last year's presumably inferior crop​The Florida Tomato Committee is touting the upcoming crop as "the best tasting in years". The marketing organization for tomato growers estimates that 80 percent of the winter crop was wiped out this past year. To date this season, Florida tom ... More >>

The Humane Society Began Its Battle with Farmers Right Here in Florida

Got Milk? Got Ethics? Got A Barf Bag? Then Get Ready For This

ABC News Nightline aired an exposé on the dairy industry last night that should outrage any human being with feelings. "Got Milk? Got Ethics? Animal Rights v. U.S. Dairy Industry," written by Brian Ross and Anna Schecter, included a video made inside a huge New York farm, Willet Dairy, milk from wh ... More >>

Top 10 Ways To Eat an Overfished Species: Red Snapper

via http://www.flickr.com/photos/88158121@N00/ / CC BY 2.0Red Snapper on ice at boat dock.​The Federales have deemed the Atlantic coast's red snapper population overfished.January 4, regulations went in place to outlaw angling for them.The government says that red snapper populations are at 3 perc ... More >>

No More Raw Milk at Florida Whole Foods, the Company Explains Their Decision, Kind Of

via wikimedia​Cooked milk, get your cooked milk.Whole Foods Market has officially dropped raw milk from its shelves in Florida.Raw Milk is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized. Pasteurization is a heating process meant to kill bacteria, and homogenization is the process of making the ... More >>

Friday Food Funnies: Silly Stuff

Sign on bakery window: Cake 66 cents; upside-down cake 99 cents.Diner: Waiter, do you have any lobster tails?Waiter: Certainly, sir. Once upon a time there was a little lobster...Sign at dairy farm: You can whip our cream, but you can't beat our milk.One thing is for certain about organic farms: The ... More >>

Coalition Of Immokalee Workers Declare Tomato Pickers Victory in Florida

image via ciw-online.org The Coalition Of Immokalee Workers, a Florida farmworkers union known for taking on the "big 4" fast food giants, winning, and garnering higher wages because of it, has just marked another milestone. Two Florida farms that specialize in growing and selling or ... More >>

Yes, Those Are Slaves On The Steps of The Florida Capitol Today

If you happen to wander by the Capitol on your daily stroll around Tallahassee today, yes, that is in fact a truck full of farm workers being beaten into unpaid slave labor right on the steps of the Florida Legislature.New Times photoHaitian farm workers in HomesteadA few months after the latest sla ... More >>

Oyster Lovers, Unite

This Valentine's weekend might be your best chance in years to eat these aphrodisiacs.

Slow Foods Glades to Coast Dinner at Cafe Boulud

(sturgeon: It's what's for dinner)The Slow Foods Glades to Coast Chapter, which covers roughly the Palm Beach and Broward areas, is hosting a 5-course Growers' Discovery gourmet dinner at Cafe Boulud in Palm Beach this Thursday, December 11, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. The dinner, overseen by chef Zach B ... More >>

Orange Crush

A Chinese pathogen has the citrus industry talking apocalypse.

Florida Citrus Growers Switch to Organic

The Reporter and the Tranny

He kissed her, um, him, and that was only the beginning.

The Junina Festival

A Tough Shell

Letters from the Issue of February 16, 2006

Everything about this seems a bit hypocritical

Historian, Test Thyself

A Fish Farmer's Tale

Could this be the next salmon?

Tori Amos

BEST BAIT SHOP

A-OK Fish 'n' Bait

BEST CAVIAR

Marky's

Cows to Cuba

A South Florida rancher is using bovine diplomacy to improve relations with the island nation

Glam-Dunk

Hip-hop hoops it up

BEST FISH SANDWICH

Captain Jim's Seafood

BEST FLORIST

Jenny's Flowers

BEST STEAKHOUSE

Graziano's Parrilla Argentina

Best Snorkeling Spot

Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary

Best Chocolate

Le Chocolatier

Best Local Phantasmagoria

Anatomy of a Quarantine

State officials are spending millions of your tax dollars to stop citrus canker. And they're making a mess of it.

Weight and Si

Off the Hook

Caught between depletion and regulation, Dade's commercial fishermen are becoming the latest endangered species

Letters

The One That Didn't Get Away

A National Marine Fisheries Service scientist hooks some big violations

From Here to Paternity

The Great Largo Gumbo Limbo Imbroglio

When 350 trees fall in a protected North Key forest, they make a very loud noise