Agricultural Transparency

This article is mostly from the Grace Communications Foundation.  We summarize the CAFO situation: Industrial animal agriculture farms, also called factory farms or confined / concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) pollute the air, water and soil in many ways. In air there are emissions of greenhouse gases, particles and foul odors and numerous toxic chemicals. In the United States and ...

What is gut microbiota? Probiotic bacteria and other microbes are referred to as the individual’s probiotic community, gut flora, friendly flora but scientifically referred to as the micro biome “microbiota”. The word microbiota represents an ensemble of microorganisms that resides in a previously established environment. Human beings have clusters of bacteria in different parts of the body, such as in ...

High populations and economic power drive countries like the United States and China to import the most food globally. Although many of them are already independently food self-sufficient, the world’s largest economies, such as the U.S. and China, are also the largest importers of food. Food security was, and still is, a major issue, for both wealthy and poverty-ridden countries ...

Weaning time is a very traumatic experience for a calf, and also for his mother if this was her first calf. Older cows often take it a. little better; they’ve gone through it before. In a moment’s reflection, imagine the stress of lactating cows when their off-spring is removed and dairy production demands befell them; milk and veal is tainted ...

The growing influence of Hispanics, Millennials going through life stages, aging boomers, smaller households, and the need for fresh and non-processed foods are among the factors driving the shift in what and how consumers eat, reports NPD. May 11, 2015 The center aisles at grocery stores are evidence that U.S. consumers’ eating behaviors are evolving. The growing influence of Hispanics, ...

QUALITY CERTIFICATION SERVICES Quality Certification Services (QCS) is a USDA and ANSI ISO Guide 17065 accredited certification body that offers a wide array of certification options for farming of crops, livestock, aquaculture, animal feed manufacturing, packing, handling and processing and wild harvest operations.  As the largest certifier on the United States eastern seaboard, QCS meets the needs of operations regardless of type, ...

The word microbiota represents an ensemble of microorganisms that resides in a previously established environment. Human beings have clusters of bacteria in different parts of the body, such as in the surface or deep layers of skin (skin microbiota), the mouth (oral microbiota), the vagina (vaginal microbiota), and so on. What is Gut Microbiota Gut microbiota (formerly called gut flora) ...

HOME PAGE People care more about where our food comes from, its quality and how it is raised however, learning about methods of animal agriculture and meat quality is especially puzzling because it is so secretive. Even the quality of plant cultivation is difficult to define. Vegetarians are often very sensitive to animal agriculture issues.   Their motivations range from ...

Hunger in sows The food provided for pregnant sows is usually much less than that which they would choose to consume so the animals are hungry throughout much of their lives.28 Intensively reared sows are usually fed on restricted rations of concentrated feed. These provide for the nutritional requirements of the sow, but lack the bulk or roughage to satisfy ...

What are some hallmarks of quality when selecting nutritional supplements? To understand the difference, it’s important to know that there are no published FDA GMP standards for dietary supplements under which products must be manufactured and sold. When a company states that they “follow” or “comply” with GMPs they are really stating that they are monitoring themselves. In contrast, GMP ...