Food safety

What You Should Know About Sewage and Food Safety

This fact sheet answers some common questions about the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer.

Poultry on Antibiotics: Hazards to Human Health

The first study to examine brand-name poultry products prominent in grocery stores for the presence of multiple antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including resistance to important antibiotics relied upon to treat human infections like Ciprofloxacin (Cipro), Synercid, and Tetracycline. This report is a joint effort by the Sierra Club and IATP.  

On Eve of Home & Garden Show, Local Ag Group Calls For Full Disclosure On Fertilizer Ingredients

As the Twin Minneapolis Home & Garden Show opens this week, a local sustainable agriculture organization is calling on fertilizer makers to disclose all of the ingredients in their products.

Farmers & Consumers Kept in the Dark As Toxic Metals Found in Minnesota Fertilizers

As "spring fever" takes hold and farmers and gardeners are preparing their soil for planting, many Minnesotans are unwittingly purchasing fertilizers made from industrial toxic waste.

Antimicrobial Use in Animal Feed: An Ecological and Public Health Problem

Antibiotics arguably constitute one of the most important medical discoveries of the last century. Unfortunately, many antibiotics now are rapidly losing effectiveness as bacteria increasingly acquire resistance to multiple medicines. Routine feeding of antibiotics to animals raised for food promotes overuse and is one of the key drivers contributing to antibiotic resistance.

Getting the Dirt on What's in Your Fertilizer

Because hazardous waste is legally “recycled” as fertilizer and spread on farmland and sold in garden centers to unsuspecting home gardeners, IATP published this factsheet explaining what soil testing is, what the labels reveal and the issue with dioxins and heavy metals in fertilizer.

A Fertilizer That Contaminates

Ironite is one fertilizer that bills itself as a "natural soil supplement . . . popular choice for home, lawn and garden for 43 years. Nothing greens like Ironite. Will not burn." Ironite is made from a 60 acre pile of mine tailings located at a Superfund-nominate site. Testing by state agencies in Washington and Minnesota in 1998 and 1999 found dangerously high levels of arsenic and lead.

Farm bill offers billions in aid but no certain relief

Douglas Schernik gave up on growing cotton this year, after 25 years. Now, the 55 year old farmer relies on his corn and grain sorghum crops for income. "The price wasn't right," said Schernik, who lives on a 90 acre farm in Taylor and farms another 1,600 acres in rural Williamson County. Cotton is a $1 billion business in Texas and one of the top three crops in Central Texas.

Fishing Opener Raises Questions About Polluted Fish

Minnesota's annual Walleye fishing opener this Saturday should be a wake-up call for the urgent need to reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants and other top industrial sources, says the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action Alliance.

Labeling and Traceability of Bioengineered Foods

With advances in agricultural biotechnology, it would behoove the United States to enhance existing food regulations and launch across-the-board pre-market safety testing, labeling, and traceability requirements for all food products and animal feed. Includes French and Spanish translations.