RFK Jr. Helps Underpin a $25 Billion Pivot From Farm Chemicals
Rick Clark, a fifth-generation farmer in Indiana, started going all natural more than a decade ago. Today, the land where he grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa is fully organic and free of all chemical inputs. More producers will start to follow suit, he says, thanks in part to a new ally: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy has long advocated for American growers to curb their reliance on certain chemicals to grow and protect crops, claiming they can be toxic. And while it’s too soon to say how much U.S. policy will actually change when it comes to the inputs, the health secretary’s views are capturing the zeitgeist. That’s allowing him to underpin an established trend as more consumers also demand a shift.
For decades, farmers like Clark had relied on chemical products to control for things like weeds and bugs and to boost yields. That’s part of what allowed the U.S. to become an agricultural powerhouse, relied on to help feed millions across the globe. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, weed killers and seed technologies enabled yields and harvests to surge.
Mexico Amends Constitution to Prohibit GM Corn Seeds
The Mexican government has amended its constitution to prohibit the use of genetically modified (GM) corn seeds. It is only the second country to do so. After signing the reform into law, President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated in a press conference that its primary objectives are to “guarantee biodiversity, food sovereignty, and the health of Mexicans.”
The reform strengthens previous legal action against GM seeds by enshrining the ban in the constitution. It comes on the heels of a ruling that Mexico’s 2023 decree, which sought to restrict the use of GM corn in dough and tortillas and phase out the use of the herbicide glyphosate, violated the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The presidential decree cited concerns around human health and threats to native corn varieties.
“If and as GMO [genetically modified organism] corn is planted in Mexico, novel DNA from GMO corn will move via pollen into native corn varieties, and in short order (i.e. one to two decades), contaminate essentially all non-GMO corn in Mexico,” pesticide and agricultural biotechnology expert Charles Benbrook tells Food Tank. “As a result, Mexico would no longer be able to feed its people uncontaminated corn.”
We’re Running out of Chances to Stop Bird Flu
The Food & Environment Reporting Network reported:
Farmers in Georgia’s northeastern corner woke up on Jan. 15 to discover that birds in their flock of 45,000 chickens were ill and dying. Within 24 hours, the state’s veterinary laboratory confirmed the problem was bird flu.
Within two days, the Georgia Department of Agriculture sent an emergency team to kill all infected and exposed birds, disinfect the barns, set up a 10-kilometer quarantine zone around the farm and impose mandatory testing on every poultry operation inside it. The agency also told other chicken producers to confine all their birds indoors, and ordered an immediate stop to bringing birds out in public: no exhibitions, no flea market sales.
Unfortunately, bird flu is no longer confined to birds. For several years, the virus has been jumping from wild birds into wild mammals, and last March it was identified in cows for the first time. Scientists are sounding the alarm: Bird flu’s jump into an animal with which humans have such close contact is a serious warning sign. If this outbreak isn’t controlled, the virus could mutate and plunge humans into a new public health emergency.
Mission Barns to Launch Cell-Cultivated Pork Fat in Retail and Restaurants
Food and Drink International reported:
Mission Barns, a company focused on creating lab-grown meat for a sustainable food system, has announced the launch of its first products following regulatory clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its cell-cultivated pork fat.
The company’s debut restaurant partner is Fiorella, an Italian restaurant group in the San Francisco area. Additionally, Mission Barns will begin retail sales through a major U.S. supermarket chain, marking the first grocery store to offer cultivated meat in the U.S. Mission Barns has developed its flagship products, Italian Style Cultivated Meatballs and Applewood Smoked Cultivated Bacon, both made with cultivated pork fat and plant-based protein.
The process involves using a sample taken from a pig cultivated with plant-based nutrients in a controlled environment. This method can produce vast amounts of meat from a single animal sample, reducing the need for large-scale livestock farming and offering significant benefits for food security, greenhouse gas reduction, and resource conservation.
