Tips and resources to covering food safety and agribusiness
Mike McGraw
Oct. 5, 2014
If your beat is agribusiness and you work anywhere in the country, there are lots of
opportunities for stories about food quality and safety, industry-sponsored gag
laws, state and federal food inspection issues, food production methods (think pink
slime), humane treatment of animals, environmental issues, workplace accidents in
large industrialized food plants and, of course the “eat local/eat natural movement.”
Stories by Mike McGraw
How the USDA’s new ‘chicken rule’ can change what you eat and how it’s inspected
http://www.kcpt.org/news/meat-inspection/
Big Beef: Beef’s raw edges
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/12/09/176738/big-beef-beefs-rawedges.html
Drug overuse in cattle imperils human health
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/12/10/176739_drug-overuse-in-cattleimperils.html?rh=1
‘Ag-gag’ law may have hindered report of animal cruelty on Missouri hog farm
http://www.harvestpublicmedia.org/article/ag-gag-law-may-have-hinderedreport-animal-cruelty-missouri-hog-farm
Good resources
Besides searching for local and federal lawsuits naming plants in your area, here are
some of my favorite places to look:
Government:
U.S Department of Agriculture Inspector General’s Office:
www.usda.gov/oig/
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service:
www.fsis.usda.gov/ (recalls/ lists of residue violators)
GAO:
www.gao.gov (searchable for reports and testimony)
GAO report:
Salvaged Food: Lessons learned from the Americold Fire
http://www.gao.gov/products/RCED-95-76
pdf link:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-76/pdf/GAOREPORTSRCED-95-76.pdf
Minnesota Department of Health (one of the best in the country):
www.health.state.mn.us
Food and Drug Administration:
www.fda.gov/ (all non-meat food inspection; residue letters to farms)
Occupational Safety and Health Administration:
https://www.osha.gov/
Center for Disease Control:
www.cdc.gov/ (morbidity/mortality reports; foodborne illness reports)
Industry:
American Meat Institute:
www.ami.com (Janet Riley, vp for communications, is accessible and reliable)
National Cattlemens Beef Association (large cattle operations and packers):
www.beefusa.org
U.S. Cattlemens Association (smaller ranchers)
http://www.uscattlemen.org/
Seattle foodborne illness lawyer Bill Marler’s blog and his Food safety newsletter
http://www.marlerblog.com/
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/
Microbiologist Doug Powell’s food safety blog:
barfblog.com/
Consumer/grassroots/Small Farmer:
Food and Water Watch (an old Nader safe-food advocacy group):
www.foodandwaterwatch.org/ (Corbo)
Center for Science in the Public Interest:
www.cspinet.org/
Organization for Competitive Markets:
competitivemarkets.com/
R-Calf: (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund)
www.r-calfusa.com/
National Farmers Union (and state affiliates):
www.nfu.org/
Government Attic (search for agriculture records)
http://www.governmentattic.org/
Academic (lots of industry money goes into research here):
University of Missouri (Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute) :
www.fapri.missouri.edu/
Iowa State Department of Agriculture:
https://www.cals.iastate.edu/
Meat and Animal Science, Kansas State:
www.asi.k-state.edu/disciplines/meat-science
Media:
Harvest Public Media at KCUR:
http://harvestpublicmedia.org/harvestnetwork
Two of my favorite food industry books:
The Meat Racker, Chris Leonard
Vicious Circles, Jonathan Kwitney