NYT: Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler
The New York Times has printed an excellent article detailing the energy resources, land footprint, pollution, and climate change gases that result from global meat production. In many ways meat is similar to oil. It is subsidized by governments, increasingly in demand as nations become wealthier (sending prices higher), and may soon be discouraged as a staple, "as the toll exacted by industrial production increases." From the article, there are links to two excellent graphics. One shows how meat takes 16 times more energy to produce than plant foods. The other shows the immense amount of waste generated.

“...assembly-line meat factories consume enormous amounts of energy, pollute water supplies, generate significant greenhouse gases and require ever-increasing amounts of corn, soy and other grains, a dependency that has led to the destruction of vast swaths of the world’s tropical rain forests.” 

www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html
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Study: Corn ethanol worse than gasoline
Greenhouse emissions attributed to ethanol are much higher if land use factored in, researchers say. Farmers under economic pressure to produce biofuels will increasingly "plow up more forest or grasslands," releasing much of the carbon formerly stored in plants and soils through decomposition or fires. Globally, more grasslands and forests will be converted to growing the crops to replace the loss of grains when U.S. farmers convert land to biofuels, the study said. Note: If more people ate a vegetarian diet there wouldn't be such a shortage of land.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23057867/

Poultry workers 32 times more likely to carry resistant bacteria
Poultry workers are 32 times more likely than the average person to harbor E. coli bacteria that are resistant to the antibiotic gentamicin, according to a study by Johns Hopkins University researchers. The workers were also significantly more likely to harbor bacteria that were resistant to multiple drugs. The study concluded that occupational exposure to chickens may be "an important route of entry" for these dangerous bacteria into the community. Read the study (pdf).

Via Union of Concerned Scientists E-news: Food & Environment Electronic Digest