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Nice piece from Top Philpott linking cheap battery eggs to food safety recalls and animal cruelty:

The current egg recall, which grew out of filthy conditions on factory-scale Iowa egg facilities (detailed in my last post), can only be fully understood within this context. Profit margins on eggs that retail for 8 cents apiece are nano-thin; in order to make money, producers have no choice but to think in terms of massive volume. And they have to be ruthless about controlling costs.

In other words, battery egg producers never spend a penny on animal welfare that they don’t have to.

As this becomes common knowledge, I’m betting that it won’t be long before Walmart offers exclusively cage-free eggs. On that day, the battery egg industry’s back will be broken. Link.

An example of long form journalism at its finest, this profile of an undercover dog fighting sting has the feel of a great episode of “The Wire.” (Thanks, Jim.) Link.

A strong candidate for most irresponsible mainstream media piece of the year, written by the author of The Hamburger: A History. In the pages of Time magazine, Josh Ozersky cheers on the development of genetically modified salmon. Never mind that, as a carnivorous top-of-the-food-chain fish, there’s no way to farm salmon—genetically modified or otherwise—that doesn’t waste staggering amounts of resources.

After acknowledging the hazards of genetic modification, Ozersky goes on to write:

But the fact is that, whether through DNA modification, artificial insemination, antibiotics or any other technique, high-tech aquaculture is the only way to save the planet’s marine life.

And:

Eating the so-called "Frankenfish," however scary it may sound, is a small price to pay for saving the world.

Even switching your fish consumption to small, herbivorous fish would be an order of magnitude more environmentally friendly than eating Frankenfish salmon, but Ozersky doesn’t present that as an option. Nor does he bother to mention the possibility of cutting down your fish consumption or cutting it out entirely.

It’s tragic that Time would publish such garbage. (Via Hawthorne.) Link.

Nice debunking by Ginny Messina of Lierre Keith’s nitwit claim that, “there are no good plant sources of tryptophan.”

Memo to Keith: fact checking is a sensational way to avoid looking incompetent. Link.

Superb article by Nicholas Kristof calling for an end to battery cages. No point in excerpting anything since it’s all essential reading. If I was forbidden to make the case for going egg-free, I couldn’t possibly write anything better on the topic than this piece.

Animal advocates need to keep pushing hard against the egg industry’s emerging weaknesses, and publicize articles like this at every turn. We’re at a moment when the battery egg industry has never been so vulnerable. If we keep up the pressure, we may see a turn of events that will doom the entire battery egg industry in the near future. (Thanks, Paul & Richard.) Link.

A pair of egg stories from the Wall Street Journal.

First, the Iowa egg probe has turned into a criminal investigation, and it appears the FBI is on the scene (Bill Marler blogged about the presence of FBI agents yesterday.)

Second, even if you’re as cynical about the egg industry as I am, you probably would never suspect how pathetically little the USDA Grade A shield on an egg carton means. To earn this shield, all the USDA looks at are the eggs’ size, color, and whether they’re cracked.

A USDA official says that shoppers "misunderstand" the shield. Bullshit. The shield is there to mislead consumers about egg safety. (Via Starkman.)

Autumn is prime time for vegetarian food festivals in North America. Here are the big ones for 2010:

• Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair: September 10-12
• DC Vegfest: September 11
• Portland VegFest: September 18-19
• San Francisco World Vegetarian Festival: October 2-3
• Boston Vegetarian Food Festival: October 30-31

The DC, Toronto, and Boston events feature free admission.

Burger King’s been a shitty, also-ran burger chain for as long as most of us have been alive. And now it looks like it’s going up for sale once again.

Interesting that, as I write this, McDonald’s has a market cap of  $79 billion, as compared to Burger King’s approximate $2.4 billion valuation.

Burger King is a company with no real future, unless it reinvents its core menu offerings to reflect the changing tastes of an America that’s no longer totally clueless about its food choices. Perhaps its new owners will recognize that.  Link.

Make it before plums go out of season. Recipe here.

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