Sainsbury’s shoppers criticise ‘vile’ mince vac-packs aimed at reducing plastic

New pouches for beef are said to be ‘too compressed’ and ‘like I’ve bought someone’s kidney’

Sainsbury’s has said it is determined to make more “bold moves” to cut plastic and defended itself against criticism of new packaging for mince which shoppers have criticised as “very medical”, “too compressed” and “vile”.

The supermarket said last month it was the first UK retailer to vacuum pack all its beef mince, part of the retailer’s efforts to halve its use of plastic packaging on its own-label products by 2025.

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Palm oil land grabs ‘trashing’ environment and displacing people

Growing rush for land is destroying ecosystems and disrupting lives to satisfy global demand for goods, study warns

Businesses and governments must stop the growing rush of commodities-driven land grabbing, which is “trashing” the environment and displacing people, says new research.

Palm oil and cobalt were extreme risks for land grabs according to an analysis of 170 commodities by research firm Verisk Maplecroft published last week. It also warned that, alongside cobalt, other minerals used for “clean” technology, including silicon, zinc, copper, were high risk and undermined the sector’s label.

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The creative casserole: 17 fabulous one-pot recipes – from kale spaghetti to coq au vin

The sturdy pots are great for roasting meat, but they can also be used to bake bread, steam shellfish and make a beautiful blackberry cake

My American mother would have called it a Dutch oven, although a lot of people in the US call a Dutch oven a French oven, while the French call it a casserole. I think a true Dutch oven is a piece of camping equipment, with a hanging handle and stubby little legs, but that is not what my mother meant. My mother did not camp.

What I am trying to describe is a pot, round or oval, with fairly high sides and a snug-fitting lid. They are usually enamelled cast-iron and they can be ruinously expensive, although you sometimes see good secondhand ones at car boot sales. My wife once got two giant Le Creuset casseroles from a market stall for £20 because the guy selling them had put one inside the other and couldn’t get them apart. I was prepared to deploy any number of drastic separation strategies, but a screwdriver wedged between the handles did the trick.

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Brazilian beef farms ‘used workers kept in conditions similar to slavery’

Workers on farms supplying world’s biggest meat firms allegedly paid £8 a day and housed in shacks with no toilets or running water

Brazilian companies and slaughterhouses including the world’s largest meat producer, JBS, sourced cattle from supplier farms that made use of workers kept in slavery-like conditions, according to a new report.

Workers on cattle farms supplying slaughterhouses earned as little as £8 a day and lived in improvised shacks with no bathrooms, toilets, running water or kitchens, according to a report from Brazilian investigative agency Repórter Brasil.

Since 1995, the report said, 55,000 Brazilian workers have been rescued by government inspectors from “situations similar to slavery”. While the number of investigations has fallen in recent years – 118 workers were freed in 2018, compared with 1,045 a decade earlier – that does not mean the situation has improved, just that inspections have been reduced, it noted.

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Here’s what really scares soybean farmers about Trump’s trade battle with China

Farmers don't seem to be brimming with relief over the Trump administration's plan to offset the impact of trade tensions with a $12 billion, stopgap trade package nor the European Union's apparent vow to begin snapping up more U.S. soybeans. It all comes down to market share and the fact that for commodity producers, it can be very hard to recover once lost.

Meat 2.0? Clean meat? Spat shows the power of food wording

That question has yet to be decided by regulators, but for the moment it's pitting animal rights advocates and others against cattle ranchers in a war of words. Supporters of the science are embracing "clean meat" to describe meat grown by replicating animal cells.

Fear of competition – not consumer protection – is behind…

A desire to protect its members, not consumers, is the primary motivation behind the US Cattlemen's Association petition to restrict use of the terms 'beef' and 'meat' to products from animals "born, raised, and harvested in the traditional manner" claim leading plant-based and cultured meat companies. In a comment a a to the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service urging it to reject the USCA petition, the Good Food Institute, Tofurky, Lightlife Foods, Field Roast Grain Meat Co, Impossible Foods, Finless Foods, Sweet Earth Foods, and Hungry Planet, argue that USDA is authorized to regulate meat labels to protect the health and welfare of consumers.

USDA recalls thousands of pounds of ‘high-risk’ beef

PFP Enterprises is recalling approximately 7,146 pounds of raw beef products that were produced and packaged without the benefit of federal inspection, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Saturday. The frozen and fresh beef items were produced on March 23-24, 2018.

Deutz wins trip to Washington, D.C. for ag visit

Marshall farmer Allen Deutz took a pivot in his farming operation when he switched from dairy to beef cattle and went back to college for economics at South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D. As a student, he earned a trip to Washington, D.C. Feb. 22-23. "I also work at SDSU part-time as a graduate research assistant for Dr. Deepthi Kolady.

Food | Chef Walter’s Flavors + Knowledge: Stuffed Rabbit With Peas

When rabbit meat is on the menu, expect controversy to follow. It is socially acceptable to use farm animals, such as cows and chickens, as food; however, many people balk at the idea of eating rabbit, according to several publications.

Higher protein production forecast pressures prices for livestock producers

Demand for meat is going to remain firm throughout the rest of 2018, and U.S. livestock producers will continue to see favorable feed prices. But livestock producers are going to be pressured on market prices for beef, hogs, and poultry products because of increased production in most livestock sectors.

2017 Silver Eagle Award Honors Merlyn Carlson

Nebraska Farm Bureau has selected former Nebraska Director of Agriculture Merlyn Carlson as the 2017 recipient of its highest honor, the Silver Eagle Award. The award will be presented to Carlson on Merlyn Carlson and his wife Janice raised their family on their ranch near Lodgepole, where they raised cattle.

Montana beef to China

Fred Wacker, owner/operator of the Cross Four Ranch at Miles City, MT is one of the cattle producers involved in the agreement to ship Montana-sourced beef to China. Fred Wacker, owner/operator of the Cross Four Ranch at Miles City, MT is one of the cattle producers involved in the agreement to ship Montana-sourced beef to China.

China’s largest online retailer to buy Montana beef

China's largest online retailer has agreed to buy $200 million worth of Montana beef over the next three years - representing as many as 90,000 head of cattle - and potentially invest $100 million more in a new slaughterhouse in the state under the terms of a trade deal disclosed Wednesday. The scope of the agreement is relatively small compared to Montana's overall cattle market, equaling less than four percent of the state's cattle sales on an annualized basis.

‘Smothered’ and ‘shoved aside’ in rural America

"Come on! Come on! Go girls!" Annette Sweeney was on horseback, hollering at her chocolate-colored cows on a perfect Iowa morning, happy that her life is better since Donald Trump became president. Sweeney, 60, raises Angus cows and corn on the flat, green farmland of central Iowa.

As prairies turn to ash, cowboys mull help

Travis Brown, 33, of Sand Springs Mont., stands next to a fence at a cattle corral while waiting for local cowboys to divert some of his cattle into a trailer.Tim Craig/The Washington Post Travis Brown, 33, of Sand Springs Mont., stands next to a fence at a cattle corral while waiting for local cowboys to divert some of his cattle into a trailer.Tim Craig/The Washington Post SAND SPRINGS, Mont. - In this part of Montana's rugged eastern prairie, Erwin Weder and the other ranchers and cowboys are not used to feeling kicked around.