A petition postedby the humane league on the website Change.org calling for Starbucks to sourceonly eggs from cage-free hens shows a lack of understanding of how hens arehoused in the U.S. and in Europe. At first I was just going to laugh thisonline petition off, but then I realized that the millions of people who couldbe persuaded to shell out $5 for a cup of bitter coffee would probably includea fair number of folks who would believe the misstatements in the petition, soI thought some comment was merited.

In a recent op-ed piece published in the Raleigh News & Observer, Michelle Nowlin, senior lecturing fellow, Duke University law school, makes the argument that the North Carolina Legislature shouldn’t have enacted  the Regulatory Reform Act of 2012.

Alltech Inc. is producing and marketing an alga, which contains 70 percent oil on dry weight basis, as a source of omega-3 fatty acids in animal diets.

It isn’t impossible to build a new poultry complex in North Carolina; Sanderson Farms proved it could get the job done earlier this decade in Kinston, North Carolina.

I would havea really hard time lying about who I was, my work history and why I aminterested in working on a livestock or poultry farm or processing facility. Itjust isn’t in my makeup, even as a kid, I was never a good liar. So, I was alittle surprised that when two veteran animal rights undercover video activiststold the audience at Farm Animal Rights’ NationalAnimal Rights Conference this summer about their “exploits” they didn’tmention any stress or strain to their consciences brought about by theirdeception, instead they complained about the hard work on the farm.

If you can’t require a recall or force a shutdown because of a possible link to a Salmonellosis outbreak, then there are other ways to “influence” the outcome, and this is why I don’t think that counting noncompliance reports at Foster Farms’ processing plants is a good way to evaluate the company’s food safety efforts.

With the sale of Heritage Breeders, Perdue Farms exits the primary breeding business entirely.

The initialfindings report for the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply was releasedrecently and it presents preliminary results for some of the measurements takenfrom the two flock study. The research tracts animal well-being, environmental,food safety, worker safety and affordability measurements for eggs produced fromhens housed in conventional cages, enriched colonies and aviaries on acommercial farm. This three year project will provide a comparison of thesethree housing alternatives for hens in these five areas of sustainability usingthe best available science to measure indicators such as ammonia concentrationin the house, feather condition, egg production and a myriad of others.

The Obama administration and the USDA’s FSIS deserve credit for not caving in completely to political pressure from activist groups and going forward with its modernization of poultry inspection.

Activist groups should be happy with USDA's proposed rule for modernization of poultry inspection, because it will make the U.S. system more like Europe.

The once highly profitable Franconia, Pennsylvania, Pilgrim's Pride further processing plant was shutdown by a listeria outbreak.

The National and North Carolina Wildlife Federations support climate change regulations and legislation.