Animal Production

Those "Pot-Fed Pigs" Aren't Getting High, But Possibly Healthier

The Washington state hog farmer whose pigs are fed marijuana trim has been all the rage on the Internet over the last few days. And with good reason: the barnyard animals who had leaves, stems and roots -- the otherwise fit-for-nothing-but-compost leftovers after the selaeable buds are processed - ... More >>

In Pictures: Drakes Bay Oyster Company at Work

I wrote a long feature for this week's paper on the fight over the future of Drakes Bay Oyster Company, a small, family-owned oyster farm in Marin that happens to be on federally protected land. The case was heard in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday, and it's unknown if ... More >>

Shuck and Jive: Drakes Bay Oyster Company Forces a Redefinition of Environmentalism

Nosh and Learn at S.F.'s Jewish Food Festival

Calling all Hebrews, She-Brews, Other-Brews and Non-Brews: quit your kvetching and check out the San Francisco Jewish Food Festival on Sunday, March 17th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hazon and the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (3200 California St.) are teaming up to host the event, which is a ... More >>

Belcampo Meat Co.: No Country for Vegetarians

"The Guilt Trip": Seth Rogen Takes his Centrum Silver

Homeless Roosters, Singing Pigs, and Cat Racism!

​ You knew I would have a Halloween-y recipe for you so let's just get that out of the way. I present stuffed-pepper jack-o-lanterns! Even though bell peppers are my nemesis, these are adorbs. See Also: - Vegan Big Mac, Space Veggies, and Happy Hellaween! - Morrissey, Mike Vick, and a Very Happ ... More >>

French Bees Are Producing Blue Honey

Yet another sign that the end of the world is nigh: Recently a French beekeeper in Alsace found that his bees were producing honey in unnatural hues like blue and green. Genetic mutation? No -- it turns out that instead of frolicking to the flowers for nectar like regular bees have for thousands of ... More >>

Markegard Family Grass-Fed Offers Workshops for the Aspiring Urban Farmer

If you have an itch to drive out of the city learn more about the country life, then Markegard family of Half Moon Bay have a workshop series that might be for you. The Markegards run a large grass-fed farm and ranch in Half Moon bay and raise beef, lamb, eggs and pastured pork, all available via CS ... More >>

5 Things You Didn't Know About Oysters

I was an adult when I had my first oyster, though at 22 I was barely one. A local restaurant offered 50 cent oysters during weekday happy hours, and my friends and I started going because it made us feel like sophisticated high-rollers despite the fact that we were desperately broke (I couldn't even ... More >>

Oysterfest: Show Preview

Not Lying with the Fishes: TwoXSea's Fresh-Caught Seafood Takes on S.F.

Farmer Says State Shouldn't Force Him to Raise Chickens in Comfort

A SoCal farmer is suing the state over a new law that threatens to throw egg farmers in jail if they are busted caging hens in cruel ways, such as preventing the chickens from lying down, standing up, or moving around. According to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento last week, William Cramer, an egg ... More >>

"Salmon Fishing in the Yemen": Romance Diverts Humor

Kitchen Table Talks : Organic Dairy Farmers

Yuri Arcurs/ShutterstockHow serious are you about your milk?​What: Kitchen Table Talks. A discussion about the organic dairy industry. Where: 18 Reasons When: Tuesday, Feb. 21. Refreshments at 6:30, discussion from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Cost: $10 The rundown: Inspired by the occupy movements ... More >>

What Caused the Hole in the Local Salmon Population?

University of California, DavisBaby Coho salmon: worth protecting.​In the latest episode of their new science podcast, Field Trip, local journalists Kara Platoni and Eric Simons set out to ask the question: Why exactly are all the fish in the ocean disappearing, and how do we measure how quickly ... More >>

Our Bay, Our Fish: Local Fishermen Can Now Sell Herring in S.F.

Pacific Salmon May Have Caught a Superbug

Factory farming is being held accountable for the the rise of antibiotic-resistent staph, virulent strains of E. coli, and now a powerful virus that has killed off huge numbers of Atlantic farmed salmon in Europe. But the latter seemed to be restricted to the ocean to the east of us until recently, ... More >>

S.F. Plays Host to Millions of Bees

Organic Chicken Actually Proven to Be Safer

Alarmed by the recent outbreak of drug-resistent salmonella in ground turkey, which killed one Californian woman? The way to protect yourself might be to buy organic. Yesterday, NPR reported that a University of Maryland study found that big organic chicken farms have much lower levels of antibio ... More >>

Millions of Bees Buzz in S.F. Backyards and Balconies

BotheredByBees/flickr​San Francisco is a gold mine -- not for the precious metal, though. We're talking about honey. Since the 2007 media furor over mysterious honeybee deaths, when alarming numbers of North American honeybee colonies suffered colony collapse, urban beekeeping has taken off. ... More >>

Mee Mee's Cow Ears and Coin Cookies, the Horror of Bycatch

​ Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. Mee Mee Bakery's macaroons.​1. Mee Mee's sweets. Rice Plate Journal, my block-by-block survey of Chinatown restaurants, is finally hitting the dense restaurant zone of Powell an ... More >>

Becky Selengut Teaches How to Pick and Cook Good Fish

​ Becky Selengut, a cooking teacher and food writer based in Seattle, is coming to San Francisco this weekend to speak about and cook from her new book, Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the Seafood Coast. On Saturday morning, she will be doing a cooking demo at the Ferry Plaza Farmers ... More >>

Food Costs, Diet Drinking, and Buying the Right Fish

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.1. Pain at the Cart. At the New York Times, Kim Severson surveys the rising costs of food -- beef up 12%, tomatoes up 11%, milk up 7% -- and then puts it in in perspective: Globally, ... More >>

A Timeline of Fishing in the San Francisco Bay

What Fish You Can Buy, and When, in San Francisco

Go Fish: S.F.'s Coastal Foraging King Shows How to Fish (and Eat) Locally

Gas Mask Removed from Cow at Aquarium's Controversial Global Warming Exhibit

Humans in gas masks just aren't the same​A cow in a gas mask is a memorable image. That's probably why it was deployed, to great effect, in a recent exhibit on climate change at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. While this is the sort of thing that would doubtless please André Breton, dairy farmers -- n ... More >>

EPA Honcho Jared Blumenfeld Saddened to Ditch Polluting Boat

How I miss old Jane...​Jared Blumenfeld, San Francisco's former boss of both the Department of the Environment and Rec and Parks Department, was appointed in January as EPA administrator for Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and the Pacific Islands. Also during the past year, he donated Jane, h ... More >>

Saul's Picks Up on Urban Beekeeping Buzz for Rosh Hashanah Talk

Saul'sA farkakta idea? Nobody ever got stung merely talking about beekkeping.​Those hoping to learn more about the honey they're dipping challah and apples into during the Jewish High Holiday season can do so at Saul's Adventures in the Honey Harvest next Tuesday night. Topics for discussion i ... More >>

Pretenders, Protesters Show Up For Trans-Pacific Trade Talks

www.animalliberationfront.comChrissie Hynde ain't pretendin​Foreign trade deals don't need China and Japan in order to be successful, merely relevant. And they certainly don't need to be globe-busting in order to draw demonstrators: several events are planned today as the Trans-Pacific Partnership ... More >>

Does Large-Scale Urban Fish Farming Make Sense Here?

Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago TribuneA student at the Chicago High School of Agricultural Science checks on an experimental tank of tilapia.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Mission fishin': While the idea of urban farming continues to crackle through the zeitgeist, for most of us it's still more ... More >>

The Humane Society and big agriculture slug it out over animal rights

Lawyers for Fishermen, Leaky Dubai Star Tanker Talk -- But Disagree On What They Talked About

The opposing attorneys' stories seem to go together like oil and water...​Lawyers representing aggrieved San Francisco fishermen and the oil-spewing Dubai Star tanker spoke this week. They can agree on that. But not on much else, it would seem. After reviewing the $10 million class-action suit ... More >>

Just What You Need Before a Weekend of Rib-Eating: The Latest in Swine Flu Conspiracy News

i,max via FlickrGrist has a nicely conspiratorial analysis (*cue X-Files music*) of the current investigations into the origin of the swine flu epidemic. Among the highlights: The World Health Organization helped author a paper for Science that pinpointed the likely source of the swine flu as La Gl ... More >>

Plan Bee: Top S.F. Beekeeper Doubts 'Colony Collapse Disorder' Ever Existed -- and Many Scientists Agree

Buzz-Kill: Despite the press' fixation with 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' many scientists and beekeepers aren't convinced it's realPhilip Gerrie lives in Noe Valley with, as he puts it, "a spouse, two cats, and 100,000 bees." The past president of the San Francisco Beekeepers' Association is a soft-sp ... More >>

Five places to eat oysters in San Francisco

Oyster Lovers Unite

This Valentines weekend may be your best chance to eat oysters for years to come.

New Report Foresees a Short Road to Extinction for CA salmon

It’s Time to Panic. But Then What? By Peter Jamison I recently observed that San Francisco salmon fishermen, despite some relatively good news in an industry that of late has lumbered from one calamity to the next, are still pretty glum these days. That’s because a number of highly publicized ... More >>

Klamath Deal is Cold Comfort for SF Bay Salmon Fishermen

The feds’ good news: ‘Peace in our time’ By Peter Jamison For California’s commercial salmon fishery, which repeatedly finds itself pummeled by bad breaks, the past week has brought an unusual flurry of decent news. Last Friday, federal and state officials announced an “agreement in prin ... More >>

The Bee Buzz

S.F. beekeepers hope a mysterious plague doesn't destroy their hives.

Last Voyage of the Relentless

Friends and family of a well-known fishing captain are convinced he and his deckhand were victims of a maritime hit-and-run near the Golden Gate

Traveling Companions

Gray whales are leading tourists, conservationists, and business operators on a rocky voyage toward economic and environmental salvation

The New Economy

The road to Punta Abreojos is paved with hollow intentions

Best Reason to Go to Fisherman's Wharf

Eagle Cafe

Fins

Just when you thought it was safe to flag down the waiter, a storm brews over shark fin soup.

How We Slice It

Honey, I Shrunk the Movie

Dish

Dish