ALBANY BEEF PLANT GETS AN A . . . TO SAVE THESE PIGS, KY FARMER SAYS WE HAVE TO EAT THEM . . . QUEST FOR BEST DRIVES FARMER . . . DOMTAR SIGNS UPM TO DISTRIBUTE LIGNIN IN EUROPE . . . . OTHER NEWS OF INTEREST...

ALBANY BEEF PLANT GETS AN A
Source: The Journal Pioneer
Atlantic Beef Products Inc. in Albany, P.E.I. has received a standout grade from its standards audit. The British Retail Consortium Global Standards certifies more than 21,000 beef suppliers in 90 countries and inspects Atlantic Canada’s only federally inspected beef processing plant in Albany on a yearly basis. The plant’s overall grade increased this year from a B to an A. (read more)

TO SAVE THESE PIGS, KY FARMER SAYS WE HAVE TO EAT THEM
Source: NPR
Robertson County has the smallest population of any county in the state of Kentucky, and it’s the only one, word has it, without a stoplight. So it’s an unlikely place to find a campaign to keep the food system more genetically diverse. But that is exactly what’s happening on a small farm owned by Travis Hood, called Hood’s Heritage Hogs. Hood raises Red Wattle pigs, a heritage breed that the Livestock Conservancy, a nonprofit working to protect breeds and poultry from extinction, says is threatened. In 1999, there were fewer than 50 of these pigs left in the U.S. Today, that number is back up to about 6,000. (read more)

QUEST FOR BEST DRIVES FARMER
Source: The Chronicle Herald Part science lab, part foodie paradise, Dr. Mel Crane’s farm on the outskirts of Kensington, P.E.I., is home to the only herd of Wagyu cattle in Atlantic Canada. If they were being raised in Japan, these 18 head of beef would be called Kobe, but here they’re Wagyu. To avoid confusion, just think of them as delicious. A veterinarian with almost 40 years experience, Crane used his expertise in embryo transfer to establish his herd, importing Wagyu embryos from Washington State and putting them in Simmental cows. Soon, his brown cows were giving birth to black calves. “I am a beef eater. I love meat and I’d always heard Wagyu was such good meat and I wanted to eat some before I die," he said of his experiment. (read more)

DOMTAR SIGNS UPM TO DISTRIBUTE LIGNIN IN EUROPE
Source: Pulp and Paper Canada
UPM has agreed to become the exclusive distributor of Domtar’s BioChoice™ lignin in Europe, effective Aug. 1, 2014. BioChoice lignin is produced at Domtar’s biorefinery in Plymouth, North Carolina. A by-product of the kraft pulping process, BioChoice is a 100 percent bio-based sustainable alternative to fossil-based products, and also holds the USDA Certified Biobased product label. (read more)