Amy and I don’t really disagree about much. But we can each get moody and self-absorbed and go after each other. Especially at the end of 20-hour drives. That’s about how long it takes to go from Manhattan (Kansas) to Guelph (Ontario) and at the end of one epic journey back from Guelph two years ago, tired and driving through Kansas City with a trailer full of my crap that I just had to have in Kansas, Amy decided to entertain herself by asking me, who are you to publish an opinion, or something like that

On Thursday I spent a couple of hours with some visiting food safety types from Thailand, sharing our experiences with on-farm food safety and fresh produce.Near the end of the talk, I put up a sample of a daily FSnet mailing for additional information. For policy analyst Thepchoo Sripoti, left, with Thailand’s National Food Institute, light bulbs went off

In possibly the worst – or most incongruent – press release ever written, the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education, the group with the excessively explanatory name, says they have "issued some simple guidelines to reduce the risk of microbial foodborne illnesses. This is of special interest to Canadians in light of recent coverage of listeriosis

U.S. college football kicks off Saturday. Time to put on your favorite school’s colors and brush up on that fight song. Thousands of students and alumni will be heading out to the stadium, tailgating, and firing up those grills. Hamburgers, chicken, ribs, or beans, there will be plenty of food on hand

This week's food safety infosheet focuses on a norovirus outbreak linked to a North Carolina BBQ restaurant in Lexington, NC.  Health authorities have been reported as saying that they believe a food handler, who was not displaying symptoms of a norovirus infection, brought the virus into the kitchen after caring for a family member who was ill

The first time I met Amy, at a Canadian studies club meeting at Kansas State, I told Amy the French professor that French food was overrated and that sleeping with her cocker spaniel was a microbiological hazard.She asked me out anyway.Today we walked up to school and Sadie, the dog that saved our relationship, had a dump

My friend Marty will think this is hilarious, but I’m a bit of a fancier of words. Really.Except I have a habit of using an apt sounding word that means something totally different from what I was trying to convey. Marty has been making fun of that quirk for 25 years, going back to our university newspaper days

Marjorie Cortez, a Deseret News editorial writer in Salt Lake City whose kitchen is armed with bleach, antibacterial wipes and sprays, writes, “Some 12 years ago, my husband got sick. I had never seen a person so sick outside of a hospital. His fevers were so severe that when they broke, the bed sheets were sopping wet

If your products kill and sicken people, it’s a good idea to say sorry. Many people think that saying sorry is an admission of guilt and will be used in court. Lawyer Bill Marler says that is not the case. To me, saying sorry is an expression of empathy. It’s a basic human response. Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, took not only to the airwaves but to the Intertubes to convey his empathy and resolve at fixing the listeria situation

In between listeria interviews yesterday I spoke with Julie Schmit of USA Today about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approved of irradiation on spinach and lettuce to kill dangerous bacteria.The steady pace of food-safety scares -- and growing consumer awareness of food-safety risks -- will improve consumer acceptance of irradiated greens, says Doug Powell of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University