Cookson Beecher

A journalist by trade, Cookson Beecher has spent 10 years covering food science issues for Food Safety news.com, an international online publication. Before that, she worked as an agriculture and environment reporter for Capital Press, a four-state n

Is cow-free milk the next lab food?

You’re shopping for some milk, and there it is. A bottle of the white stuff in just the right shape for picking up and putting into your shopping cart.

By Cookson Beecher

/ 30 Sep 2025

Some dairies offering a safe alternative to raw milk

Tapping into the past, Western Washington dairy farmers Anna and Chris Groeneveld, owners of Sky Valley Fresh (https://www.skyvalleyfresh.com), are happy to provide their customers with a safe

By Cookson Beecher

/ 14 Aug 2025

Some dairies offering a safe alternative to raw milk

Confidence in U.S. food safety hits an all-time low

Thumbs up or thumbs down, many U.S. consumers are confident about the safety of their food. The surprise here is that many of them aren’t, at least according

By Cookson Beecher

/ 31 Jul 2025

Confidence in U.S. food safety hits an all-time low

Zapping pathogens could be breakthrough for raw milk

The latest news coming out about raw milk is cool — as in temperature cool. This is thanks to a technology that eliminates pathogens that can be in raw milk while

By Cookson Beecher

/ 15 Jul 2025

Zapping pathogens could be breakthrough for raw milk

In a first for fish, feds give thumbs up for lab-grown salmon

Imagine dining on salmon with no worries about mercury, toxic metals or plastics. Or concerns about dwindling fish stocks. Or, from a food safety viewpoint, about contamination from salmonella or

By Cookson Beecher

/ 9 Jul 2025

In a first for fish, feds give thumbs up for lab-grown salmon

Foreign aid cuts enter war of humans vs pathogens

A slow moving pandemic. That’s how how some human and animal health experts are referring to the growing threat of “superbugs” — a popularized term for bacteria that is antimicrobial

By Cookson Beecher

/ 21 May 2025

Foreign aid cuts enter war of humans vs pathogens

Historic earthquake in Japan still sending flood of food safety concerns

It was history. On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake, magnitude 9.0, struck 80 miles off the Northeast Coast of Japan, generating a series of tsunami waves,

By Cookson Beecher

/ 29 Apr 2025

Historic earthquake in Japan still sending flood of food safety concerns

For food safety’s sake, zap it with irradiation

Say the word “irradiation,” and a lot of people will shudder. Now ask them about irradiated food, and they’ll quickly say something like “definitely not.” Yet as far back

By Cookson Beecher

/ 21 Apr 2025

For food safety’s sake, zap it with irradiation

Hunters: Beware of ‘zombie’ deer

An incurable infectious brain disease that’s deadly to deer, elk and moose continues to stalk the land. By 2015, it had expanded to 23 states and two Canadian province

By Cookson Beecher

/ 3 Mar 2025

Gene editing is not the same as GMO

In a shift away from GMOS, aka genetically modified organisms, important research is continuing in gene editing, sometimes referred to as “the next big thing in agriculture.” The important difference

By Cookson Beecher

/ 5 Feb 2025

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Cookson Beecher

Is cow-free milk the next lab food?

Some dairies offering a safe alternative to raw milk

Confidence in U.S. food safety hits an all-time low

Zapping pathogens could be breakthrough for raw milk

In a first for fish, feds give thumbs up for lab-grown salmon

Foreign aid cuts enter war of humans vs pathogens

Historic earthquake in Japan still sending flood of food safety concerns

For food safety’s sake, zap it with irradiation

Hunters: Beware of ‘zombie’ deer

Gene editing is not the same as GMO