By Kimberly Kindy and Lyndsey Layton Washington Post Staff Writers Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula. The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white "USDA Organic" seal on an array of products.

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Daily Globe GIBBON, Minn (AP)- It has all the markings of a working farm -- 70 milk cows, crop fields, tractors, hay baler, combine. But there is so much more on the Martin and Loretta Jaus farm northwest of Gibbon. Marshes are humming with the spring nesting activity of wood ducks, teal and mallards, while toads make loud mating croaks. In the prairie-plant pastures and stands of trees, there's a constant flitting of bobolinks, bluebirds, swallows, yellowthroat warblers and mourning doves. "When we first moved back here (in 1980), we had maybe a dozen species of birds," Loretta said. "Now we have about 200 species that either migrate through or live here."

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IdahoStatesman Author: JOHN MILLER,Associated Press Writer BOISE, IDAHO -- Federal regulators said Thursday an Idaho mine that Monsanto Co. depends on to make its Roundup weed killer has violated federal and state water quality laws almost since it opened, sending selenium and other heavy metals into the region's waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency said problems at the St. Louis-based company's South Rasmussen Mine near the Idaho-Wyoming border were first documented in April 2002. That's just 15 months after the mine won Bureau of Land Management approval, according to documents released by the EPA to The Associated Press. More recently, the mine has been unable to stop discharges

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The Associated Press By Rick Callahan The organic dairy industry was thriving when Allen and Jean Moody bought a 200-acre Wisconsin dairy farm in 2006 and joined the ranks of farmers churning out milk raised without growth hormones, pesticides or other chemicals. Three years later, the good days are gone and the Moodys aren't alone in wanting out. A growing number of farmers who went all-natural in the years when organic food sales were growing at a double-digit pace are giving up their organic certifications. Organic farming is costly and labor-intensive, and many consumers are no longer willing to pay the price in a recession.

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Used in yards, farms and parks throughout the world, Roundup has long been a top-selling weed killer. But now researchers have found that one of Roundup’s inert ingredients can kill human cells, particularly embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. The new findings intensify a debate about so-called “inerts” — the solvents, preservatives, surfactants and other substances that manufacturers add to pesticides. Nearly 4,000 inert ingredients are approved for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By Crystal Gammon Environmental Health News

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