Rodale EMMAUS, Pa.-- Rodale has announced the release of Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe by Rodale Chairman & CEO Maria Rodale. Organic Manifesto cuts through the confusion and misinformation to provide an indispensable and highly readable look at why chemical-free farming unquestionably holds the key to better health for people and for the planet.

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Jacksonville Fresh Foods Examiner Joshua Horrocks The Nutrition Journal recently published a review done by The College of Agriculture, California State University, and University of California Cooperative Extension Service. This review uses three decades worth of research to compare fatty acid profiles and antioxidant content in grass-fed and grain-fed beef.

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The Washington Post By Lyndsey Layton The Food and Drug Administration is reexamining the safety of a culinary staple found in every restaurant, food manufacturing plant and home kitchen pantry: spices. In the middle of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella illness linked to black and red pepper -- and after 16 U.S. recalls since 2001 of tainted spices -- federal regulators met last week with the spice industry to figure out ways to make the supply safer. Jeff Farrar, the FDA's associate commissioner for food safety, said the government wants the spice industry to do more to prevent contamination. That would include using one of three methods to rid spices of bacteria: irradiation, steam heating or fumigation with ethylene oxide, a pesticide.

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GOP senators warn of dangers of government intervention in agriculture The Iowa Independent By Lynda Waddington ANKENY, Iowa -- Whether they realized it or not, the roughly 250 family farmers, workers and consumers gathered Thursday night fired off their own point-by-point response to a letter from two Republican Senators that urged the U.S. departments of agriculture and justice to maintain the existing status quo in the agriculture industry. The often rambunctious townhall event was organized by a coalition of groups concerned that everyday people do not have adequate opportunity to express their opinions on the agricultural industry at a joint U.S. Department of Justice and USDA antitrust workshop on Friday. And it had one overarching message: "Bust up big ag."

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Regulators Offer Competitors, Farmers and Activists a Platform to Gripe About Crop Biotech Giant Wall Street Journal By Scott Kilman Crop biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. has the most at stake in the first of an unprecedented series of public meetings that the antitrust wing of the Justice Department is holding across the Farm Belt. In January, the Justice Department launched a formal antitrust investigation of the St. Louis company's handling of the most widely planted genetically modified crop in the U.S., a herbicide-immune soybean. Now, Justice's tight-lipped antitrust division is taking the unusual step of inviting competitors, farmers, politicians and activists to air any gripes about Monsanto -- and to suggest ways to limit the company's reach before a high-profile audience.

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