Outbreaks Were Not Preventable, Officials Say Washington Post Elizabeth Williamson The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product recalls in U.S. history,… Read more »
Organic Milk Supply Expected to Surge as Farmers Pursue a Payoff
The New York Times By Andrew Martin Dairy farmers are rushing to convert to organic milk production, and it is largely because of a blueberry farmer who lives in Maine with a solar-powered computer and an outhouse outfitted with a stained-glass window. Arthur Harvey, the blueberry farmer, persuaded a federal court in 2005 that some… Read more »
New Studies Show Organic Food has Higher Nutritional Quality
naturalMatters.net Three new European research projects have just revealed that organic tomatoes, peaches and processed apples all have higher nutritional quality than non-organic, supporting the results of research from America on kiwi fruit reported 26 March 2007. [1] Researchers found that organic tomatoes “contained more dry matter, total and reducing sugars, vitamin C, B-carotene and… Read more »
Food Irradiation Rules May Be Relaxed
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government proposed Tuesday relaxing its rules on labeling of irradiated foods and suggested it may allow some products zapped with radiation to be called “pasteurized.” The Food and Drug Administration said the proposed rule would require companies to label irradiated food only when the radiation treatment causes a material change to… Read more »
Is This the End of Organic Coffee?
Thanks to a recent hush-hush USDA ruling, your clean-conscience, fair-trade, organic latte may soon be a thing of the past Salon By Samuel Fromartz Enjoy your organic coffee now, while it’s hot — because it may not be around for long. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture quietly released a ruling that alarmed organic… Read more »
Judge Rules U.S. Government Must Allow Private Testing for Mad Cow Disease
WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. government must allow meatpackers to test their animals for mad cow disease, a judge ruled Thursday. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, a meatpacker based in Arkansas City, Kan., wants to test all of its cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. Larger meat companies… Read more »
“Bt Cotton Poisoning” Reported by Officials in India
Bt cotton spells doom for cattle? The Hindu Andhra Pradesh ADILABAD: Grazing on residual Bt cotton crop seems to have resulted in the death of over 200 animals in various mandals of the district in the last two months. The Animal Husbandry Department has sounded an alarm as the number of sick animals with somewhat… Read more »
Federal Judge Orders First-ever Moratorium on Sale of Genetically Altered Seed
USDA approval of genetically engineered alfalfa is vacated, seed sales halted San Francisco, CA: A Federal judge ruled today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) 2005 approval of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa is vacated and ordered an immediate halt to sales of the GE seed. The ruling follows a hearing last week in the… Read more »
FDA Rules Override Warnings About Drug
Cattle Antibiotic Moves Forward Despite Fears of Human Risk Washington Post By Rick Weiss The government is on track to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency’s own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous for people. The drug,… Read more »
USDA Backs Production of Rice With Human Genes
Washington Post By Rick Weiss The Agriculture Department has given a preliminary green light for the first commercial production of a food crop engineered to contain human genes, reigniting fears that biomedically potent substances in high-tech plants could escape and turn up in other foods. The plan, confirmed yesterday by the California biotechnology company leading… Read more »
