The pet food included ingredients from China that the FDA has found to contain the adulterant melamine and compounds with structural similarities to melamine. The USDA had begun approving meat from hogs and chickens that ate the pet food if their feed did not contain detectable concentrations of melamine. Thousands of hogs and millions of chickens ate pet food now subject to a recall, but government agencies have found no evidence of harm to humans in association with meat from the...

Senate this week would entice farmers located near ethanol biorefineries to grow dedicated energy crops. Department of Agriculture would determine the likelihood of construction of a future biorefinery, the local potential for feedstock production, the number of interested farmers and a biorefinery's economic impact. But the technological hurdles and costs have been so daunting that most ethanol producers instead relied on heavy government subsidies to squeeze fuel from corn. Department of...

Staff Reports February 9, 2007 Print Email Staff Reports The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced that a mature bull from Alberta was confirmed positive for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy -- mad cow disease -- as part of its on-farm testing program. Staff Reports February 9, 2007 Print Email Staff Reports The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has announced that a mature bull from Alberta was confirmed positive for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy -- mad cow disease -- as part of...

Fri, 05/04/2007 - 10:51 admin Currently No Way to Trace Poultry Contaminated by Feed -- Without Tracking, No Way of Knowing if Contaminated Chickens Were Sold to Consumers in Recent Months; Schumer to Reintroduce Bill that Creates Tracking System to Trace Meat and Poultry to Source in Case of Contamination or Outbreak of Disease. Fri, 05/04/2007 - 10:51 admin Currently No Way to Trace Poultry Contaminated by Feed -- Without Tracking, No Way of Knowing if Contaminated Chickens Were Sold to...

Senate last week would entice farmers located near ethanol biorefineries to grow dedicated energy crops. Department of Agriculture would determine the likelihood of construction of a future biorefinery, the local potential for feedstock production, the number of interested farmers and a biorefinery's economic impact. But the technological hurdles and costs have been so daunting that most ethanol producers instead relied on heavy government subsidies to squeeze fuel from corn. Department of...

As consumers of agricultural products and as taxpayers who fund programs that help farmers produce the highest quality crops and livestock while safeguarding the environment, we all have a stake in the next farm bill. More than 2 million farms, most of them family operations, contribute to the business of agriculture, projected to be a $300 billion industry in 2007. In response to the changing face of agriculture, USDA has developed a farm bill proposal that offers a far-reaching,...