Usda Policy

The Perfect Storm: How the Pink Slime Debacle Created Food System Change

Nancy Huehnergarth | Posted 05.03.2012

Read More: Food Politics, Pink Slime Ground Beef, USDA Policy, Food Reform, Beef Industry, Pink Slime, School Lunch, Pink Slime Meat, Food News

Inciting grassroots involvement in food system issues is critical -- yet, until the pink slime debacle, consumer uprisings have mostly eluded the movement. Why did this issue create such a powerful consumer reaction?

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Agency Reverses Controversial Decision To Cut Agriculture Reports

AP | Posted 12.25.2011

Read More: Video, Commodities, Commodity Prices, Production Reports, Business News, USDA Policy, Usda, Usda Agriculture Reports, Usda Data, Business News

WASHINGTON -- The Agriculture Department is reinstating several reports that it had targeted for elimination two months ago in a cost-cutting move. T...

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'MyPlate' Has Its Cracks

Dr. Andrew Weil | Posted 08.03.2011

Read More: Healthy Eating, USDA Policy, Healthy Living, Nutrition, Healthy Diet, Food Politics, Health, Healthy Living News

On June 2, a colorful plate replaced the food pyramid as the official icon representing U.S. Dietary Guidelines, and that's generally good news. But there are some conceptual chips and cracks in this new dinnerware.

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Agricultural Policy Should Fuel Health, Not Epidemics!

Elizabeth Kucinich | Posted 07.24.2011

Read More: American Heart Association, Fast Food, Congress, USDA Nutrition Programs, Type 2 Diabetes, Health Care Costs, Agriculture, USDA Policy, Subsidies, Agriculture Reform, Elizabeth Kucinich, Federal Budget, Agricultural Subsidies, Farm Bill, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 2012 Farm Bill, House Agriculture Committee, Federal Budget Deficit, Prevention, Health, Food Politics, Agriculture Subsidies, Food, Usda, Pcrm, Medical Costs, Diabetes, Farm Subsidies, Heart Disease, Diabetes Prevention, Vegetarian, Vegan, Agribusiness, Veganism, Fruit, Industrial Agriculture, Meat, House Appropriations Committee, Preventative Healthcare, Food Policy Agenda, Appropriations, Death, Doctors, Cholesterol, Healthy Diet, Diet, Healthy Eating, Unhealthy Diets, Hal Rogers, Obesity, Politics News

In 2009, USDA spent more than twice as much buying meat and dairy as it did on fruits and vegetables. What that means is that the USDA used taxpayers' money to buy about $1.5 billion worth of meat and dairy.

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Does Factory Farming Have a Future?

Kerry Trueman | Posted 06.13.2011

Read More: USDA Policy, Factory Farms, Dr. Marion Nestle, Slidepollajax, Cafo, Food News

Most people like meat and want to eat it, and do so the minute they get enough money to buy it. I think a more realistic question is this: Can factory farming be done better?

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First Lady's Food Vision 'At Best Fragmented, At Worst A Failure'

Wenonah Hauter | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Farming, Usda, Michelle Obama, Usda-Organic, USDA Policy, Genetically Modified Food, Obama, Barack Obama, Genetic Engineering, Green News

Mrs. Obama's vision for healthy food is at best fragmented and at worst a failure. She does not address the root causes of our broken food system, where a few powerful players make all of the decisions about what we eat.

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It's Alive! That Roof is Alive!

David Becker | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Boston, Organic Farming, Organic Food, Green Technology, USDA Policy, LEED Certification, Green Living, Hydroponic Farming, Green News

You want to do the right thing. Eat locally and sustainably 12 months of the year. Easy enough in California, but you live in Vermont or even New York -- where winter settles in early and leaves late.

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Bring In the Organic Police

David Bronner | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: National Organic Program, Dr-Bronners-Magic-Soaps, Organic Products, Organic Consumers ASsociation, Dr. Emmanuel Bronner, USDA Policy, Organic Cosmetics, Organic, Nop, Green News

Just as America woke up to Wall Street abuses in the housing bubble, we are set to see the "organic" personal care bubble burst as well.

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You and I Call It Hunger; USDA Calls It Food Insecurity

David Becker | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: USDA Policy, Hunger, Usda, Hunger in the United States, Childhood Nutrition, Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary, Csa, Impact News

A USDA report released Monday found the highest rate of food insecurity in 13 years. Almost one in six American households, or 17 million households, are food insecure.

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E. Coli: Woman Paralyzed After Severe Food Poisoning; The Unsafe System, Meat

The New York Times | Michael Moss | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Brain Damage, Meat Processors, Food, Agriculture, Regulation, E. Coli, Grocers, Usda, Food Poisoning, Red Meet, Hamburger, E Coli, Severe Food Poisoning, Beef Processors, Health, Ground Beef, Beef, O157:H7, Cargill, Business, Restaurants, Frozen Hamburgers, Burger, Cattle, Ecoli, Food Safety, Costco, Bad Hamburger, Trimmings, Paralyzed, USDA Policy, Food Safety Regulation, Green News

Stephanie Smith, a children's dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that firstday, and she finished...

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Snack Attack: U.S. Schools Should Rethink Vending Machines Right Now!

Susan Weissman | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Public Schools, USDA Policy, Obama Nominee Kevin Concannon, Healthy Snacks, Vending Machines in Schools, Nutrition, School Funding, Healthy Living News

it just doesn't make sense to encourage a child to run a soccer field with the "empty calories" of Doritos in her stomach. Some schools around the U.S. are addressing that health contradiction.

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In Schools, the Chance to Change What Our Children Eat

Jilly Stephens | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: New York Schools, Nyc, USDA Policy, School Food, New York City Harvest, School Lunches, Usda, City Harvest, New York, New York News

Many students are ashamed to be singled out as eating free or reduced-price meals. Congress must vote to make school meals universal and provide free meals to all students at eligible schools.

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Guns, Germs, and Squeals

Joseph LeDoux | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Farmer's Markets, Brain, Brains, Swine Flu, Agribusiness, Rodeo, Green Living, Childhood Memories, USDA Policy, Memory, Cajun Food, Healthy Living News

I learned what a brain was by digging bullets out of them as a kid in my father's meat market. That was before mad cow disease, when most people thought cow brains were a tasty delight.

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Lincolnesque Vision Needed for USDA People's Gardens

Rose Hayden-Smith | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: USDA Policy, Abraham Lincoln, Land-Grant-Colleges-Act, Tom Vilsack Agriculture Secretary, The Homestead Act, Morrill Act, Victory Gardens, Green Living, Green News

As a result of Lincoln's vision, a national department of agriculture was formed. Now, the USDA should lead the way in reviving a national gardening effort now. And we should all answer the call to service by participating.

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The Kindest Cut

Michael Markarian | Posted 05.25.2011

When it comes to human-wildlife conflicts, I am quite sure we can do better at the state and federal levels than the programs built around large-scale killing of wildlife.

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Abusive Slaughterhouse Billed $67 Million For Recall

AP | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Meat Recall, Department of Agriculture, National School Lunch Program, Usda, Slaughterhouse, Westland/Hallmark Meat Co, Downer Cows, USDA Policy, Beef Recall, Beef Recall 2008, Business News

CHINO, Calif. — The federal government said Thursday it has billed a California slaughterhouse more than $67 million for expenses associated wit...

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