Agriculture

Ranchers and farmers are rebelling against a federal plan to tag livestock with microchips and track them birth to slaughterhouse for disease control and food safety.

The 1988 highway death of a family in Oregon, blinded by smoke from fields being burned for weed control, was a story so moving that it spawned a novel. Field burning is so common in Oregon that it threatens people's lungs and health. A legislative struggle to ban it remains unresolved.

"A House committee began work Wednesday on a comprehensive overhaul of food safety rules that includes more inspections and new fees on producers to pay for them."

Two key House leaders have introduced a bill that would drastically overhaul and tighten the nation's food safety system.

"When it comes to food safety, state lawmakers around the country seem to believe in the adage, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself."

With Sabbath candles burning, 14 guests eat a "sustainable" Sabbath dinner with "food that was locally grown, mostly organic and intended to elevate their practice of Judaism."

WASHINGTON -- In a court case with potential impact in Missouri and across the country, a federal judge in Delaware ruled today that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife should not have permitted farming with genetically modified crops on a national wildlife refuge. U.S. District Judge Gregory Sleet wrote that the Fish and Wildlife agency erred by failing to conduct environmental studies to determine whether farming with genetically modified crops at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware was compatible with conservation and habitat preservation. Bill Lambrecht reports for the St.