"A food scandal in Germany deepened Friday, as regional authorities shut down more than 4,700 farms after tests showed animal feed had been contaminated by a chemical that can cause cancer."
"The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization announced this week that food prices hit a record high last month. Its Food Price Index was 214.7 for December, the highest level since the organization created the index to measure the price of a standard basket of goods in 1990."
"With President Obama slated to sign historic food-safety legislation into law Tuesday, the coalition of food industry, public interest and consumer groups that used a public health message to win its passage is now making an argument for its funding."
"The best news for wine growers Kevin and Karen Kohlman was this: Their vines did not get hit this season by pesticides drifting onto their property from surrounding private industrial forestlands. That’s a change."
"The struggle over huge livestock farms continues to roil in Missouri and Kansas, and no wonder -- a new report shows the two states in the middle of the growing concentration of factory farming."
A California state appeals court ruled that an organic farmer can seek damages from a pesticide company whose product was applied to neighboring fields and contaminated the organic farmer's fields by volatilization rather than spray drift.
The US Dept. of Agriculture says that 898 of these markets are open during some or all of the winter, even in many northern states. The USDA inventory is searchable by state and city, and considerable detail is provided for each market.
"The House of Representatives gave final approval on Tuesday to a long-awaited modernization of the nation’s food safety laws, voting 215 to 144 to grant the Food and Drug Administration greater authority over food production."
"Reacting to a French pledge to represent the 'common interest' in considering biotech foods, a former US ambassador recommended publishing a 'retaliation list' of European locations where genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were being grown in hopes that activists would destroy them and 'cause some pain' for officials, a leaked diplomatic cable shows."
"The Senate on Sunday night cleared a food safety package, curbing earlier fears the popular bill would die by the end of this session as a result of a procedural error by upper chamber lawmakers."
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