Category: Department of Agriculture
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GAO Report Targets Food Safety Overlap
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a March 2011 report identifying 34 areas, including agriculture, “where agencies, offices, or initiatives have similar or overlapping objectives or provide similar services to the same populations; or where government missions are fragmented across multiple agencies.” Commissioned by Congress, this first annual report also summarizes 47 areas where lawmakers…
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Latest USDA Approval of GE Sugar Beets Generates Lawsuit
The Center for Food Safety has returned to a federal court in California charging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) with violations of the law in partially deregulating genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets. Center for Food Safety v. Vilsack, No. 11-0831 (N.D. Cal., filed February 23, 2011). Details…
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FSIS Proposes Catfish Inspection Rules
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a proposed rule that would address a 2008 Farm Bill mandate making catfish an amenable species under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and therefore requiring all domestic and imported catfish to undergo FSIS inspection. According to a February 18, 2011, press…
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Public Health Group Sues USDA and HHS over Dietary Guidelines
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an organization devoted to preventive medicine, a vegan diet and animal rights, has sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), claiming the agencies used deliberately obscure language in their 2010 Dietary Guidelines regarding the foods consumers should avoid. While…
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APHIS Deregulates GE Corn for Ethanol Production
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a determination of nonregulated status for a corn variety genetically engineered (GE) to facilitate ethanol production. Developed by Syngenta Seeds, Inc., Event 3272 or Enogen™ corn produces a microbial enzyme that, according to the petition for deregulation, is “unlikely to pose…
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Mark Bittman, “Is ‘Eat Real Food’ Unthinkable?,” The New York Times, February 8, 2011
New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman tackles the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) latest dietary guidelines in this opinion piece claiming that “the agency’s nutrition experts are at odds with its other mission: to promote our bounty in whatever form its processors make it.” According to Bittman, the guidelines are clearest when promoting “good”…
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USDA Economist Says Questions Remain About Use of Nanotech in Foods
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) economist, writing in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, has reportedly cited the lack of a suitable definition for nanotechnology as an obstacle to the potential labeling of foods and packaging incorporating nanoparticles or materials. According to Jean Buzby, while the National Nanotechnology Initiative defines nanotechnology in terms of size,…
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FSIS Considers Animal Rights Groups’ Petitions on Downer Livestock
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has requested comments on two petitions for rulemaking submitted by animal rights groups seeking reformed regulations concerning “the disposition of non-ambulatory disabled” livestock at slaughter. FSIS also plans to clarify its requirements for “condemned non-ambulatory disabled cattle at official slaughter establishments.” The Humane Society…