Free Republic

And now some welcome news for a change: In a little-noticed move, the U.S. Congress tore down a barrier to imports of chicken from China last week. It's a victory for free trade and for a more rational approach to safety standards. President Obama signed an appropriations bill Wednesday that clears the way for the imports by allowing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct in China the safety inspections U.S. law requires for any country exporting food to America. The congressional move in 2007 to block funding for those regulatory steps amounted to an import ban. Now USDA will...

At the small warehouse tucked away in the back side of the French Quarter, the shuckers at P&J Oyster Co. have arrived before daybreak for 133 years. Their in-shell and shucked oysters have been on the menus of generations of restaurateurs, from oysters on the halfshell at Acme Oyster House and Casemento’s to the seafood gumbo at Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse. In less than two years, the tradition could become obsolete for seven months out of the year, based on newly announced oyster guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration. In an effort to reduce cases of a rare, but potentially...

NEW ORLEANS – Federal officials plan to ban sales of raw oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico unless the shellfish are treated to destroy potentially deadly bacteria — a requirement that opponents say could deprive diners of a delicacy cherished for generations. The plan has also raised concern among oystermen that they could be pushed out of business. The Gulf region supplies about two-thirds of U.S. oysters, and some people in the $500 million industry argue that the anti-bacterial procedures are too costly. They insist adequate measures are already being taken to battle germs, including increased refrigeration on oyster...

In my opinion, this over the top idea isn’t sustainable at any level. On a personal note, my cat eats with a footprint more like a Volkswagen microbus. I think I’ll give “Minners” a can of doplhin safe tuna tonight, just for spite. From Stuff.co.nz By TANYA KATTERNS – The Dominion Post Save the planet: time to eat dog? The eco-pawprint of a pet dog is twice that of a 4.6-litre Land Cruiser driven 10,000 kilometres a year, researchers have found. Victoria University professors Brenda and Robert Vale, architects who specialise in sustainable living, say pet owners should swap cats...

The top of the frozen apple juice can was stamped with the date, then the word "China." I could not believe it. China? I live in the Shenandoah Valley, at one time the biggest apple producer in the world, and my apple juice comes from China? Maybe it's just this store brand, I thought. But a visit to another grocery store confirmed it. They stocked a name brand, the top of it stamped with the date and the words "from China." I googled "China and apples." Stories and reports came up confirming my ... yes, fear. I hadn't been paying...

Leafy greens: 363 outbreaks involving 13,568 reported cases of illness.Eggs: 352 outbreaks with 11,163 reported cases of illness.Tuna: 268 outbreaks with 2,341 reported cases of illness.Oysters: 132 outbreaks with 3,409 reported cases of illness.Potatoes: 108 outbreaks with 3,659 reported cases of illness.Cheese: 83 outbreaks with 2,761 reported cases of illness.Ice Cream: 74 outbreaks with 2,594 reported cases of illness.Tomatoes: 31 outbreaks with 3,292 reported cases of illness.Sprouts: 31 outbreaks with 2,022 reported cases of illness.. Berries: 25 outbreaks with 3,397 reported cases of illness.

http://thecomingdepression.blogspot.com/2009/07/there-is-hunger-coming-like-run-away.html e driven the almost 400 mile stretch of Interstate 5 from L.A. to Sacramento dozens of times. Quite honestly, it's as boring as it gets. with only the usual gas stations, mini-marts, fast-food, home-cookin' restaurants, and strangely a newer batch of Starbuck's Coffee shops sprouting up everywhere. In between... farms, orchards, cattle, and dirt. On July 15th, as I began my trip to Utah, I came off the Grapevine decline and hit the flat 250 or so mile stretch of interstate which begins the farming belt in the valley. Almost immediately I noticed what I had only heard about...

Agriculture leaders, as well as farmers and ranchers, are watching the outcome of the many congressional bills that are being discussed on Capitol Hill. They question whether farmers and ranchers will survive if additional permits and taxation are implemented. Two of the issues currently being discussed are the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) that is included in House Resolution (HR) 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, and the probable taxation of cattle by means of changes in the Clean Air Act. Those who have followed the NAIS controversy may have read editorials written by Henry Lamb, chairman of...

Couple pleads guilty in toxic pet food case By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Las Vegas-based company and its owners have pleaded guilty to distributing a tainted ingredient used to make pet food that killed potentially thousands of dogs and cats. Sally Qing Miller, 43, and her husband, Stephen S. Miller, 56, along with their company, Chemnutra Inc., pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of selling adulterated food and one count of selling misbranded food, both misdemeanors. They initially were charged with 13 counts of introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce, 13 counts of introduction of...

The real crisis is coming… and it’s coming fast. Indeed, it started last year, almost entirely off the radar of the American public. While all eyes were glued to the carnage in the stock market and brokerage account balances, a far more serious crisis began to unfold rocking 30 countries around the globe. I’m talking about food shortages. Aside from a few rice shortages that were induced by export restrictions in Asia, food received little or no coverage from the financial media in 2008. Yet, food shortages started riots in over 30 countries worldwide. In Egypt people were actually stabbing...

After a bruising campaign last fall, Californians voted by a 27-point margin in favor of what was billed as an effective ban on cages for egg-laying hens. The Humane Society of the United States, which sponsored the measure, may have won that battle. But the war over Proposition 2, it seems, is just getting started. The egg industry says the proposition might allow it to use cages, and wants an interpretation from the state to support that idea. The Humane Society isn't budging. It says voters meant to enact a ban on cages, and that's what they should get. Meanwhile,...

A new food safety bill is on the fast track in Congress-HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The bill needs to be stopped. HR 2749 gives FDA tremendous power while significantly diminishing existing judicial restraints on actions taken by the agency. The bill would impose a one-size-fits-all regulatory scheme on small farms and local artisanal producers; and it would disproportionately impact their operations for the worse. HR 2749 does not address underlying causes of food safety problems such as industrial agriculture practices and the consolidation of our food supply. The industrial food system and food imports are...

“Control the food production and you can control the people. What they are doing is creating starvation of Biblical proportions,” said a farmer who wished to remain anonymous. The Global Warming Scam plays into this we are going on Act II of the Food Crisis and by taxing cows for passing gas we will be going on Act III. Act II of the Food Crisis? 06/15/09 Gaithersburg, Maryland Inflation – rising prices, or a drop in the purchasing power of the dollar – will soon rise to the very top of economic concerns. I can’t understand why there are pundits...

The goal seems to be nothing short of eradicating American farms and self-sustainability. Even DEMOCRATS are opposing the Obama Energy Bill. Climate change legislation will be utterly devastating for American farmers. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) of the House Agriculture Committee says that not only will he not vote for it, but no one else on his committee will support it either. The bill would increase the cost of everything that farmers depend on, such as diesel fuel, gasoline, fertilizers, pesticides, and a host of other things. It would raise taxes on energy by $846 billion over the next ten years....

Economists at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis are digging deeper into the effects of the Waxman-Markey climate change legislation that includes a cap and trade plan to reduce carbon dioxide... Today’s victim: Farmers. Our CDA analysts found that Waxman-Markey would adversely affect farmers in a number of ways: • Farm income (or the amount left over after paying all expenses) is expected to drop $8 billion in 2012, $25 billion in 2024, and over $50 billion in 2035. These are decreases of 28%, 60% and 94%, respectively. • The average net income lost over the 2010-2035 timeline is...

While the world most people inhabit rarely adopts Hollywood and Berkley fads, the 'green' movement has indeed caught fire with people who actually work to eat. Bemused by Kabbalah, Scientology, earth auras, and the like, regular America seems interested in being 'green.' Naturally, wherever there is a fad, an enterprising company will step up to exploit it. In this case, the practice of exploiting the public's concerns is called 'green washing.' While most green washing is simply characterizing established practices as somehow environmentally friendly, the grocery chain Whole Foods has magically turned one of the least green practices into a...

May 5,2009 WARNING LETTER CERTIFIED MAIL RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED Refer to MIN 09 -18 Ken Powell Chairman of the Board and CEO General Mills One General Mills Boulevard Minneapolis, Minnesota 55426 Dear Mr. Powell: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed the label and labeling of your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal. FDA's review found serious violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) and the applicable regulations in Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR). You can find copies of the Act and these regulations through links in FDA's home page at http://www.fda.gov....

WASHINGTON — Popular U.S. breakfast cereal Cheerios is a drug, at least if the claims made on the label by its manufacturer General Mills are anything to go by, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said. "Based on claims made on your product's label, we have determined that your Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug," the FDA said in a letter to General Mills which was posted on the federal agency's website Tuesday.

T.G.I. Friday's says a severed snake head found in a dish of broccoli at one of its upstate New York restaurants was apparently planted in the meal. Company spokeswoman Amy Freshwater said Friday independent laboratory tests confirmed the snake head wasn't cooked, but was added to cooked broccoli at its Clifton Park restaurant. The Carrollton, Texas, company has asked state police to investigate. Diner Jack Pendleton of Ballston Lake says he found the snake head on Sunday. Freshwater says the company doesn't know who put the head in the meal. Pendleton says he didn't.

CALEXICO, Calif. — A food distribution company in Calexico is recalling candy imported from Mexico because it contains high levels of lead. King Midas Inc. said Friday it is warning stores to stop selling Hola Pop, a caramel lollipop with a salted apricot in the center. The candy also comes in other fruit flavors.

Grist Magazine online has a must-read story by North Carolina-based food editor Tom Philpott examining a possible link between the outbreak of swine flu and Smithfield Foods of Virginia, the world's largest pork producer and processor. Forty cases of the disease have been confirmed so far in the United States, including two cases in Texas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak of this particular strain of flu, which is caused by virus found in pigs, originated in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where Smithfield subsidiary Granjas Carroll raises about a million hogs a year,...

U.S. pork producers on Sunday, responding to a swine flu outbreak that has escalated into a public health emergency, said their product is safe and that consumers cannot catch the virus by eating properly cooked food. The industry-funded National Pork Board said it "wishes to reassure the public that pork is safe and will continue to be safe to consume." The statement comes as multiple nations increase their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or are banning them outright as the virus is said to have killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400...

My hubby just left to return a large container of Planters Peanuts. It had a large (what looked like cat dooo doo on the top.) I feel like barfing! He returned it to Wal-Mart in Springfield , Oregon. Luckey for us it was right on top...like it was placed there by some one. Thank the Lord we never ate any of it!

The sunspots and cosmic rays have a 79 percent correlation with our thermometer record since 1860. Meanwhile the CO2 correlation is a mere 22 percent. I love repeating that comparison! The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change already admitted in 2001 that it’s modeled “scenarios” cannot accurately predict cloud impacts on temperatures.

Much of Oklahoma's Wheat Crop Damaged Apr 17, 2009 9:42 PM By Colleen Chen, NEWS 9 for NewsOn6.com OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- Oklahoma wheat producers are beginning to see the effects from a hard freeze earlier this month. Oklahoma Wheat Commission Executive Director Mike Schulte said some fields suffered damage of up to 90 percent. While consumers likely won't see any price jumps at the grocery store in the short term, Schulte said they will likely see price changes a few months from now. Learn more about the Oklahoma Farm Report, broadcast on the Radio Oklahoma Network. Find RON Radio...

South African farmers suffered millions of dollars in lost income when 82,000 hectares of genetically-manipulated corn (maize) failed to produce hardly any seeds.The plants look lush and healthy from the outside. Monsanto has offered compensation. Monsanto blames the failure of the three varieties of corn planted on these farms, in three South African provinces,on alleged 'underfertilisation processes in the laboratory". Some 280 of the 1,000 farmers who planted the three varieties of Monsanto corn this year, have reported extensive seedless corn problems. Urgent investigation demanded However environmental activitist Marian Mayet, director of the Africa-centre for biosecurity in Johannesburg, demands an...

From The Evil Empire: Government control of our food supply is the ultimate step in our enslavement. Barack Obama has moved swiftly...to seize authority over the very food we eat. The mechanism...is legislation that most Congressmen will vote for without reading, as usual, based on the synoptic introduction listing intended improvements.... H.R.875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 S.425, the Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act These bills have the legal potential to eliminate organic farming, destroy small family farms, outlaw natural seed banks, and criminalize even backyard vegetable gardens. Their overt intention, although nobody is noticing, is to...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A chemical used in explosives, fireworks and rocket fuel has been found in powdered baby formula in the United States, the non-profit Environmental Working Group (EWG) said. In "little-noticed findings," researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 15 brands of baby formula contained perchlorate, an oxidizer in solid fuels used in explosives, fireworks, road flares and rocket motors, the EWG said. "Studies have established that the chemical is a potent thyroid toxin that may interfere with fetal and infant brain development," it said. The EWG said the CDC study's findings raised...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Kroger supermarkets is recalling 10-ounce packages of pistachios sold in Texas and 30 other states over fears of possible salmonella contamination.

Eat fish, have painful sex? That’s what happened to six unlucky people in North Carolina who got food poisoning with a very rare side effect, the CDC reported Thursday in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report. The six were guests at a dinner party in June 2007 where amberjack fish from a local fish market was served. The fish they ate had been caught in the Florida Keys. Like all predatory ocean-going fish in that region, amberjack can sometimes contain a naturally occurring toxin called ciguatera which comes from local algae and is bio-accumulated up the food chain. Ciguatera fish...

The U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington ruled that the Clean Air Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate agriculture in the United States. The case stemmed from the American Farm Bureau Federation’s appeal of a 2006 EPA effort to hold farms to the same standards as cities with regard to particulate air pollution. EPA spokeswoman Virginia Landers lauded the court for rejecting the argument that farming naturally entails stirring up dust. “When you get right down to it, the whole agricultural process of turning over the soil to plant crops is unnatural,” Landers observed. “No plant sows...

President Barack Obama has said the US food safety system is a "public health hazard" and in need of an overhaul. He sounded the warning during his weekly radio and video address, as he appointed a new head of the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). New York Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg has been named for the post. Mr Obama cited a string of recent food safety scandals including a salmonella outbreak in peanut products this year that has been linked to nine deaths. The president said recent underfunding and understaffing at the FDA had left the agency unable to...

(BEIJING) - China said on Monday food security remains "grim" after a series of health scandals, the most recent being last year's tainted milk formula which killed at least six toddlers and made almost 300,000 sick. A new food-safety law, approved on Saturday in an accelerated process since the milk scandal came to light in September, attempts to fix a fragmentary regulatory system which officials blame for recurring problems. "At present, China's food-security situation remains grim with high risks and contradictions," the Ministry of Health said in documents handed to reporters on Monday. The food-safety law, which takes effect on...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the government should move quickly to increase the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline. Ethanol producers asked the Environmental Protection Agency last week to increase the amount of ethanol that refiners can blend with gasoline from a maximum of 10 percent to 15 percent, which could boost the demand for the renewable fuel additive by as much as 6 billion gallons a year. However, automobile and small engine manufacturers have said there's no certainty yet that such an increase will not harm engines and fuel lines.

Before taking office, President Barack Obama pledged to cut government waste: "We cannot sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness." Yet after signing the $410 billion omnibus (the largest annual increase in 30 years) on top of the gargantuan $787 billion spending package with questionable items to "stimulate" the economy, it seems like what is bleeding is that promise's credibility.

As our government enacts a stimulus package and President Barack 0bama announces bold initiatives to stem home mortgage foreclosures, disaster threatens family farmers and their communities. The government's response to plummeting commodity prices and tightening credit markets leads to the basic question: Who will produce our food? This is a worldwide crisis. U.S. policy and the demand for deregulation at all levels -- from food production to financial markets -- contribute greatly to the global collapse. The solution must be grounded in food sovereignty so that all farmers and their communities can regain control over their food supply. This response...

Animal owners, consumers and taxpayers: NAIS ALERT! Protect your right to farm and to eat local food. Speak out against the National Animal Identification System! The USDA [http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome] has proposed a rule to require all farms and ranches where animals are raised to be registered in a federal database under the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) for existing disease control programs. The draft rule covers programs for cattle, sheep, goats and swine. It also sets the stage for the entire NAIS program to be mandated for everyone, including anyone who owns even one livestock animal (for example, a single chicken...

The Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday ordered the recall of all products ever shipped from the Peanut Corporation of America's plant in Plainview, Texas, after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant. The order, which applies to products shipped since the plant opened nearly four years ago, came a day after the discovery of filth in a crawl space above a production area during a health services inspection, the department said in a news release. Inspectors also reported that the plant's ventilation system was pulling debris "from the infested crawl space into production...

When an animal rights group sneaks a hidden camera into a livestock operation, it won't capture images of Stacy McLintock bringing nine calves into her kitchen to rub their legs and warm them during a winter storm. But that's exactly what she did this past winter. "They're our big kids," McLintock said Saturday of the calves born to her 100-head herd near Holton. "They're a lot of work but a lot of fun." McLintock was among the audience of cattle producers listening to Dr. Daniel U. Thomson, Jones professor of production medicine at Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine,...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Federal agents on Wednesday searched the home of a man linked to the fatal 1982 Tylenol poisonings in the Chicago area that triggered a nationwide scare and prompted dramatic changes in the way food and medical products are packaged. No one was ever charged with the deaths of seven people who took the cyanide-laced drugs. The FBI would not immediately confirm that the search at the home of James W. Lewis was related to the Tylenol case, only that it was part of an ongoing investigation. Lewis served more than 12 years in prison for sending an...

BLAKELY, Ga., Feb. 3, 2009 (CBS) A former employee of the Georgia peanut plant at the center of a criminal investigation in a nationwide salmonella outbreak says he saw a rat dry-roasting in a peanut area. Jonathan Prather was one of 50 people who lost their jobs last month when the Peanut Corporation of America shut down its plant in Blakely. The outbreak is blamed in as many as eight deaths and has sickened some 500 people, authorities say. Many products made with peanut paste from the plant have been recalled.

A combination of epidemiological analysis and laboratory testing by state officials in Minnesota and Connecticut, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have enabled FDA to confirm that the sources of the outbreak of illnesses caused by Salmonella Typhimurium are peanut butter and peanut paste produced by the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) at its Blakely, Georgia processing plant. Peanut butter is sold by PCA in bulk containers ranging in size from five (5) to 1,700 pounds. The peanut paste is sold in sizes ranging from 35-pound containers to product sold by...

The following recalls have been announced:

FDA inspectors found many problems at Georgia peanut plant Federal officials say an often-cited Georgia plant sold products tainted with salmonella. The Georgia peanut butter plant linked to a nationwide salmonella outbreak had deficient cleaning programs and sometimes shipped products that initially tested positive for the bacteria, the federal official in charge of the investigation said Tuesday. Michael Rogers, director of regional investigations for the Food and Drug Administration, said government tests at the processing plant in Blakely, Ga., also found salmonella present on surfaces in the plant. It has been closed during the investigation, which began Jan. 9. He...

Search for Peanut Butter Product Recalls Information current as of 12 PM January 20, 2009 Peanut Butter Product Recall (Salmonella Typhimurium Outbreak): Main Page Note: This list includes food recalls since January 2009 related to peanut butter and peanut paste recalled by Peanut Corporation of America. This list will be updated as new information is received. This information is current as of the date indicated. Once included, all food recalls will remain listed. If we learn that any information is not accurate, we will revise the list as soon as possible.

The Food and Drug Administration is asking consumers to temporarily stop eating all foods containing peanut butter - this, as investigators work to find the source of a deadly salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter and peanut butter paste. So far, more than 470 people in 43 states have gotten sick. At least 90 people have been hospitalized and six have died. Investigators are focusing on bulk tubs of peanut butter produced at the Peanut Corporation of America's Georgia facility. Its products were distributed to nursing homes and to food companies.

WASHINGTON – The company that sells Little Debbie snacks announced a recall Sunday of peanut butter crackers because of a potential link to a deadly salmonella outbreak. The voluntary recall came one day after the government advised consumers to avoid eating cookies, cakes, ice cream and other foods with peanut butter until health officials learn more about the contamination.

(CNN) -- Federal officials are urging consumers to put off eating foods that contain peanut butter until they can be they are sure they do not contain products manufactured by the Peanut Corp. of America, some of which were found to contain salmonella. A salmonella outbreak has sickened almost 500 people and killed at least six. Food and Drug Administration officials said Saturday that peanut butter and peanut paste made from ground roasted peanuts, manufactured in Peanut Corp.'s Blakely, Georgia, plant were found to contain the bacteria, although a direct link to the strain that has now sickened 474 people...

WASHINGTON – The latest national food safety investigation took on new urgency Friday as federal officials confirmed salmonella contamination at a Georgia facility that ships peanut products to 85 food companies. On Capitol Hill, the House Energy and Commerce Committee requested records as it opened its own inquiry. The outbreak has sickened hundreds of people in 43 states and killed at least six. Earlier this week, it prompted Kellogg to pull some of its venerable Keebler crackers from store shelves, as a precaution. Although the investigation has gone into high gear, Food and Drug Administration officials say much of their...

Another case or Rat Lungworm disease has been diagnosed in the Kapoho-Kalapana area of Puna and more unreported cases have been revealed. The outbreak has been tied to organic farming.