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AMARILLO, Texas State health officials are looking into how a Panhandle man contracted a rare bacterial disease typically tied to the livestock industry. The Texas Department of State Health Services says the Moore County man doesn't work around livestock or in a laboratory or slaughterhouse. Department veterinarian James Alexander also says the man isn't a veterinarian. He says it's possible the man might have caught the disease from contaminated soil. Alexander says the disease can spread from animals to humans. The patient says he has a friend with livestock but that he had no contact with the animals. Common symptoms...

Deadly germs may be more likely to be spread due to a biodefence lab accident than a biological attack by terrorists. Plague, anthrax, Rocky Mountain spotted fever - these are among the bioweapons some experts fear could be used in a germ warfare attack against the US. But the public has had near-misses with those diseases and others over the past five years, ironically because of accidents in labs that were working to defend against bioterrorists. Even worse, they may be only the tip of an iceberg. The revelations come from Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project, a biosafety pressure...

USDA late Wednesday posted notice that $2.3 billion in supplemental Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) payments will be temporarily frozen.“In accordance with the White House memo, Regulatory Freeze Pending Review, USDA has suspended the processing and payments under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program - Additional Assistance and has halted implementation until further notice. FSA local offices will continue to accept applications during the evaluation period,” said a notice on the USDA CFAP page.“In the coming days, USDA and the Biden Administration intend to take additional steps to bring relief and support to all parts of food and agriculture during the...

Hey. I’m always here to offer advice to the Left, to make their road smoother, to point them in the direction of fellow travelers they should cancel for deficiencies of “wokeness.” Let’s start with the issue of GMOs, poisonous Roundup, and Monsanto (now swallowed up by Bayer). Joe Biden is going to appoint Mr. Monsanto, Tom Vilsack, as his Secretary of Agriculture. Tommy boy held that post under Obama. The Organic Consumers Association writes [1] (see also [2], [3], [4]): “If, like us, you dream of an organic, regenerative food system led by independent family farmers, then news that Joe...

After the long weekend, farmers will be able to start applying for some much needed financial relief. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump and USDA chief Sonny Perdue released the details of a previously announced $16-billion aid program for farmers and ranchers. Starting May 26, farmers will be able to apply for up to $250,000 in direct payments through the fund called the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). To qualify for the program, farmers must have suffered a price loss of at least 5 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and must have significant additional marketing costs. Farmers can sign up...

@realDonaldTrumpStarting early next week, at my order, the USA will be purchasing, from our Farmers, Ranchers & Specialty Crop Growers, 3 Billion Dollars worth of Dairy, Meat & Produce for Food Lines & Kitchens. “FARMERS TO FAMILY FOOD BOX” Great news for all! @SecretarySonny @ZippyDuvall --- @RepThomasMassieThat’s great, but lots more people will be at the soup kitchens and food pantries if @SecretarySonny doesn’t start honestly explaining problems with our meat supply to @realDonaldTrump It’s been monopolized by Chinese and Brazilian companies, while USDA chokes USA competition. -- Looks like Rep. Massie doesn't think this will help and it will...

Complete title: US meat supply is riddled with feces, doctors claim in a lawsuit against the government in a bid to wipe fecal matter from our food The government maintains a 'zero tolerance' policy on feces in food The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says that only applies to 'visible' fecal matter They filed a lawsuit against the USDA on Tuesday calling for tighter regulations  The US meat supply is riddled with fecal matter, a new lawsuit against the government claims. While the government maintains a 'zero tolerance' policy on feces in food, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine says...

Democrats thought Donald was done – he’s just getting started! Thanks to President Trump, the U.S. economy is on fire like never before. Jobs are coming back and wages are on the rise. Companies are competing to keep Americans workers. In fact, there are more open jobs than people looking for work! But as good as things are, Trump wants them even better. The economy can only thrive when people are jumping in and getting back to work. But there’s one program that keeps people poor and out of the workforce. A program that also costs the taxpayers billions a...

More than 6.2 million individuals dropped off food stamps since President Donald Trump completed his first full month in office, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The most recent USDA data shows that 6,268,285 individuals discontinued their participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)— the program in charge of food stamps— since February 2017 when Trump finished his first month as president. Individual and household food stamp participation has consistently declined since 2013 back when the Obama administration was in power and enrollment in the program reached its highest point in U.S. history....

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reversed course late Friday, agreeing to key union demands as nearly two-thirds of its research staff will leave the agency rather than move to new headquarters in the Kansas City area. The announcement follows a tumultuous few weeks at the USDA where employees were given a month to decide if they would uproot from D.C. by Sept. 30 or lose their jobs that same day. Employees at both the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) — two of the major research wings within USDA — unionized in...

FBI Documents Detail That Comey Had Trump FBI Docs At His Home! Judicial Watch Goes To Court on FBI Stonewall and Cover-Up U.S. Wastes $907 Million Tax Dollars on Useless “Nutrition Education” FBI Documents Detail That Comey Had Trump FBI Docs At His Home! As the Justice Department reportedly takes a step to give James Comey a pass for illegal activity, Judicial Watch is uncovering the details of these crimes. We received six pages of records from the FBI showing that in June 2017, a month after Comey was fired by President Donald Trump, FBI agents visited his home...

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials, the Trump administration will propose a rule Tuesday to reduce unwarranted access to food stamps, removing 3.1 million from the program and saving taxpayers $2.5 billion. President Trump has argued that many Americans now using SNAP are not in need, given the strong economy and low unemployment. Recommended changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would limit access to food stamps for households with savings and other assets. The goal is to end automatic eligibility for those already collecting other federal and state assistance. According to Reuters, the residents of 43...

A Trump administration decision to move researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to the Kansas City area is threatening to spark the flight of more than half of the staff selected to move, gutting the agency of its top scientific voices. Staff have until midnight Monday to decide whether to uproot and join the department as it moves its research branches from Washington, D.C., lured by $26 million in promised incentives from state and local officials. Critics see the move, set to be completed by Sept. 30, as yet another example of the Trump administration looking to sideline...

(Washington, D.C., May 23, 2019) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will take several actions to assist farmers in response to trade damage from unjustified retaliation and trade disruption. President Trump directed Secretary Perdue to craft a relief strategy to support American agricultural producers while the Administration continues to work on free, fair, and reciprocal trade deals to open more markets in the long run to help American farmers compete globally. Specifically, the President has authorized USDA to provide up to $16 billion in programs, which is in line with...

Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are quitting at a rapid clip as Secretary Sonny Perdue prepares to move forward with plans to relocate two offices far outside the Washington, D.C., Beltway. Federal employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – two small but important agencies within the USDA – are unhappy with Perdue’s plan, announced last August, to move the majority of their staff from current offices in the capital to an area closer the country’s agricultural centers. “This move does not serve a public purpose,” Peter Winch, a...

A cold, wet spring that caused record slow corn planting has the 2019 crop squarely behind the 8-ball. To recover lost potential, production must run the table with near-perfect conditions the rest of the growing season. Otherwise, a smaller crop could wipe out much of the surplus USDA forecasts for the coming year. While the slow start doesn’t doom the crop, the unusual political and economic environment of 2019 could make recovery more difficult than in other years with major delays. Related: USDA crop progress: Corn fails to reach the halfway mark USDA reported only 49% of the crop planted...

The US Department of Agriculture bought dozens of cats from Chinese meat markets, butchered the felines — and then fed their parts to healthy kittens at a Maryland lab for twisted experiments, according to a disturbing new watchdog report. The experiments, which took place as recently as 2015, were aimed at studying toxoplasmosis, a common parasitic infection that causes food-borne illness.

March 14, 2019 (Family Research Council) — What do cats have that newborn babies don't? Democrats' support. In one of the sickest ironies no one is talking about, Senate liberals picked this moment — 17 days after they voted to kill America's perfectly healthy infants — to fight for the humane treatment of kittens. Maybe the DNC's strategists are out to lunch, or maybe the Left really is this shameless, but I can't wait to see some of these politicians standing on debate platforms next year telling the American people that when it comes to protecting living things: We chose...

A bipartisan group of lawmakers will introduce legislation Thursday to prevent the Department of Agriculture from continuing deadly experiments on kittens. "The USDA's decision to slaughter kittens after they are used in research is an archaic practice and horrific treatment, and we need to end it," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the Senate bill's lead sponsor, said in a statement to NBC News. The agency has been breeding kittens in Beltsville, Maryland, and infecting them with a parasite that can cause toxoplasmosis, a food-borne illness. Scientists harvest the parasites from their stool for two to three weeks, and then euthanize and...

Levin also asked the lawmaker to consider the advancements brought upon society by Bill Gates, Pennsylvania steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, Jeffrey Bezos and Henry Ford. "What has [Ocasio-Cortez] created? Any part time job?" he asked, adding that Ocasio-Cortez failed to lay out how she will deal with those in the higher income brackets. "Who decides who gets what? The Department of Agriculture?" he asked. "Americans do not like big, authoritarian, centralized government... We live better than kings and queens lived 250 years ago." Levin then offered an invitation to Ocasio-Cortez to join him on "Life, Liberty & Levin," saying that...