Agriculture

Mad Cow USA - The Coverup Continues in Washington

Submitted by John Stauber on

The Associated Press notes that the Bush administration "will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease. The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows," but the US government has said such private testing is illegal. "U.S.

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Main Source: 
Associated Press, May 29, 2007
Topics: 
Food Safety
Mad Cow Disease

Food and Water Watch Covers Offshore Fish Farming Legislation on Congresspedia

As part of our ongoing series of partnerships with research and advocacy organizations, Food and Water Watch has established an informative page on offshore fish farming legislation on Congresspedia. Here's FWW's Andrianna Natsoulas (who edits SourceWatch and Congresspedia under the name Anatsoulas) to explain why they think this is an important issue:

Chiquita Pleads Guilty to Funding Colombian Terrorists

Submitted by Bob Burton on

The food company Chiquita Brands International, Inc. has pleaded guilty to funding a Colombian paramilitary group designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. According to U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors, the company's Colombian subsidiary, Banadex, paid approximately $1.7 million to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) between 1997 and 2004.

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Main Source: 
Associated Press, March 19, 2007
Topics: 
Agriculture
Crisis Management
Corporate Social Responsibility
Issue Management
Terrorism
Ethics
Human Rights
International
U.S. Government

Coming to the Table in 2007: Cloned Beef?

Submitted by Jonathan Rosenblum on

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has tentatively determined that milk and meat from cloned cows are safe to eat and indistinguishable from non-cloned cows. The agency may complete approval procedures for consumption of the animals and milk before the end of 2007.

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Main Source: 
The New York Times (sub req'd), December 28, 2006
Topics: 
Agriculture
Food Safety
Genetic Engineering
U.S. Government

US "Atypical" Mad Cow Threat Was Predicted

The small scientific world of prion researchers -- the scientists who investigate "transmissible spongiform encephalopathies" (TSE) such as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in humans -- is abuzz. That's because the two confirmed cases of US mad cow disease in Texas and Alabama are an "atypical" strain different from the British strain but identical to an atypical strain found so far in a small number of cattle in France, Germany, Poland and Sweden. The discovery of "atypical" mad cow disease in the US should not be surprising. Sheldon Rampton and I reported way back in 1997 that very strong evidence of an "atypical" TSE disease infecting US cattle was established by the work of Dr. Richard Marsh, the researcher to whom we dedicated our book Mad Cow USA.

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