Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/tag/usda/)
With Marfrig Global Foods' purchase of National Beef Packing Company, two of the four largest U.S. beef processors will be owned by Brazilian companies, which has some cattle ranchers worried.
Now that the dust has settled on the move of USDA's Economic Research Service from Washington D.C. to Kansas City Dave Dickey takes stock.
The new rule allows slaughterhouses to opt in to the New Swine Slaughter Inspection System (inexplicably, NSIS), a “modernized” system that eliminates maximum line speeds and shifts some of the responsibility for removing sick animals from the processing line from USDA inspectors to plant employees.
Since the USDA began buying meat, produce and dairy from U.S. farmers last fall, the food people receive from food pantries has been more fresh and more nutritious. But it’s also presented challenges for those who get the food from growers fields to the dinner tables that need it across the country.
Foreign investors acquired at least 1.6 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in 2016, the largest increase in more than a decade, according to the latest available federal data.
The latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that foreign investors control 28.3 million acres, valued at $52.2 billion. That area is about the size of the state of Ohio.
The USDA recalled more than 60,000 pounds of raw beef from the Aurora Packing Company, Inc. in North Aurora because the meat may be contaminated with E. Coli.
As early as this month, the Trump administration could allow pork plant employees rather than federal inspectors to be responsible for hazard analysis and critical control points inspection measures.
Whoever emerges as leading U.S. lights to develop policy will need to take into consideration just how the deck is stacked against implementing climate change policy that can make a difference and what cracks to exploit to save Earth from itself.
Enter the National Cattlemen's Beef
Association and the highly anticipated joint agreement between the Food and Drug Administration and United States Agriculture Department over oversight of
cell-based meat technology.
The deal – released last month – calls for FDA and USDA to each do what they do best. FDA will regulate cell collection, cell banks, and differentiation.
Later this month – April 22 to be exact – the newly minted conservative U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media.