Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/tag/usda/)
In a teleconference held last night the US Food and Drug Administration announced that it is scaling back GMP inspections and is waiving certain FSMA requirements in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.
The Trump administration has formally revised a proposal that would significantly restrict the type of research that can be used to draft environmental and public health regulations, a measure that experts say amounts to one of the government’s most far-reaching restrictions on science.
The Department of Agriculture is looking to halve the U.S. farming industry’s environmental footprint by mid-century in a target that includes several climate and clean energy goals.
ROLLETTE, ND - Driving through Rollette County, North Dakota in mid-January, there are places the corn can be seen popping out of snow drifts piling up on the edges of the field. Squares of brown, unharvested fields dot the otherwise white, flat landscape. That corn wasn’t supposed to be there at all. It should have been harvested by October. “USDA calls that ‘on-farm storage’,” Ryan Pederson said, laughing as he drove past his unharvested corn.
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.