Dept. of What Took You So Long: Congress is proposing to establish a new research institute, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), to manage peer-reviewed grants focused on basic food and agricultural science. Modeled after the National Institutes of Health, NIFA would be an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), overseeing up to $1 billion in competitive extramural research grants. Two other plans are also on the table. The Scientist
Import police: Food imports are escalating, but the FDA’s ability to inspect them and police their safety isn’t keeping up. The FDA inspects about 1% of the imported foods it regulates. And it’s not just bacteria you have to worry about: in one of the several alarming examples cited by the article, packages of dried fruit from China failed to mention that they had sulfite amounts 30 times higher than needed to cause severe reactions in some people. USA Today
Tastes like desperation: Monsanto has resorted to paying dairy farmers to use Posilac, its artificial hormone known as rBST, by offering a rebate of up to $14 per dose. (Several large dairy suppliers, including Dean Foods and California Dairies, are responding to consumer demand and discouraging it.) The “rewards program” has an appropriately creepy title: Secure Technology Action Reward, or S.T.A.R. The Capital Press (Via The Daily Table)
Money for shit: The skyrocketing price of commercial fertilizer is making manure more attractive. The price of nitrogen fertilizer, for example, has more than doubled in the past four years, in part because of the rising cost of natural gas needed to make it. But as more conventional growers make the switch, with what crappy argument will Alex Avery use to slander organic agriculture? USA Today
Licensed to grow: California’s Agriculture Committee has scheduled a hearing Tuesday on three bills that would regulate water, fertilizer, and toilet use in the fields; set up systems to trace, recall and quarantine contaminated produce; and require growers of leafy green vegetables to be licensed by the state. North County Times (AP)
Trust us — pesticide-free hangovers are an improvement: Grist’s Ask Umbra column evaluates, and makes fun of, organic spirits. Grist
Idaho to branch out: A state best known for its pedestrian potatoes, onions, and sugar beets is looking at growing more unusual things like persimmons, pistachios, pawpaws, quinces and mulberries. Forbes.com
The Digest has been getting unwieldy lately, so we’re putting it on a diet. Less-newsy links will be presented in a less-filling form — tell us what you think:
Colin Beavan, aka No-Impact Man, on liberal passivity and living la vida low-carbon (New York Times)
Portrait of life on a small, family-owned goat farm (Business Week)
Eat like the Japanese (Part of a series comparing what Americans could learn from the rest of the world (U.S. News & World Report)
Goats offer a viable economical way to get rid of invasive plants (Times-Daily)
Two St. Helena teenagers are testing the benefits of pasture grass compared to commercial grains in raising sheep for market (Napa Valley Register)
Ben & Jerry’s is recalling Peach Cobbler ice cream because of the undeclared presence of wheat (Press release)
The search for an eco-friendly wedding dress (Business Week)
Why Omaha Steaks irradiates all its beef (Orlando Sentinel)
Food, Farming, & Food Politics events calendar
Humor:
