OK, we’ll take more feedback: Under pressure from organizations that want more time to consider the issue of cloned food, the FDA is expected to extend the period for public comment by 30 days. BusinessWeek
Miracles do happen: The Supreme Court narrowly ruled today that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide […]

Time is running out to tell the FDA what you think of its assessment that meat and dairy from cloned animals is safe for the food supply. The comment period closes April 2.
Yawn! you say. Enough already with the pleas to take action on cloning! I eat only organic — who cares what funky stuff […]

Fuel for the fire: Tom Philpott flames corn-based ethanol boosterism for what it is — an agribusiness boondoggle and an economic and environmental disaster in the making. (Gristmill) Related headline: Farmers to plant largest amount of corn since ’44
And now for some good news: The National Organic Standards Board has banned cloned progeny from being […]

“Perfect steak all over again”: Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle hosted a segment on cloned meat a few nights ago, complete with bizarre-o appearances by the CEO of cloning leader ViaGen and Adam Eidinger from “Big Eco,” aka the Organic Consumers Association. We love the awesome animation of the “natural” process of bovine duplication. Warning: […]

Cloning end game: Buried in this recap of the FDA’s proposed ruling on the safety of food from cloned animals are a few eyebrow raisers. One: ViaGen, the leader in animal cloning, has yet to make a profit — but its parent company is confident that will change “once the FDA approves cloned food.” Two: […]

Batten the hatches, there’s a deluge o’links today.
MAJOR NEWS: Following on his decision last month that the USDA failed to take seriously concerns that genetically altered seeds could migrate to other alfalfa crops, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco has ordered that the sale of such seeds be stopped for now. Monsanto […]

The chicken AND the egg: It looks like in poultry, antibiotic resistance may be transmitted down family lines — at least in chickens, researchers have found. Banning their use on the farm may be too little, too late. USA Today
And speaking of antibiotic resistance: Washington Post reporter Rick Weiss, who broke the story about the […]

Genghis Clam and his mussel men: After you’ve watched “The BioDaVersity Code,” settle down for an hour or so and read this award-worthy, novella-length feature about how lowly bivalves are invading and conquering lakes in Michigan, Arizona, and the San Francisco Bay, choking out all other life. The real problem, of course, is not these […]

Insert clone pun here: In an inspired idea for a story, the LA Times holds a dinner party serving steaks and ground meat from cloned progeny as well as conventional cattle. Although the piece starts out snappy enough — Eric Schlosser declines the invitation, saying “I’d rather eat my running shoes” — the execution is […]

Cloning still imperfect: One of the best mainstream articles we’ve seen that give the lie to whether cloning can perfectly reproduce champion animals… or even healthy ones. Philadelphia Inquirer
“Minor record-keeping errors”: That’s what the USDA called hundreds of cases of incompletely documented imported cattle from Canada, where mad-cow disease continues to be discovered. Will that […]

Reporter Sam Fromartz has scored a scoop over on his blog, Chews Wise: the mega-dairy operator Dean Foods has announced it will not sell milk from cloned cows.
This is pretty huge news. Dean Foods has $10.5 billion in annual sales and sells dairy products under more than 50 brand names, including Borden, Pet, Country Fresh, […]

Organic — neither better for you nor the environment?: In a study for the U.K. Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Manchester Business School found that some organic an/or locally-grown food may be no better for the environment than conventional produce. We plan to track down and analyze the original report when […]

Meat technology: A Scientific American editorial discussing consumer resistance to cloned meat recommends transparency and labeling. One fact it says most meat eaters don’t know (and we didn’t): “The cattle industry has long employed a process called budding, in which technicians manually separate the undifferentiated cells in a fertilized cow egg that has undergone several […]

Slaughterhouse live: An excellent piece by AP writer Roxana Hegeman goes inside the world’s largest slaughterhouses, where worker injuries are common and as a result, movements to unionize are once again popular. Interviews with immigrant workers reveal new facets to their plight. Associated Press
Salmonella outbreak in peanut butter : ConAgra is recalling jars of Peter […]

Bird-flu CSI: It’s official — comparison between the UK and Hungarian strains of the avian-flu virus reveals the highest genetic match, much more so than the strains found in wild birds. Press release
Dept. of About Time: A federal judge ruled yesterday that the USDA failed to adequately assess possible environmental impacts before approving Monsanto’s genetically […]