Breaking news and developments, such as contaminated-food outbreaks, Farm Bill milestones, and how the farming community is faring around the world.

A round-up of the most important news & commentary regarding SOLE- and anti-SOLE food issues, farming, policy, etc. that we think Ethicurean readers will want to know about.

Thanks to Marc R. for calling my attention to the Government Accountability Office’s recent report on the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). NAIS, which first saw the light of corner offices at the USDA in 2002, flaunts a meaty goal: to identify and track the movement of all livestock animals and poultry in the United […]

Big Food is scouring the globe for exotic — or the cheapest — ingredients to compete in a more global marketplace, not unlike automakers shipping in parts from all over, and asks “is the trend to assemble food from so many far-flung locations heightening the risks of contamination?” (Ya think?) Rhetorical questions aside, there’s some interesting stuff in here about how the globalization of food brands has contributed to their dependence on chemical ingredients, so that Pizza Hut consumers in China can taste the same exact crappy pizza as in Chicago. The second article looks at the FDA’s efforts to investigate Haiti poisonings from fake Chinese glycerin in 1996, which demonstrate Chinese officials’ intransigence and the regulatory failings that allowed a virtually identical poisoning to occur 10 years later in Panama. “The cases further illustrate what happens when nations fail to police the global pipeline of pharmaceutical ingredients,” says the article…and, by extension, of food ingredients. Or anything, really

It started out as: “United Food Group, LLC, a Vernon, Calif., establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 75,000 pounds of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E…. “The problem was discovered through sampling done by the California Department of Health Services and the Colorado Department of Health, in coordination with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the course of an investigation into illnesses.”… coli 0157:H7, produces a potent toxin, or poison, and can cause severe illness, kidney failure and even death…. coli 0157:H7, produces a potent toxin, or poison, and can cause severe illness, kidney failure and even death…. coli 0157:H7, produces a potent toxin, or poison, and can cause severe illness, kidney failure and even death.

NEWSFEATURES & COMMENTARYON THE BLOGS, ETC.Not-so-clean energy: Biofuel plants in Iowa — many of them recently commissioned — have been violating laws protecting water, land and air with alarming frequency…. Among the violations reported is this doozy: “Siouxland Energy & Livestock in Sioux Center, was cited for releasing contaminated wastewater in an attempt to dilute a manure spill from a neighboring cattle operation.” Since monitoring of water consumption and carbon dioxide emissions is lacking, Iowans do not yet know the full impact of this new industry. (Des Moines Register via http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/IRJCI/blog.htm”>The Rural Blog): A study of food costs by students at Seattle University found that farmers market produce was slightly less expensive than comparable produce in the grocery store. Students surveyed 15 different items from the Broadway Farmers Market during the project.

NEWS”We are what they eat” — and man, is it unappetizing!: Forget melamine and cyanuric acid in animal feeds — we should be at least as concerned about the “business as usual” ingredients routinely fed to U.S. farm animals. This op-ed discusses an Environmental Health Perspectives paper by the authors that examined the health effects of ingredients such as rendered remains from slaughtered animals (including those excluded from human consumption); animal excrement; animal fats that may contain dioxins and PCBs; food contaminated with rodent and roach excreta; byproducts from drug manufacture; and plastics.

“Mad bee disease”?: About 60 scientists are sharing their early findings regarding “colony collapse disorder” in bees. They’re focusing on the most likely suspects: a virus, a fungus or a pesticide, particularly the neonicotinoids group banned in France for causing what the French called “mad bee disease.” They’ve set aside for now the possibility that […]