Word: usda
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...farms in your district?" In Washington, Representative Dennis Moore, a six-term Democrat, fields that question all the time. People see that he's from Kansas and they jump to certain conclusions. But Moore's district is USDA-prime suburbia, more John Updike than L. Frank Baum, mile after mile of trim lawns, Panera Breads, Best Buys and carpooling parents. "What we grow," Moore likes to answer, "is a lot of small business...
...mean billions of dollars for the cash-strapped state. Pot is, after all, California's biggest cash crop, responsible for $14 billion a year in sales, dwarfing the state's second largest agricultural commodity - milk and cream - which brings in $7.3 billion a year, according to the most recent USDA statistics. The state's tax collectors estimate the bill would bring in about $1.3 billion a year in much needed revenue, offsetting some of the billions of dollars in service cuts and spending reductions outlined in the recently approved state budget...
...health impacts of this regulatory void go further. Factory farmers give their animals mountains of antibiotics to spur rapid growth, such that the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that 70 percent of America’s antibiotics are now used on animals, not humans (the USDA doesn’t even bother recording their use, so no exact figures exist...
...Agriculture, Charles F. Conner, is the former president of the Corn Refiners Association, and the agency’s Chief of Staff is the former chief lobbyist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. As long as agency jobs serve as sabbaticals for industry lobbyists, the USDA will halt reforms...
...Next, you should make enforcement of existing laws a priority. For years, Congress has urged the USDA to publicly report violations of the Humane Slaughter Act. Yet a Government Accountability Office report last year found that the USDA had not only failed to consistently report violations, but had actively falsified its reports. Given that two of the last three undersecretaries for Marketing and Regulatory Programs came straight from jobs at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association—a group with a clear incentive to hide slaughterhouse violations—this should be cause for concern...