Word: usda
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...Today, the USDA has become “the Agribusiness Department”: a revolving door for industry lobbyists and subsidized factory farmers bent on weakening food safety regulations. Given that the agency dispensed $91 billion of taxpayer money in 2008, and is nominally responsible for the safety of most food we eat, this should matter to all Americans...
...Barack Obama just nominated former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack as his agriculture secretary. What reform would you like to see in the USDA? I'd like a re-examination of the Farm Bill. I would like to see the Department of Agriculture clarify its message, so that it was saying eat more plants and fewer animals. I would love to hear that blared from the rooftops. I'd like to see stricter enforcement of antibiotic and hormone use in animals. In this country, you can't blame people for figuring out clever ways to make money, but if you charge...
...SOURCE: USDA...
...batches each month and refuses anything that does not pass muster. If factories fail to pay on time, IRD sends bill collectors after them and threatens not to renew their contracts. "We put the fear of the Lord in them," say Peggy Sheehan, adviser to IRD president Keys. The USDA also sent inspectors to Indonesia to make sure its donations were being used as intended...
...economic-development model, IRD has proved the concept. "We're satisfied," says the USDA's Sheikh. Since 1999, the program has produced more than 78,000 metric tons of fortified noodles for about 4 million low-income Indonesians. It has also produced hundreds of jobs in a country with 9.1% unemployment. "It was difficult to provide for my family before I took this job," says a TPS worker named Suparti, who uses only one name and has been working there for more than a decade. Although rising wheat prices have forced the company to increase prices 30% and the USDA...