This assignment that I've just described, this domestic assignment, is targeted at both pet food, animal food, as well as human food, and that's an important point covering both human and animal. FDA investigators are working to determine the scope of fish feed distribution and whether any of the fish that were fed the melamine-containing products have been released into the environment or eaten by humans. Based on that assessment, federal scientists from multiple agencies concluded that...

LOUIS -- Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns described the Administration's farm bill proposals regarding international trade, pointing out that the trade provisions complement the entire farm bill package. In addition, they would also give us new flexibility when delivering international food aid in emergencies by providing the authority to use up to 25 percent of Public Law 480 (P. While specialty crops are already a significant user of this program, USDA proposes additional mandatory...

The battle against red fire ants has plagued farmers, ranchers and regular folks for decades. Integrating the virus into ant baits could offer a tool to the pest-control industry, agricultural producers and harvesters, consumers and others for whom fire ants are a persistent problem. The virus was found in about 20 percent of fire ant fields, where it appears to cause the slow death of infected colonies. Fire ants have been detected in 13 states, covering 320 million acres, and are...

Dairy farmers have failed to keep pace with a 3 percent increase in annual milk consumption, according to Rabobank Groep in the Netherlands, the world's biggest agricultural lender. Rising demand for grain-based ethanol has increased the price of corn feed and may prevent dairy farmers from expanding their cow herds, agricultural analysts say. Raghuveera Reddy, agriculture minister for Andhra Pradesh, an east Indian state of more than 75 million people, said rising milk costs ''will have...

Agriculture and Interior departments, which jointly monitor for avian influenza, told Reuters they plan to take about 77,000 samples from wild birds during the April 2007 to March 2008 period. As part of an effort to rapidly boost domestic surveillance following the spread of the virus overseas, USDA and Interior worked with states to collect more than 111,000 samples during the same period a year ago. Interior will test about the same number of birds, 27,000, but this time it will spend...