Most are available in organic form, but organic farming and ranching costs more, so some food producers are looking to cut their expenses with a wink from the USDA. The USDA is considering a new list of 38 nonorganic ingredients it would allow in food labeled organic, most of which are already in use. Hence the list of 38 ingredients, which includes the intestines of traditionally raised animals (despite the mad cow scare) for use in "organic" sausage. The USDA was supposed to finalize the...

I don't think teachers, lawyers, government bureaucrats and doctors would put up with such low wages, so why should farmers? Unfortunately, dairy farms aren't like other free-market businesses. in the morning just as you were starting to milk the cows? As a dairy farmer, you'd know how to fix that long contraption of steel chains and paddles hooked up to a motor and drive unit, which moves the manure out from the barn. Some people believe that farmers already receive too many tax breaks...

Department of Agriculture, leaving uncertain whether some foods currently labeled "USDA organic" would continue to be produced. In addition to hops, the list includes 19 food colorings, two starches, casings for sausages and hot dogs, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, gelatin and a host of obscure ingredients (one, for instance, is a "bulking agent" and sweetener with the tongue-twisting name of fructooligosaccharides) In addition to hops, the list includes 19 food colorings, two starches,...

case of mad cow disease was discovered in a cow in Washington State, the nationwide survey of 1,000 adults showed that only one in three Americans thought the mad cow situation was a "major problem" or "crisis. In the same survey, only one in six people expressed worry that they or their families might become victims of the disease caused by mad cow infected animals. The pelleted food used to feed the farmed salmon is suspected as a source of these contaminants. A new Gallup survey...

When Colorado-based Uniscope tested the resin it buys to bind its fish, shrimp and livestock feed pellets, it found melamine and reported it. And while it has a bigger budget and more enforcement clout than the FDA, it lacks any authority to regulate the farms where meat and poultry hazards begin. After Lester Crawford resigned as FDA head in 2005, he pleaded guilty to lying and conflict-of-interest charges over stock he and his wife owned in companies his FDA regulated. The USDA has a...