Based on preliminary data from the agency's beef trim baseline and scientific literature indicating that contamination of trim is related to contamination of ground beef, FSIS began trim testing in March 2007, not waiting for final analysis of the baseline. Based on preliminary data from the agency's beef trim baseline and scientific literature indicating that contamination of trim is related to contamination of ground beef, FSIS began trim testing in March 2007, not waiting for final...

Instead they want to assuage public fears about pharmaceuticals derived from cow's milk, even though the process used to extract proteins from milk has already been shown to remove prion contamination. A major advance towards producing prion-free cows that would be immune to mad cow disease has been made by researchers at companies in the US and Japan. Their principal aim is to make genetically modified cattle that produce pharmaceuticals in their milk. But the companies hope that also...

He likes to milk them at the same time every day -- but he says cows are creatures of habit so he has to change the routine gradually. Wisconsin Farmer Says Cows Need Extra Time to Adjust to Time Change. John Dalton has 90 cows on his dairy farm in the Town of Merton. Delafield farmer Tom Oberhaus says it helps that cows don't know what time the clock says anyway.

KEWANEE -- Some area cattle farmers think importing more Canadian beef is bad for their business and potentially unsafe for consumers. A relatively young cattle feeder, both he and his wife are likely going to give up their cattle feed business. Despite the competition from the major meat packers and the imports that will likely continue to increase, there is some optimism among the local cattle producers. On a sunny, breezy, cold morning, rural Kewanee farmer Daryl Grant walked out to his...

But there's a gap, he said, between people's interest in food and the realities of their diets: "Ian and I noticed that people were talking about local produce and organic arugula and all that, but few people were asking questions about the big industrial foods: corn and soybeans. Along the way, they and we learn some shocking and bemusing things about farming, food and how public agricultural policy affects the families who make what America eats and those of us who eat it. Ellis, who...