"The Senate passed a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s food safety system on Tuesday, after tainted eggs, peanut butter and spinach sickened thousands of people in the last few years and led major food makers to join consumer advocates in demanding stronger government oversight."

The Senate cleared procedural hurdles on Monday and took up a House-passed bill to improve food safety. Final passages was expected Tuesday. House leaders have said they will accept the Senate version, sending it to President Obama for signature. The Senate version now includes controversial exemptions for small farmers.

"A coalition of environmental and farmworker groups is urging California's Gov.-elect Jerry Brown to cancel the imminent approval of a controversial agricultural pesticide after he takes office, citing evidence that it is linked to cancer."

"The activist group Environment Maryland released a report today urging Maryland and the federal government to make big poultry companies more accountable for controlling polluted runoff from farms where their birds are being raised."

"The Senate moved forward Wednesday on long-awaited legislation that would overhaul the nation's food safety system, grant new powers to the Food and Drug Administration and make farmers and processors responsible for preventing food-borne illness."

A new method of manipulating the genetic code of agricultural plants, known as targeted mutation, uses only genes that already exist in the plant. It may upend the debate over "genetic engineering."

"A far-reaching food safety bill that could give the government more power to prevent foodborne illnesses has become a target of advocates for buying food produced locally."

"Up to 1.1 million acres of prairie in the Flint Hills of Kansas could be protected under the first National Wildlife Refuge unit designated by the Obama administration. To create the new protected area, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will establish a voluntary conservation easement program in eastern Kansas."

"In a continued effort to ban arsenic in chicken feed, Food & Water Watch, a Maryland consumer advocacy group, has released a study outlining the environmental and human health impacts posed by 'poisoned poultry.'"

A farm lobby coalition has received federal money to attack the Environmental Working Group's list of the most pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables.

"The voluntary quality control system widely used in the nation's $1 trillion domestic food industry is rife with conflicts of interest, inexperienced auditors and cursory inspections that produce inflated ratings, according to food retail executives and other industry experts."

"The Obama administration announced a $760 million settlement  Tuesday to resolve charges by thousands of Native American farmers and ranchers who say that for decades the Agriculture Department discriminated against them in loan programs."
 

"Scientists are poised to eliminate the deadly cattle disease Rinderpest, ending a malady that has devastated animal herds for centuries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said on Thursday."

"Earlier this week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the state of Ohio's ban  on labels that identify milk as rBST- or rBGH-free, meaning produced without the use of artificial bovine growth hormone. Consumer and organic food groups were jubilant at the Ohio news, which may have far-reaching repercussions not only for all milk, but for genetically engineered foods."

"As recently as late December, Monsanto  was named 'company of the year' by Forbes magazine. Last week, the company earned a different accolade from Jim Cramer, the television stock market commentator. 'This may be the worst stock of 2010,' he proclaimed."