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US Expects Bigger Corn Crop to Ease Food Inflation
By not in system - AOL NewsST. LOUIS -- U.S. farmers are expected to boost the size of this year's corn crop, potentially easing global food inflation. The Agriculture Department reports that farmers intend to plant 92.2 million acres of corn this spring, a 5 percent increase over last year. That would make it the second-biggest corn crop since 1944, after a record-setting planting in 2007. Grain prices are at their highest levels since the food crisis of 2008. New production will help ease concerns over a supply pinch. Worries over a shortage have doubled the price of corn since last summer, from $3.50 to more than ...
Five Budget Cuts That Could Be Harmful to Your Health
By Andrew Schneider - AOL NewsHard-fought-for laws and regulations to save lives and the environment will be gutted or eliminated in budget cuts passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives or ordered by President Barack Obama's team, experts say. Public health and environmental experts say it's indisputable that lives will be lost if these cuts are made: 1) The Consumer Product Safety Commission. The commission is scheduled next week to roll out its long-awaited public database on the safety of consumer products. For the first time, it will allow shoppers to quickly determine whether products they ...
USDA Has Beef With Zombie Jerky
By David Moye - AOL NewsIt's hard enough marketing snack foods to zombies without the U.S. Department of Agriculture being persnickety about the wording on the label. That's what Aaron Rasmussen of Harcos Laboratories, a Los Angeles-based maker of novelty products and food items, discovered last summer when the company decided to create Zombie Jerky, a line of beef jerky designed specifically for zombies and the people who love them. It's an idea that seems, like the average zombie, a no-brainer. Harcos Labs Harcos Labs, an L.A.-based novelty products company, is hoping to swallow the burgeoning market ...
USDA, Others Invest $5 Million to Grow Broccoli in the East
By not in system - AOL NewsRICHMOND, Va. -- A cool microclimate in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains has allowed farmer James Light to grow broccoli in quantity enough to supply a small chain of supermarkets. Along most of the East Coast, however, the broccoli piled up in produce crispers has traveled thousands of miles from the West Coast in refrigerated trucks, typically at a cost of $6,000 a tractor load. A team of researchers and agricultural agents hopes to take a bite out of the West Coast's $1 billion broccoli monopoly with new strains of the vegetable designed to withstand the East Coast's heat and ...
Shirley Sherrod Sues Andrew Breitbart Over Misleading Video
By Tom Diemer - Politics DailyRemember Shirley Sherrod? The former Agriculture Department employee has sued a conservative blogger for posting an edited video of her in which she appeared to acknowledge discriminating against a white farmer. Sherrod, who initially lost her job over the incident, is African-American. Sherrod filed the defamation lawsuit in Washington, D.C., Superior Court against Andrew Breitbart, who posted the edited video of Sherrod's March 2010 speech before the NAACP. In it, she recalled an episode working for the USDA in Georgia when she could have helped a white farmer -- but didn't. That's what ...
Lawsuit Says Taco Bell's 'Ground Beef' Should Really Be Called 'Taco Meat Filling'
By Torie Bosch - AOL NewsWhere's the beef? A new lawsuit claims that Taco Bell's "ground beef" should really be called "taco meat filling." That's because, the suit claims, there just isn't enough meat in the product to meet the USDA standard to call something "ground beef." Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP A lawsuit alleges that Taco Bell's "ground beef" is just 36 percent meat and should be called "taco meat filling." The law firm behind the suit alleges that Taco Bell's "ground beef" is just 36 percent meat; the rest is "extenders" like water, wheat oats and something called "Isolated Oat Product." You ...
USDA Acknowledges Poisoning Birds in South Dakota
By Hugh Collins - AOL NewsAuthorities have solved the mystery of the death of thousands of birds in South Dakota and come up with a surprising killer: the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Inhabitants in Yankton were surprised when they found hundreds of starlings lying frozen on the streets and in the city's Riverside Park, MSNBC reported. Some people thought the birds had simply left it too late to fly south for the winter. Now, the USDA says it set out poisoned bait for the birds after a local farmer complained that they were defecating in his animal feed. "They say that they had poisoned the birds about 10 miles ...
More Farmers' Markets Expand to Year-Round
By not in system - AOL NewsPLYMOUTH, Mass. -- A steady stream of customers filled baskets and shopping bags with vegetables, cranberries, cheese, fresh-baked breads and pies while chatting with the dozen or so farmers selling goods in the visitor's center of a local museum. Gary Kazanjian, AP Ching Thao of Mao's Farm gives change to Richard Wolk, right, at the Vineyard Farmers Market on Nov. 13 in Fresno, Calif. Some farmers' markets are extending their operations into the cold-weather months as farmers prolong their growing seasons and more people want to eat locally grown food. It was a bitterly cold, ...
Shirley Sherrod, Ousted USDA Official: Where Is She Now?
By Mara Gay - AOL NewsShirley Sherrod was just one of a host of people who momentarily grabbed the spotlight in 2010 and dominated a news cycle or two while getting their 15 minutes of fame. In this series, AOL News is checking in on these newsmakers and giving them a 16th minute. Shirley Sherrod Made News in 2010 When She: Was forced to resign by the U.S. Department of Agriculture after a video clip showed her making what some considered to be racist comments about a white farmer. She later received an apology when the full video showed that she was actually advocating racial tolerance and ...
Long-Stalled Food Safety Bill Advances in Senate
By Dave Thier - AOL News(Nov. 17) -- The Food Safety and Modernization Act, a comprehensive overhaul of the power of the FDA and USDA to regulate food safety, cleared a major hurdle today after spending more than a year stalled on the Senate floor. In September, it seemed that the bill was dead after last-minute opposition from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., but now the lame-duck session has voted to break the filibuster and move ahead debating the controversial bill. The bill has sparked fierce debates on a number of fronts, but with the Senate's 74-25 vote for cloture, those can't last for more than 30 more hours ...
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