Last month’s wildfire in Fort Collins, CO, was a reminder of 2012’s historic fires, and a hint of what could lie ahead for 2013’s fire season if drought conditions persist.

Introduced by Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), the plan is to redirect $55 million from other areas of the USDAs budget to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), essentially reinstating the funds cut under sequestration.

Whole Foods Market announced earlier this month that, by 2018, all products in its U.S. and Canadian stores must be labeled to indicate if they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Despite hopes that there may be an end to an 11-year battle, the newly proposed Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) document has created a wave of new controversy. On March 8, USDA announced its proposed new rules for labeling muscle cuts of meat, including a requirement to specify where the source animal was born, raised and slaughtered.

The notice said that before USDA decided on the suspensions, NASS reviewed its survey programs against mission- and userbased criteria as well as the amount of time remaining in the fiscal year to conduct the surveys with the goal of finding available cost savings and maintaining the strongest data in service to agriculture.

Immigration compacts are spreading across a number of states, and are gaining support by agriculture, business and faith entities. The groups are calling on Congress to overhaul U.S. immigration policies by creating a fair path to legal status for illegal immigrants.

J.R. Simplot began his cattle business over 40 years ago as a way to utilize large quantities of potato byproducts generated by Simplot’s food processing plants. The cattle business grew, and today, Simplot is involved in all aspects of beef production..

The past week featured generally dry conditions across most of the western half of the contiguous 48 states with a deep trough over the eastern half.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reopening the comment period for the interim final rule entitled “Use of Materials Derived From Cattle in Human Food and Cosmetics” that was published in the Federal Register on July 14, 2004.

Think consumers know all they need to know about meat cuts? Think again. Extensive research conducted by the National Pork Board (NPB) and the Beef Checkoff Program indicates that today’s consumers are as confused as ever when it comes to purchasing fresh meat.