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Dr. Charles Benbrook is a consultant on agricultural policy, science and regulatory issues. He was formerly an agricultural staff expert on the Council for Environmental Quality at The White House at the end of the Carter Administration, Executive Director of the Subcommittee of the House Committee on Agriculture, and Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Benbrook was interviewed by Arty Mangan of <http://www.bioneers.org/Bioneers.
Drive west along Oregon's Highway 36, past Triangle Lake into the Blachly-Greenleaf-Deadwood area, and you'll find yourself in coastal mountain country. Cows amble on green pastures; barns set down next to wooden houses; farmers and loggers pick fights in roadside bars.
The Sugar Association has filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting the establishment of a clear definition for the use of the term "natural" on food and beverage product labels.
The petition claims that the current lack of a formal definition for the term has resulted in misleading claims and consumer confusion.
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Google is a company that enjoys its mystique. A bit of the shine may be off its stock, but it remains a formidable internet technical, financial, market and market powerhouse, making very impressive amounts of money for company only a few years old.
Google is now is a culinary powerhouse, too.
Washington -- Federal lawmakers on Thursday sparred over a bill to pre-empt all state food safety labeling laws that are tougher than federal rules, including California's Proposition 65, which requires food manufacturers to list any cancer- or birth-defect-causing substances in their products.
The House put off a vote on the bill until next week after House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-San Dimas (Los Angeles County), concluded that lawmakers could not finish debate before many left for a post-Hurricane Katrina visit to the Gulf Coast.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Steven Heim, Boston Common Asset Management, 802-223-4627
Mark Kastel, The Cornucopia Institute, 608-625-2042
NEW YORK: Socially concerned investors have filed a shareholder proposal asking Dean Foods to report to shareholders how it is responding to widespread concern that industrial-scale organic dairies, supplying milk for its Horizon brand, violate consumer trust, seriously jeopardizing share
value.
After a murky legislative process distinguished by a lack of any public hearing, the House is ready to rush to approve a special-interest measure for the food industry today. The bill would pre-empt all state food safety regulations that are more protective than federal standards. A bipartisan majority behind this clearly dangerous bill is echoing the industry's line that the goal is simply to end consumers' confusion about varying state regulations that govern warning labels and protective inspections.
A little-noticed section of a congressional bill to overhaul the Endangered Species Act would give federal regulators a five-year pass from seeking expert scientific advice from wildlife agencies on the harmful effects of pesticides on rare animals and plants, a move environmentalists say would further threaten hundreds of animals including several in the Bay Area.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluates insecticides and herbicides up for registration or, every 15 years, for re-registration.