U.S. Department of Agriculture

How Undercover Animal Rights Activists Are Winning the Ag-Gag War

Marisa Tomei Was Pissed When the GMO Labeling Proposition Failed. So She Got Some Friends Together...

It's 3 p.m. on a Sunday, and on the back patio at Axe in Venice, wooden folding chairs and communal benches have been arranged in a semicircle opposite one cushioned chair, positioned front and center, where (the restaurant's chalkboard promises) Dr. Vandana Shiva, environmental activist, seed saver ... More >>

USDA Update: Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan Resigns A Suggestion for Rand Paul's Next Filibuster

Reuters reports that Kathleen Merrigan, the deputy agriculture secretary and second in command at the USDA, has resigned. Merrigan had been known for promoting farmers markets and local farms, and had backed the USDA's "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative. She had also played a key role in ... More >>

Cal Fresh Vikon: Buddhist-Style Chicken in the San Gabriel Valley

When it comes to making dishes -- like Hainan chicken rice -- in which flavor is key, the Trang family prefers buying Buddhist-style poultry. "It is pretty much the most organic, free-range chicken you can come by," Andy Trang, a UCLA senior said. Trang and his family, San Gabriel Valley residents ... More >>

Scientists Create Pineapple That Tastes Like Coconut

To simplify your piña colada making, Austrialian fruit Frankensteins have created a pineapple that tastes like coconut. The Department of Agriculture's research station in Queensland has been working on the new breed of pineapple for more than a decade, ABC News reports. Senior horticulturalist G ... More >>

In-N-Out Cuts Ties With Slaughterhouse

In-N-Out will no longer use beef from a Central California slaughterhouse that is being investigated for cow abuse, the AP and the San Jose Mercury News reports. Central Valley Meat Co. of Hanford is being investigated to see if beef from sick cattle entered the human food supply. In-N-Out Burger ... More >>

Top 6 Fast Food Items We're Guessing Michelle Obama Would Ask You To Avoid

The USDA recommends adults consume between 1,200 and 2,000 calories and no more than 2,400 milligrams of sodium on the daily, but based on fast food chain offerings, said establishments tend to disregard the USDA's suggestions. Instead, fast food vendors capitalize on the country's food culture by i ... More >>

Top 5 Reasons Not to Eat Meat on Mondays

5. You work at the USDA (or maybe don't anymore): And thus got an internal memo last week, which helpfully pointed out that "one simple way to reduce your environmental impact while dining at our cafeterias is to participate in the 'Meatless Monday' initiative." (Meatless Mondays is a 2003 non-profi ... More >>

10 Food Safety Tips for a Happier Summer BBQ

With summer and Father's Day right around the corner, barbecue season is here. Cooking and eating outside with family and friends are some of our favorite activities, but it's all too easy to make mistakes that could cause upset stomachs or worse. In fact, the rates of food-borne illness soar during ... More >>

Disgusting Animal Abuse Caught on Video: Ontario Livestock Workers Charged

Video from an undercover investigation of alleged animal abuse at a Southern California livestock operation was released today. A spokesman for the group Mercy For Animals described the footage to the Weekly as depicting "animals being kicked, beaten and stomped on" as well as "ill or injured anima ... More >>

Pizza Isn't a Vegetable, Congressman Insists

Those Democrats. They just won't drop that ridiculous "pizza is not a vegetable" thing. Fox News reports that Rep. Jared Polis, a Democratic congressman from Colorado, has proposed legislation that would end pizza being counted as a vegetable in public school lunches. The SLICE (School Lunch Improve ... More >>

What's In Season at the Farmers Market: Morels

Morel mushrooms are back -- after a tense few days among antsy pickers up north. Conventional wisdom says that on the West Coast, morels show up in spring after two full days of 80 degree weather and that they favor recently disturbed earth, either from fire, logging or new landscaping. This bode ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Urasawa #2 Most Expensive U.S. Restaurant, New Obama Food Initiative Health Food Cheaper Than Junk

L.A. Observed: The Daily Meal calculates the country's most expensive restaurants -- with L.A.'s Urasawa No. 2. Melisse is No. 11. CBS News: Obama announces a food initiative aimed at improving food security in needy African countries. MedPage Today: A U.S. Department of Agriculture study finds t ... More >>

Lawsuit Seeks Federal Ban on Foie Gras

And the foie gras wars continue: According to Courthouse News, the Animal League Defense Fund and other animal rights organizations filed a lawsuit this week against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for continuing to permit the sale of foie gras. The lawsuit claims that the federal agency's failu ... More >>

Locavore App: Know What's In Season All the Time Shop Local Farms From Your iPhone

The USDA says that ninety-one percent of U.S. farms are classified as small, usually family run businesses, grossing less than $250,000 a year. That's a lot of local food production run on a shoestring budget, if any at all, with no little to no access to customers outside of direct sales at a far ... More >>

Two-Year Citrus Quarantine in Eastern Los Angeles County

We knew it was only a matter of time. After watching Brazil's and Florida's citrus get decimated by Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) -- to the tune of billions of dollars -- we knew that despite rigorous agriculture checkpoints, testing and restrictions, California would probably be next. The bug, the c ... More >>

Safeway, Vons Will Stop Selling Ground Beef Containing 'Pink Slime'

The days of "Let them eat pink slime" are over. Today Safeway Inc., the second-largest supermarket operator in the country, said it will stop buying the ammonia-treated beef filler "because of widespread customer concern," MSNBC reports. Since Safeway owns Vons, hamburger sold at Vons will also be p ... More >>

USDA Relents on Pink Slime; Schools Can Opt Out

The people spoke, and they said, "No more pink slime!" And this time, the feds actually listened, kind of. Last Monday, we told you how the U.S. Department of Agriculture was planning on shipping out 7 million pounds of "pink slime" to be added to the lunches of unknowing urchins at public school ... More >>

Uproar Over 'Pink Slime' in School Lunches

Remember pink goo? Let us refresh your memory. Pink goo, aka pink slime, is scraps of meat and connective tissue swept up from slaughterhouse floors that are doused with a pink chemical to kill dangerous pathogens -- since they've been, you know, on the floor -- then blended together into a substanc ... More >>

Food News Roundup: Colbert's Ice Cream War, A McRib Confession Jacques Pépin's Fridge

A. Scattergoodpumpkins at the Santa Monica farmers market​Los Angeles Times: According to new USDA report, local food sales could $7 billion this year and farmers markets doubled from 1998 to 2009. PBS Food: How to make pumpkin bread pudding. Tomostyle: More fun with secret supper clubs at ... More >>

Cargill's Second Turkey Recall in Six Weeks

taleitalei/flickrTurkey burger.​ A turkey burger isn't sounding so good right now. Even if no immediate evidence suggests salmonella-laced ground gobbler has, as of this weekend, infiltrated California's stores, the Minnesota-based company Cargill Inc. has issued its second recall in six week ... More >>

Apples Found to Contain the Most Pesticide Residue

Flickr/ollesvensson​ A U.S. Department of Agriculture study of pesticide residue on produce has led a consumer-advocacy group to place apples at the top of their latest Dirty Dozen list, according to a June 12 report in the Wall Street Journal. In its annual screening, the USDA's testing fou ... More >>

Pesticides: Apples and Celery Top the List of Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables

​Remember the poisoned apple that Snow White eagerly gobbled down? In today's world, that apple would not need to be dipped in a cauldron of venom. It would come from the supermarket. That's right, according to federal data, nearly 98 percent of apples are contaminated by pesticides, topping ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 5/31-6/3

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "What is a fake restaurant, exactly? Is it a place like Happy Family, serving kung pao chicken whose fowl is carefully crafted from gluten, or like the celebrity hangout Philippe, itself an imitatio ... More >>

USDA Unveils New Food Chart: No More Pyramid Schemes

​ This morning the USDA unveiled their new food chart, finally replacing the food pyramid which first debuted -- and was trashed pretty much since -- in 1992. The new chart also comes with its own new website, ChooseMyPlate.gov. The food pyramid, you will doubtless remember, is that irritating ... More >>

The Thursday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

Flickr/dubh​ What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections mid-week. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is free), it's where most of ... More >>

The USDA's New Food Desert Locator: Map Your Bad Food Day

Screenshot of Food Desert Locator map of area food deserts, in pink​ If you live in Los Angeles, you may sometimes feel like you're in a food desert. It is often maddeningly hot. You may find yourself bereft of food trucks, or good ones at any rate. You may be reading this right now from the o ... More >>

Frozen Turkey Burgers Recalled Due to Salmonella

Flickr/JMRosenfeld​ A Salmonella strain in turkey burgers that has sickened people in 10 states, including California, is antibiotic-resistant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Jennie-O Turkey Store, based in Willmar, Minn., recalled 27 tons of frozen turkey bur ... More >>

California Merchant Recalls 64,000 Pounds of Chicken, Pork Products

Flickr/Tony Austin​ A Tracy, California, food supplier has recalled 64,000 pounds of chicken and pork products because some broccoli in the products was found to be contaminated with Listeria, the Associated Press reports. The 10 varieties of premade foods, which include "Raley's" rice bowls ... More >>

What's in The Beef: Taco Bell President Gives Away "Secret Ingredients" On Video Amid Lawsuit

Screenshot of Taco Bell gorditas ​ There's only so much thinking "outside the bun" you can do before wondering what's inside the burrito. That may have been the thought-process of California resident Amanda Obney before she filed a lawsuit against Taco Bell for false advertising. The class ac ... More >>

USDA Releases Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010: Drink Water, Eat Less. Go Figure.

USDA​Yesterday the USDA released the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Got a pen? A keyboard? Your Twitter app? And it's not a lot of governmentalese this time (well, okay it is), but some very sensible recommendations. Eat less, drink more water rather than sugary drinks, seriously lower ... More >>

Whole Foods Conditionally Supports Genetically Engineered Alfalfa

Flickr/VirtualErnSome Roundup with your mayo?​ Whole Foods Market conditionally threw its support behind the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent decision to deregulate genetically engineered Roundup Ready Alfalfa. In an email sent to customers last week, Whole Foods professed their support ... More >>

Map of American Food Deserts: When Dinner is a Bomb Burrito Instead of Burrata & Mesclun

Slate/USDA​ Check out this map, just posted by Slate ("Dinner at the Kwik-E-Mart"), showing the placement of the so-called Food Deserts of America. A lovely term, really, which sounds more like a Ben Marcus short story than the USDA category which it is. According to the US Department of Agric ... More >>

The USDA's New & Improved National Farmers Market Directory

USDAfarmers markets in the US​ According to the blog Obama Foodorama, today the USDA rebooted the National Farmers Market Directory. It's apparently "nutrition info week" at the Department of Agriculture, which was the happy occasion for the upgrade. The state-by-state directory, which can ... More >>

Update on Lunches at LAUSD: Superintendent Calls for Task Force, Activists Form Their Own

Photo via back_garage's Flickr stream.​On July 13th, we let you know about the L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) meeting regarding their contracts with school lunch vendors. A handful of grassroots activists attended with the intent to halt the planned 5-year renewal and postpone the vote ... More >>

Andrew Breitbart's Reaction: Just As You Knew It Would Be

Apologize? Never!​ In one of the least surprising media developments of the year, Andrew Breitbart, the conservative provocateur whose media company is based in Santa Monica, has reacted to an embarrassing journalistic error not by apologizing -- but by going on the attack. Tuesday we wonder ... More >>

Is Your Olive Oil Really Extra Virgin? U.S. Called a "Dumping Ground for Cheap Olive Oil"

Flickr/Kevan"Extra virgin" olive oil may contain safflower, canola or peanut oil--and there's nothing you can do about it.​BP isn't the only disreputable oil company in the United States. Apparently there are no rules regulating olive oil here. Which means that purveyors can sell consumers any ... More >>

Respite From Continuous Stream Of Bad News: 40 States Fatter Than California

Mississippi on the left; we're on the right.​ A new report from from the Trust for America's Health confirms it: We're not as unhealthy as the rest of really unhealthy America. Sure, we're pretty unhealthy, but for now let's take in the good news and celebrate with a Double Down. California ... More >>

Uh-Oh: Campbell's Soup Recalls 15 Million Pounds of SpaghettiOs with Meatballs

​Donald Goerke must be rolling in his grave. The USDA has announced that Campbell's Soup has recalled three different varieties of SpaghettiOs with meatballs, at a combined weight of 15 million pounds. We talked to company spokesman Anthony Sanzio, who started off by pointing out that "The US ... More >>

The Food Illuminati: GMO Labeling and the Codex Alimentarius

Codex AlimentariusPage 1 of 108 of a Codex publication​ What is the Codex? More Michael Pollan and less Dan Brown--we hope. The little-known Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1963 under the joint auspices of the United Nations and the World Health Organization to devise universa ... More >>

USDA Ups Ground Beef Standards In U.S. Schools: Mystery Meat Looks For New Home

N. Galuten​ Jamie Oliver can sleep easier now. Starting July 1st, all ground beef intended for the National School Lunch Program will be held to much higher standards. Said U.S. PIRG public health advocate Liz Hitchcock in a statement, "By raising the bar for ground beef served in schools and ... More >>

FDA Plans to Legally Limit Your Salt Intake

Morton Salt​ According to today's report in The Washington Post, the FDA is planning an "unprecedented" effort to limit the salt consumption of Americans. The idea is that putting legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in food would significantly lower the number of deaths from heart dise ... More >>

Haggis Update: Sorry, Folks, The Real Stuff's Still Illegal

LA Weekly Flickr pool/My Last Bitecans of haggis at Buchanan Arms​Despite many reports that haggis will soon be allowed into the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says not so fast. When the BBC thought to verify the rumors that the Scottish delicacy would finally be imported (h ... More >>

Beef Recall Spotlights Tenderization Hazards: DIY Beef Tenderizer, Anyone?

A recall on Christmas Eve of almost a quarter million pounds of beef has focused attention not only on the beef, but on the process of mechanically tenderizing the meat. 248,000 pounds of beef products were recalled by the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service from National S ... More >>

County Urges Feds To Allow Night Firefighting From Air

File photo​The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday urged the U.S. Forest Service to allow nighttime air attacks on brush fires. The board cited damage done and momentum gained in the first night of the deadly Station Fire in August, which ended up as the largest wildfire in coun ... More >>

Can Canada's killer coyote species show up in Los Angeles?

By Donna BarstowLast week Taylor Mitchell, a promising young musician from Toronto, was mauled and killed by two coyotes while hiking alone in Nova Scotia. Other hikers heard her screams and she was airlifted to Halifax, but died October 28. She was a folk and country musician nominated for a 2009 C ... More >>

Big Beef�s Dirty War

Meat industry has resisted cleaning up its act for decades

Pharm Phresh

Frankenfoods II

10 Insects To Look for In 2002

Them

California takes on the Fire Ant