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Bush 2007 budgetBush 2007 budget: Mixed message for farmers
Highlights of the food supply aspects of the proposed 2007 budget
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AnalysisUSDA faulted for lax implementation of mad cow disease safety regulations
The USDA has a division in charge of ensuring food supply safety; the USDA inspector general does not think they do a very good job, and the Japanese, who imposed a U.S. beef importation ban, agree, insisting on sending their own inspectors to monitor U.S. slaughterhouses
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UMass-Amherst to lead national effort on animal disease
Another academic-led effort, this time to ensure early detection and tacking of diseased animals
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Grain operation BioTerror Act record keeping requirement nears
The different elements of a comprehensive monitoring and regulating the different aspects of the food supply come into effect, step by step
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Companies offering free consultation on FDA regulation 306 compliance
Sarbanes-Oxley created a veritable compliance industry, and the 2002 Bioterrorism Act, requiring the registration of 27 different kinds of farm and home animals, is creating another compliance industry
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Bioterrorism Act mandates registration of fish and shell fish
The 2002 act also requires registration of fish and shell fish caught in the wild; now, there's a challenge (how do you register shrimp?)
The Long View
The food we eatSchneier: no need to worry about terrorists poisoning food
Security maven Bruce Schneier says that fears of food-based bioterrorism are exaggerated: The quantities involved for mass poisonings are too great, the nature of the food supply too vast, and the details of any plot too complicated and unpredictable to be a real threat
Globalization and its discontentsRegulators cannot cope with food counterfeiting, contamination
New worry: Between the extremes of accidentally contaminated food and terrorism via intentional contamination, lies the counterfeiter, seeking not to harm but to hide the act for profit
Planetary securityDoomsday seed vault's stores are growing
In 1903, U.S. farmers planted 578 varieties of beans; by 1983 just 32 varieties remained in seedbanks; 46 countries collaborate to rescue some 53,000 of the 100,000 crop samples identified as endangered
