In a precedent-setting food safety case, an Arizona federal court jury on March 1 returned a verdict in the amount of $6.5 million in favor of a 5-and-a-half-year-old child who suffered a brain injury in 2013 as a result of a Salmonella Heidelberg infection from what was believed to be chicken produced by Foster Poultry Farms. [node:read-more:link]

The report has been out for a couple of months, but I am just not seeing the press that it should have generated. Is that because the never-ever, organic, cage free and anti-CAFO groups have nothing to crow about? For the very first time since FDA started tracking sales in 2009, there was a drop; and not a small one either. The sales of medically important antibiotics, those used in both human and animal health, dropped 14 percent!Shouldn't there be a headline or two about this change? And this was for the year 2016, not 2017 when Guidance 213 went into effect. [node:read-more:link]

German conglomerate Bayer won EU antitrust approval for its $62.5 billion buy of U.S. peer Monsanto, the latest in a trio of mega mergers that will reshape the agrochemicals industry. [node:read-more:link]

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his wife took a security detail on their vacation to Greece and Turkey last year, official documents show, in what one watchdog group said could be a "questionable" use of taxpayer resources. Zinke has faced questions for months over his travel expenses and use of official resources, as have other members of President Donald Trump's administration such as EPA leader Scott Pruitt, who was revealed to have spent $30,000 on security for an official trip to Italy last year. [node:read-more:link]

The $1.3 trillion government spending bill expected to be released Wednesday includes a remedy for the so-called grain glitch in the Republican tax law that gives farmers lucrative incentives to sell their products to agricultural cooperatives over other types of businesses, two House GOP aides familiar with the negotiations said. [node:read-more:link]

Farming is stressful. Folks who grow food in the U.S. don't have control over the weather or the markets, and they may be isolated, said U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer.  The District 6 Republican is drawing attention to farmers' mental health and a 2016 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found people in agriculture have the highest suicide rates compared to other professional groups.  Emmer has sponsored a bill to support local mental health services to farmers and ranchers in the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A coalition of farmworkers is locked in a battle with Wendy’s, claiming the fast food chain cut its long-term ties to Florida farms in favor of Mexican labor to avoid strict worker protections against sexual misconduct. Dozens of workers are staging a five-day hunger strike this week to call on the company to meet what they say are new industry standards at a time when the #MeToo movement is drawing new attention to sexual harassment and abuse. [node:read-more:link]

With a computer tablet from the Center for Telehealth at the University of Mississippi, health care providers regularly monitored a rural diabetes patient’s condition. But when the patient needed to transmit data to the doctors at the center, things got complicated. “He had to get in his car and drive to the top of the hill so he could make sure he had clear communication,” said Michael Adcock, the center’s executive director. “That’s not something he should have to do. He was passionate about the program and wanted to improve his health. [node:read-more:link]

Much attention has been devoted to rural America since the presidential election. The press, the pundits, and the public have examined it from nearly every angle, deliberating the demographic, economic, and cultural factors that may have helped the Trump campaign capitalize on the dormant discontent of a great many. But we still don’t understand some basic facts about the people and the places that make up rural America. This is partially attributable to the destructive cultural and political narratives that tell us programs like SNAP are not a rural issue. [node:read-more:link]

The nation's largest cattle industry lobby group is fighting to defend the traditional meaning of the word "meat." The U.S. Cattlemen's Association filed a petition last month with the Department of Agriculture arguing that "lab-grown and plant-based products should not use the terms 'meat' or 'beef'" on their labels. Kelly Fogarty, whose family has raised Black Angus cattle for five generations, represents hundreds of ranchers as the executive vice president of the U.S. Cattlemen's Association. For them, defining meat is easy. "We don't want them to think of a laboratory. [node:read-more:link]