So far this year USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has reported more listeria-related recalls than the agency reported in 2013, 2014 and 2015 — combined. Although more robust testing surely is a factor in the increase, notably several recalls also represented the intersection of FSIS- and FDA-regulated companies. In none of those three recalls involving both sides were the products that meat processors make contaminated with Lm, which on the one hand speaks to the general success that meat processors have had in keeping that pathogen off their products. [node:read-more:link]

Federal regulators have released an update on the documentation needed to win approval of animal-raising claims on labels before they can appear on meat products. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) – which regulates labels on meat and poultry – wants more details on how claims such as “organic” or “raised without antibiotics” were achieved as animals were raised. The agency also wants to see documentation to support the claim to make sure the label is “truthful and not misleading." [node:read-more:link]

According to AccuWeather’s winter 2016-2017 outlook, chances are high for temperature and precipitation extremes to impact large portions of the U.S., making a long season seem even longer for many.  Of particular note for Florida citrus growers, reports indicate that while very mild air is expected to hang on in the Southeast region throughout December, 2017 will bring with it a pattern change and sudden burst of cold air. Other highlights from the forecast include:Frequent storms across the northeastern U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Cuban authorities and officials from the U.S. state of Louisiana on Tuesday here signed memoranda pertaining to ports and agriculture after a business forum attended by a trade delegation headed by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards. The understanding signed by the Port Authority of Cuba and the Port Association of Louisiana includes installations in the New Orleans and Lake Charles areas, and the other agreement was signed by Cuba's Agriculture Business Group and the state's Department of Agriculture and Forestry. [node:read-more:link]

EPA and the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Western Dubuque to address alleged violations of the Renewable Fuel Standard on Oct. 4 and the filing of a complaint against NGL Crude Logistics, LLC and Western Dubuque Biodiesel LLC. Under the settlement, Western Dubuque has agreed to pay $6 million to resolve alleged Renewable Fuel Standard program violations for generating RINs for renewable fuel that was produced using unapproved feedstocks and production processes. A feedstock is the basic material used in the production of renewable fuel. [node:read-more:link]

Pennington County commissioners voted  to extend a moratorium on construction permits related to mining and alternative energy for one year. The temporary moratorium was originally approved in April and essentially blocked issuance of construction permits for those types of operations. [node:read-more:link]

Production of biofuels and biobased products such as plant-derived plastics already support 4.2 million jobs, but the industry's future growth rate depends in part on oil prices and the availability of new government incentives, according to a study commissioned by the Agriculture Department. The study, authored by experts at Duke University and North Carolina State University, also said that the federal government itself has been slow to use the products despite USDA's efforts to promote them. The job estimate includes 1.6 million jobs directly involved in the biobased sector. [node:read-more:link]

Cattle that can crank out human antibodies are being tested as a first line of defense against infectious diseases. SAB Biotherapeutics of South Dakota has genetically engineered cattle to produce large quantities of human antibodies—proteins that help remove harmful foreign pathogens from the body—in a rapid fashion that could be used to treat patients suffering from infectious diseases like Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Ebola, and influenza. [node:read-more:link]

Years later I entered journalism. And I saw breathtaking ignorance and vitriol aimed at scientists like me coming from supposedly educated people. Never in a million years would I have anticipated that our passion for science would be used as a bludgeon or as a scarlet letter.  That is the milieu in which we find the current GMO "debate," which in actuality has devolved into a vicious, relentless assault by organic food activists against the biotechnology community. [node:read-more:link]

Oxitec’s mosquitoes have been deployed in Brazil, Panama, and Malaysia, but Keys residents are thwarting attempts to try them in the U.S. The idea behind Oxitec’s experiment is that if enough genetically modified male A. aegypti mosquitoes are released into the wild, they’ll track down large numbers of females in those hard-to-find places and mate with them. The eggs that result from any union with an Oxitec mosquito will carry a fatal genetic trait engineered into the father—a “kill switch,” geneticists call it. The next generation of A. [node:read-more:link]