"department of agriculture" news and stories

Scientists have long devoted research efforts to staple crops like corn, wheat and rice.

But chocolate-maker Mars, Inc., in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service and computer bigwig IBM, has devoted its energy somewhere sweeter -- to cracking the genetic code of the cacao tree.

Mars announced it has figured out cacao's genome sequence and made it available in the public domain to help improve the cocoa growing process to benefit the world's cocoa farmers and create a more sustainable global cocoa supply.

"The idea here is to bring cocoa to a level that is similar to crops of much higher importance -- corn or rice -- that have access to these genomic tools that speed up the process of breeding," Dr. Juan Carlos Motamayor, Scientific Research Manager of Mars Inc.'s Cocoa Sustainability Program, told Slashfood.

Although Americans' appetite for local, grass-fed beef is growing, regional livestock farmers face a nagging problem: a shortage of slaughterhouses. Now some of them are turning to mobile operations to butcher their animals on their own farms.

Kim Snyder is one of them. A former operations manager for American Express who turned to farming in 2003, Snyder, 42, raises livestock in a way the she believes is as humane as possible; her cattle and hogs are pasture- and grain-fed, and free of antibiotics and hormones. Yet when it comes time to slaughter them, she must load them into a trailer for a two- or three-hour trip to a butcher for what she said is a cruelly jarring end.

"It's like the last piece of my puzzle I can't control," she said on the phone from her Faith's Farm near Kankakee, Ill., about an hour-and-a-half south of Chicago. She has begun talking with others in the area about developing a mobile slaughterhouse that would travel the state. She said the idea has been met with interest by other farmers, some of whom share her philosophy as well as others who are simply looking to save valuable time lost by traveling long distances to bring their animals to slaughter.

Virgin? Extra virgin? Or something else entirely?

You never know what you're really getting when you open a bottle of "100% extra virgin" olive oil, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture is hoping to change that with new standards for the green-gold oil set to roll out this fall, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The new rules come at a time when olive oil demand is surging. Americans bought 79 million gallons in 2008, up from 47 million gallons a decade earlier, the paper reported.

There are no federal rules that define "virgin" or "extra virgin" olive oil, Vito S. Polito, professor of plant sciences at UC Davis and co-chairman of the school's Olive Center, a research group, told the Times. As a result, he said, "the U.S. has been a dumping ground for cheap olive oil for years."

Silly us. We thought the "use by" date stickers on food were designed to stop us from purchasing rancid products. Turns out they're for the convenience of the store managers.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, an irate customer of a Brooklyn Heights Key Food grocery store notified authorities when they found a new use-by sticker slapped on top of an expired 11-day one, on a package of D'Artagnan chicken.

When the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets was contacted about the incident, they didn't seem bothered.

"'Sell by' dates are nothing but a tool for store managers," said Jessica Ziehm spokesman for the Department. "It's not illegal to re-date or re-package, though they're still required to sell safe, wholesome products. We went there and found no problems."

Huh? It's not illegal to re-date packages but stores are still required to sell "safe, wholesome" products... Riddle me that!

Could you imagine waking up at dawn each morning to knead and shape dough, letting it rise for a few hours, then take it to a centrally located oven where it is baked alongside everyone else's? This is the norm for many families in places like Morocco, though with modernization the tradition is beginning to fade.

In Pixar's latest film Ratatouille, Remy the Rat learned his culinary skills from the best of the best - Thomas Keller, owner of French Laundry in Yountville, California.

Is your organic food really all organic? The Department of Agriculture is preparing to approve a list of non-organic ingredients that could make the cut in food stamped with their organic seal

Eric Asimov takes a look at the delights of Beaujolais in 'The Pour'

Frank Bruni asks some of the more prominent names in the food industry which meals or moments in their pasts were "pinnacles of carnivorous gluttony." Yes, pig snout made the list.

This week's recipes:

Lamb Schnitzels With Mint-Horseradish Pesto, Confit Byaldi, Lamb and Bulgur Kibbe With Garlic Yogurt Sauce, Chicken With Couscous, Moroccan Anise-Flavored Bread (Khubz), Tagine of Fish, Pea and Crab Salad

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