Recent outbreaks of foodborne illness and studies by expert groups have established the need for fundamental change in the United States meat and poultry inspection programme to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has embarked on a broad effort to bring about such change, with particular emphas...

Since the 1980s, successive White House Administrations have shaped federal policy on genetically modified food and agriculture to (1) be product-based, (2) presume low risk from genetic modification, and (3) review GM products under existing federal standards. For two decades, the FDA, USDA, and EPA have erected a regulatory framework for GM products based on these three principles. This Artic...

Strong evidence now supports the notion that organophosphate pesticides damage the fetal brain and produce cognitive and behavioral dysfunction through multiple mechanisms, including thyroid disruption. A regulatory ban was proposed, but actions to end the use of one such pesticide, chlorpyrifos, in agriculture were recently stopped by the Environmental Protection Agency under false scientific ...

Agriculture constitutes a dominant land cover worldwide, and rural landscapes under extensive farming practices acknowledged due to high biodiversity levels. The High Nature Value farmland (HNVf) concept has been highlighted in the EU environmental and rural policies due to their inherent potential to help characterize and direct financial support to European landscapes where high nature and/or...

Perspectives on the Early Retirement Decisions of Farming Couples In the past decade, the European agricultural sector has undergone rapid structural change. Part of that change is manifested in extended early retirement plans. As pensions play a crucial role in determining the characteristics the change, it is important to establish the factors determining the exit from farming among elderly f...

In the United States, much social and environmental legislation required of nonfarm firms has eluded the farming industry. For the most part, the US government has used the “carrot” of payments rather than the “stick” of regulation to correct externalities in farming. Agriculture also has received large income transfers and favorable tax treatment to save family farms. The nation might have bee...

There is more to Cuba than fabulous cigars, 1950s cars, cheap rum, and music so infectious that even a Norwegian bachelor farmer will get up and dance to it. It also happens to be a showcase for policy transformation from industrialized agriculture to a greener, sustainable agriculture. Cuba has transformed its agriculture from a low productivity, highly subsidized, high input system to one tha...