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The U.S.D.A. argues for rules preventing proactive testing for mad cow disease.  This is yet another case of the government preferring commerce over food safety.  This is effectively playing the odds with public health, gambling that there is no problem currently avoiding detection.  Right now, only a few cows are tested, while other countries test every animal slaughtered.

Besides funding an expensive way to make fuel, government subsidies for ethanol production have rocked the market in unexpected ways.  Food prices have soared, conservation is being rolled back, and stockpiles of staples have dwindled to all-time lows. 

Haven't we learned by now that government subsidies to industry just don't work?  When the government intervenes in the food chain, all kinds of tragic things happen, like the soaring rates of school-age and low-income obesity under the Farm Bill stewardship of the USDA.  That is the kind of infrastructure support we can do without.

This is one of the oddest things in agriculture I have seen in a long time: planting rice seed from an airplane.  The pilots fly low over flooded rice paddies in California and drop the seed dive-bomber style into the wet soil. 

Of course the folks here in Arkansas think that's just nuts. It seems pretty doubtful that aerial planting makes much sense from an economic or environmental perspective; the article cites time and weed control as major factors in the decision to plant from airplanes.

I find it amusing that after decades of foodies moaning about the "Food Police" telling them to eat healthy, one of their own has turned on them.  This proves one of the key assertions of sustainable agriculture: that eating local foods in season is not only better for you, better for the environment, and cheaper, it also is the best option.  Let Chef Ramsey tell you what to eat, if you would listen at all.

Add another externality (or unaccounted cost) to the food chain: the cost of healthcare for undocumented workers, many of whom turn to risky alternative medicine.  It is time to consider that the people who handle our food live in the most unhygenic conditions.  Doctors worry that indiscriminate use of illegal Mexican antibiotics will give rise to drug-resistant strains of human diseases.  From the infected hand of the farm worker it is a short hop to your dinner plate.

The price of rice dropped 20 percent, but only after nearly tripling in Thailand.  So like the huge swings in the stock market, volatility is a sign of major structural weakness in the market.  This is only the start of the wave; rice consumption around the world outpaces production.

The new urban poor are becoming increasingly dependent on processed foods.  This, tied to the rising prices of commodities such as rice, corn, and wheat, is leading to a new serfdom of the inner city.  The value add of processing and packaging is subtracted from the consumer, who often has no idea of what they are eating or at what cost.

If the Koreans are so worried about mad cow disease, it makes me wonder why we here in the U.S. aren't equally upset.  With protesters in the streets, the popularity of the South Korea prime minister plummeted amid concerns about resuming beef imports from the States.

Support for chicken farmers in a fecal contamination lawsuit comes from a wide range of industry advocates - some of which come as a surprise, such as the cattle and porks associations.  I guess all meat stands together?  If only fruits and vegetable farmers and environmentalists displayed such steadfast solidarity, we might be spared pollution from battery farms.

The latest market development in pharmaceuticals: prescribing statin drugs to kids as young as 8 years old. This is truly a sin, since preventing heart disease is relatively easy and safe, compared to the side-effects of statin drugs. In fact, the PDR says that the recommended drug should only be used after the diet approach has failed - not as a supplement to or replacement for improving the diet.

In the free market, it is always better to let a problem happen, and then introduce a new product to remedy that problem. When a problem is prevented - like when heart disease is prevented by switching to a low-calorie, meat- and dairy-free diet - money is saved. Preventing problems means people spend less money fixing the problems, and that removes the profit motive.