Agriculture

More Government-Grown "News": USDA Pays Writer

"An Agriculture Department agency paid a freelance writer at least $7,500 to write articles touting federal conservation programs and place them in outdoors magazines," reports the Washington Post.

A Bumper Crop of Government-Produced "News": The USDA's Broadcast Media and Technology Center

"Beef trade with Japan and Canada was on the minds of producers at the annual National Cattlemen's Beef Association convention in San Antonio, Texas," a man's voice intones, as the television news segment opens with a shot of a slowly rotating sign reading "U.S. Premium Beef." The voice continues, "Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns addressed the gathering and afterward took questions from the media."

Praising the Golden CAFTA

"A fierce battle over the Central American Free Trade Agreement is expected," reported the Grand Forks Herald. "The agreement needs the approval of both houses of Congress. ...

John Stauber Interviewed by Now Age Press

  • Topics: Agriculture
  • Craig Gordon of the website Now Age Press recently interviewed me. He was interested in the current situation with mad cow disease in the US, a subject Sheldon Rampton and I addressed in our prescient 1997 book Mad Cow USA. Craig also was curious about the origins of the Center for Media and Democracy and how issues as seemingly disparate as Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH), Mad Cow Disease and Bush's war on Iraq all fall under our investigative lens.

    Reading, Writing and Roundup Ready

    The agribusiness giant Monsanto will donate $50,000 to the Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Consortium. AITC is a "grassroots program coordinated by the United States Department of Agriculture," designed "to help students gain a greater awareness of the role of agriculture ... so that they may become citizens who support wise agricultural policies," according to AITC's website.

    A Load of Manure

    A university study comparing the amount of bacteria on conventionally-grown and organically-grown produce found that the level of the common bacteria E.

    The Smell of Money

    "From Alabama to Illinois, grass-roots groups have turned to the courts in an attempt to shut down industrial-style concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, or to keep them from being built," reports Andrew Martin.

    USDA PR Chief Flacked for the Beef Industry

    Eric Schlosser, author of the hugely popular bestseller Fast Food Nation, notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's PR point person on mad cow disease, Alisa Harrison, flacked for the beef industry. "Before joining the department, Ms.

    America, Eat Your Fries!

    The U.S. Potato Board is facing a crisis stemming from the decline in french fries sales, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. So, they've enlisted the creative powers of the St. Louis-based firm Osborn & Barr, whose clients have included the Cattlemen's Beef Board, National Pork Board and United Soybean Board. The Potato Board is looking for "concepts aimed at opinion leaders and consumers" to be part of a $1 million campaign (run by food industry PR giant Fleishman-Hillard) to get Americans to eat more french fries.

    USDA's Food Irradiation Promotion

    A USDA program billed to educate schools, parents and children on food irradiation was actually designed to promote irradiation and convince school districts to serve irradiated meat according to a new report by Public Citizen.

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