Navigating the guilt in the grocery aisles. Shopping is not simply a case of taste or price. Now we have to ask ourselves: Is this good for my health? Have animals suffered? Is it local? Organic? Bad for the planet? Harvested by child workers? [News Source]

Agog over organics. Worldwide demand for organic food is booming and Australian producers can snare a bigger slice of the market, according to a government report. [News Source]

What’s the beef? If you've ever stood at the meat counter pondering whether to buy plain-old beef or to spring for all-natural, grass-fed, free-range, or organic beef, you're not alone. [News Source]

Hager leading state cattle organization. Cattle farmer and activist opens farm to producers, politicians and policy-makers for statewide field day to discuss agricultural issues. [News Source]

New BSE test being studied. In two years BSE Prion Solutions hopes to have a test that will detect BSE, chronic wasting disease, and scrapie in animals, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and Alzheimer's disease in humans. [News Source]

Japan imports U.S. beef again. Japanese officials recently inspected 35 beef processing centers in the U.S., deciding to lift the ban after all but one met Japanese safety requirements. [News Source]

Japan’s Farm Minister reluctant about talks to expand U.S. beef exports. Japan is not yet ready to accept a U.S. request for talks this fall, where the U.S. is expected to ask Japan to ease terms for Japan's imports of American beef, the agricultural minister said. [News Source]

USDA changing mad cow tests. The USDA is lowering its number of target cattle due to fewer cases of BSE, better known as mad cow disease, in recent years. [News Source]

Winnipeg animal disease lab named reference centre for avian influenza and BSE. The centre is the first OIE reference laboratory for BSE and the second for avian flu in North America. [News Source]