Kagawa meat shop raided over mislabeled beef in school lunch (Kyodo via Yahoo! Asia News) _ Police raided meat shop Fujiya Seiniku-ten in Marugame, Kagawa Prefecture, on Thursday on suspicion it supplied 1.3 tons of Australian beef falsely described as domestic meat for local school lunches from December to January. [News Source]

Japan’s farm minister Akagi to visit U.S. in early August (Kyodo via Yahoo! Asia News) _ Japanese Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Norihiko Akagi plans to visit the United States in early August, sources involved in Japan-U.S. affairs said Wednesday. [News Source]

Humane Society of US again scaring people away from good diets? (AG Weekly) The Humane Society of the U.S. has, for years, been trying to frighten people away from consuming meat, milk and eggs -- but its recent testimony before a congressional committee reached a new low when the HSUS president, Wayne Pacelle, made the unsupported claim that pigs could be harboring the infamous and deadly British ‘mad cow” disease. [News Source]

Hamish McRae: Economic damage of floods may be minor, but the future will be different (Independent) Natural disasters have inevitable economic effects and the flooding is no exception. It is hard to put a price on the human misery and disruption, and everyone should be sensitive to the horrid slog a lot of people face in getting their lives back to normal. We also have to hope that there are no serious long-term health or other issues that may occur later as a result. [News Source]

Poison for profit. In the six years since 9/11, food-borne pathogens and toxins have quietly killed ten times the number of Americans who died in the terrorist attacks. [News Source]

Canada completes probe of May mad cow case (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Canada's 10th case of mad cow disease likely caught the deadly brain-wasting condition by eating contaminated feed, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Wednesday. [News Source]

Elk feedground study starts (Casper Star-Tribune) The Bridger-Teton National Forest has started the ball rolling on whether the Wyoming Game and Fish Department should receive a long-term permit to continue elk winter feeding and related management programs on forest lands. [News Source]

7 gallons of blood from Jerry (The Fountain Hills Times) Picture this: Go to Safeway and throw seven gallons of milk into your cart. Yeah, that’s right, seven gallons. Now picture this: Stop by the pharmacy inside Safeway and take a good look at Jerry Comeau, one of the pharmacists there who has been in Fountain Hills, well, like forever. [News Source]

Attention Must be Paid: Retired muppets make a move (Orlando Sentinel) [News Source]

Straining for equilibrium (The Australian) A chance meeting in New York was behind a dance double bill about to be seen in Sydney. [News Source]