U.S. House Passes Farm Bill Despite Last Minute Tax Fight (Environment News Service) WASHINGTON, DC , July 27, 2007 (ENS) - The 2007 Farm Bill passed today by the U.S. House of Representatives meets with the approval of the nation's two largest farmers' organizations. [News Source]

Agri-tourism offers farm alternatives (Wapakoneta Daily News) By ANNIE LINDER Staff Writer When Xenia area farmer Carl Young decided to sell his Jersey milk directly to the public in the late 1950s, he had no idea it was the start of what would be one of the largest agricultural tourism sites in the state. [News Source]

Inflow of U.S. beef just trickle now (The Japan Times) One year after the lifting of Japan's latest ban on U.S. beef over mad cow concerns, imports of the meat remain far below the levels seen before the first ban was imposed in 2003, an official said... Read more ... [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]

Japan’s US Beef Imports Remain Low (AP via Yahoo! Finance) A year after the lifting of Japan's latest ban on U.S. beef over mad cow concerns, imports of the meat remain far below the levels seen before the first ban was imposed in 2003, an official said Friday. [News Source]

Program urges premise ID to help fight spread of livestock disease. Oklahoma's livestock producers have been urged to register their premises as part of a new, voluntary, animal disease traceback program called "Locate in 48" launched Thursday by the state Agriculture, Food and Forestry Department and an industry advisory committee. [News Source]

ISO standard set for food traceability (Fishupdate.com) ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) has said it has taken another step forward towards ensuring the safety of food products for consumers, with its new ISO 22005 standard on traceability in the feed and food chain - the latest addition to the ISO 22000 series on food management systems. [News Source]

City wants program for deadstock (myKawartha.com) The City thinks there needs to be a long-term sustainable program to deal with deadstock and will send a letter to the Province supporting such an initiative. [News Source]

Red tape threatens organic gardener (Northwest Herald) WOODSTOCK – Mayo Underwood is keeping one nervous eye on the weather forecast, and the other on her empty bottle of fermented salmon head plant food. [News Source]