agriculture definition

On March 1, A Place at the Table , a powerful new documentary will be released in select theaters and for streaming via iTunes and On Demand. Fifty million people in the U.S.�one in four children�don�t know where their next meal is coming from. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush examine the issue of hunger in America through the lens of three people struggling with food insecurity: Barbie, a single Philadelphia mother who grew up in poverty and is trying to provide a better life for her two kids; Rosie, a Colorado fifth-grader who often has to depend on friends and neighbors to feed her and has trouble concentrating in school; and Tremonica, a Mississippi second-grader whose asthma and health issues are exacerbated by the largely empty calories her hardworking mother can afford. Ultimately, A Place at the Table shows us how hunger poses serious economic, social and cultural implications for our nation, and that it could be solved once and for all, if the American public dec

In a recent post, Antibiotic Resistance and US Meat , I blogged about two recent reports on the use of antibiotics in livestock production and antibiotic resistant bacteria in retail meat. I lamented that few major media outlets covered the release of these reports. A comment to the post led me to an excellent article posted on, Wired by Maryn McKenna , Antibiotics and Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Meat: Not Getting Better .   I amended the post to reflect this link, and I offer it in this separate post. Nice to know that people are reading the blog and providing us with additional information.

Let's go back to highlight a couple of reports that came out a couple weeks ago. They did not get the attention they deserved in the media, and I neglected to post when they first came out. The FDA published its 2011 Summary Report on Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for Use in Food-Producing Animals .  Under the Animal Drug User Fee Amendments, codified in the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act at 21 U.S.C. � 360b, sponsors of applications for new animal drugs that contain an active antimicrobial ingredient are required report to the FDA each year, providing data on the amount of sold or distributed for use in food-producing animals. The law also now requires that FDA make the information compiled public. The report is not publicized, and it provides only the bare numbers. However, given that such a large percentage of the antibiotics produced in the U.S. are used for livestock feed, and given concerns about antimicrobial resistance, the report provides important information.

? An important editorial in today�s Los Angeles Times : �Monsanto, the Court, and the Seeds of Dissent. � The authors are George Kimbrell, senior attorney at the Center for Food Safety, and Debbie Barker, program director of Save Our Seeds and international director of the Center for Food Safety. On Tuesday, attorneys for the largest agrochemical corporation in the world, Monsanto, will present arguments before the Supreme Court asserting the company�s rights to the generations of seeds that naturally reproduce from its genetically modified strains. Bowman vs. Monsanto Co. will be decided based on the court�s interpretation of a complex web of seed and plant patent law, but the case also reflects something much more basic: Should anyone, or any corporation, control a product of life? The journey of a 75-year-old Indiana farmer to the highest court in the country began rather uneventfully. Vernon Hugh Bowman purchased an undifferentiated mix of soybean seeds from a grain elevator, pla

The LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law offers the nation's only advanced LL.M. degree in the combined studies of agricultural and food law. We take pride in offering a curriculum covering the full spectrum of law and policy from the perspective of the farmer, the processor, the retailer, and the consumer. Our nine month course of study attracts attorneys from throughout the United States and from abroad. While some of our LL.M. candidate are recent law school graduates, many others enter the program as experienced attorneys. And, in each of our last three years, we have been pleased to welcome visiting scholars and professors from other law schools. There are a limited number of teaching assistantships that will be available for law professors and experienced attorneys. The University of Arkansas School of Law is located in Fayetteville, Arkansas at the foot of the Ozark Mountains. Fayetteville was described in the New York T