A pretty good piece on food policy and commercial production, and a separate report on grass-fed beef production here:

http://www.loe.org/ETS/organizations.ph ... 3#feature1

A segment in a related article tells much of the tale of U.S. anti-nutrition policy and attitudes:

"While glitzy diet plans remain perennial best sellers, most Americans are inactive and overweight. While nutritionists push broccoli and water, television advertising dangles snacks and beer. And while U.S. agriculture policy subsidizes and promotes such products as sugar and cheese, it offers little or no assistance to fruit and vegetable growers."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... persizejob

Thanks for the article. I'm so thankful we have an organic beef farm next door to buy from.

U.S. mad cow test procedure was violated in Texas, says USDA:

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-05-04/s_23425.asp

The screening process doesn't seem to be very tight yet. The USDA's resistance to private testing appears to be a curious map to the money trail:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/kansas042304.cfm