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[Rob <becida AT comcast.net>]

An article on the farm bill. Food stamps, farm payments, meat labels 
and "organic".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/food_farm_programs

>>The bill delays until 2008 a meat labeling law that was to have 
gone into effect last year. Pressure from meatpackers and 
supermarkets has blocked the labels, which would tell shoppers what 
country their meat comes from.

The measure also overrides a court ruling on whether products with 
the round, green "USDA Organic" seal can contain small amounts of 
non-organic ingredients. An appeals court decided earlier this year 
that non-organic substances  things like vitamins or baking 
powder  are not allowed in food bearing the seal.

But more than 200 companies and trade groups said they can't make 
organic yogurt and many other products without the ingredients in 
question, and congressional negotiators agreed. An industry group, 
the Organic Trade Association, said the ruling could cost 
manufacturers $758 million annually. Organic food has grown rapidly, 
from a $1 billion industry in 1990 to an estimated $14.5 billion this year.<<