Results tagged “usda”

The USDA released its annual report on Household Food Security (which is a sanitized way of saying "hunger") yesterday and the results were sobering. An estimated 17 million households, or 14.6 percent of the population, has experienced "food insecurity" at one point in the past twelve months. These figures are the highest since the USDA started tracking numbers in 1995.

Most of us have little time, or desire, to scrutinize food labels. Not to mention doing so can perplex even the most astute shopper. But the ability to quickly interpret a food label, and weed out key information, is requisite to healthy eating. So leave your calculator at home, enter your grocery store armed with patience and a satisfied belly, and consider these key points to efficient label reading.

The USDA has set up a series of "listening sessions" in preparation for reauthorizing the 2009 Child Nutrition Act. The Act, among other things, helps determine school food policy and resources granted to lunch programs. A listening session scheduled tomorrow afternoon from 1-4 p.m. at the department's Food and Nutrition Services Office (77 W. Jackson, 20th floor, room 1331) is your opportunity to let your voice be heard — we're assuming it's the USDA doing the listening — and make your opinions on how our children are fed during school hours known. You'll also be helping out the Healthy Schools Campaign. RSVP here. [The Stew]

According to USDA inspections at Loyola University's Stritch School of Medicine, violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act resulted in the deaths of rabbits and dogs. According to the Tribune:

Three inspection reports of Loyola's biomedical research from 2006 and 2007 obtained by an animal rights group under the Freedom of Information Act revealed poor veterinary care, inadequately trained personnel and sloppy record keeping. Rabbits died from bacterial infections, and dogs died after they were not sufficiently monitored after surgery, the agency found.

Continue reading "Is Loyola's Medical School a House of Horrors?"

Today's a big day for pest control: The USDA, the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the City announced today that we're the first state to eradicate the Asian longhorned beetle. Go us!