USDA has a lot to celebrate

Editorial We would be remiss if we did not wish the U.S. Department of Agriculture a belated, but heartfelt, happy 150th birthday. Research conducted or funded by the department has helped make American farmers the world's most productive. It has played an important role in providing farmers with ...

When inspectors don't do their jobs

Editorial The recent audit of the Food Safety Inspection Service has a familiar ring to it. In 2008, after the Hallmark Meat Packing Plant debacle in Chino, Calif., when mistreatment of a downer cow was recorded on video, auditors found that FSIS was understaffed to the point of being ineffective. ...

Cattlemen seek delicate but important balance

The balance of humans and animals on this earth has been a delicate balance since the beginning of time. Civilization has required that we as humans not only build and establish our homes and our way to support ourselves but to also be stewards of the land that we call home. Perhaps nowhere is thi ...

Agency focuses on food, farms

One hundred and fifty years ago, in the midst of a great Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to establish a Department of Agriculture in order to "acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture -- and to pr ...

Contest dances on meatless pin

Editorial In our March 30 edition we took a predictable stance on a contest ginned up by the New York Times Magazine asking its readers to submit essays offering an ethical justification for eating meat. The contest is over. Lest we again be accused, as one reader suggested, of taking a cheap shot ...

Don't ask, don't tell federal spending

Editorial When it comes to tracking federal spending, the Obama administration and Congress have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Take, for example, a recent basic accounting exercise undertaken by the Government Accountability Office. Some poor soul there was given a simple task: Find out how mu ...

Readers' views for May 18, 2012

. No more appropriate comment could be made about child labor, especially in Oregon. Unfortunately it appears our labor laws -- in Washington, D.C., legislators' hands -- have not, and do not understand the value of the training of farm youth, usually under the guidance of wise and understanding fa ...