>>> Lots of new listings on our Jobs page. It's the time of year when farms are seeking interns and apprentices and businesses are posting open positions to prepare for the season ahead. 

>>> JustLabelIt.org presents this short video about why labels should identify GMOs in our food

>>> Doing the math on Walmart's strategy to expand into New York City  Is Walmart a solution to food deserts in urban areas? Washington DC is home to four new stores, and the company is planning more in Boston as it lobbies for access to New York City. This article looks at their track record in Chicago.

>>> Oaxaca, Mexico and Canada sign agreement to protect Mexican migrant workers in Canada Is this kind of international collaboration a model for us here in the Northeast?

>>> State Initiatives Supporting Healthier Food Retail: An Overview of the National Landscape This report provides useful  information about the rationale for and characteristics of healthier food retail legislation enacted in the last decade. It gives public health practitioners and their partners potential action steps to inform and educate others about the benefits of improved access to fruit and vegetables and other healthier foods through Healthier Food Retail initiatives in their state. Learn what’s happening around the country. + State Based Programs Tools & Resources 

+ State Legislative and Regulatory Action to Prevent Obesity and Improve Nutrition and Physical Activity Database (SLRA)

>>> How Genetically Modified Foods Could Affect Our Health in Unexpected Ways By Ari LeVaux January 11, 2012
Researchers have found 
small pieces of rice ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the blood and organs of humans who eat rice. This genetic material will bind to receptors in human liver cells and influence the uptake of cholesterol from the blood. Should the research survive scientific scrutiny, it would mean that we're eating not just vitamins, protein, and fuel, but gene regulators as well. Photo Credit: illuminating9_11

>>> Food Stamped is a new documentary film by a couple asking if it is possible to eat healthy on a food stamp diet.

FOOD STAMPED official trailer from Yoav Potash on Vimeo.

>>> 2011 Right Livelihood Award goes to GRAIN for their worldwide work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities and to expose the massive purchases of farmland in developing countries by foreign financial interests. GRAIN is documenting the purchasing of farmland at www.farmlandgrab.org. The site highlights analyses and action from civil society on how to deal with the problem.

>>> Just Food Conference February 24-25 in New York City  

Join Just Food, local food lovers and advocates, CSA members, community gardeners, urban and rural farmers, food professionals and entrepreneurs for two days of hands-on workshops, discussions, skills-building sessions, and good food.  Register

>>> Worms feasting on popular pesticide-producing corn  By Rick Callahan, Associated Press, December 29, 2011 One of the nation's most widely planted crops — genetically engineered corn that makes its own insecticide — may be losing its effectiveness because a major pest appears to be developing resistance more quickly than scientists expected.

>>> USDA Paves Way for Widespread Use of Toxic Systemic Pesticide Tuesday, December 27, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) approved the use of two more GM crops and announced the availability of assessments for two additional GM crops.  The end of the year announcements, however, include a holiday bonus: the Department is on the verge of approving not just glyphosate-resistant crops, but crops engineered to withstand the systemic herbicide, 2,4-D (Agent Orange).

>>> Maine’s case against a Blue Hill farmer and his cow gains national attention  By Kevin Miller, Bangor Daily News (Maine), December 27, 2011

“I got this cow so that we have milk,” Brown said while standing in the barn on his family’s 70-acre property. “If I have some extra, we do something with it.” It is those “extra” sales that have sparked Brown’s legal troubles with the Maine Department of Agriculture, which contends that Brown needs a license to sell raw milk. Brown retorts that calling a small farmer with a single dairy cow “a distributor” is preposterous. He also takes shelter under a “food sovereignty” ordinance adopted earlier this year.

>>> Harvard School of Public Health "Healthy Eating Plate"

>>> FY2012 Conservation Innovation Grant Pre-Proposals Deadline is January 31 On Wednesday, January 4, USDA issued a press release to remind program applicants that the deadline to submit a pre-proposal for a fiscal year (FY) 2012 Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) is January 31. You can download the FY2012 CIG Announcement of Program Funding from USDA’s CIG webpage.

>>> NRCS Updates Nutrient Management Standard   

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) released an updated version of its nutrient management standard, also known as conservation practice standard 590 (CPS 590).  NRCS practice standards delineate the steps that a producer may or must take in order to receive payments for a particular conservation practice under NRCS conservation programs.  Photo from IT Farmer's Blog

>>>  FDA prohibits certain uses of antimicrobial drugs in food animals Antimicrobial drugs are important for treating disease in both humans and animals. FDA is taking action to preserve the effectiveness of cephalosporin drugs for treating disease in humans. The comment period that will begin on Jan. 6, 2012 and close on March 6, 2012.