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Backyard chickens: Fun for the entire family! That is, until your kids get arsenic poisoning from them.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 8, 2010) --The Organic Trade Association (OTA) today called on the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health & Human Services (HHS) to encourage those seeking to minimize their exposure to toxic chemicals to look for the USDA Organic label wherever they shop by revising the draft Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010.

Here, ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber offers her perspectives on the latest research on environmental contamination and cancer and encourages us to become environmental detectives and seek out our ecological roots.

The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) standards for those who wish to represent agricultural products as “organic” are very detailed with a large number of requirements. At Food CEO, we’ve translated them from Federaleze into English in the following document. Please be aware that we’re not offering legal or regulatory advice and this summary doesn’t contain all the detail of the standard.

We’ve all seen products labeled ‘natural’ as well as those that contain ‘artificial flavors’ or ‘natural flavors,’ but have you ever wondered what exactly these claims mean? Is it really natural? What is the difference?

The FDA took a significant step yesterday toward restricting the routine feeding of subtherapeutic (medically unnecessary) doses of antibiotics to livestock. As Grist has detailed in previous coverage, this practice -- which by some estimates consumes nearly 70% of all antibiotics administered in the U.S. --  has been linked to the rise of antibiotic resistance, both in common pathogens such as salmonella and in previously rare ones such as MRSA. (For more on MRSA listen to Grist's Tom Philpott speak with Superbug author Marilyn McKenna.)

A study published in the June 2010 journal Judgment and Decision Making should be taken with a grain of salt. By including a headline that reads “The “organic path to obesity?,” the study makes light of a serious health issue currently facing our society. To imply that there is a causal link between the serious problem of obesity and organic purchases is absurd. It is preposterous to think that this simplistic study conducted on a limited number of college students would be seen as showing a valid cause of obesity.