usda: search

USDA RMA launches online market planning tool

USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) has launched an online resource to aid farmers and ranchers in focusing on how to protect against downside risks, as well as how best to take advantage of upside opportunities in the market, according to a USDA report.

IG: USDA monitoring system improves IT security

The Agriculture Department has taken numerous steps to heighten program managers’ awareness of the need to implement effective information security, the department’s Office of Inspector General said. USDA's chief information officer has also improved oversight of information technology security, including establishing a system to monitor security controls, auditors wrote in a report released Oct. 20 that evaluated the department's compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act in fiscal 2008.

USDA Panel Approves Rules for Labeling Farmed Fish 'Organic'

For the first time, a federal advisory board has approved criteria that clear the way for farmed fish to be labeled "organic," a move that pleased aquaculture producers even as it angered environmentalists and consumer advocates.

USDA: New bioinformatic tools accelerate genome assembly

Scientists have developed a new tool that will help them accelerate the assembly of the genome of any organism by identifying redundant and irrelevant segments of DNA.

IG: USDA monitoring system improves IT security

he Agriculture Department has taken numerous steps to heighten program managers’ awareness of the need to implement effective information security, the department’s Office of Inspector General said.

Nanotechnology Detects Prions in Cattle

US - With funding from USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service National Research Initiative, scientists in New York created a new device that may provide a faster, easier, and more reliable way to test for mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Iowa State Opens New Crop Genome Informatics Labratory

The largest cluster of plant databases in the nation has a new home, the Crop Genome Informatics Laboratory, a USDA-Agricultural Research Service and Iowa State University facility.

Applied Robotics announces robot meat gripper

October 6, 2008 – Applied Robotics announced Meat Gripper for handling meat and other fresh and frozen food products. Meat Gripper is manufactured from extremely light materials approved by the FDA and USDA administrations, adheres to all production cleaning guidelines and allows sanitization to be performed quickly and easily.

Don't forget the vitamin A when working with its carrier protein

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient involved in vision, growth, cellular differentiation, and immune function. Because vitamin A is fat-soluble, it is chaperoned through the body on carrier proteins. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a study funded by USDA and NIH, discovered that not only was one of the carrier proteins for vitamin A, retinol-binding protein (RBP), elevated in obese individuals compared to leaner controls, but some of it was not attached to retinol, the main circulating form of the vitamin. RBP that is not bound to vitamin A is called apo-RBP by vitamin A scientists. Their study will appear in the October 08 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine.

Applied Robotics Announces New Meat Gripper

GLENVILLE, N.Y. (Business Wire) -- Applied Robotics Inc., a leading global manufacturer of robotic end-of-arm tooling and connectivity solutions, announced today its newest gripper product designed specifically for handling meat and other fresh and frozen food products. The new Meat Gripper is manufactured from extremely light materials approved by the FDA and USDA administrations, adheres to all production cleaning guidelines and allows sanitization to be performed quickly and easily.

Virtual Fence Could Modernize the Old West

Hugh Pickens writes "For more than a century, ranchers in the West have kept cattle in place with fences of barbed wire, split wood and, more recently, electrified wires. Now, animal science researchers with the Department of Agriculture are working on a system that will allow cowboys to herd their cattle remotely via radio by singing commands and whispering into their ears and tracking movements by satellite and computer. A video of Dean Anderson, a researcher at the USDA's Jornada Experimental Range at Las Cruces, NM., shows how he has built radios that attach to an animal's head that allow a person at the other end to issue a range of commands — gentle singing, sharp commands, or a buzz like a bee or snake — to get the cattle to move where one wants them to.

Search took 0.02 seconds.