Group asks FDA to set nutrition rating standards
To make it easier for customers to determine a product's nutritional value, many grocery stores and supermarkets across the U.S. have implemented nutritional scoring systems. But one of the largest such systems got a failing grade last week, after a consumer advocacy group—the National Consumers League—filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration saying the agency needs to step in and set industry-wide standards. Read more...

Governor’s plan sees budgetary ‘day of reckoning’
Citing the nation's slow economic recovery that produced lower-than-expected tax revenues, Gov. Brown issued a revised state budget Monday that he said protects funding for education and public safety while slashing $8.3 billion from government to close a $15.7 billion deficit. Read more...

Commentary: As it turns 150, USDA faces challenges of 21st century
One hundred and fifty years ago, in the midst of a great Civil War, President Lincoln signed legislation to establish a Department of Agriculture to "acquire and to diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with agriculture … and to procure, propagate, and distribute among the people new and valuable seeds and plants." Armed with these broad mandates, the "People's Department," as he called it, set about to serve American farmers and a mostly rural American landscape. Read more...