Washington, D.C. – A wide coalition of family farmers, independent ranchers, organic and local food system advocates from across the country today criticized a provision to be included in the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee's markup bill that would force the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to purchase meat for the National School Lunch Program only from sources that are registered in the controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

The federal government doesn't enforce standards for organic lawn care but that doesn't mean there aren't any. Organic lawn care is a growing industry whose specialists are slowly weaning customers over their chemical dependency.

Using fertilizer on your lawn "is like feeding a kid sugar all the time," says Alexis Brown, the owner of Dirty Hoe Gardening Services of New Haven. Organic lawns are greener, cleaner and healthier.

Jill Ebbott, a holistic health counselor in Brookline, buys 8 gallons of unpasteurized milk a week for her household of three people, and she pours a splash in the bowls that her three dogs eat from. She says a year of drinking raw milk has cleared up her husband's allergies.

Framingham, Mass. - Federal regulators may have decided meat and milk from cloned cows, pigs, goats and their offspring is safe, but the new foods seem likely to get a frosty reception.

Of those surveyed Wednesday, only one local resident said he would buy meat from a cloned source, while most described the idea as too strange for them to feel comfortable with.

WORCESTER— Speeches by Elizabeth Henderson, a noted organic farmer, and by state Agricultural Commissioner Douglas W. Petersen will highlight the upcoming Northeast Organic Farming Association of Massachusetts winter conference at Bancroft School.

The federal government's plan to identify farms and track livestock strikes some members of the Island agricultural community as intrusive and misguided, although others view it as necessary for containing any future outbreak of an infectious animal disease.

REGION - Local owners of farm animals have until Friday, December 14, to respond to a recent letter from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources asking if they want to participate in a federal database that will include information about their livestock.

A farmers group in Massachusetts has asked the state Department of Agricultural Resources not to give the federal government data identifying the location of poultry in the state.

BARRE— A Massachusetts farmers group has asked the state Department of Agricultural Resources not to turn over data to the federal government identifying the location of poultry and livestock in the state.

MIDDLEBORO— Farmers have until Dec. 14 to decide if they will participate in a federal database designed to keep a lid on animal diseases.

But some local farmers, such as Ron Maribett of Plympton, have been adamantly opposed to the National Animal Identification System from its inception.