Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post reported on a feud between the Agriculture Department and the State Department over Asian catfish.  Is it protectionism masquerading as food safety?  Kindy explained the parties to this feud and what’s at stake in a previous article.  Here are some ...

The New York Times' Peter Goodman had a really fantastic -- and depressing -- piece this weekend on the bleak future of the American labor market. How much it has to do with government, I suppose, is determined by how much of a role you think government should play ...

The Washington Post's Carrie Johnson reports that the Agriculture and Justice Departments have reached a $1.25 billion settlement in a class action lawsuit by black farmers who claim that the Ag. Dept. discriminated against black farmers in providing federal loans and subsidies. Johnson reports that black farmers first sued ...

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder has an interesting look at Michelle Obama's announced push to end childhood obesity. I am somewhat sympathetic to the view that government warnings about the "obesity epidemic" can be seen as paternalistic and invasive. However, the ...

The New York Times' Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff have a good piece that explains how food stamps have helped millions of people in the recession. One problem, though, with the social safety net in the recessions is that welfare, or direct cash assistance, has not increased as food stamps have:

The Wall Street Journal's Neil King, Jr. has a great piece today that calls out self-proclaimed North Dakota Senator and "deficit hawk" Kent Conrad: He helped draft a five-year, $300 billion farm bill in 2008 that boosted overall farm subsidies. The bill created a $3.8 billion emergency "trust fund" for ...

The Chicago Sun-Times Stefano Esposito reports: Nationally, 37 million people -- about one in eight Americans -- visited food pantries and soup kitchens in 2009, compared with 25 million in 2006, according to Feeding America, the national hunger-relief network that did the study. Officials say the numbers really began to ...

Here is an instance where the Obama administration has a different approach to big business than the Bush administration. The Wall Street Journal's Scott Killman and Thomas Catan report that the Justice Dept. has opened an anti-trust probe in Monsanto, particularly the biotechnology company's control over the soybean market. I'm ...

The Chicago Tribune's Monica Eng has a good story on school lunch policy: Most parents, administrators and legislators agree that the national lunch program is underfunded, forcing providers to serve cheap, often low-quality, foods. The system is also structured to let children's preferences dictate the menu because if kids don't take the lunches, the food providers get less money. Those things probably won't change until Congress shapes the new rules for the Child Nutrition Act in the next few months.

The New York Times' Jason DeParle and Robert M. Gebeloff had a disquieting report this weekend that six million Americans -- or 1 in 50 households -- earn no income except for food stamps. This, in part, indicates as Understanding Government has looked at, that food stamps "work" ...