REI’s new rules (Sierra Club): By 2020, REI will cut off its relationships to suppliers who don’t meet its stringent new sustainability standards, including sourcing wool from humanely-raised sheep and making clothes with organic cotton.
Advocates weigh in on farm bill (Good Food for All): In a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate agriculture committees, the sustainable agriculture advocacy group Good Food for All called for increased funding to food assistance programs and advocated against changes to SNAP that will reduce enrollment numbers, such as expanded work requirements.
T-Mobile pays for false ring tones (Reuters): Wireless carrier T-Mobile USA agreed to pay $40 milliion to resolve FCC complaints that it failed to fix problems in completing calls to rural areas and used false ring tones, which are banned, to suggest the calls reached their destination.
Too early to write off corn crop (farmdoc Daily): Wet and cold—in some places, snowy—spring weather has slowed corn planting but it is too early to say it will markedly reduce corn area or yields.
More food recalls, but why? (USDA): U.S. regulators issue twice as many food recalls a year as they did a decade earlier, a reflection of the larger volume of food on the market, better equipment to detect contamination, and laws that put more emphasis on food safety.
Senators wary of Brazil role in U.S. meat (Stabenow): Four members of the Senate Agriculture Committee asked a Treasury-led panel to rule if there are national security concerns in the purchase of the fourth-largest U.S. beef processor by Marfrig Global Foods SA, of Brazil.