Food traceability is touted as a way to contain mad cow disease, thwart food tampering, and inform consumers about the genetic makeup of their corn chips. So what exactly is traceability, and does the U.S. food supply have enough?

Elise Golan
Barry Krissoff
Fred Kuchler

Meat processors face weak incentives to invest in food safety improvements. A tainted hamburger (and any subsequent illness) is not easy to implicate, and a "safer" meat product is not easy to market. So what motivates meat processors to invest in food safety?

Elise Golan
Tanya Roberts
Michael Ollinger

U.S. agriculture is a source not only of food but also of pollutants. Can environmental stewardship coexist with a healthy bottom line? Corn producers using crop residue management think so.

Eight former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe are slated to join the European Union in May 2004, enlarging the arable land of that trading bloc by nearly 40 percent. Farmers will receive higher prices for some products and EU subsidies. So why are they apprehensive?

Nancy Cochrane