Scout Report Goodies

[Laura Larsson]

Friends:

Here are two goodies from The Scout Report -- December 19, 1997        
========  Volume 4, Number 34
Apologies to those for whom this is a duplicate. 

13. National Organic Program Proposed Rule Home Page--USDA
http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/

Every year proposed US federal agency rules are published in the _Federal
Register_ so that interested members of the public may read and comment on
the proposed rule before it goes into effect. Recently, the Internet has
begun to show the potential to change and help democratize this process. 
The Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) Proposed Rule on the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) (discussed in the
November 28, 1997 Scout Report), was one example. The United States
Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service's Organic Program
Proposed Rule is another. Instead of searching through the cumbersome
volumes of the _FR_, reading the rule, and then commenting on it, Internet
users are now beginning to be able to go to the agency site, read the
rule, broken up into its parts, and submit interactive comments on any of
those parts. At the site other users can easily access those comments. In
this way, the Internet can be used to help foster the democratic
process--interested users can see this in action at these two sites. Note
that the comment period on the National Organic Program Proposed Rule ends
March 16, 1998, and that registration is necessary before commenting at
the USDA site. [JS]

15. Iowa State University Food Safety Project [RealPlayer, .pdf]
http://www.exnet.iastate.edu/Pages/families/fs/homepage.html

Food safety has been in the news lately, from _E. coli_ outbreaks to the
recent US Food and Drug Administration's irradiation ruling. The Iowa
State University Extension provides this site, a clearinghouse for
educational materials on the topic. The centerpiece of the site is a basic
four-lesson food safety curriculum for consumers and K-12 students.
Information on eleven food borne pathogens from Botulism to
Cryptosporidium parvum to Salmonellosis is available. Consumers can
consult the food safety tips (some in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format) and
obtain information on other agencies that provide food safety resources.
[JS]


Regards,

Laura
larsson at u.washington.edu
listowner: PHNUTR-L, PNWHEALTH, HSR-L +
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~hserv/hshome.html
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~phnutr/nutrhome.html