The 110th Congress is expected to monitor closely U.S. efforts to regain foreign markets that banned U.S. beef when a cow in Washington state tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) in December 2003. Rebuilding foreign confidence in the safety of U.S. beef and cattle has been impeded by two other confirmed U.S. cases of BSE, announced June 2005 and March 2006. The four major U.S. ...
The United States is the world's major provider of international food aid to low-income developing countries. This report provides three indicators of the U.S. contribution to global food aid: (1) shipments of major donors compiled by the International Grains Council, (2) U.S. contributions to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), and (3) the U.S. commitment under the Food Aid Convention (FAC). U.S. food aid accounted for 59% of food ...
On December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake of magnitude 9.0 off the coast of Aceh Province (Sumatra) in Indonesia set off a series of large tsunamis across the Indian Ocean region. In all, 12 countries were hit by wave surges, with the brunt of the impact in coastal communities in Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The death toll has been estimated at 140,000-200,000. It is believed that between ...