This CAST report provides policymakers, community leaders, and farmers with a guide to help weigh the advantages and disadvantages of contract farming and other forms of vertical coordination in agriculture.

This report from CAST characterizes the overall U.S. risk for the occurrence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called “mad cow” disease, as extremely low.

Exposure to synthetic and naturally occurring chemicals can affect important endocrine pathways and induce toxic responses. Authors from a variety of scientific disciplines contributed to the CAST paper, which provides an analysis of multiple, widely reported issues, such as altered reproductive development and increased incidences of cancer.

This issue paper helps pinpoint factors that need to be considered as farmers and others use soil tests as a guide to protecting the environment while producing economical food.

The same farming practices that promote soil conservation can also decrease the amount of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere and threatening a global warming. Agricultural practices that conserve soil and increase productivity while improving soil quality also increase the amount of carbon-rich organic matter in soils, thereby providing a global depository for carbon dioxide drawn from the atmosphere by growing plants.

Findings are presented on the growing danger to national forests, recreational, and agricultural lands from noxious weed infestations. These infestations are causing costly and irreparable damage to wetlands, wildlife habitat, wildlands, rangelands, and aquatic and riparian areas on public and private lands all across the United States, especially in popular western recreation states.

This issue paper is a summary of the recent scientific developments that underpin modern biotechnology and a discussion of the potential risks and benefits when these are applied to agricultural crops.

A task force of 13 scientists discusses projected demand for human food and the importance of animal agriculture in meeting these needs. Chair: Eric Bradford, Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis.

A CAST task force of 6 scientists provides recommendations to help better understand all aspects of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico and other areas of the world, and to decrease the Gulf hypoxic zone.

Scientists discuss the risks associated with sudden loss of pesticides due to the implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 (FQPA) and suggest possible solutions.