Fearing that the potentially deadly E. coli bacterium could spread like wildfire, a Colorado company is voluntarily expanding its recall of meat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Last Wednesday, JBS Swift Beef Company, of Greeley, Colo., recalled more than 41,000 pounds of meat. On Sunday, the company broadened that to include an additional 380,000 pounds of beef products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced “an ongoing investigation into 24 illnesses in multiple states, of which at least 18 appear to be associated.” The good news, according to USDA spokesman Brian Mabery, is that no deaths have been reported so far. “Each of our customers will be personally informed of this recall by phone,” A JBS spokesman told CNN, declining to identify who those customers were. Sarah Klein, a staff attorney for the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, was incredulous. “That’s ridiculous!” she said. “JBS should be able to say who they sold meat to, and those companies should be able to say, ‘These are the products we created from them.’ ” The recall underscores the need for “a comprehensive animal identification system” that would allow meat suppliers to trace their products to an individual ranch, she told CNN.

Black Caucus Questions Obama About Farmers

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is not happy about President Barack Obama’s recent move potentially to stem billions of dollars owed to Black farmers. The Caucus recently requested an audience with the president’s officials after learning of a Justice Department filing by Obama’s administration that would prevent farmers who suffered discrimination from collecting up to $4 billion. The court action would top possible compensation at $100 million because it contradicts legislation Obama pushed while he was a senator. “At a minimum, the CBC should meet with the Obama administration and clarify this filing,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). Read more.

More children are going to bed hungry. Close to 700,000 U.S. children lived in households that had a hard time putting food on the table at some point in 2007, says a new federal report. The number of children who went to bed hungry is the highest since 1998, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual report on food security. The report also showed that those 691,000 children lived in homes where families had to eat non-balanced meals and low-cost food, or even skip meals because of a lack of money. The number of families struggling to feed children adequately rose 50 percent from 430,000 children in 2006. Nearly 36.2 million children and adults struggled to get food in 2007, according to the report, up slightly from 35.5 million in 2006. Two thirds of them – 11.9 million people – changed their eating habits by eating low-cost foods, participated in federal food and nutrition assistance programs, ate less varied diets or obtained emergency food from pantries or emergency kitchens, according to the report. That number is up more than 40 percent since 2000. See more of the report at U.S. Department of Agriculture Web site.