When German farms were hit last year by outbreaks of foot-and-mouth and "mad cow" disease, Renate Künast Germany's newly appointed Minister of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture had a ready response: increase the country's organic, nature-friendly agriculture from 2% of farms to around 20% in what she called a drive for "class instead of mass." But German consumers discovered last week that buying pricey organic products is no protection against tainted food.
Officials reported that large amounts of organic animal feed used by 120 organic farms in Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt...
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