There’s a lot of news about food that might spoil your appetite:

• Tom Philpott at Gristmill is “having a hard time accepting that Obama has picked an ethanol-loving GMO enthusiast as his USDA chief.” 
• Revere at Effect Measure reports that the country is experiencing a salmonella outbreak that’s sickened 400 people, but the CDC and FDA haven’t publicly identified the source.
• Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients draws our attention to a study that found vegetables grown in soil fertilized with livestock manure absorbed antibiotics from the animal waste.
• Ezra Klein points out that high health insurance costs make farming an unattractive career choice.

Elsewhere:

Robert McClure at Dateline Earth highlights one environmental action from Bush that enviros were glad to see: his decision to protect the largest swath of ocean ever placed off-limits to commercial activities in a single designation.

 Jovana Ruzicic at Enviroblog enumerates the many reasons why she’ll be glad to say good-bye to Bush.

Jessica Arons at RH Reality Check explains how the Bush administration’s finalized “provider conscience” rule puts public health in danger.

Merrill Goozner at GoozNews considers the issue of physician payments, which which influence both the cost and quality of healthcare.

Christine Gorman at Global Health Report describes her experience reporting on New York’s rat mapping system, which has helped drive down the number of rodent problems in the city. (The resulting article is well worth a read!)

Kate Harding at Broadsheet is furious about the apparently common practice of calculating chemotherapy doses based on patients’ ideal rather than actual weights.

Aman at Technology, Health & Development highlights simple, low-cost water chlorinators that the group International Action is installing in Haiti, bringing clean water to 2.5 million people for the first time.