Resource Links Compiled by Global SchoolNet

Resource Links Compiled by Global SchoolNet

ROUND TOWN

Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism



Equastone purchases 28-story tower in New Orleans business district: downtown real estate deal is first in post-Katrina era.: An article from: San Diego Business JournalKeeping the U.S. food supply safe was the main topic for speakers and panelists at a national conference in New Orleans.

Thee risks to the U.S. food system to bioterrorism, accidental contamination of food-borne pathogens, avian flu and natural disasters dominated discussion at the Food Distribution Research Society Conference Nov. 3-7.

Dr. Wes Harrison, LSU AgCenter agricultural economics professor and a conference organizer, said the food system is vulnerable to a variety of potential threats.

Col. John Hoffman, retired Army and now the senior research scholar with the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, said the greatest threat to the food supply right
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A California-based investment firm has bought a downtown New Orleans high-rise, the first sale of a major office building in the city since Hurricane Katrina.

Equastone, which specializes in buying, fixing up and leasing or selling commercial properties in "growth and recovery markets" around the country, paid about $50 million for the 28-story Pan- American Life building, CEO Chad Carpenter said Wednesday. He said the firm is looking at another New Orleans building as well.

The building is about 75 percent leased. Pan-American Life Insurance Co., the building's previous owner, just signed a 10-year lease, Carpenter said,