eMerge Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ: EMRG), recently announced that the company has received approval to transfer the listing of its common stock to the NASDAQ Small Cap Market, effective at the opening of business tomorrow, June 27, 2002. The company is currently listed on the NASDAQ National Market. eMerge will continue to trade under its current ticker symbol "EMRG" on the NASDAQ Small Cap Market.

As previously announced, eMerge is transferring the listing of its common stock to take advantage of the extended grace period afforded by the NASDAQ Small Cap Market to meet NASDAQ’s minimum $1 per share requirement.

This move could allow eMerge until March 20, 2003 to regain compliance, provided the company remains in compliance with the initial listing criteria of the Small Cap Market.

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USDA announced that 67 agricultural trade associations would receive $90 million in federal funding under the 2002 Market Access Program, which promotes U.S. agricultural products and builds markets overseas. Of the $90 million allocated, the U.S. Meat Export Federation received $8.5 million (9.4 percent), making it the largest beneficiary of the 67 organizations that received funds. The 2002 farm bill provides for an additional $10 million in MAP funds that will be allocated later this summer and further increases in the coming years. The amount of MAP funds will grow to $200 million annually by 2006. MAP is a major source of funds to support USMEF’s worldwide efforts to boost U.S. meat exports.

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Cattle Buyer’s Weekly reports that the Senate Agriculture Committee will conduct a hearing July 16 on a proposed ban on packer ownership of livestock and USDA’s enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act. The committee will consider whether recommendations from a General Accounting Office report last September were implemented. It will also consider other strategies to protect farmers from unfair meatpacker practices, it says. A proposed ban was struck out of this year’s farm bill. But Senate Ag Committee chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and several other Midwest Senators are still pushing for a ban.