Cellphones may get smaller Holiday lift: Gartner

(Reuters) – The pre-Christmas shopping season is likely to boost cellphone sales less that usual this year as a weaker global economy forces consumers to cut back, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.

“It will be a cautious quarter. Consumers are either cautious with their spending or finding new gadgets like tablets, as more attractive presents,” Gartner analysts said.

Gartner said sales of cellphones declined 3 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, falling for the third quarter in a row, while sales of smartphones grew 47 percent.

Smartphone growth this year is boosted by strong demand in China, where annual sales will grow to 165-170 million from 78 million a year earlier, it said.

“There is huge growth coming from the Chinese market,” said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.

This is helping local players to climb in global cellphone rankings, with ZTE, Huawei and TCL now among the seven largest cellphone vendors globally, Gartner said.

Samsung Electronics continues to lead the global cellphone sales ranking, ahead of Nokia and Apple. In smartphone sales Nokia, which still lead the market early last year, dropped to No 7, Gartner said.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki)

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Report: FDA wanted to close Mass pharmacy in 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a decade ago, federal health inspectors wanted to shut down the pharmacy linked to a recent deadly meningitis outbreak until it cleaned up its operations, according to congressional investigators.

About 440 people have been sickened by contaminated steroid shots distributed by New England Compounding Center, and more than 32 deaths have been reported since the outbreak began in September, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That has put the Framingham, Mass.-based pharmacy at the center of congressional scrutiny and calls for greater regulation of compounding pharmacies, which make individualized medications for patients and have long operated in a legal gray area between state and federal laws.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released a detailed history of NECC's regulatory troubles on Monday, ahead of a meeting Wednesday meeting to examine how the outbreak could have been prevented. The 25-page report summarizes and quotes from FDA and state inspection memos, though the committee declined to release the original documents.

The report shows that after several problematic incidents, Food and Drug Administration officials in 2003 suggested that the compounding pharmacy be "prohibited from manufacturing" until it improved its operations. But FDA regulators deferred to their counterparts in Massachusetts, who ultimately reached an agreement with the pharmacy to settle concerns about the quality of its prescription injections.

The congressional report also shows that in 2003 the FDA considered the company a pharmacy. That's significant because in recent weeks public health officials have charged that NECC was operating more as a manufacturer than a pharmacy, shipping thousands of doses of drugs to all 50 states instead of small batches of drugs to individual patients. Manufacturers are regulated by the FDA and are subject to stricter quality standards than pharmacies.

The report offers the most detailed account yet of the numerous regulatory complaints against the pharmacy, which nearly date back to its founding in 1998. Less than a year later, the company was cited by the state pharmacy board for providing doctors with blank prescription pads with NECC's information. Such promotional items are illegal in Massachusetts and the pharmacy's owner and director, Barry Cadden, received an informal reprimand, according to documents summarized by the committee.

Cadden was subject to several other complaints involving unprofessional conduct in coming years, but first came to the FDA's attention in 2002. Here are some key events from the report highlighting the company's early troubles with state and federal authorities:

__ In March of 2002 the FDA began investigating reports that five patients had become dizzy and short of breath after receiving NECC's compounded betamethasone repository injection, a steroid used to treat joint pain and arthritis that's different from the one linked to the current meningitis outbreak.

FDA inspectors visited NECC on April 9 and said Cadden was initially cooperative in turning over records about production of the drug. But during a second day of inspections, Cadden told officials "that he was no longer willing to provide us with any additional records," according to an FDA report cited by congressional investigators. The inspectors ultimately issued a report citing NECC for poor sterility and record-keeping practices but said that "this FDA investigation could not proceed to any definitive resolution," because of "problems/barriers that were encountered throughout the inspection."

__ In October of 2002, the FDA received new reports that two patients at a Rochester, N.Y., hospital came down with symptoms of bacterial meningitis after receiving a different NECC injection. The steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, is the same injectable linked to the current outbreak and is typically is used to treat back pain. Both patients were treated with antibiotics and eventually recovered, according to FDA documents cited by the committee.

When officials from the FDA and Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy visited NECC later in the month, Cadden said vials of the steroid returned by the hospital had tested negative for bacterial contamination. But when FDA scientists tested samples of the drug collected in New York they found bacterial contamination in four out of 14 vials sampled. It is not entirely clear whether FDA tested the same lot shipped to the Rochester hospital.

__ At a February 2003 meeting between state and federal officials, FDA staff emphasized "the potential for serious public consequences if NECC's compounding practices, in particular those relating to sterile products, are not improved." The agency issued a list of problems uncovered in its inspection to NECC, including a failure to verify if sterile drugs met safety standards.

But the agency decided to let Massachusetts officials take the lead in regulating the company, since pharmacies are typically regulated at the state level. It was decided that "the state would be in a better position to gain compliance or take regulatory action against NECC as necessary," according to a summary of the meeting quoted by investigators.

The FDA recommended the state subject NECC to a consent agreement, which would require the company to pass certain quality tests to continue operating. But congressional investigators say Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy did not take any action until "well over a year later."

__ In October 2004, the board sent a proposed consent agreement to Cadden, which would have included a formal reprimand and a three-year probationary period for the company's registration. The case ended without disciplinary action in 2006, when NECC agreed to a less severe consent decree with the state.

Massachusetts officials indicated Tuesday they are still investigating why NECC escaped the more severe penalty.

"I will not be satisfied until we know the full story behind this decision," the state's interim health commissioner Lauren Smith said in a transcript of her prepared testimony released a day ahead of delivery. Smith is one of several witnesses scheduled to testify Wednesday, including FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

The committee will also hear from the widow of 78-year-old Eddie C. Lovelace, a longtime circuit court judge in southern Kentucky. Autopsy results confirmed Lovelace received fungus-contaminated steroid injections that led to his death Sept. 17.

Joyce Lovelace will urge lawmakers to work together on legislation to stop future outbreaks caused by compounded drugs, according to a draft of her testimony.

"We now know that New England Compounding Pharmacy, Inc. killed Eddie. I have lost my soulmate and life's partner with whom I worked side by side, day after day for more than fifty years," Lovelace states.

Barry Cadden is also scheduled to appear at the hearing, after lawmakers issued a subpoena to compel him to attend.

The NECC has been closed since early last month, and Massachusetts officials have taken steps to permanently revoke its license. The pharmacy has recalled all the products it makes, including 17,700 single-dose vials of a steroid that tested positive for the fungus tied to the outbreak.

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Panasonic prepares for "garage sale", to axe 10,000 jobs

KADOMA, Japan (Reuters) - About a fifth of Panasonic Corp's 88 business units are losing money and only half so far meet a target for at least 5 percent operating margin, the Japanese electronics group's finance chief said in an interview on Wednesday.

Hideaki Kawai said the country's biggest commercial employer will axe another 10,000 jobs by end-March as it pares its costs and looks to return to profit. Panasonic shed 36,000 jobs last business year, some through the sale of businesses.

"Our new boss has said businesses must achieve at least a 5 percent operating profit target within three years," Kawai said, referring to Kazuhiro Tsuga, who took over as company president in June. "But we won't wait that long to tackle units that need to be dealt with."

Sell-offs and business closures will start as early as next year, he told Reuters at Panasonic's headquarters in Kadoma, near Osaka in western Japan.

Kawai said Panasonic aims to earn group operating profit of at least 200 billion yen ($2.52 billion) in the year to end-March 2014 - in line with forecasts by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters StarMine.

Panasonic warned last month it will lose close to $10 billion in the year to March as it writes off billions of yen in tax-deferred assets and goodwill related to its mobile phone, solar panel and small lithium battery businesses. It also put aside money to cover the lay-offs and other restructuring measures.

Panasonic plans to offload assets worth 110 billion yen before the end of March, mainly land and buildings in Japan, Kawai said. More assets sales will follow from next business year if needed to bolster cash flow.

Panasonic's 'garage sale' comes ahead of a turnaround plan that Tsuga has promised to unveil by end-March, which will be the start-line to offload underperforming businesses. As financial chief overseeing hundreds of accountants spread across a sprawling conglomerate, Kawai plays a key role in helping Tsuga identify which businesses to close, sell or merge.

Selling businesses and offloading other assets should boost Panasonic's cashflow and help pay for the latest restructuring at a company that began in 1918 making electrical socket extensions and bicycle lamps, and now employs 300,000 workers.

Panasonic shares, already trading near multi-decade lows, slumped by almost a fifth on November 1 on the loss forecast, and Standard & Poor's has cut its credit rating to close to junk. The stock closed up 0.8 percent on Wednesday, ending a four-session losing streak.

Ahead of its earnings revision, Panasonic won $7.6 billion in loan commitments in October from banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group , a funding backstop it says will help it avoid having to seek capital from credit markets.

"Panasonic's debt holders are concerned and it is critical for us to improve our finances," Kawai said. Panasonic this year aims to cut net debt to 770 billion yen from 1.08 trillion yen and will look for another 200 billion yen improvement next business year.

Japan's big banks have also provided TV rival Sharp Corp with $4.6 billion in emergency loans, though the maker of Aquos TVs warned this month it may not survive alone as it expects a $5.6 billion net loss this business year.

Japan's other ailing consumer electronics brand Sony Corp , inventor of the personal music player, lowered its target for its handheld PSP and Vita games consoles, TVs and digital cameras, but did maintain its annual forecast, helped by the sale of a chemicals business.

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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Syria pursues bombardment of rebel-held border town

CEYLANPINAR, Turkey (Reuters) - A Syrian warplane struck homes in the town of Ras al-Ain on Tuesday within sight of the Turkish border, pursuing an aerial bombardment to force out rebels, a Reuters witness and refugees said.

The second day of jet strikes sent Syrians scurrying through the flimsy barbed-wire fence that divides Ras al-Ain from the Turkish settlement of Ceylanpinar, thick plumes of smoke rising above the town.

Medical workers and refugees in Ceylanpinar said bombing on Monday and Tuesday struck residential areas of Ras al-Ain, an Arab and Kurdish town that fell to rebels last week during an advance into Syria's northeast.

A Turkish health official at the hospital in Ceylanpinar said rebel fighters were trying to pull the wounded from under the rubble of a house. Refugees say the fighters are taking cover in homes, many of them abandoned by residents who have fled for Turkey.

"As soon as we heard the jets, we knew they would bomb. It hit another house just 100 meters away," Mohammad Kahan, 49, a Kurd who fled Ras al-Ain with nine members of his family, said of Monday's bombardment.

"This won't stop, Assad will not go until America and Britain come and stop him. Only these two can stop him."

Turkey is reluctant to be drawn into a regional conflict but the proximity of the bombing raids to the border is testing its pledge to defend itself from any violation of its territory or any spillover of violence from Syria.

Opposition activists say at least a dozen people died on Monday, the latest of an estimated 38,000 victims of the 19-month civil war.

REFUGEE CRISIS

The rebel offensive into Syria's mixed Arab and Kurdish northeast has caused some of the biggest refugee movements since the armed revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began in March last year.

It has brought the war back perilously close to Turkish soil.

Rebels fired machineguns mounted on the back of pick-up trucks at the jet as it swooped low over Ras al-Ain, dropping three bombs before returning for a second strike on another part of the town, said a Reuters witness on the Turkish side of the border.

Ambulances with sirens wailing ferried the wounded from the border for treatment in Ceylanpinar.

Turkey has repeatedly fired back in retaliation for stray gunfire and mortar rounds flying across its 900 km (560 mile) border with Syria, and is talking to NATO allies about the possible deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles.

Ankara says this would be a defensive step, but it could also be a prelude to enforcing a no-fly zone in Syria to limit the reach of Assad's air power. Western powers have so far been reluctant to take such a step.

In one 24-hour period last week, some 9,000 Syrians fled fighting during a rebel advance into Syria's northeast, swelling to over 120,000 the number of registered refugees in Turkish camps, with winter setting in. Tens of thousands more are unregistered and living in Turkish homes.

(Reporting by Jonathon Burch; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Nick Tattersall)

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Belize wants to quiz anti-computer virus guru McAfee in murder probe

BELIZE CITY (Reuters) – Police in Belize want to question U.S. anti-computer virus software pioneer John McAfee in connection with the murder of a neighbor he had been quarrelling with, but they say he remains a person of interest at this time and is not a suspect.

McAfee, who invented the anti-virus software that bears his name, has homes and businesses in Belize, and is believed to have settled in the country sometime around 2010.

“He is a person of interest at this time,” said Marco Vidal, head of Belize’s police Gang Suppression Unit. “It goes a bit beyond that, not just being a neighbor.”

Police officers were looking for the software engineer, said Miguel Segura, the assistant commissioner of police.

Asked if McAfee was a suspect, he said: “At this point, no. Our job … is to get all the evidence beyond reasonable doubt that Mr A is the one that killed Mr B.”

“He (McAfee) … can assist the investigation, so there is no arrest warrant for the fellow,” added Segura, who heads the Criminal Investigation Branch.

McAfee’s neighbor, Gregory Viant Faull, a 52-year-old American, was found on Sunday lying dead in a pool of blood after apparently being shot in the head.

McAfee has been embroiled in controversy in Belize before.

His premises were raided in May after he was accused of holding firearms, though most were found to be licensed. The final outcome of the case is pending.

McAfee also owns a security company in Belize as well as several properties and an ecological enterprise.

Reuters was unable to contact McAfee on Monday.

Segura said McAfee had been at odds with Faull for some time. He accused his neighbor of poisoning his dogs earlier this year and filed an official complaint.

“There was some conflict there between (them) … prior to the death of the gentleman,” Segura said. “But those dogs didn’t have a post mortem to see if the toxicology would confirm what type of poison, if any.”

McAfee previously accused the police Gang Suppression Unit of killing his dogs during the May raid.

McAfee was one of Silicon Valley’s first entrepreneurs to amass a fortune by building a business off the Internet.

The former Lockheed systems consultant started McAfee Associates in 1989, initially distributing its anti-virus software as “shareware” on Internet bulletin boards.

He took the company public in 1992 and left two years later following accusations that he had hyped the arrival of a virus known as Michelango, which turned out to be a dud, to scare computer users into buying his company’s products.

(Reporting by Simon Gardner and Gabriel Stargardter in Mexico City and Jim Finkle; Editing by Kieran Murray and Todd Eastham)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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One Direction on What They Look for in a Girl

Ellen DeGeneres is holding her biggest outdoor concert ever with British pop sensation One Direction on Thursday, and we have an advance clip.

RELATED: One Direction Plays Catch with Super Bowl Champ

During the sit-down portion, the boys answer the crucial questions: Which members are single and what do they look for in a girl?

"I like someone that's cute. Someone I can have a laugh with. And I also like people that are American. And you all qualify," said Niall Horan, 19, sending the crowd of teenage girls into frenzy.

Tune in to The Ellen DeGeneres Show November 15 for the full interview and concert. The band's sophomore studio album Take Me Home is available now.

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British medical journal slams Roche on Tamiflu

LONDON (AP) — A leading British medical journal is asking the drug maker Roche to release all its data on Tamiflu, claiming there is no evidence the drug can actually stop the flu.

The drug has been stockpiled by dozens of governments worldwide in case of a global flu outbreak and was widely used during the 2009 swine flu pandemic.

On Monday, one of the researchers linked to the BMJ journal called for European governments to sue Roche.

"I suggest we boycott Roche's products until they publish missing Tamiflu data," wrote Peter Gotzsche, leader of the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen. He said governments should take legal action against Roche to get the money back that was "needlessly" spent on stockpiling Tamiflu.

Last year, Tamiflu was included in a list of "essential medicines" by the World Health Organization, a list that often prompts governments or donor agencies to buy the drug.

Tamiflu is used to treat both seasonal flu and new flu viruses like bird flu or swine flu. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said the agency had enough proof to warrant its use for unusual influenza viruses, like bird flu.

"We do have substantive evidence it can stop or hinder progression to severe disease like pneumonia," he said.

In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Tamiflu as one of two medications for treating regular flu. The other is GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza. The CDC says such antivirals can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the risk of complications and hospitalization.

In 2009, the BMJ and researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Centre asked Roche to make all its Tamiflu data available. At the time, Cochrane Centre scientists were commissioned by Britain to evaluate flu drugs. They found no proof that Tamiflu reduced the number of complications in people with influenza.

"Despite a public promise to release (internal company reports) for each (Tamiflu) trial...Roche has stonewalled," BMJ editor Fiona Godlee wrote in an editorial last month.

In a statement, Roche said it had complied with all legal requirements on publishing data and provided Gotzsche and his colleagues with 3,200 pages of information to answer their questions.

"Roche has made full clinical study data ... available to national health authorities according to their various requirements, so they can conduct their own analyses," the company said.

Roche says it doesn't usually release patient-level data available due to legal or confidentiality constraints. It said it did not provide the requested data to the scientists because they refused to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Roche is also being investigated by the European Medicines Agency for not properly reporting side effects, including possible deaths, for 19 drugs including Tamiflu that were used in about 80,000 patients in the U.S.

____

Online:

www.bmj.com.tamiflu/

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Stocks extend losses after weekly drop on fiscal worry

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Analysis: European austerity protests far from revolution

PARIS (Reuters) - In a cafe near the former site of Paris's Bastille prison, activists held a meeting last month to decide whether to join unions in protesting the French government's belt-tightening.

Only five people turned up at Cafe Maldoror, a favored haunt of the radical left.

Even in the city whose revolutionary credentials date back to the 1789 uprising that began at the gates of its famous gaol, calls to build a European-wide popular front against the toughest budget cuts in a generation are falling on deaf ears.

"In France people...are frustrated, they are worried about the country and about their economic situation, but for the moment ...most people are not looking for revolutionary change," said Gaston, a 36-year-old librarian at the meeting who took part in a poorly attended protest at the Bastille last year.

Millions of Europeans feel impoverished as countries which broke budget rules for years are prodded into public spending cuts to win back investor confidence in their sovereign debt.

Bursts of street anger have rocked Greece and Spain, two southern countries whose citizens are paying dearly for the profligacy of their past leaders.

Athens police last week fired tear gas to disperse protestors throwing petrol bombs outside parliament. Strikes and marches in Greece and Spain triggered a September 26 sell-off in the euro and European and U.S. stock markets.

Activists want to spread the protests across Europe's national borders. The Greek strikers were seen holding Italian, Portuguese and Spanish flags last week.

But there has been little resonance on the streets of the richer nations of north Europe, whose ageing populations and politically moderate youth are less interested in protest.

So far the protests fall short of antecedents such as those in 1968 against U.S. involvement in the Vietnamese war which in Europe mutated into a force for wider social change, or the 1990s anti-globalization marches through many of its cities.

Such momentum is lacking in the anti-austerity movement. Calls by protest groups in Spain for a European general strike on November 14 have gone largely unanswered. Marches are planned but trade unions have not opted for a strike.

There is even less sympathy in Germany, where many feel their country has already made the painful reforms needed on public finances and polls show strong backing for Chancellor Angela Merkel's demands for European neighbors to do the same.

"REACTIONARY GENERATION"

Demographics may help explain why the activists are struggling to find support.

In 1960, there were on average three Europeans under the age of 14 for every pensioner, European Union data show. It was this generation of post-World War Two baby-boomers who, eight years later, were the foot soldiers of the 1968 revolts.

Today's youth no longer have numbers on their side. Lower birth rates and higher longevity mean the median age in Europe has risen from 31 years at the end of the 1960s to 40 now. By 2060, there will be two pensioners for every youngster.

Nonetheless, they have plenty of reasons to be angry. Youth unemployment, almost negligible in much of Europe in the 1960s, now stands at 23 percent across the 17 members of the euro zone. One in two young Spaniards and Greeks are out of work.

It is also dawning on Europe's young that the debt built up by successive governments puts their future welfare provision at risk. Those with jobs are seeing tougher labor conditions as firms struggle to compete with low-wage international rivals.

While the sense of alarm has reached better-off youths in northern Europe, it is often tempered by a mood of resignation and inability to define a political alternative.

"People around me are worried, particularly about the prospect of the welfare state being dismantled," said Fabien Perillat, 24, a jobless engineering graduate in Paris who joined left-wing rallies during France's presidential election in 2011.

"(But) at heart, they wonder if there is any alternative to austerity."

While surveys show Europe's youths tend to vote on the left, the Marxism that fired past generations has fewer takers since the fall of the Soviet Union, as witnessed by declining poll scores of the remaining Communist parties across the continent.

French UNEF student union president Emmanuel Zemmour - whose predecessor Jacques Sauvageot was at the helm of France's 1968 protests - said many students were not driven by any ideology.

"We are a generation that has only ever known triumphant liberalism," Zemmour, 24, said of free market policies espoused to some extent by much of the West since the 1980s.

"Young people are practical, not ideological. They want the right to work, to get the same benefits as others, to be able to study without struggling."

Europe's old "68-ers" look at their own family and agree.

"My daughter is worried about jobs, about living in a country where welfare is unraveling," filmmaker Romain Goupil, who at 16 led French high school students in the 1968 protests, said. "She is part of a reactionary generation."

UNIONS DIMINISHED

If revolutionary fervor is lacking in Europe's youth, the labor groups that have in the past been the other major source of street protest are not the forces they used to be.

In late 1995, France's transport networks were paralyzed for weeks as unions led strikes and protests against welfare cuts by President Jacques Chirac's conservative government.

Yet a 2007 law has since taken much of the bite out of union threats of strikes by requiring them to ensure a basic service for public transport. Subsequent legislation has granted education services and airlines similar protection.

Moreover the law forced unions to declare any protest well in advance, allowing one of the world's best equipped police forces to plan meticulous surveillance and control over marches.

"France's trade unions have been considerably weakened in the past decade. They face a crisis of confidence," Stephane Sirot, a sociologist specialized in protest movements at the Universite de Cergy-Pontoise, said.

While the marches against ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy's pensions reform in 2010 drew more people than any other in French history, his government was able to sit them out and pass the reform unchanged - a bitter defeat for the protest movement.

Across Europe, trade unions acknowledge they are struggling to appeal to young workers, many of whom do not enjoy the same labor protection of their older counterparts, and are failing to connect with Europe's growing army of jobless.

At threatened factories such as Peugeot PSA's plant in Aulnay, near Paris, union leaders have warned of a "shock" campaign to force the company to save their jobs. But so far, protests have been limited and stopped short of disruption.

An April poll of 600 European managers conducted for U.S.-based insurer Ace Group highlighted austerity-related protests as one concern for business, noting 32 percent of those surveyed cited the threat of terrorism and political violence as the most relevant or important risk to their businesses.

So far there is little evidence that the prospect of unrest in Europe driving companies away from the continent.

While U.S. carmaker Ford has announced plans to scrap 6,200 jobs in Europe to reflect tough auto sector and wider economic conditions, its decision to shift some output to low-cost Spain underlined that social tensions there were not a concern.

"I think we were satisfied with the environment that we see in Spain. Just as we are in all of Western Europe. I guess I should say it just wasn't a factor," said Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks.

"Frankly, most of Europe has managed the social pressures of a very, very difficult environment relatively well so far."

(Additional reporting by Paul Day in Madrid; Alexandra Hudson in Berlin; Deepa Seetharaman in Detroit; Editing by Anna Willard)

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Food labels multiply, some confuse consumers

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Want to avoid pesticides and antibiotics in your produce, meat, and dairy foods? Prefer to pay more to make sure farm animals were treated humanely, farmworkers got their lunch breaks, bees or birds were protected by the farmer and that ranchers didn't kill predators?

Food labels claim to certify a wide array of sustainable practices. Hundreds of so-called eco-labels have cropped up in recent years, with more introduced every month — and consumers are willing to pay extra for products that feature them.

While eco-labels can play a vital role, experts say their rapid proliferation and lack of oversight or clear standards have confused both consumers and producers.

"Hundreds of eco labels exist on all kinds of products, and there is the potential for companies and producers to make false claims," said Shana Starobin, a food label expert at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment.

Eco-labels have multiplied in recent years in response to rising consumer demand for more information about products and increased attention to animal and farmworker welfare, personal health, and the effects of conventional farming on the environment.

"Credible labels can be very helpful in helping people get to what they want to get to and pay more for something they really care about," said Urvashi Rangan, director of consumer safety at Consumer Reports. "The labels are a way to bring the bottom up and force whole industries to improve their practices."

The problem, Rangan and other said, is that few standards, little oversight and a lot of misinformation exist for the growing array of labels.

Some labels, such as the USDA organic certification, have standards set by the federal government to which third party certifiers must adhere. Some involve non-government standards and third-party certification, and may include site visits from independent auditors who evaluate whether a given farm or company has earned the label.

But other labels have little or no standards, or are certified by unknown organizations or by self-interested industry groups. Many labels lack any oversight.

And the problem is global, because California's products get sold overseas and fruits and vegetables from Europe or Mexico with their own eco-labels make it onto U.S. plates.

The sheer number of labels and the lack of oversight create a credibility problem and risk rendering all labels meaningless and diluting demand for sustainably produced goods, Rangan said.

Daniel Mourad of Fresno, a young professional who likes to cook and often shops for groceries at Whole Foods, said he tends to be wary of judging products just by the labels — though sustainable practices are important to him.

"Labels have really confused the public. Some have good intentions, but I don't know if they're really helpful," Mourad said. "Organic may come from Chile, but what does it mean if it's coming from 6,000 miles away? Some local farmers may not be able to afford a label."

In California, voters this week rejected a ballot measure that would have required labels on foods containing genetically modified ingredients.

Farmers like Gena Nonini in Fresno County say labels distinguish them from the competition. Nonini's 100-acre Marian Farms, which grows grapes, almonds, citrus and vegetables, is certified biodynamic and organic, and her raisins are certified kosher.

"For me, the certification is one way of educating people," Nonini said. "It opens a venue to tell a story and to set yourself apart from other farmers out there."

But other farmers say they are reluctant to spend money on yet another certification process or to clutter their product with too much packaging and information.

"I think if we keep adding all these new labels, it tends to be a pile of confusion," said Tom Willey of TD Willey Farms in Madera, Calif. His 75-acre farm, which grows more than 40 different vegetable crops, carries USDA organic certification, but no other labels.

The proliferation of labels, Willey said, is a poor substitute for "people being intimate with the farmers who grow their food." Instead of seeking out more labels, he said, consumers should visit a farmers' market or a farm, and talk directly to the grower.

Since that's still impossible for many urbanites, Consumer Reports has developed a rating system, a database and a web site for evaluating environmental and food labels — one of several such guides that have popped up recently to help consumers.

The guides show that labels such as "natural" and "free range" carry little meaning, because they lack clear standards or a verification system.

Despite this, consumers are willing to pay more for "free range" eggs and poultry, and studies show they value "natural" over "organic," which is governed by lengthy federal regulations.

But some consumers and watchdog groups are becoming more vigilant.

In October, the Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against Petaluma, Calif., organic egg producer of Judy's Eggs over "free range" claims. The company's packaging depicts a hen ranging on green grass, and the inside reads "these hens are raised in wide open spaces in Sonoma Valley..."

Aerial photos of the farm suggest the chickens actually live in factory-style sheds, according to the lawsuit. Judy and Steve Mahrt, owners of Petaluma Farms, said in a statement that the suit is "frivolous, unfair and untrue," but they did not comment on the specific allegations.

Meanwhile, new labels are popping up rapidly. The Food Justice label, certified via third party audits, guarantees a farm's commitment to fair living wages and adequate living and working conditions for farmworkers. And Wildlife Friendly, another third-party audited program, certifies farmers and ranchers who peacefully co-exist with wolves, coyotes, foxes and other predators.

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Follow Gosia Wozniacka at http://twitter.com/GosiaWozniacka

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