The Michigan Department of Agriculture is happy to announce the addition of RSS news feeds to its press releases, food recalls, as well as to the MDA's spotlight section of the website.  To get started, visit one of the MDA's RSS ready pages:

• News Releases
• Food Recalls
• Spotlight

and copy the URL from your browser's address bar and add that address to your RSS reader.  RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is fast becoming the most popular way to receive up to date information on the internet.  Read more about it below:

What is RSS?
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way to distribute and receive headlines and other web content to your desktop. Instead of having to go back to a website to see what's new, you can have new information delivered to you. The RSS links on the SOM website allow you to receive up-to-the-minute announcements from the SOM portal to your desktop.

Why use RSS?
There are a number of benefits to using RSS, including:
You select what news you want. RSS allows you to select the type of news and information you receive from websites. You determine when you get your news. Once you download your news reader, you can customize it to go and fetch the news every five minutes, or every hour - depending on how you want it. Cut down on SPAM. Because RSS requires you to download a news reader, you aren't subscribing to e-mail lists, which can increase your risk of getting unwanted SPAM e-mail.

Getting Started
To use RSS, you will need to download and install an RSS Reader. This is a piece of software which runs on your desktop, and pulls RSS feeds that you have setup. Some RSS readers actually install into your e-mail program so that you can receive RSS feeds along with e-mail.
Below you will find links to various RSS readers. TheState of Michigan does not endorse any of these products, this is only a list of some RSS readers on the market (some are free, some have a fee).
You can also conduct a search for RSS readers on your favorite search engine.

• Sharp Reader
• FeedDemon
• NewzCrawler
• NewsDesk
• NetNewsWire - for MAC OS X
• Newsgator Outlook
• PLUCK for Internet Explorer
  

The following sites provide more detailed information about RSS technology:

• XML.com - What is RSS
• CNET.com - Simply RSS
• Technology at Harvard Law
  

Once you have downloaded your reader and selected the news feeds you wish to receive, the RSS reader will go to the site you’ve selected and download news headlines and links to your RSS reader.