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January 12, 2011
· Eco-terrorists strike California ranch
· Agribusiness giant ADM to cut 1,000 jobs
· Resistant weed found in Canadian grain belt
· Nepal wants new hybrids not foreign seed
· Meat eating in America going out of style
Eco-terrorists
strike California
(SFGate.com)
– Animal-rights activists are taking responsibility for an
arson fire that destroyed 14 cattle trucks at the sprawling Harris Ranch
in
The fire broke out at the feed lot truck-storage facility at
the ranch about 3:45 a.m. Sunday, said
In an e-mail sent to the media Monday, the North American
Animal Liberation Press Office said it had received an anonymous message from
someone with specific details about the fire at the Coalinga ranch, one of the
largest farming operations in the
"Containers of accelerant were placed beneath a row of 14 trucks with four digital timers used to light four of the containers and kerosene soaked rope carrying the fire to the other 10," the e-mail said.
"We were extremely pleased to see all 14 trucks 'were a total loss,' " the message said.
"We're not delusional enough to believe that this action will shut down the Harris feeding company, let alone have any effect on factory farming as a whole," the e-mail said. "But we maintain that this type of action still has worth, if not solely for the participant's peace of mind, then to show that despite guards, a constant worker presence and razor wire fence, the enemy is still vulnerable."
The e-mail ended with, "Until next time."
Curtice said sheriff's investigators "know everything you know right now," and declined to comment on the e-mail.
Mike Casey, vice president of risk management and human resources at Harris Farms, said Tuesday, "Regardless of how or why the fire started, it's troubling that the incident occurred."
Casey said the blaze had not affected the business. He did not have a damage estimate.
Curtice, a 30-year veteran of the sheriff's office, said there have been animal-rights protests at the ranch, but "I don't think we've ever had anything like this."
Agribusiness giant ADM to cut 1,000 jobs
(Reuters) - Agricultural processor Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM.N) said on Wednesday it will reduce its workforce by 3 percent, making it the latest agribusiness giant to make cuts in the face of volatile global markets.
ADM said it will eliminate about 1,000 positions worldwide "to enhance the cost structure of the company," estimating the cuts and other cost reductions will eventually reduce its annual pre-tax expenses by more than $100 million.
It joins Cargill CARG.UL in cutting jobs to save money. The agribusiness giant said last month it will eliminate 1.5 percent of its staff.
"To ensure that we can continue to compete effectively in our global markets, we are taking actions to streamline our organization and achieve significant, sustained cost reductions," said Patricia Woertz, ADM chairman and chief executive officer.
ADM faces increasing global competition as other processors are becoming more aggressive about managing costs, spokesman David Weintraub said. The company has "never had a global targeted workforce reduction" similar to this before and does not plan any further job cuts to control costs, he said
It's too soon to say in which locations and divisions the
cuts will take place, Weintraub said.
One division that is struggling is soybean processing, said Ann Gurkin, an analyst for Davenport & Company who follows ADM. Margins for global soybean crushing have been under pressure due to excess capacity, she said.
"I think the cuts are in response to the continued tough environment in the soybean business," she said.
ADM's layoffs come on the heels of disappointing results issued on Tuesday by Cargill. The company revealed a third consecutive slump in quarterly earnings and said the quarter ended November 30 was its worst quarter since 2001.
Cargill singled out its trading operations for dragging down
stronger earnings in its food and agricultural services divisions, saying
Resistant weed found in Canadian grain belt
Kochia weed turned up in three
fields in Southern Alberta last August, despite the use of glyphosate, and
Canadian government scientists have now confirmed that it is resistant to the
farm chemical, seed company Monsanto
So-called "super weeds" have defied dosages of the
world's top-selling herbicide, Monsanto's Roundup, and spread through key
crop-growing areas of the
Roundup's active ingredient is glyphosate.
"That is one of the chemicals that has been so broadly used that this will be a growing issue that we have to face," said Ron Frost, a Calgary, Alberta-based agriculture analyst.
Kochia has previously been
confirmed in
The southern
The fields were left fallow last year to replenish soil nutrients, and chemicals were used to control weeds.
Resistance typically evolves after farmers use the same herbicide repeatedly on a weed population, without other approaches to control weeds, Monsanto said.
"We recognize this particular finding could present new
challenges if it spreads because of the prevalence of Roundup Ready canola and
Roundup Ready sugarbeets in this region," said
Sean Dilk, Monsanto
The
The case is a warning to farmers not to overuse any farm
chemical, said Murray Hartman, oilseed specialist for the
Farmers in the affected region may now look to alternate seeding of Roundup Ready canola with Bayer CropScience's Liberty Link canola, Hartman said.
BASF also produces a
herbicide-resistant canola, called
Two other resistant weed species, giant
ragweed and
Nepal
KATHMANDU (IRIN)
- An effort by US donors and multinational agribusiness Monsanto to partner
with
“If an organization like USAID [US Agency for International Development] wants to help us with a company like Monsanto, we would hope that they would help us to actually develop our own hybrids instead, not to import their foreign seeds,” said Hari Dahal, spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, at a recent parliamentary hearing on food sovereignty, as reported in local media.
USAID announced last September its intention to set up a pilot training partnership with Monsanto and the Nepali government, which promotes hybrid maize seeds to boost yields in a country where 41 percent of the population is estimated to be undernourished.
Maize is a staple of the local diet, especially in the maize-producing hilly central interior of the country, which suffers from chronic food insecurity.
In addition,
Demand for hybrid maize seeds, used primarily in the animal feed industry, has increased as animal feed has constituted a growing source of income for commercial farmers.
Opponents of the proposed partnership say it would substitute one form of dependence for another - from the currently imported maize to maize seeds from abroad.
According to the government, the country required 22,656 tons of maize seed in 2011 - less than 1 percent of which was supplied by registered imports.
Calling the US-headquartered Monsanto a “biotech Goliath”, local activists have taken to social media to block the company’s expansion in Nepal, citing concerns of loss of local seeds, dependence on seed imports and environmental damage to the land and surrounding communities.
Known for its genetically-engineered products worldwide,
Monsanto has been sued - and settled out of court - in the
Silent entry
While this would be the first time a donor subsidizes the cost of hybrid seeds on such a large scale in Nepal - targeting 20,000 farmers in three commercial maize-producing districts of Kavre, Chitwan and Nawal Parasi along the southern lowland belt in the Terai region bordering India - Monsanto has been exporting hybrid maize seed to Nepal since 2004.
Kiran Dahal,
Monsanto’s presence was unheralded, unsubsidized and until recently, largely unnoticed, said Sabin Ninglekhu, an organizer of the Facebook campaign. “To be honest, we didn’t know Monsanto was in the country before the USAID announcement.”
Over the past decade commercial farmers in the lowlands have started using hybrid varieties, drawn by the potential of higher yields.
In hybrid breeding technology, strains are cross-pollinated to create offspring with combined strengths. Agronomists note that although first-generation hybrids produce higher yields, their offspring often may not give the same results, requiring farmers to purchase new seeds every season.
As yet, no comprehensive long-term report on the
distribution and yield of hybrid seed application in
But preliminary findings in the lowland Nawal
Parasi and Palpa districts
in 2011 suggest almost doubled yields from hybrid seeds over openly-pollinated
local varieties - from 0.8 to 1.5 tons per hectare - as reported by the South
Asia office of the
Do it ourselves
But blocking seed imports is only the initial goal of local NGOs protesting against Monsanto: The end objective is to boost local seed use and production by investing more in agricultural research and development, said Facebook campaign organizer Ninglekhu.
“We have used this Monsanto movement as an opening to talk about the ministry’s agricultural vision, its understanding of food security and seed sovereignty and what policies are in place to address these. Monsanto is not the only option.”
Both the agriculture and science ministries “lack the power, capacity, and continuity to set the country’s long-term agricultural R&D [research and development] agenda,” IFPRI concluded.
The principal government agency devoted to such research - the National Agricultural Research Council - has produced only two hybrid corn strains since its establishment in 1991.
One type has not been taken up by private seed producers as it was deemed not commercially viable, and the other is still undergoing approval, said Chitra Bahadur Kunwar, a senior scientist at the council’s National Maize Research Programme.
Meanwhile, the increasingly scant availability of openly-pollinated local seeds, which can be reused from one season to the next, leave farmers vulnerable to the caprice of importation, said Durga Lamichhane, a commercial maize farmer from Gaidakot in Nawal Parasi District.
“Our local seeds are about to disappear. If for some reason these hybrid seeds do not come, we would be in a situation of emergency,” said Lamichhane, referring to a growing trend among commercial farmers not to save local seeds due to a preference to buy hybrids and other improved seed varieties.
But striving for no seed imports is not realistic, noted
Andrew McDonald, a CIMMYT cropping agronomist for
“
Call for locally developed hybrids
For Tilak Prasad Kandel, a commercial farmer with a hectare of land in Nawal Parasi, the concern is not dependency, but rather lack of government spending to develop local hybrids. “There are alternatives to Monsanto.”
Though promoting maize hybrids is important to boosting
maize production and profitability in
“I don't think USAID should be in the business of choosing `winners’ by working with a single seed company in a market environment where many private companies are active.”
The
“We have not worked out the details of the pilot as yet and are still consulting with a variety of groups including the private sector, academia, the MOAC [Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives] and Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC), civil society and farmer groups. We will take their feedback into account as we further discuss the form of partnership that best meets the needs of Nepali farmers.”
About 16 different maize hybrids from multiple companies are registered for sale by the government’s regulatory process.
No matter the source of seeds, the USAID pilot project would help farmers trying to grow hybrid maize, said Kandel. Not only would it subsidize seed costs, but also provide much-needed education on how to use the seeds, which is the biggest problem for farmers, he added.
According to farmers in Nawal Parasi, the subsidy would cover 75 percent of the cost of Monsanto seeds.
But for now the partnership remains a proposition as the government has not joined.
USAID has stated it “will not move forward independently to
fund such a programme” and “encourages this dialogue,
which underscores the critical need for
The government’s Natural Resources and Means Committee has requested a report addressing concerns about seed sovereignty from the Agriculture Ministry for a hearing expected to be held in January.
Meat
eating in America
(The
Washington Post) – Meat eating in the
According to a Department of Agriculture report, Americans are projected to eat 12.2 percent less meat in 2012 than they did 2007. And it’s not just the weak economy. As Mark Bittman observes, there’s a real long-term trend here: “Beef consumption has been in decline for about 20 years; the drop in chicken is even more dramatic, over the last five years or so; pork also has been steadily slipping for about five years.”
Why is this happening? The Daily Livestock Report blames
rising meat prices in the
Perhaps just as significantly, though, it does seem that attitudes toward meat are changing. More and more people appear to be cutting back on beef and pork consumption for environmental or ethical reasons. (Although before vegetarians get too excited, one factor that often gets overlooked here is the aging of the population — as the baby boomers get older, they’ve been eating less meat.)
The Daily Livestock Report, for its part, blames government policy for waging a 40-year information campaign to dissuade people from eating meat. Bittman, on the other hand, finds that notion preposterous — he notes, among other things, that government agencies still shy away from recommending to people that they eat less meat. Read his post for a fuller dissection. The drop in meat-eating has come in spite of heavy government policies, which include heavy subsidies, not because of it.
End Transmission