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February 4, 2010
· Mexico starts planting GM corn, activists protest
· Pres. Obama stumps for biofuel and climate plans
· Aussies open world’s largest plant research facility
· Dole Food Co. reports big jump in quarterly profits
· Medfly quarantines cost Calif. growers big bucks
Mexico
(AP
via Yahoo! Finance)
Environmentalists and farm groups announced they have filed
an appeal with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, arguing the
government has been unwilling or unable to halt the illicit spread of GM crops
in
They say the government shouldn't authorize legal plantings until it investigates contamination from past, illicit biotech planting.
In a written response to The Associated Press, the
Agriculture Department said planting has begun on some of the two dozen
experimental plots granted approval late last year. They are mostly in Sinaloa
and
Opponents say modified genes could spread and contaminate genetically valuable native varieties, from which modern corn was first hybridized between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago. The native genes could be needed someday to help strengthen hybrids.
GM supporters say the genetic contamination theory has been overblown and that such crops can safely be planted in areas where corn is not native. Current law allows only carefully controlled planting in areas far from the central highlands, until the risk can be assessed.
Florencio Cruz Cortes, a weather-beaten Raramuri
Indian farmer who says his small communal farm in the mountains of northern
"The corn was coming up different, it had
changed," Cruz Cortes said of the 2004 crop in the hamlet of
Cruz Cortes' community joined Greenpeace
The suit argues the government violated the human, economic, social and cultural rights of farm communities and consumers by failing to investigate widespread illegal planting of biotech corn starting in the early 2000s.
None of the agencies named in the suit could cite a single arrest or prosecution for illicit use of biotech seed, though government investigations show it has happened.
"We have had to take this to an international tribunal to demonstrate the lack of action on the part of the Mexican government in the face of the illegal introduction and planting of genetically modified corn," said Pedro Torres, president of Democratic Farm Workers Front.
The rights commission can recommend a government take action, and refer cases to the Inter-American Human Rights Court if a country does not comply.
Farmers say that in the broad, semiarid plains of
Farm leader Gabino Gomez said he went to one of the sites slated for experimental planting and found it not isolated as the law demands, but "surrounded by other crops. If they plant there, it will violate the law."
The planting permits were granted for a relatively small total area of about 31 acres (13 hectares) split evenly between Dow AgroScience/PHI Mexico and Monsanto. Officials at both companies were unavailable for comment.
Pres. Obama stumps for biofuel and climate plans
(Reuters)
Using the new initiatives to garner support for a climate and energy bill stalled in the U.S. Senate, Obama met with a handful of state governors to press his policies to fight global warming and wean the nation from imported fossil fuels.
"
"We have to focus not so much on those narrow areas where we disagree, but on the broad areas where we agree," he said.
Agreement on a climate bill is still far from certain, and
the legislation faces further obstacles after the election last month in
Obama has acknowledged that a controversial "cap and trade" system could be separated from other parts of the bill, though he is adamant that a market-based mechanism be put in place to make high polluting fuels more expensive for industry than less-polluting, renewable energy sources.
Biofuels represent one renewable energy source the administration wants to promote, and a new interagency report spelled out ways the country would achieve that going forward.
"By 2022, we will more than double the amount of biofuels we produce to 36 billion gallons, which will decrease our dependence on foreign oil by hundreds of millions of barrels per year," Obama said.
He also announced a new task force to forge a plan for rolling out affordable carbon capture and storage technology in 10 years, including having 10 commercial demonstration projects up and running by 2016.
Carbon capture and storage is meant to capture the emissions from carbon-polluting coal plants and bury them underground rather than spewing them into the atmosphere but the technology is still being researched.
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday ethanol and other renewable fuels must account for 8.25 percent of gasoline sales in 2010 to meet Congress' mandate that nearly 13 billion gallons of renewable fuels be produced this year.
That is lower than last year's 10.21 percent renewable fuel standard that the EPA announced in November 2008..
The
The report offers solutions that would ease the way for ethanol to get from producers in the U.S. Midwest to consumers near the coasts. Such snags include filling stations that have been slow to adopt pumps to distribute a fuel blend that is mostly ethanol, called E85, and a lack of dedicated pipelines for biofuels.
Loan guarantees for ethanol plants could be targeted more effectively to support new biofuels plants, the report said.
The struggling biofuels industry is concerned the Obama administration will move too quickly away from ethanol to biofuels that derive from more difficult techniques using wood chips and other biomass.
The president's backing of ethanol, however, could shore up his support in farm states, where ethanol boosts demand for corn.
Environmentalists and some scientists say production of
Aussies open world’s largest plant research facility
(ABC Rural)
– The world's largest and most advanced plant research facility in the world
has been opened at
The "super greenhouse" features a series of 50 high-tech glasshouses and laboratories housing more than a kilometre of conveyor systems, delivering plants to a bank of remote sensors.
The facility is called the Plant Accelerator, and will help scientists study plants more quickly, determine which plants will be successful in a changing environment, and reduce the breeding time.
Professor Mark Tester, director of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, says he expects results for farmers in five years:
"It's accelerating the research and probably more importantly accelerating the delivery of research advances to farmers," he says.
"The aim is to try to shorten the time to scientific discoveries and their application."
Dole Food Co. reports big jump in quarterly profits
(Wire Services) Dole Food Co Inc's (DOLE.N) fourth-quarter
profit before taxes and interest jumped 49 percent, and the fruit and vegetable
producer said it sold three manufacturing plants in
Dole, which pre-announced its results, said gains during the quarter were offset by higher marketing expenses related to the national rollout of its new packaged salad items and lower profit from Asian fresh fruits.
"One possible bright side to the release was the long-struggling fresh vegetables segment, where Dole nearly broke even despite heavy marketing spending on its new bagged salads," JP Morgan analyst Ken Goldman said in a note.
The company's newly launched bagged salads could boost the revenue and earnings going forward, the analyst said.
For the quarter ended Jan. 2, Dole's earnings before interest and taxes were $70 million, compared with $47 million a year earlier, as it got a boost from foreign currency exchange and fuel hedging gains.
Revenue slumped 7 percent to $1.53 billion. The Westlake, California-based company, which went public in October last year, said it had amended certain senior secured credit facilities, and now expects to have no debt maturities till 2013.
Dole also said it reduced its total debt in 2009 by 30 percent to $1.48 billion through asset sales and IPO proceeds.
The company had sold 35.7 million shares in its IPO, raising $446.4 million.
Shares of the company were down 3 percent at $11.53 in morning trade Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Medfly quarantines cost Calif.
(nctimes.com) – Agriculture officials have said a permanent Mediterranean fruit fly infestation could cost the state almost $2 billion annually. But controlling the crop-destroying insect is costly too, and some of that financial burden rests squarely on individual farmers.
Farmers inside a quarantine's core areas, or the half-mile radius around the site of each fly's capture, stand to lose their entire crops, officials said. The remaining quarantined growers will suffer wide-ranging and harder-to-calculate losses related to the 60- to 70-day pesticide treatment periods required before fruit can be legally harvested or moved from properties and sold.
Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego Farm Bureau, said farmers inside the core areas will suffer the most dramatic financial losses. Farmers who grow fruit such as persimmons that cannot survive on trees for the 60- to 70-day treatment period, could also lose much of their crops.
"For other growers there's the nuisance and expense of treating the crops before they can go to market," he explained. "It becomes a real problem from a farm management perspective."
A 79-square-mile quarantine was established in Fallbrook in
November after agriculture officials discovered flies in area traps.
It was unclear last week exactly how many farmers are affected by the quarantines.
The quarantines restrict the movement of more than 260 fruits and vegetables from areas potentially affected by the flies, which can travel roughly 4.5 miles in their lifetime. While the quarantine is in effect, no one is allowed to move fruits or vegetables from properties inside the boundaries until the produce has been treated and certified by county officials as safe to move and sell.
Growers inside the half-mile core areas surrounding each site where a fly was found cannot move crops at all, even with treatment, agriculture officials said. Agriculture officials strip host fruits and vegetables grown within 100 meters of larvae detection sites, bury them, and treat the area with insecticides.
Without eradication efforts such as quarantines, the flies could infest the county permanently, threatening its $1.5 billion agriculture industry. In a worst-case scenario, they said, a Medfly infestation could cost as much as $280 million in lost crops countywide.
A permanent infestation statewide could cost as much as $1.8 billion annually in crop losses, job losses and trade restrictions, state agriculture officials said.
Fallbrook area avocado growers Kip and Rocki Hughes, who farm about two acres around their home, said they understand the economic threat Medflies present, but still feel frustrated that a few flies found nearby will cost them their entire crop.
"There are no flies on or around this property," Kip Hughes said of his grove. "I think that if you're going to have your property condemned, they should have to prove that the property in question has the fly."
The Hughes estimate their harvest would have been close to 10,000 pounds this year, which could sell for about $9,000, Kip Hughes said. Water costs are about $500 per month in the summer, so the couple's 2009 loss will be about $14,000.
Rocki Hughes said she has been collecting fallen avocados because she can't stand to let them rot on the ground.
"I hate waste and, to me, this is real waste," she said. "It hurts."
She said she has stored about 100 pounds of the fallen avocados in the garage, where they'll sit until they're rotten or eaten.
"We've been eating avocados until they're coming out of our ears," she joked. "I'm sick of 'em."
Farmer Dan Pettigrew, who has five acres of avocados inside the Fallbrook quarantine, said he has been treating his crop himself, which saves money on labor. Even so, he'll probably spend between $200 and $300 on insecticide to complete his 70-day treatment schedule.
Once the pre-harvest treatment period is complete, Pettigrew said he's required to continue spraying every 10 days until he has finished harvesting.
Because avocados grow at different speeds and can hang on the tree for months after they ripen without rotting, farmers typically reap financial benefits by harvesting intermittently over the course of several months, Pettigrew said. The practice allows growers to pick only the larger fruit for sale when fluctuating market prices are most favorable.
"To me, it’s better to spend a little more time and money to treat on through than to be limited with what I do with my crop," Pettigrew said.
Avoiding post-harvest treatment costs would mean stripping trees and selling all the fruit at once, regardless of its size or the current market value.
He said he could minimize post-harvest treatment costs by waiting to pick fruit until all of it has grown to full size, but waiting could mean missing out on periods of historically favorable prices such as the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.
It would also mean risking his whole crop by giving the fly more time to find its way into his grove.
"It could get worse even though it’s not great now," Pettigrew said and paused. "It could be worse. It could change."
End Transmission