" I heard it through the AgLine"

March 2, 2011

 

 

·        Global food crisis is bad, but not as bad as …

·        Google bucks back climate change insurance

·        Dow’s new GM corn battles super weeds

·        Ancient Inca grain is new health food darling

·        New technology bolsters Hawaii food exports

 

 

Global food crisis is bad, but not as bad as …

 

(Bloomberg via Yahoo! Finance) – A global food crisis on the scale of what happened three years ago isn’t recurring because a jump in the cost of rice, a staple for half the world, has lagged behind that for other grains, according to the OECD.

 

Futures traded on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 2.8 percent in the last 12 months, compared with 60 percent for wheat and 93 percent for corn. World milled-rice output will rise 2.4 percent to a record 451.7 million metric tons in 2010- 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts, helping keep stockpiles near the highest in seven years.

 

Rice prices almost tripled in the 20 months to April 2008, contributing to a worsening in world hunger that meant a record 1.02 billion people were deemed by the United Nations to be undernourished in 2009. That figure fell to 925 million people last year, the first decline in 15 years, as food costs dropped and economic growth lifted incomes.

 

“The scale of the problem is not as bad for large parts of the world as it was in 2008,” said Ken Ash, the trade and agriculture director at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. “With two-thirds of the world’s hungry largely reliant on rice as a staple, rice prices have not increased and supplies are relatively strong.”

 

Global food prices rose 28 percent in the past 12 months and reached a record in January, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. That’s helped spark riots across North Africa and the Middle East that have already toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. More than 60 food riots occurred worldwide from 2007 to 2009, according to the U.S. State Department.

 

Previous Peak

 

Rice had added to the previous peak in food costs in 2008, with prices climbing 33 percent in 2007 and another 11 percent the next year, after export bans by producers including Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Egypt. Rice, which jumped as high as $25.07 for 100 pounds in Chicago in April 2008, closed at $14.24 on the Chicago Board of Trade yesterday.

 

World prices for rice “are well below what they were back then,” Ash said Feb. 24 in his office at the OECD headquarters in Paris. “In developing countries the impact should not be as negative. That’s not to say there’s no problem.”

 

Rice planting in the U.S., the world’s third-largest exporter, may drop 25 percent this year because growers can earn more from corn and soybeans, according to the median in a Bloomberg survey of nine analysts and farmers in January.

 

Grain Supplies

 

“Good seasons” in parts of Africa and Asia have helped build up grain supplies there to levels above those of 2007-08, reducing the impact of rising world prices, Ash said. “Local grain supplies in parts of Africa and Asia are very good.”

 

Higher food prices have pushed 44 million people into “extreme” poverty in developing countries since June, the World Bank said Feb. 15.

 

Wheat prices climbed in the past six months after Russia banned grain exports in August following a crop-damaging drought, while rising U.S. ethanol production has lifted demand for the feedstock corn.

 

Rice is the most important food crop in the developing world and a staple for more than half of the global population, according to the International Rice Research Institute.

 

World rice stocks are forecast to slip 0.7 percent to 93.9 million tons at the end of 2010-2011, after climbing in the previous three years on rising production in China and Thailand, USDA data shows.

 

OECD countries may see more inflation from food compared with 2007-08 because of rising meat prices, a “significant” part of the diet in developed economies, Ash said.

 

Food Costs

 

The effect of higher food costs on OECD inflation “was relatively modest and relatively short-lived” in 2007-08, Ash said. For consumers in developed economies, “the fact that wheat is a bit more expensive is not a life or death matter.”

 

The OECD expects the supply response to higher grain prices to mainly come from developed countries, with planting up “quite significantly,” Ash said. That could “quickly” push grain prices down “by the summer, early fall” in the Northern Hemisphere, he said.

 

While public focus is on the impact of expensive food on poor consumers, the OECD is trying to focus attention on the “fundamental” problem that “the international community may tend to forget a little bit about,” Ash said.

 

“The problem is poverty,” Ash said. “At relatively low prices a decade ago there were still 800 million people hungry. What high prices, economic crises and various natural disasters do is, for some period of time, increase that number.”

 

Policy Makers

 

Policy makers should focus on helping developing countries raise crop output and their purchasing power, he said.

 

“There’s a self interest in a world that’s stable and secure, and where growth is more inclusive,” Ash said. “People who are well-fed are more productive.”

 

To address food security, the OECD is studying the idea of food stocks in regions prone to supply shortages, Ash said. The alternative is to “pre-position” cash, he said.

 

“There is no costless way to do this,” Ash said. “One of the advantages of cash as opposed to physical food aid is that you don’t have the same kind of negative disruption on local markets. You get the food, plus the producer benefits.”

 

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Google bucks back climate change insurance

 

(BigPondNews.com) – Google is among investors pumping $US42 million into a climate change-inspired startup that calculates the chances of crops being ruined by weather.

 

WeatherBill launched Total Weather Insurance in 2010 as a way for US farmers to protect themselves against being devastated by weather, which the US Department of Agriculture blamed for 90 per cent of crop losses last year.

 

'The flip flop of weather from one year to the next is the biggest challenge farmers face,' said Steve Wolters on Monday, a farmer who grows corn, soybean and wheat in the US state of Ohio.

 

'It makes sense to me to take advantage of WeatherBill's automated weather insurance programs that pinpoint the weather conditions expected to affect my land and pay me if they happen.'

 

WeatherBill continuously aggregates weather data and runs large-scale weather simulations on its computers.

 

The automated system lets farmers or others customise insurance policies to the amount of rain or seasonal temperatures they need for fields to flourish.

 

Those taking part in the startup's second round of funding with Google Ventures included Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Index Ventures and Allen Company. Total investment in the company was just shy of $US60 million ($A59.0 million).

 

'WeatherBill is one of those rare companies that has the leadership and vision to apply new technology to an ancient and daunting problem - weather's impact on agriculture,' said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures.

 

'Now WeatherBill can help farmers globally deal with the increasingly extreme weather brought on by climate change.'

 

WeatherBill plans to use the money to hire engineers in its San Francisco headquarters and to expand its offerings globally. WeatherBill has about 30 employees.

 

'It is a technology company doing some work in insurance,' Bill Maris of Google Ventures said of WeatherBill.

 

'This is going to have a real world impact on agriculture,' he continued. 'Helping farmers protect their financial futures and protecting the global food supply is something we can all be excited with.'

 

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Dow’s new GM corn battles super weeds

 

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Dow Chemical Co.'s agricultural division said it has taken the next step toward gaining international patent rights for its new strain of genetically engineered corn that it says will help farmers battle a new strain of "super-weeds."

The company said Tuesday it published its patent application with the World Intellectual Property Organization. That's the first step toward securing its patent rights in countries around the world. If the patents are secured, it would give Dow a pathway to sell its corn seed in global markets.

 

The vast majority of genetically engineered crops on the market are resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, or its generic equivalent called glyphosate. This is a benefit to farmers because it lets them widely spray Roundup on their fields, killing weeds but leaving the crops behind. But weeds are increasingly adapting to the technology and are surviving Roundup applications.

 

Dow AgroSciences LLC said Tuesday its new corn plants are resistant to Dow's "2,4-D" herbicides. That means farmers could spray them with a chemical that will also kill Roundup resistant weeds.

 

Dow plans to commercialize its corn seeds by the 2012-2013 growing season.

 

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Ancient Inca grain is new health food darling

 

(AFP via thewest.com.au) COTIMBORA, Bolivia – Grown high in the Andes for millennia, a grain the Incas so prized they deemed it sacred has become a global star and is now being touted as the health food of the future.

 

Quinoa, a good crop for harsher climes as it prospers in semi-arid conditions and high altitudes where rivals struggle, has nutrition experts salivating as it is chock full of protein and essential amino acids.

 

"We don't ever get sick, because we eat the quinoa we got from our ancestors," Agustin Flores, a third-generation farmer in Bolivia's southern highlands, told AFP with a touch of salesmanship and a hesitant smile.

 

"When we are tired, after the working day, we have a drink based on the quinoa grain and that picks us up," said Flores, adding that he and his four sons also consume it in soups and cakes.

 

Quinoa was originally scorned by Spanish colonizers. At one point its cultivation was banned due to its use in what Spaniards saw as "pagan" ceremonies and the Incas were forced to grow wheat instead.

 

Known as chisaya mama or "mother of all grains", it was so revered by the Incas that the emperor would traditionally sow the first seeds of the season with special tools made out of gold.

 

But in the past 10-15 years, quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) has made major inroads in Western cuisine and is often used as a substitute for pastas, risottos, gratins and taboules.

 

Ever looking for healthier options, chefs and nutritionists are beginning to take notice of the ancient grain, which has a light, fluffy texture and a mild, slightly nutty flavor.

 

"With its great nutritional profile quinoa has now become a food of the future," said Epifanio Murana, the head of the Quinoa Producers' Association.

 

"NASA scientists have called it exceptionally balanced and complete, and highly useful for astronauts' needs," he said.

 

Ruben Ramiro Miranda, a researcher at the University of Oruro, also sang the praises of the grain which is related to highly nutritional amaranth.

 

Quinoa can prevent inflammation and hypertension and helps "in the development of neurons, as well as healthy breast milk," he told AFP.

 

Bolivia, South America's poorest country with around 10 percent arable land, was the world's top producer of quinoa in 2009 with 30,000 tonnes or 46 percent of global supply. Cotimbora, at 3,700 meters (12,100 feet), is the heart of quinoa country.

 

It is followed by Peru, with 42 percent of production and the United States, with six percent, official Bolivian data shows.

 

In Bolivia's Cotimbora-Challapata region, progress spawned by the grain's boom is plain to see. Export prices have almost tripled since 2007, now fetching 2,900 dollars a tonne.

 

"Education is getting better outfitted, nutrition has improved. People live better," said Mario Alanoca, the director general of the producers' group. "But what we worry about is the risk of drought."

 

No rain in November and December in Bolivia's highlands has left as much as 45 percent of the 2010-2011 crop, due in April-May, in danger, producers say.

 

"Here there should be some," farmer Flores points in his dusty field. "And there, there also should be some. But there's nothing there. Mostly it's the drought. We lost half of what we planted this year."

 

It may be a bad year for the crop, to be sure. But the surface area being planted in the grain has surged, a Franco-Bolivian study found. The IRD study also found that more quinoa was being planted on land at risk of freezes, and where animals once grazed, increasing potential land disputes.

 

Quinoa in its natural state has a coating of bitter-tasting saponins, making it unpalatable prior to processing.

 

Most quinoa sold commercially in North America has been processed to remove this coating. But this bitterness has beneficial effects during cultivation, as the plant is unpopular with birds and thus requires minimal protection.

 

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New technology bolsters Hawaii food exports

 

(USDA-ARS) – Hawaii growers can now export more fruits and vegetables to the U.S. mainland, thanks to technology advanced by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and cooperators.

 

Delicious tropical fruits and vegetables such as papaya, rambutan, longan, dragon fruit and purple-fleshed sweet potato are gaining popularity in the continental United States. But just five years ago, it would have been difficult to find these tropical delicacies in grocery stores. That's because strict quarantine restrictions and phytosanitary measures are in place to ensure agricultural pests like fruit flies don't invade the mainland.

 

Entomologist Peter Follett and food technologist Marisa Wall, both with the Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, HI, were the first to apply generic irradiation protocols to control a wide variety of quarantine insect pests found on fresh commodities. ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the USDA, and this research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.

 

Working closely with colleagues from the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Hawaii Pride LLC and local growers and exporters, Follett found that a generic dose of 150 grays (Gy) of radiation is suitable for controlling the three species of tephritid fruit flies found in Hawaii. He also demonstrated a generic dose of 400 Gy is broadly effective against many other pests. These results contributed to APHIS approval of using generic doses for treatment of Hawaiian produce.

 

Wall examined product quality after irradiation. Her tests helped establish the maximum dose levels the fruit and vegetables could withstand while ensuring consumers receive a high-quality product.

 

Thanks to Follett and Wall's research, it is now easier and less costly for Hawaiian growers to share their produce with mainland consumers. As a result of their efforts, the scientists received a 2010 Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer.

 

This research has also helped facilitate the world-wide adoption of this technology. A handful of countries—including Mexico, India and Thailand—are currently using generic protocols on a variety of commodities.

 

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