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April 28, 2010
· Supreme Court questions ban of GM alfalfa
· Small growers wary of proposed FDA rules
· Ag sales spur DuPont; quarter profits double
· Motor City may provide model for urban ag
· Smoke studies may fire up veggie production
Supreme Court questions ban of GM alfalfa
(AP
via Seattle Times)
The case has been closely watched by environmentalists and
agribusiness. A federal judge in
St. Louis-based Monsanto is arguing that the ban was too broad and was based on the assumption that their products were harmful. Opponents of the use of genetically engineered seeds say they can contaminate conventional crops, but Monsanto says such cross-pollination is unlikely.
Organic groups and farmers exporting to
Environmentalists are concerned with the case's effect on a
federal law that requires the government to review a product's effect on the
environment before approving it. The U.S. Agriculture Department earlier
approved the seeds, but courts in
Aside from the precedent, the case may be irrelevant in another year, when the USDA is expected to finish the full environmental review that was not done in the first place. It is expected to again approve the seeds for production.
Several justices appeared skeptical that the lower court had the authority to fully ban the sale of the product because of the pending environmental review. Chief Justice John Roberts questioned why the court issued the injunction instead of simply remanding the matter back to the USDA.
Justice Antonin Scalia appeared even more wary, questioning the idea that genetically modified crops could contaminate other crops.
"This isn't the contamination of the
Alfalfa, which is used for livestock feed and can be planted
in spring or fall, is a major crop grown on about 22 million acres in the
Justice Stephen Breyer did not
taking part in the case because his brother, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in
A decision is expected before late June. The case is Monsanto v. Geerston Seed Farms, 09-475.
Small growers wary of proposed FDA rules
(SFGate.com) Small farmers in California who have led a national movement away from industrial agriculture face a looming crackdown on food safety that they say is geared to big corporate farms and will make it harder for them to survive.
The small growers, many of whom grow dozens of different kinds of vegetables and fruits, say the inherent benefits of their size, and their sensitivity to extra costs, are being ignored.
They are fighting to carve out a sanctuary in legislation that would bring farmers under the strict purview of the Food and Drug Administration, an agency more familiar with pharmaceuticals than food and local farms.
A bill before the Senate is riding a bipartisan groundswell created by recent outbreaks of E. coli, salmonella and other contamination in everything from fresh spinach to cookie dough.
And the small farmers face opponents in consumer groups, victims of food contamination, large growers and the Obama administration, who say no farm and no food should get a pass on safety.
An even tougher version of the legislation passed the House last summer. Now, a behind-the-scenes battle is raging in the Senate over how to regulate small and organic growers without ruining them - and still protect consumers.
If two versions of the overhaul pass, Congress would work to merge them.
The legislation would mandate a range of programs intended to bolster food safety. The FDA would gain greater authority to regulate how products are grown, stored, transported, inspected, traced from farm to table and recalled when needed.
Pinpointing problems
But biologically diverse and organic growers argue that the problems that have plagued the food industry lie elsewhere.
They point to the sale of bagged vegetables, cut fruit and other processed food in which vast quantities of produce from different farms are mixed, sealed in containers and shipped long distances, creating a host for harmful bacteria.
The legislation does not address what some experts suspect is the source of E. coli contamination: the large, confined animal feeding operations that are breeding grounds for E. coli and are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, not the FDA.
"It does not take on the industrial animal industry and
the abuses going on," said Tom Willey of T&D Willey Farms in
No one in Congress or the administration has yielded in a bureaucratic turf battle between the Department of Agriculture, which regulates meat, poultry and eggs, and the FDA, which regulates all other food.
The controversy began with the spinach E. coli outbreak near San Juan Bautista in 2006 that left four people dead, 35 people with acute kidney failure and 103 hospitalized. The bacteria, known as E. coli O157:H7, first appeared in hamburger meat in the early 1980s and migrated to produce, mainly lettuce and other leafy greens that are cut, mixed and bagged for the convenience of shoppers.
Contamination
Since then, there have been dozens of contamination cases, leading Congress to rewrite food safety laws by giving much more power to the FDA. But small growers worry that they, and consumers, will suffer in the sweep of reform.
"How do we trust that the FDA is going to know about things that the San Francisco Bay Area has been very progressive on - the field to fork, fresh, grow local, buy local - all of that?" said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. "The organic people are feeling that the regulations the FDA may promulgate will be so safety oriented, it'll put them out of business."
Consumer groups say they care about small farmers but that safety comes first.
"Our principle is that food should be safe, whatever the source," said Sandra Eskin, director of the Pew Health Group's food safety campaign, one of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which Monday sponsored a public meeting on the issue with federal officials in Seaside (Monterey County).
"People care profoundly about all these issues: feeding their families, food safety, local agriculture," Eskin said. "It's a passionate discussion and understandably so. Everybody eats."
Tom Nassif, head of Western Growers, which represents large produce growers, said small growers should not be exempt.
"If the small guy who sells to a farmers' market gets a family sick, it's a blip on the radar screen," Nassif said. "There's not a big hue and cry, because it didn't affect hundreds of people. What about those people? Doesn't their food safety count?"
Protocols
The tension that has come with food safety reforms was on
display after the spinach outbreak rocked
However, a UC Davis study last year by Shermain Hardesty and Yoko Kusunose found that the rules have put smaller growers at a disadvantage because their compliance costs are spread over fewer acres. Hardesty said costs may be as high as $100 an acre.
Large produce buyers such as Wal-Mart and McDonald's have
gone much further than the industry standards. They have imposed rules of their
own that have forced many
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said Monday the administration is keeping a "close watch" on these so-called "super metrics," acknowledging that they have harmed the environment but said, "nobody gets a pass on food safety."
Increasing the danger
Willey, the
"When you create microbial vacuums, they can be even more easily taken over by pathogenic organisms," he said. "In organic agriculture, we depend tremendously on a cooperative effort with beneficial microorganisms. My whole soil fertility system is based on that. Actually, soil fertility planetwide is based on that."
Efforts to modify proposed rules to make compliance easier for biologically diversified farms have been more successful in the Senate than in the House. New language that requires the FDA to consider farm size, crop diversity, organic requirements and other issues has been added.
"While none of these things in themselves solves the cause for concern, they certainly point strongly in the direction of the FDA needing to take into account these considerations," said Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
Hoefner called the House bill a one-size-fits-all approach that would be a "complete disaster" for small farms.
Ag sales spur DuPont; quarter profits double
(Reuters)
The company also pushed its 2010 earnings forecast higher, keeping up an ongoing aggressive theme first presented at a meeting with investors last autumn.
"It was a blowout quarter," Soleil Securities analyst Mark Gulley said. "Clearly, they are playing offense now after the recession."
Sales jumped across the globe for DuPont, including in the
DuPont said demand for its photovoltaic and semiconductor materials helped fuel much of the revenue jump. Sales to the automotive and industrial markets also increased during the period.
In a surprising move, pretax income from the company's pharmaceutical income was $60 million higher than expected. Profit from this unit was slowly fading as DuPont's patent for the heart drug Cozaar expires in stages this year.
"Macro trends drove first-quarter demand for our science-based innovations, and DuPont was ready," Chief Executive Officer Ellen Kullman said in a statement.
Total volume in the agricultural and nutrition segment, however, increased only 1 percent. The first quarter is traditionally when farmers buy supplies for the spring planting season.
North American seed volumes did increase, helping to offset a delay in the European planting season, DuPont said.
The company did not comment on its ongoing seed-trait licensing battle with rival Monsanto Co <MON.N> or on current concerns about agribusiness monopolies.
BY THE NUMBERS
The Wilmington, Delaware-based company reported net income of $1.13 billion, or $1.24 per share, compared with $489 million, or 54 cents per share, a year earlier.
Analysts expected earnings of $1.06 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 23.5 percent to $8.48 billion. Analysts expected $8.06 billion.
DuPont boosted its 2010 earnings outlook to a range of $2.50 to $2.70 per share, having previously forecast $2.15 to $2.45. Analysts expect $2.39 per share.
Costs for energy, freight and raw materials fell about 2 percent during the quarter, despite an increase in the cost of crude oil.
DuPont shares rose 1.7 percent to $41.65 in premarket trading.
Also Tuesday, DuPont peers Celanese
and
Motor
City
(AP
via SFGate.com)
With growing interest in locally raised food, cities
including
But no city seems to have as much potential for urban
farming as
"Most other cities aren't quite ready to think about large-scale agriculture," said Michael Score, president of Hantz Farms, which has plans to create the world's largest urban farm in the city. "We have vacant land and that used to be something that we were ashamed of."
Decades of population decline left
The vacant property in
Farming was a big part of
John Hantz, a
The plan has sparked some skepticism among the community
growers who have been the driving force behind agriculture in
"What's making urban agriculture interesting and
sustainable is the small scale. A few lots in a community, potentially bringing
some produce to market," said Frank Donner, 29, who has helped run the
At Birdtown, gardeners share the work as well as the fruit and vegetables they grow each year. Dug in the ground where an apartment building burned about 15 years ago and was never rebuilt, Donner said the garden has become "a wonderful source of not just produce but friendship and community."
At least one nonprofit, however, also wants to get into large-scale agriculture in the city. Self-Help Addiction Rehabilitation Inc., which specializes in substance abuse treatment, has proposed RecoveryPark, a 10-year, $220 million project that would create organic farms in four struggling neighborhoods. The plan calls for about half of 2,000 acres to be used for 15- to 30-acre organic farms, with the rest used for education, commercial and housing development, parks and other green spaces.
The organization is waiting to see the city's new agriculture zoning regulations, but it expects to use land now owned by the city, state, schools and land banks, said Gary Wozniak, the nonprofit's chief development officer. The land could be bought or leased or held in trust, he said. The farms would employ recovering addicts as well as neighborhood residents.
"It's really a big job creation engine," Wozniak said. "We're looking to rebuild these neighborhoods."
Such projects tailored to
A partial draft released last month provides a vision for agriculture in a postindustrial city. It lists 20 goals that include environmental, economic, social and health benefits. By putting vacant land to use, planners also hope to discourage the illegal dumping that's a problem in blighted neighborhoods.
"My personal hope," said Kathryn Lynch Underwood, a city planner who grew up gardening in the South, "is that the model that we roll out benefits as many people across the board in a city that really needs people to be employed and engaged in meaningful work."
Smoke studies may fire up veggie production
(Discovery News) Fire can be destructive and devastating, but it also helps plants grow.
Scientists are zeroing in on the chemicals in smoke that stimulate seeds to sprout. By tapping into the powers of fire, scientists hope to get onions, tomatoes and other food crops to grow more reliably, more quickly and in more challenging environments. But thats not all.
"By applying these molecules, I believe we can improve
farming, we can improve weed control, we can improve revegetation
of the environment after destructive mining, and we could definitely improve
the stress tolerance of plants," said botanist Johannes van Staden, director of the Research Centre for Plant Growth
& Development at the
People have known for a long time that plants grow better after fire sweeps through. In some cases, species that were thought to be extinct have reappeared after burns. Still, it has been difficult to pinpoint exactly how fire sparks growth, van Staden said, because close to 4,000 chemical compounds occur naturally in smoke.
Beginning in 1990, van Staden spent 14 years narrowing the search down to one type of molecule, called butenolides. In a competitive twist, he mentioned his findings to Australian colleagues, who then published a paper about the molecules in Science in 2004. His own paper came out later the same year in the South African Journal of Botany.
"They scooped us," van Staden said. "It was painful at the time."
Since then, the race to find clarity in smoke has only grown more intense. Scientists now know that there is a whole family of butenolides, also called karrikins. These molecules get inside seeds and help them grow. ("Karrik" is an aboriginal term for smoke). But the story does not end there.
Alongside karrikins, van Staden's group has recently found, smoke contains a molecule that prevents karrikins from working. This inhibitor molecule gets into seeds, too. But unlike karrikins, the inhibitor washes away in the rain. Once it's gone, seeds can sprout.
"I'm 100 percent convinced that this little molecule is the one that tells the seed, 'Look, you can germinate now because there's enough water,'" van Staden said. "It's all very, very preliminary, and we have to do an awful lot of work on this. But I think it opens up one of the most wonderful systems."
In experiments, van Staden's group has found that smoke's wondrous compounds help seeds grow. They help plants reach maturity faster. And they allow plants to withstand all sorts of stresses, including heat, cold, drought and heavy metal pollution. The molecules work on maize, okra, tomatoes, onions, dry beans and more.
Smoke compounds are not toxic to humans, and van Staden imagines a day when farmers will be able to use man-made versions of these molecules to produce multiple rounds of crops in the same growing season, even when conditions are less than ideal. As the global climate continues to change, sub-optimum conditions are likely to become more common.
Molecular biologist Steven Smith suspects that applications for smoke compounds will be more specialized. He imagines, for example, using karrikins to stimulate dormant weeds to sprout, providing an opportunity to wipe them out all at once. They could also help stimulate long-dormant seeds from seed banks, he added, or help plants grow in areas polluted by mining.
Smith, who is part of a group at the
"It kind of primes them for the new environment," he said. "Once a fire has gone through, it changes the light quality because you lose the canopy of leaves, and the surface of the soil becomes blacker."
As scientists continue to investigate the details, the biggest challenge for now is finding cheaper and more efficient ways to synthesize smoke-inspired plant helpers.
"We've still got some time to go," Smith said. "There is a fair bit of chemistry to be done."
End Transmission