" I heard it through the AgLine"

June 3, 2011

 

 

·        Spain outraged by German E. coli blame  

·        GOP questions cost of healthy eating rules

·        Unapproved pesticides found on herb crop

·        Billions lost on postharvest waste in Africa

·        Gates Foundation spends $1.7B on Africa ag

 

 

Spain outraged by German E. coli blame

 

(BBC News) – Spain says it will seek damages over claims its produce was the source of an E. coli outbreak that has killed 18 people and left hundreds seriously ill.

 

Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said he would demand reparations for the economic losses suffered.

 

Germany - where the outbreak is centred - had blamed Spanish cucumbers but has since accepted it was not the case.

 

Scientists, still searching for the source, say the outbreak features a new form of the E. coli bacterium.

 

The strain has been described as highly toxic.

 

Down a long road flanked with giant hot-houses, Juan Lopez is one of many Spanish farmers struggling to stay afloat.

 

He still has staff picking the ripest produce from the rows of plants under plastic, but not for market. Crates of cucumbers are weighed and recorded before being pulped: future proof of what has been lost, in case there's compensation.

 

Juan's hope is that confidence in Spanish produce will recover by the time the smaller fruit is ripe for picking. But with perishable goods, time is critical and Juan can't afford to wait indefinitely.

 

Spanish farmers blame Germany for crisis

 

No evidence of this has been found and researchers are scrambling to find the source.

 

"We acted as we had to, and we are going to get reparations and the return of Spanish products to their rightful place," said Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero.

 

"I believe that any other interpretation or any effort to politicise the huge mistake made by the German authorities is totally unfair."

 

Sales of Spanish produce to supermarkets across Europe - not just of cucumbers, but of everything - have ground to a halt, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Almeria, Spain's "fruitbasket".

 

Tens of thousands of kilos of fresh fruit and vegetables grown in Spain are being destroyed, she adds.

 

"We're filling container upon container with produce to throw away," Noelia Perez, deputy financial director of Costa de Almeria, the firm initially blamed for the outbreak, said. "It's horrendous."

 

The European Union has urged Russia - its largest export market for vegetables - to drop its ban on the import of fresh vegetables, describing the move as totally disproportionate.

 

The outbreak remains centred on Germany, where there have been 1,064 cases of bloody diarrhoea and 470 cases of haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), which affects the kidneys and can be fatal.

 

Seventeen people in Germany and one in Sweden have died. Cases of HUS have also been reported in Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain. Seven people in the UK have the infection, though all are thought to have contracted it in Germany.

 

Two people in the US, who have travelled recently to Germany, are being tested for the strain, the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventation (CDC) said.

 

Scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute in China - where they are researching the strain - said the outbreak appeared to be due to a new form of the E. coli bacterium that was "highly infectious and toxic".

 

The World Health Organization said the variant had "never been seen in an outbreak situation before".

 

Speaking to Reuters news agency, Dr Robert Tauxe of the CDC said the strain was probably the most deadly yet.

 

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GOP questions high cost of healthy eating rules

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans are pushing back against Obama administration efforts to promote healthier lunches, saying the Agriculture Department should rewrite rules it issued in January meant to make school meals healthier. They say the new rules are too costly.

 

The bill, approved by the House Appropriations Committee late Tuesday, also questions a government proposal to curb marketing of unhealthy foods to children and urges the Food and Drug Administration to limit rules requiring calorie counts be posted on menus.

 

The overall spending bill would cut billions from USDA and FDA budgets, including for domestic feeding programs and international food aid. The panel also cut some farm subsidies to cut spending.

 

Republicans are concerned about the cost of many of the Obama administration proposals, which they regard as overregulation, said Chris Crawford, a spokesman for the chairman of the Appropriations Committee's agriculture subcommittee, Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga.

 

Crawford said the marketing guidelines, released last month, are "classic nanny-state overreach." Though the guidelines, which would restrict which foods could be marketed to children, are voluntary, many companies are concerned that they will be penalized if they don't follow them. The bill questions whether the Agriculture Department should spend money to be part of the marketing effort.

 

"Our concern is those voluntary guidelines are back-door regulation," he said, deploring the fact that kids can watch shows that depict sex and drugs on MTV, but "you cannot see an advertisement for Tony the Tiger during the commercial break."

 

The school lunch guidelines are the first major nutritional overhaul of students' meals in 15 years. Under the guidelines, schools would have to cut sodium in subsidized meals by more than half, use more whole grains and serve low-fat milk. They also would limit kids to only one cup of starchy vegetables a week, so schools couldn't offer french fries every day.

 

The starchy vegetable proposal has been criticized by conservatives who think it goes too far and members of Congress who represent potato-growers. They say potatoes are a low-cost food that provides fiber and other nutrients.

 

The Republican spending bill also encourages the FDA to limit new guidelines that require calories to be posted on menus to restaurants, asking that grocery stores, convenience stores and other places whose primary purpose is not to sell food be excluded from the rules.

 

The effort would dial back many of first lady Michelle Obama's priorities in her "Let's Move" campaign to curb childhood obesity and hunger.

 

"This shows a very clear trend in trying to undermine some of the important gains in nutrition policy," said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest.

 

The overall spending bill would cut billions from USDA and FDA budgets, including for domestic feeding programs and international food aid. Even after some of the money was restored Tuesday, the bill would still cut about $650 million -- or 10 percent -- from the Women, Infants and Children program that feeds and educates mothers and their children. It would cut almost 12 percent of the Food and Drug Administration's $2.5 billion budget, straining the agency's efforts to implement a new food safety law signed by the president early this year.

 

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Unapproved pesticides found on herb crop

 

(SunSentinel.com) – Just in time for cookout season, some unsettling news arrives for guacamole and salsa lovers: Federal testing turned up a wide array of unapproved pesticides on the herb cilantro — to an extent that surprises and concerns government scientists.

 

At least 34 unapproved pesticides showed up on cilantro samples analyzed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the agency's routine testing of a rotating selection of produce. Cilantro was the first fresh herb to be tested in the 20-year-old program.

 

"We are not really sure why the cilantro came up with these residues," said Chris Pappas, a chemist who oversees the Virginia-based USDA pesticide testing. Researchers suspect growers may have confused guidelines for cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, for which more pesticides are approved.

 

In all, 94 percent of the 184 cilantro samples tested in 2009 came up positive for at least one pesticide, according to an annual Pesticide Data Program report posted online last week.

 

Chris Campbell, a pesticide analyst for the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization, said data show that 44 percent of cilantro samples had residues of at least one pesticide not approved for use on that crop — "higher than I have ever seen" in nearly a decade of analyzing the USDA's pesticide reports.

 

By comparison, only about 5 percent of spinach samples and 2 percent of apples had at least one pesticide that violated federal rules, according to Campbell's calculations.

 

The news comes as a one-two punch to cilantro growers and distributors, who in March were hit with a rare "guidance letter" from the Food and Drug Administration citing 28 positive salmonella findings in cilantro since 2004 and warning the industry to "take action to enhance" cilantro safety. This is only the fourth such letter the agency has issued since 2005, according to FDA officials.

 

Samir Assar, director of produce safety at the FDA, advised consumers with compromised immune systems to consider the salmonella findings when choosing their food. He noted that cooking and thorough washing can reduce, but not necessarily eliminate, the risk from disease-causing bacteria.

 

Washing did not remove the unapproved pesticides found on cilantro samples tested by USDA.

 

The cilantro results have captured the attention of both regulators and industry leaders, who said they would take action in response.

 

"I can assure you that some of these will be followed up," said Ronald Roy, a food safety specialist at the FDA. "When we have a clustering of non-permitted residues around a certain (crop) or with a certain grower, then we investigate to find the cause and correct the specific problem so that it doesn't continue."

 

"It's something we need to look into," said Kathy Means, vice president of the Produce Marketing Association, a major industry group. "We need to determine: Why this year, why this crop? What's going on? ... There aren't that many cilantro suppliers. And so if you have a problem with one supplier, percentagewise (contamination) may be higher."

 

Means said that in the wake of the FDA's salmonella letter, the industry had been working on "safety protocols for cilantro" and strategies "to be more careful with cilantro in the future."

 

Of the samples tested, about 81 percent were grown in the U.S. and 17 percent were imported, with the rest of unknown origin.

 

Regulatory officials caution that unapproved pesticides on cilantro may not always represent a health threat. Many pesticides not approved for cilantro are OK for use on other plants at certain levels, and regulatory officials recommended taking those levels into consideration when assessing the health threat posed by pesticide residues.

 

Most levels of the unapproved pesticides found on cilantro did not exceed average limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for other crops, the Tribune found. But the fungicide quintozene was found at levels as high as 0.3 parts per million, above the limit of 0.1 ppm set for foods such as tomato paste, and the insecticide diazanon was found at levels as high as 1 ppm, when the limits for other foods on this year's USDA list range from 0.1 to 0.75 ppm.

 

One insecticide found on 37 percent of the cilantro samples, the organophosphate chlorpyrifros, is approved for cilantro but, in at least one case, was three times higher than the EPA's established limit for the herb.

 

The USDA's pesticide program usually tests fewer than 20 fresh fruits and vegetables a year from a rotating lineup of produce items. Tested this year were apples, asparagus, cilantro, cucumbers, grapes, green onions, organic lettuce, oranges, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, corn and sweet potatoes — with the vast majority of tests showing no violations of federal rules.

 

In terms of unapproved pesticide residues, cilantro was the outlier of the group, with at least 34 of 43 pesticide residues not allowed for use on the herb. The next greatest number of non-permissible pesticides were found on cucumbers, with 17.

 

Azoxystrobin and captan are legal for use on potatoes but were found 16 times at levels that exceeded federal limits, the most such detections in this round of testing. Next on the list for excessive amounts of legal pesticides were imported asparagus and domestic spinach.

 

Scientists, industry representatives and regulators interviewed for this story say the cilantro test results should be addressed but also note that most Americans — and especially American kids — don't eat piles of cilantro at a sitting.

 

"We would not pooh-pooh these violations," said Roy, of the FDA. "They all constitute adulterated food. But we are also talking about a relatively minor food. … We have to be risk-based and apply our main resources to foods consumed most often by infants and children — and those are your major fresh fruits and vegetables."

 

Still, Means said cilantro growers recognize the importance of addressing the potential safety issues.

 

"Cilantro is a very important herb in a lot of cuisines, and it's delicious, and I happen to love it," she said. "So we don't want people thinking that there is anything wrong with cilantro. We need to be sure our food safety protocols are up to snuff and listen to FDA and see what it suggests."

 

The EPA is concerned by the number of unregistered pesticides found on the crop but believes the small amount of cilantro consumed, paired with relatively low levels of residue, make it unlikely to "present a big risk," said David Miller, chief of the Chemistry and Exposure Branch in the agency's Health Effects Division.

 

Some medical experts, however, are increasingly concerned about even low-level exposure to pesticides, especially in utero.

 

"The story of pesticides in food is part of a larger story of our growing knowledge of the exquisite vulnerability of the developing human brain to pesticides and other toxic chemicals," said Dr. Phillip Landrigan, director of the Children's Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Along with colleagues, he has been researching the effects of chlorpyrifros on humans.

 

Serving a diet rich in fruits and vegetables remains the healthiest course of action for parents, said Bill Jordan, senior policy adviser to the director of the EPA's pesticide programs.

 

Jordan suggests thorough washing and peeling to remove some of the surface pesticides on fruits and vegetables like apples, oranges and cucumbers.

 

"And if people are very, very concerned," he said, "then choosing foods that are grown organically is another option."

 

Of the six samples of organic cilantro tested by the USDA, only one was found to carry residues of an unapproved pesticide other than the chemical descendants of DDT, which was banned years ago but persists in the environment.

 

Pappas, of the USDA, advised consumers who are still worried to follow his lead and plant their own.

 

"I grow cilantro on my deck," he said. "There is less waste because I only take as much as I need, which is only a little at a time, and it's always fresh. If someone is really concerned, they can do that too."

 

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Billions lost on postharvest waste in Africa

 

ROME (AFP) – Food losses in sub-Saharan Africa could be greatly reduced and billions of dollars a year could be saved by tackling the problem of post-harvest waste, the UN's food agency said on Tuesday.

 

"Investing in post-harvest technologies to reduce food losses could significantly increase the food supply in sub-Saharan Africa," the Food and Agriculture Organisation said in a new report produced with the World Bank.

 

The report, done in collaboration with Britain's Natural Resources Institute, estimates the value of post-harvest grain losses in sub-Saharan Africa to be around $4 billion (2.8 billion euros) a year.

 

The estimated annual grain production is worth $27 billion, meaning $4 billion dollars would be a roughly 15-percent loss of output.

 

"This lost food could meet the minimum annual food requirements of at least 48 million people," FAO deputy chief Maria Helena Semedo said in the report.

 

"If we agree that sustainable agricultural systems need to be developed to feed 9 billion people by 2050, addressing waste across the entire food chain must be a critical pillar of future national food strategies," she added.

 

In eastern and southern Africa alone, food losses are valued at $1.6 billion a year, or about 13.5 percent of the total value of grain production.

 

"Losses occur when grain decays or is infested by pests, fungi or microbes, and physical losses are only part of the equation," the report said.

 

"Losses can also be economic, resulting from low prices and lack of access to markets for poor quality grain, or nutritional, arising from poor quality or contaminated food."

 

The Rome-based agency said such losses "contribute to high food prices by removing part of the food supply from the market."

 

It warned that they also have negative environmental impacts because "land, water and non-renewable resources such as fertilizer and energy are used to produce, process, handle and transport food that no one consumes."

 

The report suggested ways to reduce post-harvest losses, including crop protectants and storage containers, but said more research and piloting was needed to make sure steps taken were "sensitive to local conditions."

 

"Technologies that have taken off in Asia, such as small-scale rice-drying technology and the introduction of pedal threshers and rice mills, have had successful adoption in some parts of Africa," FAO said.

 

The report said governments could help tackle food losses by reducing market costs by investing in infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water.

 

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Gates Foundation spends $1.7B on Africa ag

 

SEATTLE (AP) -- The world's largest charitable foundation announced five years ago it would spend millions of dollars to fight poverty and hunger in Africa, largely by investing in agriculture. To date, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $1.7 billion, but its leaders say it could take 20 years to see the results of that work.

 

The foundation has focused on ways to bring to Africa the green revolution that swept Latin America and Asia in the mid-1900s, boosting productivity in those regions. Its hope has been that helping small farmers grow more would allow them to sell their surplus, boosting their income and putting more food in hungry mouths. More than 70 percent of the world's poor depend on agriculture for both their food and income.

 

Some people have been helped, and the foundation expects more will be in years to come, but agricultural development happens slowly, said Roy Steiner, the foundation's deputy director of global development.

 

As an example, he said some Kenyan farmers will receive seeds for drought-tolerant maize this year. They'll try them out, see the results and decide whether to adopt them more enthusiastically next year. A year after that, increased production could give them more money to buy food for their families or fertilizer to improve their other crops.

 

"It takes years and years to shift the system," Steiner said.

 

A more immediate impact might be made by buying and giving away food, and the Gates Foundation has done this indirectly with grants to groups such as Oxfam and CARE. But Steiner said the foundation doesn't see this as a long-term solution.

 

"Giving food to people is certainly necessary when there's a crisis," he said. "But these people don't want to be depending on outside charity. And, frankly, who is going to pay for all of that food being given?"

 

The foundation, he said, aims to prevent crises by strengthening agriculture systems.

 

It's an approach anti-hunger organizations such as CARE and the United Nation's World Food Programme also are taking. One-fifth or less of CARE's budget now goes to the kind of direct food aid the nonprofit was created to provide 65 years ago. The rest is focused on agriculture development work similar to what the Gates Foundation is doing.

 

"This move from more of a charity approach to more of a capacity building and empowerment approach is something most of the major relief and development organizations have gone through," said Kevin Henry, who directs CARE's work in agriculture, economic development and climate change.

 

The World Bank estimates 338 million people live on less a dollar a day in sub-Saharan Africa. The U.S. government spends about $1.7 billion on food aid each year and about $1 billion a year on its Feed the Future Program, which focuses on reducing poverty and hunger through agriculture development.

 

Gates Foundation believes it can move more than 150 million in Africa out of extreme poverty by 2025 by improving agriculture. To that end, it has invested millions in seed research, buying and distributing fertilizer, improving farmers' education and access to markets and political advocacy to get governments to spend more money on agriculture and to improve policies ranging from trade to land ownership.

 

Much of the work has been done through the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which is run by Africans with heavy support from the foundation. AGRA has used Gates money to support plant breeding programs at nine African universities, help seed companies increase their production, set up soil mapping programs and provide credit to help seed, fertilizer and equipment suppliers expand, among other things.

 

It has drawn attention from a Seattle nonprofit called AGRA Watch, whose members say they are concerned about the foundation's interest in genetically modified seeds and its relationship with African farmers. Co-chair Janae Choquette claims the foundation hasn't talked to enough farmers to find out what kind of help they want.

 

"Their analysis of solutions is not coming from these communities," Choquette said. "We want to support of the self-determination of farmers in deciding their own path forward."

 

Steiner disputed Choquette's claim, saying the foundation gets direction for all its work from farmers. But he also said one of its biggest challenges has been a lack of education among farmers.

 

"We want to make sure that we are really making things better over the long term, not making them worse," he said.

 

The foundation says very little of its work involves genetically modified seeds.

 

Another big chunk of Gates Foundation money, $66 million, has been promised to the World Food Programme to help improve African farmers' access to markets. The idea is the World Food Program saves money by buying locally, while its purchases put money in farmers' pockets. Thus far, the program has spent about $30 million with small farmers and small- and medium-sized traders through its Purchase for Progress program.

 

The head of the foundation's agriculture department, Sam Dryden, also is pushing it to help increase African farmers' opportunities to sell their products beyond their own communities. The foundation has invested many millions in helping cocoa, cashew and coffee farmers reach the quality and quantities they need to sell to overseas markets.

 

A spokesman for Kraft Foods Inc. says that effort has resulted in his company buying some cashews directly from Africa, because the nuts can now be processed there instead of having to be shipped to Asia or elsewhere for processing.

 

Steve Yucknut, Kraft's global vice president for sustainability, said the company hasn't changed the overall amount of cashews it buys, but with his company and the Gates Foundation setting up processing plants in Africa, more of the profit from growing cashews stays in countries there.

 

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