" I heard it through the AgLine"

June 28, 2011

 

 

·        Ag colleges, extension programs face budget axe

·        Water plentiful, but growers still battle drought

·        Spuds defended as America’s favorite veggie

·        How much mileage can you get from sawdust?

·        Facing the deadliest form of global food fight

 

 

Ag colleges, extension programs face budget axe

 

(AP via Yahoo! News) MINNEAPOLIS – As university budgets take a beating across the country, agricultural schools and extension programs are feeling the impact.

 

Large-scale layoffs have been threatened at some agricultural colleges, and even 4-H youth programs are facing the ax because federal and state funding are on the chopping block. At a time when farmers are being asked to grow more for food and fuel to meet soaring world demand, experts warn against eroding the country's commitment to agricultural research.

 

"We're mortgaging our future with some of these cuts," said Ian Maw, vice president for food, agriculture and natural resources at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.

 

Most state budgets are experiencing "real trauma," Maw said. Often, he said, schools are forced to cut into the "bone and marrow" of their capacity to serve agriculture.

 

Beverly Durgan, dean of the University of Minnesota Extension program, said cuts to agricultural colleges have far-reaching national impacts.

 

"As the funding slowly erodes away, the quality and the quantity of research and extension we can do at the land-grant universities is decreasing. People may not see the impact tomorrow but they will see long-term that not investing now means we'll have more problems in the future," said Durgan, chairwoman of an APLU agricultural committee.

 

Congress established land-grant universities in the 1800s to teach agriculture, science and engineering. It expanded their mission to include agricultural experiment stations to conduct research, and cooperative extension programs to translate research into practical help for farmers and the larger public.

 

Much federal support for these programs flows through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture, which took a 9 percent cut this fiscal year. Extension supporters largely beat back a House-passed $30 million cut in a key category of federal matching funds within NIFA that supports salaries for a wide range of extension services, from county agents to 4-H. But a fiscal 2012 funding bill that passed the GOP-controlled House this month cuts $35 million in those extension funds from the current level of $294 million. The Democratic-controlled Senate has yet to act.

 

Perhaps no agricultural college was threatened with deeper cuts this year than at Pennsylvania State University. Gov. Tom Corbett proposed reducing Penn State's total appropriation — including the farm school's — by 52 percent.

 

"I spent a day being dismayed and the next day decided I'd better address what we could address," said Bruce McPheron, dean of its College of Agricultural Sciences.

 

McPheron warned that the college faced 440 job cuts; closings of research stations and county extension offices; and cuts to 4-H, which reaches almost 10 percent of Pennsylvania's youth. After people told lawmakers how much they value Penn State's agricultural programs, he said it's likely reductions will be far smaller, probably between $5.5 million an $8 million.

 

"It's odd that you can be in a circumstance where a 10 to 15 percent cut seems like a win," McPheron said.

 

At the University of Georgia, Scott Angle, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, recently decided to lay off 18 workers and sell a farm. He said there was nothing else left to cut.

 

"We have tried as best we can — and to a fairly successful extent — to protect the learning experience for our students on campus but this does mean our research and extension capabilities have been compromised, Angle said.

 

Farm programs in the University of California system have already seen steep declines in state support over the last 20 years. Daniel Dooley, vice president of its Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said he expects agriculture at the Berkeley, Davis and Riverside campuses will be cut less than most programs once California's $9.6 billion deficit is resolved, but it will be hurt.

 

"Final decisions haven't been made but the reality is with each reduction we're going to have to decide what we're going to do and what we're not going to do," Dooley said.

 

Jack Payne, senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at the University of Florida, said his operations were "held harmless" in the Legislature this year. Florida construction and tourism were hard-hit by the recession, so he argued that agriculture and natural resources are now the backbone of the state economy.

 

At Iowa State University, agriculture has seen state funding erode since 2001. Wendy Wintersteen, dean of its College of Agriculture, said it's happening even as her enrollment rises 4 to 6 percent a year. She's planning for a 6 percent reduction in state funding — not as bad as it could be.

 

"We're getting to a better place in the state's economy, and agriculture is a big part of the state being able to recover from this economic downturn," Wintersteen said. "We're optimistic about the future and what we can contribute to the state."

 

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Water plentiful, but growers still battle drought

 

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Drive on Highway 99 or Interstate 5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and you will see plastic banners scattered among wine tasting ads and billboards hawking the latest pesticide.

 

"Man-made drought," the banners draped across fences and cotton trailers proclaim in large, bold letters. "Congress-created dust bowl" and "Food grows where water flows."

 

The signs in the Central Valley, which provides many of the nation's fruits and vegetables, are a reminder of California's decades-old water war, a conflict stemming from large numbers of people living and farming in areas where the resource is scarce.

 

Some signs, put up by farmers long ago, are weathered from rain and faded from sun. Several hundred others went up in recent weeks, courtesy of an advocacy group for farmers.

 

But in a year of heavy rains and a formidable Sierra snowpack, with California's three-year drought officially over and most farmers getting all their contracted irrigation water, the signs strike some as odd.

 

"I just drove on the highway and those signs have a backdrop of green fields, green grasses," said Jim Metropulos, an advocate at Sierra Club California. "I said wow, these fields seem to be planted with a commodity crop, farmers seem to be irrigating. Where is the drought?"

 

The signs protest federal environmental regulations that farmers say have limited their access to water to protect smelt and salmon. Environmentalists say they create a misperception of drought and its causes.

 

"What we've got is a huge public relations campaign to create the impression of a Congress-created dustbowl that doesn't exist," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

 

On Highway 99, a few miles north of Chowchilla in the small community of Le Grand, Joe Marchini has just put up several signs on the edge of his wheat and tomato fields. "Farm Water Cut (equals) Higher Food Cost!" says one tacked to a fence by the buzzing highway. Marchini, who has been farming for 50 years, had to idle some land during the drought, and he said other farmers lost their land.

 

"I've never had to fight for water like I had in the past five years," Marchini said. "They starved us for water. The signs are very valid, because people forget and you have to keep reminding them what farmers went through."

 

His signs were paid for by Families Protecting the Valley, a farmer organization that advocates for water for agriculture.

 

"Our goal is to educate people," said Russ Waymire, a pistachio industry consultant and board member with the group. "We have a water problem here and we need to work together to solve it."

 

This year's relative abundance of water aside, Waymire said the signs focus on what he believes is the bigger picture: Restrictions meant to save threatened fish unfairly target farmers.

 

"Sewage discharges are killing the fish and yet they have been able to blame our pumps and they have been shutting them off," he said.

 

But even Waymire and Marchini concede the messages may be confusing. The signs list draconian cuts to farmers' water supply: 65 percent in 2008, 60 percent in 2009 and 50 percent last year. Those figures refer to cuts by a state water project that pumps water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for farmers and cities. Other signs refer to cuts by a federal water project.

 

But less than a quarter of the reductions in supply were due to endangered species protections, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Most were because of the drought.

 

The signs also don't explain that water cuts affect some farmers more severely because of the way their contracts are written. Farmers with the newest contracts are the first to face cutbacks, said Pete Lucero, spokesman for the agency that runs the federal water project. That's why farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley -- those most vocal about water cuts -- received the least water during the drought.

 

Lucero also said farmers seldom get their full allotments of water because all the contracts add up to more water than exists, even in years without drought. That's because the water projects were developed when California had fewer people and the infrastructure was never completed.

 

Waymire said that's not the fault of farmers, who are paying for a system the government didn't finish. He also said it hurts all Californians because less water leads to higher farm unemployment, smaller sales tax collections, increased food costs and the possible demise of the state's agriculture.

 

A study released this month by the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan research organization based in Oakland, found that wasn't necessarily the case. The state's farms saw their highest gross revenue on record in 2008, the second year of the drought, with their third highest in 2009. And, while unemployment increased in the Central Valley during the drought, job losses were concentrated in areas other than agriculture, it said.

 

But the report also found the effect wasn't even, and some counties saw farm income plummet.

 

That's why Waymire and Marchini plan to continue putting up signs.

 

"My greatest fear is running out of water," Marchini said. "Water is key; without it, you can't do anything."

 

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Spuds defended as America’s favorite veggie

 

(Bloomberg) – Chris Voigt lost 21 pounds in two months on an all-potato diet just to prove spuds don’t make you fat, he said.

 

“People should not be afraid of potatoes,” Voigt, 46, executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, said yesterday in an interview. “They’re one of the few foods that are so good for you that you could live off of them.”

 

That’s not what a Harvard University analysis found. A report published June 22 in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that forgoing a 1-ounce bag of potato chips each day in favor of yogurt can save almost a pound of weight gain every four years.

 

The findings were given less-than-glowing reviews by potato producers and marketers reached at the National Potato Council’s summer meeting in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

 

Tim O’Connor, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Potato Board, the industry’s marketing organization, said the study conflicts with the conclusions of many others that people can eat any food, including French fries and potato chips, in moderation.

 

“That’s science that’s stood the test of time,” O’Connor said. “It’s frustrating when groups come forward with opinions very outside where the majority are and we become one of the few that’s in the target of the bull’s-eye. Potatoes are America’s favorite vegetable, America’s favorite side dish. We continue to be one of the largest-selling items in the grocery store.”

 

$3.49 Billion Crop

 

The U.S. potato crop was valued at $3.49 billion in 2010, making it the sixth most-valuable crop after corn, soybeans, hay, wheat and cotton, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. About 10 percent of U.S. production goes into chips.

 

Americans are forecast to eat 109.9 pounds of potatoes a person this year, down 21 percent from a decade ago, according to the department. Idaho, the producer of one-third of potatoes grown in the U.S., harvests about 12 billion pounds each year, said Frank Muir, president and chief executive officer of the Idaho Potato Commission.

 

Potato chips weren’t alone as a target of the Harvard researchers. The single worst food for weight gain may be French fries, according to their review. The researchers found fries contributed to an extra 3.35 pounds every four years.

 

“These findings underscore the importance of making wise food choices in preventing weight gain and obesity,” senior study author Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said in a statement. “The idea that there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods is a myth that needs to be debunked.”

Three Studies

 

The researchers analyzed three previous studies. The report examined lifestyle concerns and weight gain every four years over 12 to 20 years. The review included 120,877 U.S. women and men who at the start of the studies weren’t obese and were free of chronic diseases.

 

O’Connor and Voigt said potato consumption declined in 2004, when the low-carbohydrate Atkins diet was at the height of its popularity.

 

“There’s still a very negative opinion of carbohydrates,” Voigt said. “We’re still trying to recover from that, and we’re trying to do our best to get beyond it.”

 

The Atkins diet advocates increasing protein intake by eating unlimited amounts of meat and substantial servings of eggs and cheese, while discouraging consumption of grains and potatoes. About 9 percent of the U.S. population said it was following a low-carb diet early in 2004, with that number falling to less than 4 percent at the end of that year, consultant NPD Group said in 2005.

 

Staying in shape “comes down to eating a balanced diet with lots of vegetables and fruits, low-fat proteins, making sure you’re exercising every day,” Muir, of the Idaho Potato Commission, said in an interview. “If every American did that, we wouldn’t be talking about obesity or the next fad diet.”

 

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How much mileage can you get from sawdust?

 

(University of Calgary via physorg.com) – As vacationers gas up to hit the road this summer, they could find themselves wondering about alternative fuels and their potential to ease the strain on pocketbooks and the environment.

 

Imagine filling up your tank with fuel derived from straw or sawdust. Researchers at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering are developing new ways to produce biofuel from organic waste in a sustainable and affordable way.

 

“Our goal is to make biofuel production more efficient and economical,” explains Dr. Nader Mahinpey, director of the Bio Energy Laboratory at the Schulich School of Engineering.  “We are experimenting with the combination and range at which we apply high temperatures and pressure and determining what types of chemicals or other substances we need to add.”

 

His research involves the production of biofuels from the non-edible parts of plants – such as the straw from flax, barley and wheat – and not food crops. In the past, biofuels from food crops such as corn or sugar cane have been associated with a host of problems including food shortages, spikes in food prices and the debate over whether to use valuable land and water resources to grow crops for food or fuel.

 

Dr. Mahinpey extracts oil from plant material using a process called pyrolysis, which involves intense temperatures between 400°C and 600°C. The oil must then be upgraded before it can be used as a transportation fuel. Dr. Mahinpey and his team are developing upgrading processes and even finding ways to turn the waste by-products of biofuel conversion into useful chemicals and products such as fertilizer.

 

“Biofuel production needs to become more efficient and we need to develop technology that can be used on a large scale,” says Dr. Mahinpey. “Even then, biofuels won’t be the only solution to meet energy demand. We will need a combination of sources including wind and solar power.”

 

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Facing the deadliest form of global food fight

 

(theadvocate.com.au) – Guns, tanks and bombs have preoccupied Alan Dupont for much of his career. But now he is worried about food.

 

Professor Dupont, the director of Sydney University's Centre for International Security Studies, says growing pressure on global food supplies threatens to make social and political unrest within countries, and conflict between countries, much more likely. But we're surprisingly unprepared.

 

"Very little thought has been given to how serious the food security issue is going to be," says Dupont, who worked as an army officer, an intelligence analyst and a diplomat before becoming an academic.

 

"We are a long, long way from understanding the problem, let alone coming up with solutions."

 

Food security should not only be the province of agricultural ministries and resource economists, he says. It demands priority attention from the agencies concerned with national security and defence.

 

The recent behaviour of global food prices shows why security analysts like Dupont are uneasy. The benchmark food price index published by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation is at record highs for the second time in three years. This rapid double peak in average prices has highlighted a dangerous structural shift in the global food market.

 

"We are losing the battle for food on this planet," says the economic geographer and food security expert Dr Bill Pritchard. "I think a general pattern of episodic crises over food will be part of the landscape over the coming decade."

 

The Asia-Pacific, so crucial to Australia's economic future, is especially vulnerable. Nearly 580 million people in the region do not get the minimum food requirement, more than twice as many as in Africa. Population growth in Asia - expected to be about 400 million in the next 20 years - will put huge strain on global food supplies. Land and soil degradation, declining fish stocks, rising energy prices, rural-urban migration, China's ageing population, rising wealth and changing patterns of consumption will add to the difficulty of feeding Asia's billions.

 

Global warming poses an additional, unpredictable threat to global food security. Some studies predict the biggest losses to agricultural productivity caused by climate change will be in heavily populated developing countries, especially near the equator.

 

Worries about feeding the world are nothing new. In 1798 the Anglican clergyman Thomas Malthus issued his famous warning that population growth would outrun food production until checked by famine and war. Malthusian warnings resurfaced amid rapid population growth in the 1960s and 1970s. Paul Ehrlich's 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb captured the mood with predictions of mass starvation because of overpopulation.

 

Technological advances, especially the high-yielding crop varieties of the so called "Green Revolution", meant Ehrlich's dire warnings did not come to pass. Productivity gains meant food supplies kept pace with population growth and global food prices were relatively stable during the 1980s and 1990s.

 

But the spectre of Malthus seemed to be ushered back by an unprecedented spike in food prices in 2007-08. Rice more than tripled in the year to April 2008, causing panic buying and hoarding by many governments. The World Bank issued a warning that 33 countries were at risk of upheaval due to rising food prices and 105 million people had been pushed back into poverty.

 

The effects of the global financial crisis caused a temporary drop in commodity prices but the Food and Agriculture Organisation's food price index has bounced back to higher peaks than those reached in 2008. Last year wheat prices rose more than 60 per cent and corn, palm oil and sugar all rose about 50 per cent.

 

"For the past 30 years food prices were in structural decline but we have entered a new era," says Rajiv Biswas, a Singapore-based economist with the international forecaster IHS Global Insight.

 

"The fundamental long-term picture now is that you have strong rising demand for food."

 

The aid agency Oxfam released research last month predicting food prices would double by 2030, and called for greater regulation of global food markets to protect the world's poorest people.

 

The 2008 food price crisis eroded confidence in the global food market. More than 40 developing countries imposed export bans or lifted taxes that year in a bid to secure food supplies for their populations. But this only made the problem worse, according to many experts.

 

In a contentious new development China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are buying or leasing agricultural land in other countries. Dupont says this trend is a "telling vote of no confidence in international markets" by countries that fear they could be denied the opportunity to buy grains, and has the potential to create significant political and social tensions.

 

Some experts argue the world may be reaching the limits of food production capacity - or "peak" food.

 

"The fact that people are even thinking about peak food tells you about the growing concerns about how we are going to feed the planet," says Dupont.

 

France, which made global food security a centrepiece of its G20 presidency following the 2007-08 food price crisis, hosted the first ever summit of the group's agriculture ministers last week. The meeting aimed to curb food price volatility but the actions agreed upon were far weaker than aid agencies and food security activists hoped for.

 

"In 2009, the G20 showed it can arrange massive bailouts for bankers, but now it's demonstrating it has no will to stop the looming food crisis that will hit the poor the hardest," said Adriano Campolina, the Country Director of Action Aid Brazil.

 

The outcome showed there is little consensus among the governments of the world's leading economies about how to deal with soaring food costs.

 

This year's ''Arab Spring'' has underscored the potential for food scarcity to stoke political instability. Demonstrators on the streets of Tunisia, Jordan and Yemen brandished loaves of bread as part of their protest, showing how hunger, coupled with the desire for political change can be a combustible mix.

 

"The Jasmine revolution highlights how food security can have a very direct implications for political risk," says Biswas.

 

"If you have a shortage of food, especially in countries with high levels of poverty, it can result in riots and political unrest. As we have seen in the Middle East, this can be the trigger for much wider political action and perhaps deal with other political faultlines … It's a key concern for governments."

 

In Pakistan there is evidence that food insecurity is helping to stoke terrorism.

 

Research by the food security specialist Dr Abid Suleri has found that Pakistani districts with high levels of food insecurity were also most likely to be affected by violent extremism.

 

''There is a relationship between food insecurity and militancy in Pakistan,'' he says. "An empty stomach is an angry stomach."

 

Suleri says the proportion of Pakistanis classified as "food insecure" rose from 37 per cent to nearly 49 per cent between 2003 and 2008. That period was marked by increasing terrorist activity in Pakistan. He says last year's devastating floods temporarily pushed the share of food insecure people to 55 per cent.

 

"Of course, there are many reasons for militancy, but food insecurity seems to be one of the important ones, because all districts which seem to be most food insecure right now, they are also the most militancy-hit districts," he told the Herald.

 

Suleri believes "individual security" is being forgotten in the push to achieve national and international security.

 

But militancy cannot be tackled without addressing individual insecurities such as food insecurity, poverty and marginalisation, he says.

 

"When people are angry about a lack of food their behaviour becomes extraordinary. They can be easy prey for terrorism, including suicide attacks. If we are going to fight terrorism we need to provide food security."

 

Across the border in India, hunger has been blamed for fuelling a bloody Maoist rebellion affecting more than one-third of India's 626 administrative districts. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, says the insurgency is ''the single biggest" internal security challenge faced by the country.

 

The poor are especially vulnerable to food prices because they spend a large proportion of their incomes on staples. The World Bank warned in April that 44 million people had been pushed into poverty since the middle of last year due to soaring food costs.

 

"People like us in middle-class Australia are still going to be able to buy food, although it will hit the hip pocket a bit more," says Pritchard. "The world's bottom billion are the ones who are going to miss out."

 

Because Australia is a big food exporter, there are obvious benefits from higher food prices.

 

However, most of Australia's near neighbours are developing countries and Pritchard says many of them are very vulnerable to rising food prices.

 

"In Indonesia there are some pretty direct links between potential social unrest and food insecurity, particularly in eastern Indonesia," he says.

 

"Also, many of the island states of the Pacific are heavily dependent on imported food. If their import bills start to rise, you could see problems in that region."

 

Dupont warns many governments, including Australia's, are not well prepared to meet the challenge of food insecurity.

 

"We are going to see more food riots in developing countries, including in our own neighbourhood where some states are already stressed," he says. "Food scarcity could push them to a tipping point … Australia could be drawn in to assist these states."

 

The Centre for International Security Studies paid for Matt Wade to attend a workshop on food security in Singapore.

 

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