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June 29, 2011
· Monsanto reports net income up 77 percent
· India paying heavy for shunning GM crops
· How California farmers weathered drought
· Key plant traits yield more sugar for biofuels
· Success in farming Hong Kong’s urban islands
Monsanto reports net income up 77 percent
(Bloomberg) – Monsanto Co. (MON), the world’s largest seed company, reported fiscal third-quarter earnings that topped analysts’ estimates and raised its full-year profit forecast on higher sales of Roundup weed killer and genetically modified crop seeds.
Net income climbed 77 percent to $680 million, or $1.26 a share, in the three months through May 31, from $384 million, or 70 cents, a year earlier, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in a statement. That beat the $1.10 average estimate of 17 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Sales rose 21 percent to $3.59 billion from $2.96 billion.
Profit excluding some items will rise to $2.84 to $2.88 a share in the fiscal year through August, from $2.41 a year earlier, Monsanto said. Its previous forecast was for $2.72 to $2.82. The average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was $2.82.
Roundup, the world’s best-selling herbicide, and other crop chemicals returned to profit after a $175 million loss before interest and tax in the year-ago quarter. Gross profit from seeds and genetics rose 21 percent after Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant cut prices of new corn and soybean seeds in an effort to stop gains by DuPont Co.’s Pioneer unit.
“Its decision to aggressively lower its list prices has provided the company with a much-needed opportunity to repair its badly damaged relationship with growers,” Don Carson, a New York-based analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group who rates Monsanto “positive,” said in a June 26 report.
SEC Probe
Monsanto also said the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an investigation regarding its customer incentive programs relating to its glyphosate products in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Monsanto said it received a subpoena for documents and is cooperating
High crop prices are generating record income for
Monsanto rose $1.18, 1.8 percent, to $66.90 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have declined 3.9 percent this year.
DuPont last year tied Monsanto for the lead in North
American corn-seed market share, and the
India
(rediff.com) – India is paying a heavy cost by not adopting the genetically modified crops in a big way and the farmers should be given opportunity to reap benefits of the technology like in case of BT cotton, experts with the global agri-research bodies ISAAA and ICRISAT have said.
"India [ Images ], the pioneers among the developing countries is paying a high cost by not going for biotech crops in a big way," founder and chair of International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application Clive James said at a global conference on crop biotechnology in Hyderabad.
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics director general William D Dar exuded confidence that Indian policy makers would soon realise the advantage of this plant technology and go for it in a big way.
"Indian farmers have already tasted the success from commercial cultivation of Bt cotton. . . why are these farmers not given the opportunities to reap rich benefits by growing other Bt crops," James and Dar said making a strong case for popularisation of GM crops in India.
Both experts described crop biotechnology as a powerful tool to address the food demand of the rising global population.
Terming as 'untrue' the apprehensions spread by activists that GM crops have bad health affects, James and Dar said the Bt crops are safe from science research point of view which is reflected in expanding areas under it world over.
The ISAAA chief said though the Bt crops seeds cost higher than the normal ones, the overall input cost involved in cultivating GM crops is less than the latter as it does not involve deep ploughing and use of expensive fertilisers.
The one-day conference on 'Demystifying crop biotechnology: Issues and concepts for the Asian media' was organised jointly by ISAAA, ICRISAT, Asian Media Information and Communication Centre and the department of biotechnology on Monday.
There were participants from
The world population is expected to touch 9 billion by 2050, and there is a need to double the production from current level to feed this mammoth population, James said.
"By displaying strong political will,
Making a strong argument in favour of GM crops, James said the biotech crops have registered a record 87-fold increase in hectares globally between 1996-2010, making it the fastest adopted crop technology in the history of modern agriculture.
"From 1996 (when Bt technology was introduced) to 2010, Bt crop acreage increased by an unprecedented 1 billion hectares, which is equivalent to more than 10 per cent of the total land area of the USA (937 million hectares) or China (956 million hectares)," ISAAA chairman said.
The number of countries planting biotech crops soared to a record 29 in 2010, from 25 in 2009, James said.
Only six countries had adopted the technology in the inaugural year 1996.
The ISAAA chief said by 2015, 40 countries are expected to adopt biotech crops.
How California
(SFGate.com) – California's most recent drought cost consumers more than $1.5 billion in lost hydropower and led to the cancellation of two commercial salmon fishing seasons, but its impacts on agriculture were more mixed than previously thought, according to a water policy report released today.
While water shortages drove down revenues in some farming districts nearly 20 percent, statewide the industry posted some of the highest sales totals on record.
"A lot of districts suffered and faced drought
restrictions, but in other counties they had record crop plantings," said
Juliet Christian-Smith, researcher at
The 107-page study, titled "Impacts of the 2007-2009 California Drought: What Really Happened?" examined state and federal data on crops, employment, river flows, wildlife surveys, salinity levels and other indicators in an effort to gauge the economic fallout of three consecutive years with well-below-normal precipitation.
Researchers found that while fallowed farmland and parched
irrigation canals drew much media and political attention between 2007 and
2009, many of the biggest and most productive farms with senior water rights in
the
As a result, the state's nearly 82,000 farms and ranches sold just under $35 billion in goods in 2009, the third-highest year on record.
Power and pollution
In contrast, anemic river flows during the drought cut the state's hydropower production in half, forcing utilities to turn to more expensive and less eco-friendly natural gas combustion. Christian-Smith calculated that consumers paid an additional $1.7 billion for natural gas during the three-year period, a resource that added some 13 million tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
The drought took its toll on the environment in other ways, too. With less freshwater flowing into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, fish populations already in decline experienced further deterioration. In the case of the commercial salmon fishery, federal regulators shut down the 2008 and 2009 seasons completely, resulting in 1,823 lost jobs and $118.4 million in lost income, the report said.
That's not to say that food growers had an easy time during
the drought years. Holders of junior water rights on the western side of the
Employment problems
But the report pointed to labor data showing that high
unemployment in the
Bill Chandler, who grows nuts and tree fruits on his farm
south of
Still,
"We have to be ready for the next drought or we'll have
to sell out to someone who wants to build houses,"
Indeed, the Pacific Institute said more agricultural
districts need to follow the lead of
But they aren't the only Californians who need to make changes, the report emphasized. To better cope with the next inevitable drought, the entire state must bolster water conservation and recycling, increase energy supplies from neighboring states and expand fish hatcheries to ensure survival of vulnerable species.
"We have to get out of this game of fish versus cities versus farms," said Chris Sheuring, water analyst with the California Farm Bureau Federation. "We're going to have 50 million people in this state soon. The demands on the system are only increasing, and the supply isn't. We have no choice but to work together."
Key plant traits yield more sugar for biofuels
(UC
Riverside via EurekaAlert.org) RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- New clues about plant structure
are helping researchers from the Department of Energy's
Led by Charles Wyman of the Bourns College of Engineering's Center for Environmental Research and Technology at the University of California, Riverside, a research team from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and UCR determined that the amount and composition of lignin in the plant's cell wall interact in an unanticipated way to influence release of sugar from the plant.
The research was published as "Lignin content in natural Populus variants affects sugar release," in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Lignin serves as a major roadblock for biofuel production because it forms strong bonds with sugars and interferes with access to these carbohydrates, making it difficult to extract the plant's sugars contained in cellulose and hemicellulose for conversion to transportation fuels.
"The real driver for bioenergy is how to get sugar as cheaply as possible from these recalcitrant materials," Wyman said. "We're looking for clues as to which traits in these poplar materials will lead to better sugar release."
Using a high-throughput screening method, the BESC researchers rapidly analyzed an unprecedented number of poplar core samples in their search to understand the chemical factors that drive sugar yields.
The analysis revealed a correlation between one plant trait, the S/G ratio, and increased sugar yields. The ratio refers to the two main building blocks of lignin – syringyl and guaiacyl subunits.
"The conventional wisdom is that high lignin contents are bad for sugar release," said lead author Michael Studer. "We unexpectedly found that this statement is only valid for low S/G ratios, while at high S/G ratios lignin does not negatively influence yields. However, replacement of carbohydrates with lignin reduces the maximum possible sugar release."
"Another interesting result was that the samples with the highest sugar release belonged to the group with average S/G ratios and lignin contents. This finding points to a need for deeper understanding of cell wall structure before plants can be rationally engineered for efficient biofuels production," Studer said.
The team's study also pinpointed certain poplar samples that produced unusually high sugar yields with no pretreatment. Biofuel production typically requires various pretreatments, such as applying high temperature and pressure to the biomass. Reducing pretreatment would represent a substantial decrease in the price of liquid transportation fuels produced from lignocellulosic feedstocks like poplar.
"It's very enticing that several of the samples released more sugar than typical with no pretreatment," Wyman said.
Poplar trees, botanically known as Populus, represent the leading woody crop candidate for the production of biomass feedstocks for the creation of biofuels in the U.S. Naturally occurring selections of poplar trees contained wide variations in all observed traits, says Gerald Tuskan, an ORNL plant biologist and one of the co-leads of the study.
"We can mine this natural variability and find extreme poplar phenotypes that have value in increasing sugar yield," Tuskan said. "Moreover, these native individuals are adapted to local environments."
From this work, superior poplar cultivars may soon be available for commercial testing and propagation, yielding plant materials that will contribute to reducing the nation's dependence on fossil fuel based transportation fuels.
###
The team, supported by BESC at ORNL, included co-lead Mark Davis and Robert Sykes from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Jaclyn DeMartini from UCR, and Brian Davison and Martin Keller from ORNL.
BESC is one of three DOE Bioenergy Research Centers
established by the DOE's Office of Science in 2007.
The centers support multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams
pursuing the fundamental scientific breakthroughs needed to make production of
cellulosic biofuels, or biofuels from nonfood plant fiber, cost-effective on a
national scale. The three centers are coordinated at ORNL, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory and the
The Bourns College of Engineering's Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) at UCR is a model for partnerships between industry, government and academia. It is a recognized leader in research and education in the areas of atmospheric processes, emissions and fuels, sustainable energy and transportation systems.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science
Success in farming Hong
Kong ’s urban islands
Hong Kong (CNN)
-- On the roof of a 21-story office building in
The rooftop is managed by local entrepreneur Osbert Lam, who spends his afternoons amid the rows of planter boxes teaming with long beans, tomatoes and herbs that occupy his urban farm.
Juxtaposed with the
"There are a lot of empty, leftover rooftops that could easily be transformed into fields," said Lam, who started the Eco-Mama rooftop farm just six months ago.
For just $15 per month, Lam rents out toolbox-sized planter
boxes to businessmen, elderly couples and families alike, and even runs
horticulture classes. He uses imported soil from
"I found that the veggies loved the environment on my rooftop," Lam, a 50 year-old father of two, said. "Here, there is good sun from the South, good air from the East and we're above the crowded streets."
And that's precisely the premise behind urban farming: integrating farming practices into the urban ecological and economic systems. This is done through direct interaction with the urban environment and incorporating resources, such as using organic waste for compost or utilizing portions of urban structures for farming projects.
Lam's farm -- a humble 2,000 square feet -- is one of an
estimated 300 urban farming projects that now occupy
"Twenty years ago, locals thought that the soil here
was dirty," said Simon Chau, founder of the Produce
Green Foundation, which manages
But unlike the burgeoning urban farms of
"If we really want to see the maximum benefits of urban
farming here (in
The population density makes it difficult to have urban farms anywhere other than on the rooftops of the city's soaring skyscrapers, Hui said. The city also has strict guidelines on development, allowing just 25% of the land to be built upon.
Urban agriculture's growing pains
Aside from the logistical challenges of planting crops in a
city void of open space, many of
Chan Choi-hi, a member of the Hong
Kong district council, said the
"There is no policy, no vision (and) no idea of how to
do urban farming in
The economic angle, Chan said, may be the only way to
convince top government officials to invest time and resources into bolstering
But according to the numbers, that argument has proved to be a tough sell.
Farming makes up just a fraction of Hong Kong's current GDP
and employs just 4,700 Hong Kong residents, less than one tenth of a percent of
the population, according to
The government has set up roughly 30 urban farm plots across the territory, but many are found in the middle of highways or in remote locations of the city, rendering them both unattractive and inconvenient for residents, Hui said.
Although a submitted statement to CNN by the AFCD said that they encourage "leisurely farming," support and services "are primarily geared for income-earning or food-producing local farmers."
The movement, therefore, has taken longer to catch hold in
Outside of convincing politicians, Chau said Hong Kongers themselves have historically been resistant to the idea of farming as a suitable pastime.
"It is the lowest of our traditional caste system. In
traditional Chinese culture, if you're good at nothing else, you work on the
farm," Chau said. "Also, Hong Kong is a
very money-minded place... land is also very expensive in
In light of the many challenges facing urban agriculture in
"I believe you can build a community of rooftop farmers
here in
End Transmission