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July 9, 2010
· Biotech crops make surprising gains
· New phone app gives food recall info
· New approaches for crop protection
· Spud varieties benefit desert growers
· Six workers drown in tomato pulp pit
Biotech crops make surprising gains
(stltoday.com) American farmers continued planting more genetically engineered crops this year, surprising some industry experts who expected farmers to back away from some biotech crops amid complaints of high seed prices and reports of growing weed resistance.
This spring the percentage of genetically engineered soy, corn and cotton rose, helping push total planting of all three crops up over last year and lifting soy to record-breaking levels and corn to near-record breaking levels.
According to a report issued last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers cited good weather conditions in the spring planting season as the primary reason for the overall increases.
For some analysts, however, the biotech figures were unexpected. Since the first biotech crops were commercialized in 1996, planting of biotech soy, corn and cotton have climbed consistently. But last year acreage of biotech soybeans dropped by 1 percent, making 2009 the first year farmers appeared to be backing away from biotech soy varieties, a trend many agricultural analysts expected to continue.
"I think there were two reasons why," said Neil Harl, a professor of economics at
More than 90 percent of the soybeans grown in the
But in the past few years, the weeds that glyphosate kills have been cropping up in farm fields, particularly in the South. And the price of soybean seeds has risen sharply more than 100 percent since 2001, according to federal figures. That has made some farmers turn away from biotech varieties or think about doing so, seed dealers and farmers say.
"Farmers have balked because they say it's just too
high," said Grover Shannon, a professor of soybean genetics at the
Monsanto concedes that it may have been overly optimistic about Roundup's efficacy over the long term. Now the company is recommending residual herbicides, including a product for cotton and soybeans called Warrant that the company launched last week for the 2011 season.
The company also said it was giving farmers the option of buying a non-treated version of its new generation of soybean, called Roundup Ready 2 Yield. This could lower the cost and attract more farmers as they make their seed purchases this fall something that could boost the biotech acreage even higher next year.
In the meantime, this year's rise in biotech acreage comes
as welcome news for the world's largest seed company. The biotech giant became
the subject late last year of a Department of Justice investigation into
anti-competitive behavior. Late last month, the attorney general of
Monsanto has long countered by saying that its licensing practices, which allow hundreds of companies to sell seeds with Monsanto-developed traits, give more farmers access to its technologies. The company has also stood by its testing showing that its new soybeans yielded more than 7 percent over competitors'.
Still, researchers at public universities say they are continuing to work on developing conventional seed varieties to fulfill what they believe could be growing demand.
New phone app gives food recall info
(USDA) Popular technology will now help Americans verify what they eat is safe. The U.S. Government's Products Recall app for the Android smartphone is now available at the revamped USA.gov website, and the apps for Blackberry and iPhone are soon to follow.
"Alerting consumers quickly to food and product recall information through this technology can prevent untold illness and save lives," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Instead of trying to find recalls on many different websites at home, consumers who download this tool can use technology to make informed decisions even before they put a product in their grocery cart or open the package to prepare a meal for their family."
The app was unveiled by the General Services Administration as part of the new mobile app store on the updated USA.gov website. The new Mobile Apps store at USA.gov will collect all in one place the mobile applications developed throughout the federal government.
Using information from several agencies across the government, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Department of Health and Human Services' Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Products Recall app for smartphones is a powerful tool that will help reduce foodborne illness and enhance the lives of Americans. It puts information about any recalled products including foods at consumers' fingertips.
The app allows consumers to view the most recent recall press releases and any pictures associated with those products. Consumers can get information of specific interest to them using a feature on the app that searches recalled products by product name or category.
The app's "report incident" feature allows consumers to connect directly with their government to report concerns of unsafe products. A "tips" option will feature rotating educational messages for consumers about a variety of products, such as highlighting safe food handling tips as popular cooking holidays approach.
"Our goal is to quickly inform the public and media when food products are recalled," said USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety Jerold Mande. "This app puts the information directly in the hands of consumers, giving them the power to take action."
In addition to foods regulated by FSIS and FDA, the Products Recall app also includes recall information for drugs, cribs, strollers, child safety seats, tires, and other consumer products.
New approaches for crop protection
(BusinessWeekly) East of England specialists are involved in a range of innovative projects put forward by business led consortia from across agriculture and the crop protection industry that are receiving support of more than £13.5 million from the Government to carry out applied research & development.
Syngenta, Limagrain and Rothamsted Research are all spearheading critical research programmes under the initiative.
The investment, from the Technology Strategy Board, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, has been awarded to consortia in a recently concluded competition entitled New Approaches to Crop Protection.
The projects will develop new technologies to help farmers and growers adapt to the specific challenges posed by recent changes to EU pesticide regulations that threaten the withdrawal of a number of key crop protection products, as well as supporting the broader aims of the Technology Strategy Boards recently established Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform.
Taking into account contributions from the British companies
undertaking the research, the total value of the R & D is in excess of £25m
and the consortia will bring together over 100 British companies, research
establishments and other organisations from across
the
Syngenta Crop Protection UK, which has major operations in Fulbourn and Whittlesford in Cambridgeshire and Clacton in
The project will develop an innovative machine vision system using digital cameras, linked to leading-edge image analysis software, designed not only to identify reliably the weeds present but also to estimate their densities prerequisites for precision farming.
Key benefits of the system would be to reduce the cost of weed control to the farmer, lower herbicide inputs to the environment and allow early detection of herbicide resistance.
Syngenta Ltd is leading another project, also involving Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, to enable growers to produce more food with fewer inputs, through an integrated farm management strategy.
This optimises the Crop Protection
(CP) using a network of in-field biosensors which then interact to form a
Limagrain and partners are working
on the development and application of novel molecular technology for breeding
new varieties. The primary aim is to develop new competitive varieties for the
Based in
New spud varieties for desert growers
(potatopro.com) After nearly 30 years of research, Professor David Levy has developed a strain of potato that can be grown in hot, dry climates, and irrigated by saline water sources.
Professor David Levy's windowsill is lined with potatoes of numerous shapes and sizes. It's an appropriate decoration for a man who has spent his lifetime breeding the staple food.
Now Levy, an Israeli scientist from the Hebrew University Institute for Plant Sciences, at the Faculty of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, has developed not only a new strain of potatoes suitable for growth in hot, dry climates, but also new strains that can be grown using irrigation from saline water sources.
His development will have a huge impact on potato production
in hot, desert regions like the
Levy believes that farmers in these desert regions will now
be able to grow their own potatoes, and market them to Europe and the
Levy also hopes that his research will "enhance understanding and maybe even peace" between Israel and its neighbors, as scientists and officials from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco meet with Israeli scientists at USAID-sponsored regional meetings held in Morocco, Israel, Egypt and Cyprus to share knowledge and build bridges of information and technology.
Six workers drown in tomato pulp pit
(newKerala.com)
"First a woman labourer slipped into the deep pit meant to store all the waste product, following which five men jumped into the pit to rescue her...but all of them died," District Magistrate Anil Kumar Sagar told reporters.
The accident took place in the industrial area of Rajajipuram.
"According to witnesses, as soon as the woman slipped into the pit, one of her colleagues took a plunge in bid to save her; and the rest followed one after the other," he said.
The fire brigade was summoned and the six bodies were pulled out of the thick paste in the nearly 10-feet deep pit, he added.
The factory owner has been arrested, Sagar said. He added that "due compensation would be paid by the employers to the families of the dead".
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