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July 14, 2011
· Monsanto confirms cyber attack
· Feds to boost farm-to-school programs
· Web aids growers access to local markets
· Why farmers are not planting cover crops
· Pea-o’d growers get fresh with the Prez
Monsanto confirms cyber attack
This cyber activist group is called Anonymous. It's well-known among the tech community. Recently, the group has taken responsibility for cyber attacks against several oil firms and banks. And Monsanto is the latest company on its hit list.
"Basically it's a group of organized hackers who are using their hacking skills to make political statements," said cyber security expert David Maestas, who works for Techguard in O'Fallon, MO.
For the past two months, Anonymous has been making a statement against Monsanto.
The technology website CNET is reporting Anonymous went public about the attack on a website called Pastebin.
The group wrote, "Over the last 2 months we have pushed the exposure of hundreds of pages of articles detailing Monsanto's corrupt, unethical and downright evil business practices..."
The statement goes on to claim it took information about 2,500 Monsanto employees and associates-- their names, addresses, phone numbers and exactly where they work. The statement says it plans to publish the information on Wikileaks.
Monsanto issued a statement acknowledging the leak: "Today, a number of public and private institutions are facing cyber threats and actions around the world. Such threats are not new and something that Monsanto is constantly working to protect against. Last month, Monsanto experienced a disruption to our web sites which appeared to be organized by a cyber-group. In addition, this group also recently published publicly-available information on approximately 2,500 individuals involved in the broader global agriculture industry.
"Contrary to initial media reports, only 10 percent of this publicly-available information related to Monsanto's current and former employees. The list also included contact details for media outlets as well as other agricultural companies. Information on these attacks has been turned over to the appropriate authorities. We remain vigilant in protecting our information systems."
"Anytime an employee's personal information gets out, it's a concern for that employee," Maestas said.
But in this case, where the information was already public, Maestas says the threat is not as great. Still, it points to a big problem companies like Monsanto face.
"One of the lessons learned is that companies, especially high profile companies like that need to take a close look at how they're securing their network," Maestas said.
Because as anonymous said in its statement, "expect us," because they might strike again.
Feds to boost farm-to-school programs
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan said the programs have become so popular so fast that her agency doesn't have solid figures on how many schools are serving their students vegetables, fruits and meat grown by local farmers.
"We know it's just snowballing," Merrigan said in an interview with The Associated Press
before her appearance Tuesday at the School Nutrition Association convention in
The U.S. Department of Agriculture used the convention to release a new report on what works in farm-to-school programs, what doesn't and what the agency can do to help them work better. The report was put together by a USDA team that traveled to 15 school districts across the country and comes as officials, including first lady Michelle Obama, are promoting the importance of healthier food for kids.
"First, it is about bringing fresh locally grown food into school cafeterias," Merrigan said. "So there's the yummy factor, the good nutrition factor. ... Number two, we believe it provides good market opportunities for local producers, particular those midsize farmers that are struggling to make a go of it. This is a real opportunity for them to increase the bottom line in their farming operations. So it's about rural economic development."
Third, she said, farm-to-school programs help connect people with where their food comes from, how it's produced and by whom.
"We know that children are very disconnected from agriculture ... literally thinking food comes from a grocery store," Merrigan said. But many schools use farm-to-school programs to work agriculture into the curriculum, she said, transforming the lunchroom into a classroom.
Farmers who supply schools say they benefit from having
steady customers, and they also get satisfaction from knowing they're helping
children eat healthier food. Jeff Rosenblad, owner of
Happy Harvest Farms in
"The kids like it so much they're eating (from) salad bars more. They're eating watermelon, they're just gorging themselves," Rosenblad said.
Matt Jones, who owns Jones Farm Produce in nearby Gervais, Ore., said the extra business he gets from supplying schools lets him keep a few more workers employed for a few more weeks a year. He's been able to sell to schools later into the winter because he has plenty of cold-storage capacity for the apples he grows. A lack of refrigerator space is a common problem for many schools.
"These school districts are not just serving the fresh fruits and vegetables but they're also educating kids in the process," Jones said. "They're trying fruits and vegetables they never would have tried at home, so that's really good for the children."
Farm-to-school sales benefit rural economies, said Deborah
Kane, vice president of food and farms for Ecotrust,
a
Kane was invited to the White House last week to brief
President Barack Obama on another Ecotrust
initiative, a USDA-backed online service called FoodHub
that helps connect family farms with schools and other urban buyers. The site
covers parts of the
The USDA's 76-page report said team members learned in their travels that communities with farm-to-school initiatives are passionate about them and work hard to overcome the challenges they face, but success depends on good communications among schools, farmers and others invested in the programs. And it said money is needed to support these programs, particularly for food service staff training, equipment and facilities to process and store local produce, and to develop educational activities for students.
In an age when many districts do little more than heat up prepackaged foods, the report noted that schools often lack people trained to clean, cut and cook fresh fruit and vegetables. They may not even have enough knives and other basic equipment to do the job.
The USDA pledged in the report to step up efforts to connect schools with farmers, including increasing collaboration with nonprofits and expanding outreach and awareness initiatives.
Merrigan also announced a pilot
program that will give
While various farm-to-school programs are operating in every state, Merrigan said, the USDA has relied on advocacy groups for data and their numbers are often limited or old. So she asked officials at the convention to participate in a USDA survey to determine what schools across the nation are doing.
"This thing is growing beyond our ability to track it, and we really need a systemized way to get this data," she said.
The National Farm to School Network estimates there are over 2,500 programs involving more than 10,000 schools around country, up from about 400 programs in 22 states in 2004, but spokeswoman Chelsea Simpson said those numbers aren't certain. The network is hoping the USDA survey gives everyone a better picture of how many students are benefiting, she said.
"It's a tricky thing to figure out because the beautiful thing about farm-to-school is it's such a grassroots initiative," Simpson said.
Web aids growers access to local markets
(USDA)
With the new Food Hub Web page, producers, buyers, and others can now access a central clearinghouse for resources, news and information related to food hubs and similar enterprises that provide infrastructure support for small and mid-size producers. Contents of the Web page will continue to evolve as USDA expands its understanding of the unique food hub business model, which pairs producers with buyers to serve local and regional food systems. Ultimately such enterprises support local economies and create jobs by offering services that enable farmers to break into new, higher-volume markets and preserving product identity.
“We know that farmers, especially small and mid-sized producers, often have big challenges when it comes to getting their products efficiently off the farm and into the marketplace,” said Rayne Pegg, AMS administrator. “But we also know they don’t have a lot of time to search the Internet for solutions. The Food Hub Web page is a good place to start. It is equally useful to entrepreneurs, advocates, researchers and others who want to strengthen regional food systems and local economies.”
The Web page features information from numerous USDA agencies and other leading research and practitioner organizations in the public, non-profit and private sectors. A comprehensive, evolving directory of identified food hubs and financial resources will allow users to find desired markets quickly, without spending hours collecting information from various locales. USDA is preparing a more comprehensive resource guide for food hubs and similar enterprises for release later this year. Additionally, visitors will be able to access USDA-generated research and presentations on food hubs and similar enterprises and relevant research from non-profit organizations, universities and industry experts.
USDA’s work is part of the National Food Hub Collaboration,
a partnership among USDA, the
Why farmers are not planting cover crops
(EurekaAlert.net)
Research has shown that time and money are the two primary reasons why farmers are hesitant to adopt the technique. Developing innovative and cost-effective crop cover systems could increase the use of winter cover crops.
A scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and colleagues investigated the potential use of self-seeding winter cereal cover crops. Results from the study were published in the July-August 2011 issue of the Agronomy Journal.
Scientists measured the amount of green groundcover self-seeded winter cover crops produced after soybean harvests in the fall of 2007 and 2008. The study revealed that the cover crop's growth through self-seeding was most consistent using a wheat cover crop and mechanical seed dispersal before the soybean harvest.
"The significance of this research, in addition to lowering the cost and risk of establishing cover crops, is to extend the ecological functions that cover crops perform beyond their normal termination dates," explained Jeremy Singer, a researcher from USDA-ARS.
Organic crop producers can benefit from self-seeding cover crops because of the potential for enhanced weed suppression without disturbing the soil. Cover crops also increase nutrient retention and reduce soil erosion, which can improve water quality.
Research is ongoing at the National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment to find cover crop systems that minimize risk to crops and maximize their conservation benefits.
Pea-o’d growers get fresh with the Prez
(The
New York Post) – If the president thinks peas are as distasteful as taxes,
he must be eating nasty ones out of a can,
"In the cans, I wouldn't eat them even if I had
to," Linda Titus, a pea grower in upstate
"A fresh pea is entirely different from a canned pea -- my grandchildren won't eat the canned kind but love to pick and eat raw peas here," she said.
It's unclear if pea growers will see the same kind of bump in demand that followed President George H.W. Bush's remark in 1990 that he hated broccoli.
In
Maggie Wood, of Golden Earthworm Organic Farm in Jamesport, LI, agreed that the bad rap against peas comes from people who've never eaten them fresh.
"They're not only healthy -- like your mother always told you -- but they really are delicious, too! They're delicious sautéed lightly in a little butter with finely chopped mint and shallots and salt and pepper."
End Transmission