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July 25, 2008
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Ag giants intensify debate over food versus fuel
·
Mexico hot under the collar at US pepper scare
·
Tomato growers get help in compensation quest
· Ethanol co-product eyed for organic weed control
·
Nutritional value of organics questioned … again
Ag giants intensify debate over food versus fuel
ADM, backed by seed makers Monsanto Co. (MON)
and DuPont Co. (DD), as well as Deere & Co. (DE), made their call through a
new lobbying organization called the
The move highlights a sharp divide in the
Members of the new alliance have long argued
that technological improvements would boost crop yields and prevent demand from
renewable fuels from crowding out food supplies.
This view is fiercely opposed by food
companies such as Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) , which has
called for
The alliance is led by Mark Kornblau, a Democratic strategist, and its launch in a
general-election year coincides with a period of sharply rising food inflation,
as well as soaring gas prices.
Executives from the four companies and the
Renewable Fuel Association, or RFA, will call on lawmakers worldwide "to
support agricultural innovation globally".
"While others are asking should it be
food 'or' feed 'or' fuel, we believe the answer is 'and'," said Monsanto
Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant on the company's earnings call last month.
The lobbying is expected to trigger staunch
opposition from other executives in the
Tyson Chief Executive Dick Bond attributes
rising food inflation in the
Bond has called on Congress to reduce or drop
a federal tax subsidy and end import tariffs on sugar-based ethanol.
"Diverting corn to make ethanol doesn't
make sense," said Bond in April. Tyson declined to comment ahead of the
alliance launch at a press conference in
Current
Bond wants both of these removed, a call that
makes his stance more strident than others in the sector, such as Cargill's
CEO, Greg Page, who has made repeated calls for a greater level of national
debate on the food-versus-fuel issue.
Cargill and Bunge Ltd. (BG), another agribusiness group vocal in the debate, are not members of the alliance.
Mexico
hot under the collar at US
(Reuters) – Mexicans
are jumping to the defense of the jalapeno pepper, maligned by
The U.S. Food
and Drug Administration said on Monday it found a jalapeno pepper contaminated
with the strain of salmonella that has sickened more than 1,200 people and
warned everyone across the
But the warning
did little to dampen the appetite for jalapenos in
Jalapenos,
named after the eastern Mexican city of
"
"In the
The outbreak of
the salmonella strain, known as Salmonella Saintpaul,
has now made 1,251 people ill and put 229 into hospitals in the
But
NEW FASHION
Despite the
salmonella outbreak, jalapenos have become increasingly popular in the
"It's the
new fashion," said Jose Manuel Gochicoa who
heads the chile growers' association in
Exports, most
of them to the United States, have risen between 10 and 15 percent every year
over the last decade and now over 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of peppers
are grown in Mexico, 80 percent of them jalapenos.
Dozens of
varieties of chiles, some which provoke sweating and crying,
have become a cooking trend in the
"Very
rarely do you ever hear someone say, 'I used to eat hot and spicy food but now
I'm back to bland,"' said DeWitt, the author of over 30 books on chiles like "The Spicy Food Lover's Bible" and
"The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia."
Inspectors are
holding up truck loads of the some 100 tons of peppers crossing into the
"By
creating this bottleneck at the border, people are just going to stop
exporting," he said.
Health
inspectors have had trouble identifying the origin of the salmonella bacteria
and first blamed tomatoes grown in south
Tomato growers get help in compensation quest
(The Wall Street
Journal) – Federal health officials haven't cleared tomatoes as a cause of the
salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 1,270 nationwide, but the
tomato industry has -- and it is asking taxpayers to compensate them for their
loss.
Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Democrat from
At the same time, Congress has
scheduled at least three hearings next week on the salmonella outbreak and why
it took so long to figure out what caused it.
The sought-after amount is based
on an estimate from Florida growers and includes crops abandoned in the field,
products thrown out by retailers and tomatoes forced to be sold as low as $5 a
box, compared with as much as $20 in a normal market, said Reggie Brown,
executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, a cooperative
of tomato farmers. The Agriculture Department hasn't released a firm estimate
of the cost to farmers or distributors.
On June 7, the Food and Drug
Administration warned consumers against eating certain types of raw tomatoes,
suspected of carrying the virulent Saintpaul strain of
salmonella. Many restaurants dumped their supplies of tomatoes, and many
consumers shunned them. But the number of cases skyrocketed, and tests seeking
salmonella on tomatoes all turned out negative.
This week, the FDA and Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention announced they had discovered a single
jalapeño pepper tainted with the Saintpaul strain in
a
"In this particular case,
there is no smoking gun," said Rep. Mahoney. "What we have is
losses." He said he wasn't "blaming the FDA for the choices they
make, but there are consequences to those choices."
Michael Herndon, an FDA
spokesman, said, "FDA's actions are based on public health. Congressional
efforts to improve food safety are something FDA always supports."
Consumer advocates oppose the
bill. Sarah Klein, a staff attorney at the Center for Science in the Public
Interest, said the food-industry lobby over the years has weakened federal
food-safety oversight, and consumers shouldn't foot the bill now. "We'd
like to see the industry focusing on how to prevent these outbreaks for the
future to protect consumers and their bottom line," she said.
Tom Stenzel,
president of United Fresh Produce Association, said the fresh-produce industry
has sought tougher FDA regulation of tomatoes and other items. In recent years,
But the industry disagrees on who
should benefit from the bill. Mr. Mahoney said it covers farmers and shippers,
which were hit the hardest by the FDA warning. Mr. Stenzel,
said it also should cover those further up the supply chain, such as packers
and repackers, who suffered damages, too.
It is uncertain whether the bill
will pass Congress. There isn't similar legislation in the Senate, and there is
little time for lawmakers to act before the November election. Last year,
spinach growers unsuccessfully pushed a similar measure to compensate for
losses after the government's 2006 recall of fresh spinach after an outbreak of
E. coli.
Ethanol co-product eyed for organic weed control
(USDA-ARS) – Studies by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
scientists have shown that dried distiller's grains (DDGs),
co-products of corn ethanol production, have potential as an organic fertilizer
and for weed control. But some ethanol producers are adopting new corn-grinding
methods that may affect the DDGs' usefulness.
To further study DDGs, ARS plant physiologist Steve
Vaughn and colleagues entered into a one-year cooperative research and
development agreement (CRADA) with Summit Seed, Inc., a Manteno, Ill.-based company specializing in turfgrass
production.
In greenhouse and field studies, Vaughn showed that the DDGs
can be used as an organic fertilizer for tomatoes and other crops. Indeed, in
2007, DDG-treated plots of Roma tomatoes yielded 226 total pounds of fruit,
versus 149 pounds from untreated plants. And in turfgrass
trials, the DDGs stopped annual bluegrass and other
weed seeds from germinating in stands of Kentucky bluegrass.
But now, with more ethanol plants using dry-grinding methods, the DDGs, germ and fiber fractions are generated before, rather
than after, corn sugars are fermented into ethanol. Determining how this new
practice changes the DDGs' biochemical and physical
properties is a chief focus of ARS' CRADA with Summit Seed.
Vaughn's ARS colleagues are Jill Winkler, Kathy Rennick,
Fred Eller, Mark Berhow and Brent Tisserat--all
with NCAUR in
Nutritional value of organics questioned … again
(foodnavigator.com) – A debate has ignited
over the nutritional benefits of organic produce compared to conventional, with
recent analysis disputing claims of its nutritional superiority.
In a report
published in March, the Organic
However, these claims were unfounded, according to Joseph Rosen, emeritus professor
at Rutgers University and scientific advisor to the American Council on Science
and Health (ACSH)
in his report "Claims of Organic Food's Nutritional Superiority: A Critical
Review", published yesterday by ACSH.
He criticised the methodology and said the
information was carefully selected to support arguments for the nutritional
benefits of organic produce. When recalculating the data used in the original
report, Rosen concluded that conventional products are actually 2 per cent more
nutritious than organic varieties.
The two takes on the data add to the ongoing questions on whether organic
produce, which is becoming increasingly popular among consumers, has
nutritional benefits.
Amarjit Sahota, director
for the
"Seven or eight years ago, there was much speculation on the benefits
of organic produce, but a real lack of any substantial research," he
said.
"But over the last few years, more and more research has shown that there
are more vitamins and nutrients
in organic food than in conventional food. And there is far more research
coming out with this conclusion than vice versa."
The organic market has been experiencing considerable growth in recent years,
as consumers have become ever more aware of the effects diet can have on their
health and are turning away from produce grown using pesticides.
The UK Soil Association, also advocates of organic food, expects a healthy 10 per
cent growth for sales of organic products this year, which it says if four to
five times higher than sales growth for the general food market in a good
year.
Differences between reports
The Organic
Center's review, "New Evidence Confirms the Nutritional Superiority
of Plant-Based Organic Foods", looked at peer-reviewed scientific
studies published since 1980 comparing nutrient levels in organic and
conventional foods.
It identified 236 organic and conventional
foodstuffs that were equally measured on nutrient content, and found that in 61
per cent of the cases, the organic versions were more nutritionally dense.
Furthermore, the organic samples contained higher concentrations of important polyphenols and antioxidants in about three-quarters of the
59 matched pairs representing the four phytonutrients.
And, in general, the report said: "Across all 236 matched pairs and 11
nutrients, the nutritional premium of the organic food average 25 per
cent."
However, in yesterday's report, Rosen wrote that the methodology of the
study was flawed as "results that were not statistically significant
were used throughout, non peer-reviewed papers were included and much relevant
data… not included".
Examples of Rosen's criticism include the fact that
Additionally, one study looking at the nutrient content from an analysis of
kiwi fruits included the skin, which most consumers do not eat, as well as the
pulp.
Previous studies
These conflicting views echo similar scientific
debates raging over the advantages of organic over conventional.
For example, a
The researchers said that organic tomatoes contained on average 79 and 97 per
cent more quercetin and kaempferol
aglycones than conventionally grown tomatoes.
Meanwhile, a review from the British Nutrition Foundation last June said that
the overall body of science does not support the view that organic food is more
nutritious than conventionally grown food.
"Organic farming represents a sustainable method of agriculture that
avoids the use of artificial fertilisers and
pesticides and makes use of crop rotation and good animal husbandry to control
pests and diseases," wrote BNF's Claire
Williamson.
"From a nutritional perspective, there is currently not enough evidence
to recommend organic foods over conventionally produced foods."
End Transmission