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October 2, 2009
· Feds to probe seed industry concentration
· Farmers ignored in Senate climate bill
· Free food programs to require healthier meals
· UK protein study reveals how insects smell
· Big bucks awarded to study honeybee decline
Feds to probe seed industry concentration
(Olney Daily Mail) – Due to concerns regarding rising seed prices and industry concentration, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced recently they will examine competition and antitrust concerns in the seed industry.
According to information from the Department of Justice, the
two agencies will hold public workshops to explore competition issues in the
agriculture industry. The first such event will be held in early 2010. While
some of the workshops might be held in
Steve Hixon, of Steve's Seed
Conditioning in
"I have expectations that the Justice Dept. will finally enforce accountability," Hixon said in written comments.
One company in particular, Monsanto, has drawn the ire of Hixon and others for what they see as monopolistic behavior.
He stated that Monsanto's exclusionary behavior "could only be accomplished using their various forms of influence like a well-oiled machine."
He continued by stating that these forms include large financial contributions to elected officials, consuming state and federal bureaucracies, and "covertly pointing" former employees into judicial positions, interfering with policy in organizations and associations "that claim to represent us." He stated that their products' genetic modifications contain an adventitious presence, and noted its ability to contaminate the ecosystem is referred to as a "natural order."
Hixon went on to state that company insiders revealed celebrations occurred during a Christmas party last year.
"Mostly this was due to their ability to monopolize universities pertinent to their agenda," he stated.
"By donating a million bucks to each school, Monsanto can expect taxpayers to pick up the remaining tab on what would have cost them a billion on their own. This doesn't include their added funding from the USDA and farmers' check-off dollars," he continued, adding that the company can then use the money it saved to buy more seed companies.
Monsanto spokesperson Andrew Burchett said that, regarding the workshops, Monsanto is comfortable talking about its business and it thinks the workshops will provide objective discussion.
"It's definitely a competitive industry and we compete vigorously," he said when asked about concerns that the company is a monopoly, also noting, however, that there are choices for farmers.
Burchett stated that Monsanto licenses its developed traits to competing companies. Burchett said there are alternatives to buying Monsanto seed, though Monsanto does get paid when seed carrying its traits is purchased because those traits are its intellectual property.
In an e-mailed statement, Burchett said, "Monsanto licenses its traits to competitors so farmers can buy Monsanto traits through the seed companies of their choice. The result has been wide-spread adoption by farmers and the ability of small seed companies to compete against large companies by offering advanced biotech seed."
"Farmers have a lot of different choices," he said.
Burchett stated that market data from last season show 212 corn-seed companies sold 4,692 seed products and 185 soybean companies sold 2,138 seed products. The range in prices farmers reported paying from corn seed was more than $200 (under $50 to over $300).
"With so many choices, farmers will buy the seed that works best for them," he continued in his written statement. "We earn their business when our seed makes them more profitable than the competitors'."
Burchett said the company is now in a leadership position because it invested billions in technology where other companies invested millions.
He said the company sees that farmers continue to choose the latest premium products. He also said there is still conventional seed at many different prices.
Burchett said the traits Monsanto patents are from private research, although it is interested in licensing technology developed by other companies and universities and it supports ag programs.
Illinois Farm Bureau President Philip Nelson, who was in Olney recently to talk about the cap-and-trade issue with area Farm Bureau members, said the organization has not specifically spoken out on the USDA and Department of Justice examination of the seed issue.
Nelson said one has to be careful any time there is an ongoing investigation. He said, however, that the Farm Bureau has weighed in on a number of mergers in the last six years in the seed and packing industry since he has been president.
Without addressing Monsanto specifically, Nelson said the Farm Bureau shares concerns about concentration in the industry as a whole. He said there are four seed companies that control 75 percent of the marketplace and four packers on the livestock side of things. He said there are concerns about competition, noting both buying and selling, any time there are so few players.
"I echo the same concern on both sides of the aisle," he said.
Fred Stokes, Executive Director of the Organization for Competitive Markets, said the group applauds the investigation of the issue, specifically singling out the workshops, which he feels are "the real McCoy."
"I think this is a genuine effort to get answers," Stokes said.
He said he does not think there is much of a prospect for legislation to address their concerns because the new chairwoman of the senate agriculture committee, Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, has not typically sided with them.
He said there is some evidence that the Department of Justice is collecting information to prepare for enforcement action in the transgenic seed business.
Farmers ignored in Senate climate bill
(DesMoinesRegister.com)
–
The legislation introduced Wednesday by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who is chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, omits farm provisions included in a bill that passed the House earlier. Those provisions are intended to ensure that growers can earn credits for carbon-storing practices, including reduced tillage.
Also missing from the Senate bill are provisions that would protect the ethanol and biodiesel industries from carbon-reduction standards that Congress enacted in 2007, when it increased national mandates for biofuel usage.
The National Farmers Union issued a statement saying the Senate bill fails to address its core principles on the issue of carbon credits.
The Senate bill is a "step back" from the House legislation, said Rick Krause, who follows climate policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
There is support, however, among farm-state Democrats to sweeten farm provisions.
Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow is working with Montana Sen. Max Baucus on legislation along the lines of the carbon-credit plans in the House bill. A draft of that legislation would allow farmers to get credits for plowing land less, planting cover crops or reducing nitrogen use, and would give the Agriculture Department a lead role in regulating such projects.
The House bill has already been attacked by many farm organizations, including the Farm Bureau, because of the potential impact on fuel and fertilizer costs.
Both the House and Senate bills would set up a cap-and-trade
system to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Utilities, refiners and other
polluters would be required to reduce emissions, obtain permits from the
government or buy offset credits on the market. Most of the credits are likely
to come from landowners overseas and in the
The Senate bill aims to cut
The Senate bill is meant to be "an initial negotiating position well to the left" of where Congress will eventually wind up, energy analyst Kevin Book said.
Free food programs to require healthier meals
(The
Public-health experts say that, for decades, the programs have allowed participants to eat too many processed foods, sugar-laden juices and simple carbohydrates, and not enough fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
Obesity rates for adults have doubled over the past 20 years, federal data shows.
The two programs - food stamps and Women, Infants and Children, or WIC - serve nearly a million Arizonans each month, and enrollments have soared during the recession.
Big changes have already been approved for WIC, which helps pregnant women and new mothers purchase milk, bread, eggs and other basic food items for their families.
For the first time, participants will get a WIC voucher specifically for fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. There will be new limits on how much juice and high-fat milk women can purchase and a requirement that they buy breads and cereals containing whole grains.
The new food packages, which go into effect today, are the first major revision to the program in 30 years.
But WIC isn't the only program officials are targeting for reform.
Arizona Department of Health Services officials want to push for a major revamp of the federal government's $30 billion-plus Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.
SNAP served more than 26.5 million residents nationwide in fiscal 2007, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.
"We really have the opportunity to transform the way people eat and the availability of food," said Will Humble, interim director of the DHS. "We need to make this a nutrition program, not a calorie program."
There would seem to be some momentum for the change: The federal government has set aside $20 million to establish pilot programs that would offer incentives for food-stamp recipients to buy more nutritious foods.
Obesity rates climb
The issue is particularly relevant in
Obesity is determined by using a person's height and weight to create a body-mass index, which correlates to one's body fat. If a person has a BMI above 30, he or she is considered obese.
The rising obesity rates are of major concern because excessive weight can lead to other lifelong health issues, including diabetes, hypertension, increased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke.
A study published in the journal Health Affairs in July found that spending on obesity-related health care is approaching $150 million annually, more than double what it was a decade ago.
WIC changes
The program reduces allocations for sugar-laden juices and cheese. Although milk will still be allowed, most recipients are required to choose 2 percent, 1 percent or skim milk, rather than whole.
The changes are in line with directives set by the
The WIC program, which encourages breast-feeding, gives greater allocations of food items to nursing mothers.
Jazmin Bautista, who has four children under the age of 7, welcomes the changes. She thinks they will make it easier to feed her family a variety of nutritious foods.
"I am excited about the tortillas, the baby food, the
fruits and vegetables, the different kinds of cereal," said Bautista, who
lives in east
Elizabeth Shonnie, another WIC recipient, agrees.
The
"I didn't want them (my children) to have the sugar juices. I didn't like that at all," Shonnie said.
"I grew up (being told that) would rot our teeth. I wasn't going to do that to my kids."
Food-stamp link
Although the obesity epidemic cuts across all gender, socioeconomic and ethnic lines, there is much evidence to suggest that low-income families are at greater risk.
Healthful, nutritious foods, including fish, lean meats, and fruits and vegetables, are far more expensive than pre-packaged, carbohydrate-rich items.
An
The study, which followed participants for 14 years, controlled for income and factors such as race and education.
Researchers said they were able to establish a strong link between food stamps and weight gain, particularly among women.
That's one of the reasons
In
That's an increase of 36 percent over August 2008.
Humble said he would like to build support for a national change to the program during the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission summit next week. Much of the agenda focuses on diabetes and obesity.
In
The current program includes some restrictions on purchases, such as no alcohol, tobacco, vitamins or hot food prepared in the store. But otherwise, there are few limits.
Some public-health experts worry that too many food-stamp users, who receive a pre-loaded debit card, spend their monthly allotment all at once on food with little or no nutritional value.
Humble believes change can't come soon enough.
"You go back to the (obesity) data from the 1970s and 1980s and see what's happened to the population (since), and it's frightening," he said. "We have to do something to address it."
Protein study reveals how insects smell
(BBC News) – X-rays have revealed the structure of a protein that shows how insects smell.
The protein, found in the antennae of silkworm moths, is involved in their detection of pheromones - chemical signals that affect insects' behaviour.
Discovering exactly how insects "smell" these chemicals could help to develop new methods of pest control, and insect repellents for humans.
Scientists at the
The structure was the 100th to be solved using the
The synchrotron generates intense beams of electrons that can be used to probe structures down to the molecular level.
Studying this odour-binding protein has revealed where exactly on its structure the pheromone molecule binds.
“ A male moth is able to locate a female from miles away and a mosquito can find a human in a field full of cows ”
Professor Linda Field, Rothamsted Research
"We know that [the moth's] odorant binding proteins pick up pheromones at pores on the outside of their antennae and carry them through a watery layer to nerve endings," said Dr Jing-Jiang Zhou, the senior researcher at Rothamsted who led this study.
But how exactly the proteins bind these pheromone molecules is still "a bit of a mystery", according to Professor Linda Field, head of the insect molecular biology group at Rothamsted.
"We know they have to bind [together] before they trigger a reaction at the receptor, but looking at how they interact is difficult."
The team wanted to know if the pheromone molecules were simply transported to a receptor by the protein, or if they formed a protein-pheromone complex.
See the light
The x-ray images revealed that the structure of the protein changed when it was bound to a molecule of the moth pheromone, bombykol.
From this, the researchers surmised that this protein-pheromone complex triggered the olfactory (or smell) receptor and, in turn, the mechanism that allows the moth to process the odour.
Plants release these chemical odours to attract insects.
By studying this mechanism the scientists hope to develop more effective methods of pest control that are less toxic to other organisms - by directly targeting the pests' sense of smell.
"In the long term we want to find how this [binding] works and to block it," Professor Field told BBC News. "My research team is working on mosquitoes and aphids to develop systems to protect both crops and humans."
Professor Field explained that insects were "incredibly sensitive" to pheromones and host odours.
"A male moth is able to locate a female from miles away and a mosquito can find a human in a field full of cows," she said.
Rob Lind, senior technical specialist from crop protection company Syngenta, explained that targeting these pheromones was a safe and useful method of controlling specific pests.
"It is already used to control codling moth in apples," he said. "We use pheromone disruption - odours that confuse the males so they can't find the females. The females then lay infertile eggs so the crop is protected.
"It's like pest contraception."
Dr Lind explained that pheromones and odour-binding molecules are could be thought of as locks and keys.
"These are very specific keys and each species has its own particular one.
"In the future, if scientists can find out how they keys work, they could design new ones that fit better."
Dr Zhou concluded: "It's not just the farming community which stands to benefit from this work.
"These new insights will be fed into the development and refinement of biosensors where detection sensitivity is paramount - in areas like blood tests."
Big bucks awarded to study honeybee decline
(Wire Services) – Scientists at Rothamsted
Research and
Lead researcher, Dr Juliet Osborne said: "Bees living on agricultural landscapes have a lot to deal with! They must respond to sudden changes in availability of food – pollen and nectar – whist dealing with a variety of diseases, parasites and other stresses. This project will provide us with a unique insight into how disease and food supply affect the survival of bees in farmed landscapes."
The team will use a combination of field work and computer modelling to look at how the bees' behaviour outside the hive, while looking for food, interacts with what is affecting bees in the hive – factors that have historically been studied separately. The ultimate aim of the project is to build a model that will allow us to understand how bees may respond to diseases in a changing farmed landscape.
Dr Peter Campbell, Syngenta said: "Honeybees are important pollinators for many crops, garden and wild flowers. They are essential both for food security and sustainable agriculture and horticulture. This work will substantially improve our understanding of the many factors affecting honeybee health. A main outcome of the project will be a predictive tool that can help beekeepers, farmers and other landscape managers to improve honeybee health."
Professor Janet Allen, Director of Research, BBSRC said: "We are all concerned about the decline in honeybee numbers and the effect this could have on our food supplies. It is highly likely that there is no one cause of the drop in numbers which makes this project absolutely critical."
As funders, the research councils and Syngenta
are stepping up to the plate in the fight against declining honeybee
populations. In addition to this project, Syngenta
have also launched Operation Pollinator, a 5-year €1M programme
in seven European countries (and the
BBSRC also manages the Insect Pollinators Initiative – a £10M joint funding source under the Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership. This is a joint initiative from BBSRC, Defra, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Wellcome Trust and the Scottish Government. Projects funded under the initiative are due to be announced in July 2010.
End Transmission