
		" I heard it through the AgLine"

October 3, 2008

· Immigrant brothers build their organic dream

· Stubborn ag bulls emerge covered with fertilizer

· Organic grower awarded $1M for pesticide drift

· Plants produce ‘aspirin’ to deal with stress

· Salmonella source likely to remain a mystery

Immigrant brothers build their organic dream

(Minnesota Public Radio) St. Paul, Minn. — Under a solar-heated greenhouse bursting with the smell of fresh tomatoes, Juan Rodrigo Cala tightens the ropes on one of his vines.

This simple but tedious task is not new to him since he's been a farmer both in Mexico, his homeland, and here in the U.S. What is new is that he's now working on his very own farm.

Just a year ago, Cala and his brother Juan Carlos farmed at Wilder Forest northeast of St. Paul through a program with the Minnesota Food Association that allowed them to lease an acre of land. The New Immigrant Agriculture Program taught the brothers about farming issues ranging from health and safety and business management.

Cala says he comes from a background of conventional farming in Mexico, where there was little regulation or oversight on pesticides and herbicides. He says he learned a lot about organic agriculture.

"How to package produce, how to clean vegetables," Cala listed some of things they've learned. "You can't imagine how much we've learned because we knew an agricultural process [in Mexico] where you put the vegetables in a box, and maybe three or four days later the vegetables would get to the consumers. Here... it's fast, it's healthy."

After completing the three-year program, the brothers took a chance, and bought their own farm earlier this year on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.

Juan Rodrigo says his vegetables are growing well. The three acres they're farming are also USDA-organic certified.

"We have two greenhouses," Juan Rodrigo said as he showed off their farm. "We have tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, that's really popular among people who love organic produce. We have radishes, we have bell peppers, winter squash, summer squash, broccoli. We have spinach over here, we have salad mix, we have cilantro, and I think that's all we have this year."

The two brothers also have full-time manufacturing jobs. So they work at least 40 hours in their regular jobs, and another 40 hours on their farm.

"It took us three years of hard work," Juan Rodrigo said. "We educated ourselves, we learned, we knocked on doors."

The Cala brothers are focusing first just on organic vegetables.

Each week, the Cala farm produces about 250 bunches each of spinach, cilantro and radishes. They also pick 20-30 boxes of bell peppers and the same amount of squash.

All of it goes to the Minnesota Food Association, which sells the produce to 380 households through its community sustained agriculture (CSA) program.

"Then next year, we'll have to get goats and maybe pigs," Juan Rodrigo said. "Right now we're taking classes to learn about the requirements for organic meat."

The food association's programs have grown in the last two years. Now the organization sells to five wholesale retailers, including Kowalski's and Chipotle.

In past years, the farmers were on their own once they finished the program, but now the organization helps them connect with new channels to sell their produce.

Glenn Hill, executive director of the Minnesota Food Association says last year, farms would earn on average about $4,000. This year, at least two out of its' thirteen participating farms will average about $15,000.

"It's a big jump because of improved skills and they're able to balance their market options," Hill said. "There is a progression of growth."

According to Hill, for the first time, the farmers in the New Immigrant Agriculture Program are organic-certified and also certified for good agriculture and handling practice.

"These are the only immigrant farmers in the state of Minnesota, maybe in the nation that's certified in this manner for food safety," Hill said.

Back at the Cala farm, Juan Rodrigo says the more the two brothers learn, the more ambitious they become.

He says once they have a strong and stable production in organic vegetables and meat, the next long-term goal is to venture into hydroponics, where vegetables are grown in mineral water.

Cala says this is more than just an American dream, he says it's a reality he and his brother have been able to build from scratch.

Return to Top

Stubborn ag bulls emerge covered with fertilizer

(wsj.com) – The bubble has burst for fertilizer and agricultural chemical stocks, with former stock-market star Mosaic off by a third Thursday and others hard on their heels, like Monsanto and Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan as excess supply and reduced demand slow the pattern of price increases on farm chemicals.

Mosaic, one of the two largest fertilizer makers by sales, recently fell 32% to $45.89 — and has fallen by more than $117, or over two-thirds, since June 18, even after reporting robust fiscal first-quarter earnings growth after the bell Wednesday. Mosaic’s warning that phosphate, a particular grade of fertilizer, was leveling off in price sent hedge funds and Wall Street brokers fleeing from the sector, where consistent price increases had resulted in great expectations.

The action in fertilizer stocks in particular is comparable to the technology bust of 2000 to 2001, when profitable companies like Microsoft and Intel suffered from speculators’ realization that the sky was not the limit. Farmers could not bear the weight of ever-increasing costs forever, especially as grain prices fell by half and credit tightened. And the popularity of the momentum “ag trade” with hedge funds and day traders has led to a decline similar in magnitude and pace to the tech bust.

One long-term skeptic, Citigroup chief U.S. equity strategist Tobias Levkovich, said the bullish argument on agricultural stocks never held much weight. “One of the arguments is that there’s no supply,” Mr. Levkovich said. “When demand falls off, guess what? There’s a little more supply.”

Another giant fertilizer maker, Potash of Saskatchewan, which Goldman Sachs said was one of the top 20 most popular names in hedge-fund portfolios as of the end of June, was down 22% recently at $100.42, less than half its summer peak over $240. Another peer, Bunge is off 62% from its peak, more than such beaten-down financials as Citigroup. Among other stocks exposed to farmers, seed-and-weedkiller processor Monsanto fell 17% to $81.23, off 43% from its peak. Tractor maker Deere & Co. fell 13% to $40.15, and is 58% from its peak.

Mosaic said fiscal first-quarter earnings almost quadrupled, but the immediate issue for the market was the price of phosphate, a grade of fertilizer that contributed more than half its quarterly revenue of $4.32 billion. In response to an “excess” of phosphate on the market, the leading producer of that fertilizer reduced its production, and, as a result, its projection for sales volume of phosphate for the year. Also, it expects the average price of phosphate to be around $1,020 to $1,080 a tonne, more or less level with $1,013 this quarter, after a string

Agriculture stocks were darlings when grain prices doubled and, in some cases, tripled earlier this year. Corn, which was nearly $8 a bushel at the end of June is now at $4.50, and falling again Thursday. Similar drops have occurred in wheat and soybeans. The argument that “everyone needs to eat and they’re not making land any more” has soured on the banks and funds that spread it.

Merrill Lynch cut its rating on the agricultural chemicals sector, including Mosaic and Monsanto, because of signs of weakness in phosphate, and potash, another major grade of fertilizer. Merrill also warned “a global recession, particularly in Asia, represents a risk to corn prices, as it could lead to reduced demand growth.”

Source Link

Return to Top

Organic grower awarded $1M for pesticide drift

(mercurynews.com) – In a victory for the state's organic farmers, a Santa Cruz County jury has awarded a North Coast grower $1 million in damages after deciding a pesticide company violated the farmer's rights when its chemicals drifted with the fog onto his organic crops. Jacobs Farms, which raises culinary herbs on about 120 acres in Wilder Ranch State Park, was preparing to leave the property if the chemical drift continued. Instead, the operation will stay, knowing area farmers will need to be much more careful or risk paying big fines, and organic farmers statewide now have a stronger case to seek redress should pesticides, even those applied properly, end up on their plants.

"I feel great. We were thrilled, very excited," said Brendan Miele, California production manager for Jacobs Farm, which grows in Watsonville, on the North Coast and in Pescadero. Lawyers for the defendant, Western Farm Service of Fresno, said they might appeal. "We feel this is going to impose a serious burden and concern to the industry," said Western Farms attorney Dale Dorfmeier.

Larry Jacobs with Jacobs Farms filed the suit more than a year ago after dill grown in 2006 on the Wilder land Jacobs rents from the state tested positive for organophosphate pesticide residue. Because the residue involved is not legally allowed on those herbs — organic or not — the entire $500,000 crop was lost that year. In 2007, damages were estimated at more than $2 million, Miele said.

The pesticide at issue is regularly used on neighboring fields of brussels sprouts to fight cabbage maggots and other annoyances. Tests by the county Agricultural Commissioner's Office confirmed pesticide residue on the herbs, according to a report from that office issued before the ruling. But under state code, a pesticide sprayer's responsibility to stop chemicals from drifting into other fields ends after the pesticide is applied, the report said.

As the pesticide was applied properly and did not blow away during the application, the ag office found no violation on the part of Western Farm Services at that time.

Dorfmeier said the commissioner's office, not the jury that ruled on Friday, interpreted the law correctly. "What this jury decision says is, one that sells or applies this product is going to be responsible for post-application movement of this material, regardless of whether it's under their control or not," Dorfmeier said. "This is movement by wind or fog lift off that happens days or weeks after we do a safe application."

Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who has supported Jacobs Farms' efforts, was happy to hear of the ruling on Monday. "We worked hard with the county ag commissioner and many interested parties to try to address the issue of pesticide drift and organic farms," Laird said. "Between those efforts and this lawsuit, the hope is that drift will be taken much more seriously in the future."

Source Link

Return to Top

Plants produce aspirin to deal with stress

(CropBiotech Update) – Aspirin is in virtually everyone's medicine cabinet. Not only does it relieve headaches, aspirin has been shown to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke. As it turns out, plants under stress produce their own form of aspirin. Scientists from the U.S. Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) found by accident that plants respond to stress by producing methyl salicylate, a chemical form of acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin.

Thomas Karl, who led the study, said that the aspirin-like compound triggers the formation of proteins that boost plant's biochemical defenses and reduce injury. The scientist also speculates that stressed plants secrete methyl salicylate to warn neighboring plants of the threat. "These findings show tangible proof that plant-to-plant communication occurs on the ecosystem level," says NCAR scientist Alex Guenther, a co-author of the study. "It appears that plants have the ability to communicate through the atmosphere." Researchers have never detected methyl salicylate in an environment or verified that plants release the chemical into the atmosphere in significant amounts.

Karl said that farmers, forest managers, and others may be able to monitor methyl salicylate for early signs of a disease, an insect infestation, or other types of stress.

For more information, read http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2008/plants.jsp The article published by Biogeoscience is available at http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/1287/2008/bg-5-1287-2008.html

Return to Top

Salmonella source likely to remain a mystery

(Risk Management) – The FDA initially blamed the recent salmonella outbreak on tomatoes. Then jalapenos. Now, no one knows how it began. And they likely never will. In a food contamination mystery that stretched throughout the spring and summer, more than 1,300 people in 43 states, the District of Colombia and Canada were sickened in what has been called the largest food-borne outbreak in the last decade, surpassing the almost 700 salmonella cases from contaminated peanut butter in late 2006. The case has baffled officials, who have not only been unable to trace the source of the bacteria, but even pinpoint what type of food is responsible.

Initially, the Food and Drug Administration blamed the outbreak on raw tomatoes-particularly the red round, plum and Roma varieties- and banned them from supermarket shelves and restaurant menus around the country. The ban lasted more than a month and is estimated to have cost the tomato industry more than $100 million. When the tomato ban did not quell the outbreak, the FDA started looking for other sources. In July, it issued a warning against raw jalapeno and serrano peppers. Officials admitted, however, that they were unconvinced that the peppers were the sole explanation for the outbreak either, since many victims insisted that they had never eaten any. The inconsistencies led some investigators to examine farms that may have grown tomatoes in the spring before switching to peppers later, while others looked at fresh cilantro as another possible suspect.

In mid-July, officials had a breakthrough when they discovered a jalapeno pepper contaminated with the same bacterial strain responsible for the outbreak-a rare type known as Salmonella saintpaul that is only usually seen in 25 cases a year-in a food distribution warehouse in Texas. The FDA was hopeful that this discovery, along with the discovery of contaminated serrano peppers and irrigation water at a farm in Mexico, would be the clues that would lead them to the source of the contamination, but it only added to the confusion. Many officials resigned themselves to the possibility that the origin of the contamination might never be found.

This long-running saga has raised an important question. Why was this outbreak so difficult to solve? In contrast, it took officials a mere two weeks to link an E. coli outbreak to bags of fresh spinach in 2006. The problem is that this recent salmonella outbreak has proven to be much more complex than other cases. One reason is that the outbreak quickly spread throughout the country, making it difficult to pinpoint a region of origin for the bacteria. In addition, there were few geographic clusters of disease for investigators to focus on-a factor further complicated by the fact that many cases go unreported in the first place. The CDC estimates that for every one salmonella case reported to the government, 30 or 40 more go unrecognized, making it difficult for investigators to determine accurate disease patterns.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to solving the mystery has been the way in which the suspected foods are sold. Unlike bagged spinach or jars of peanut butter, tomatoes, for example, are generally sold loose by weight or are repackaged during shipping to meet customer demand. This means that no consistent bar code stays with these products as they travel from the farm to the table. The closest rule to govern this process comes from the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, in which the FDA only requires produce handlers to document one step forward and one step back in the supply chain (and this does not even apply to farmers or retailers). As such, the trail of a particular fruit or vegetable can quickly become obscured, making trace-back almost impossible.

Some states have enacted their own rules for tomato farmers in particular, mandating electronic tracking systems on boxes that can trace the products through the entire supply chain. According to many critics, this kind of exception needs to become the rule in order to prevent future outbreaks from spiraling out of control.

"With unfortunate events like this, Americans are becoming aware that food safety and national security are synonymous," said Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL). "We clearly need to examine and overhaul our food safety system to ensure that the food we grow and import is safe."

Return to Top

End Transmission