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( This simple but tedious task is not new to him since he's
been a farmer both in Just a year ago, Cala and his
brother Juan Carlos farmed at Cala says he comes from a
background of conventional farming in "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 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 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. 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 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 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 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
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 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 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." End Transmission |
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