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November 6, 2009
· Food supply emerging as a global security issue
· Farmers bend the rules on GM crops, report says
· Fraud case reveals rotten side of tomato industry
· How plants communicate to thwart disease – study
· Inside look at California’s pot growing industry
Food supply emerging as a global security issue
(The Christian
Science Monitor) By Howard LaFranchi –
Kanayo Nwanze bets the answer is the latter. The Kenyan who recently became president of the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) says globalization has made the hunger and rural poverty that always pulled on the heartstrings an international security issue.
"People now have a clear sense of the linkages between food security and national security," says Dr. Nwanze. That understanding is helping bring questions of hunger and rural development to a broader audience, he says, "as well as to some very high places."
Hunger now can mean increased cross-border and international migration. And the riots that accompanied recent food shortages and price hikes in several parts of the world show how hunger can destabilize governments in regions of critical importance to the international battle against extremism.
That's why issues of rural hunger and food security are increasingly cropping up in venues ranging from the US Congress to the G-8 group of industrialized countries, Nwanze says. It is the emergence of food as an international security issue, Nwanze adds, that raises the odds that the international community will help developing countries come up with sustainable answers to food production challenges.
"Sustainability is determined inside a country, the
answers to food production and development have to come from within," says
the agronomist who studied in
In
At the same time, the US Congress is considering the Global
Food Security Act, a five-year authorization that seeks to improve
In introducing the legislation earlier this year, Sen. Bob Casey (D) of Pennsylvania pointed to Pakistan, where he said nearly half the population is considered "food insecure" and likely to become more so as the military pursues offensives against the Taliban.
"Hunger and competition for food can lead to further instability and potentially undermine government leadership at a very critical time," he said.
Short-term food shortages must be addressed, IFAD's Nwanze says, but his focus appears to be on longer-term finding production and development solutions.
"We need to think beyond production to the means of
getting what is produced to the market, and to creating livelihoods,"
Nwanze says. Thirty years ago,
"Today we speak of
Farmers bend rules on GM crops, report says
(The New York Times) – As many as 25 percent of the American farmers growing genetically engineered corn are no longer complying with federal rules intended to maintain the resistance of the crops to damage from insects, according to an advocacy group’s report released Thursday.
The increase in farmers skirting the rules, from fewer than 10 percent a few years ago, raises the risk that insects will develop resistance to the toxins in the corn that are meant to kill them, the report says. And it raises questions about whether the Environmental Protection Agency and the agricultural biotechnology industry are adequately enforcing the rules.
The data “should be a wake-up call to E.P.A. that the
regulatory system is not working,” Gregory Jaffe, the report’s author, wrote in
a letter Thursday to Lisa P. Jackson, the administrator of the federal agency.
Mr. Jaffe is the biotechnology project director at the Center for Science in
the Public Interest, a
The crops in question, called BT corn, have bacterial genes spliced into their DNA that cause the plants to make toxins that kill certain insects when they feed on the crop. In 2008, about 49 million acres of BT corn were grown, accounting for 57 percent of domestic corn acreage.
So far there appears to be little sign that insects have evolved resistance to the toxins in the corn. If they do, however, it not only would render the crops ineffective but also would hurt organic farmers who use sprays of bacterial BT toxins as natural pesticides.
To stave off such resistance, the E.P.A. requires farmers in
the
While each biotech seed company is responsible for assuring that its farmer customers adhere to this rule, five big biotech companies — Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Syngenta, Dow AgroSciences and Bayer CropScience — jointly survey growers and report results annually to the E.P.A.
Mr. Jaffe obtained these reports from the E.P.A. through a request under the Freedom of Information Act. He found that based on industry surveys of farmers, from 2003 to 2006, about 90 percent of farmers growing corn resistant to one insect, the corn borer, established refuges of the required size. But the rate fell to 80 percent in 2007 and 78 percent in 2008.
Only 74 percent of farmers were setting up a big enough refuge for corn resistant to the rootworm in 2008, down from 89 percent in 2006. And only 63 percent of farmers had their rootworm refuges close enough to their BT fields.
Nicholas Storer, chairman of the Agricultural Biotechnology
Stewardship Technical Committee, the industry group that does the surveys, said
the seed companies recognized the problems and for the last two years had been
undertaking a “Respect the Refuge” campaign, sending postcards to farmers and
putting billboards alongside highways in the
“We’re not happy to see negative trends,” said Dr. Storer, an entomologist who is also global science policy leader for biotechnology at Dow AgroSciences.
One factor behind the decline, Dr. Storer said, could have been skyrocketing corn prices in 2007, which might have tempted growers to plant more BT corn. Also, he said, farmers might have been confused because new varieties of corn appeared with genes to protect against both the corn borer and the rootworm, each of which had somewhat different refuge requirements.
A spokesman for the E.P.A., Dale Kemery, said the agency would evaluate the report and would take action if it deemed that additional measures were needed to prevent insect resistance.
While the industry has an interest in ensuring that BT technology retains its effectiveness against pests, it is also looking for ways to reduce the refuge size so that farmers can plant more of the expensive genetically modified crops.
One way to do this is put more than one insect-protection gene in a crop, making it harder for insects to become resistant.
Monsanto and Dow have received permission from the E.P.A.
for a refuge of only 5 percent in the
Pioneer has applied to introduce a “refuge in a bag” with its new Optimum AcreMax seed. About 2 percent of the seeds in each bag would not be BT. Farmers would no longer have to set aside separate acreage as a refuge because the non-BT crops would be dispersed through the whole field.
But scientific advisers to the E.P.A. had reservations about Pioneer’s proposal, and the agency so far has not given its approval.
Fraud case reveals rotten side of tomato industry
(sacbee.com) –
Another former SK Foods executive has been charged in
In court papers filed today, Alan Huey, a former senior vice president at the company, admitted to falsifying documents in order to sell bulk tomato paste that was older, moldier or more diluted than SK Foods claimed, violating federal quality and labeling standards.
Huey has agreed to plead guilty to a felony conspiracy charge
and to cooperate in the government's investigation, according to a spokeswoman
for the U.S. Attorney's office in
The government first accused SK Foods of bribery in an August 2008 lawsuit. Since then, the case has expanded to include employees of Kraft, Frito-Lay and other food companies.
Huey is the eighth person charged in connection with the case. Jeffrey Beasley, a former SK Foods vice president, pleaded guilty Aug. 25 to bribing buyers at firms that purchased the company's products. Earlier in August, a former senior purchasing manager for Kraft Foods Inc. was sentenced to two years and three months in prison and ordered to pay restitution to Kraft of $1.858 million for accepting SK Foods' bribes.
SK Foods LP, with two
How plants communicate to thwart disease – study
(UC Davis) – When it comes to plants' innate immunity, like many of the dances of life, it takes two to tango. A receptor molecule in the plant pairs up with a specific molecule on the invading bacteria and, presto, the immune system swings into action to defend against the invasion of the disease-causing microbe.
Unwrapping some of the mystery from how plants and bacteria communicate in this dance of immunity, scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified the bacterial signaling molecule that matches up with a specific receptor in rice plants to ward off a devastating disease known as bacterial blight of rice.
The researchers, led by UC Davis plant pathologist Pamela Ronald, will publish their findings in the Nov. 6 issue of the journal Science.
"The new discovery of this bacterial signaling molecule helps us better understand how the innate immune system operates," Ronald said.
"Because similar pairs of receptors and bacterial signaling molecules are known to exist not only in rice but also in other plants, as well as animals and humans, we are hopeful that this work will lead to new strategies for controlling diseases in plants and people," she said.
Disease resistance background
In 1995, Ronald's laboratory identified the XA21 gene, which produces a receptor protein that recognizes Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae, also known as Xoo, which causes bacterial blight disease. Xoo and other species of Xanthomonas infect virtually every crop species in the world.
Subsequent discoveries revealed that receptors with striking structural similarities to the XA21 receptor protein exist in other plants, flies, mice and even humans. These receptors were later named pattern recognition receptors or PRRs because they have the ability to recognize molecules that occur across species in a large class of disease-causing microbes. These receptors then can launch a protective immune defense on behalf of the plant or animal.
Together, the receptors (PRRs) and the microbial molecules they recognize comprise a previously unknown system of immunity called innate immunity. As the name suggests, this form of immunity is built into the genetic makeup of the plant, rather than developing over time with repeated exposure to disease-causing microbes. Unlike animals, plants do not produce antibodies.
The new findings
In their newly published study, Ronald and her colleagues identified a peptide -- a compound that they call ax21 -- as the molecule that binds with the XA21 receptor protein. The binding triggers a defense response against the bacterial disease.
The researchers note that ax21 is also found in many other species of Xanthomonas as well as in Xylella fastidiosa, a microbe that causes the devastating Pierce's disease in grapes. Furthermore, ax21 is even found in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, a bacterium that causes respiratory tract infections in humans.
"These studies have led to a convergence in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that govern how disease-causing microbes interact with the plants and animals they infect," Ronald said.
"We are hopeful that these discoveries will benefit
agriculture and medicine in the
###
Working with Ronald on this study were Sang-Won Lee,
Sang-Wook Han, Malinee Sririyanum,
Funding for the study was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and by the National Institutes of Health.
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Inside look at California
By Butch Warner
The benevolent outlaw
“Nobody produces any better weed than we do here,” says Raul
G. Raul, a pot grower whose farm is somewhere between
His plants are gorgeous, even (or maybe even more so) to a
man in recovery who hasn’t touched bud in 11 years. Some are easily 15 feet
tall, with the sexiest flowers this side of
“Weed is as natural and wholesome as spinach,” says Raul, then adds, “and a lot more profitable.”
Although medical pot’s reputation has been tarnished lately
— the district attorney in
But neither the negative publicity, nor, in fact, anything short of a bust, is going to put Raul out of business. Just one of his plants, he says, yields about two pounds of herb, which would be worth about $5,000; Raul boasts that his plants are worth “a cool green million.”
The economics of weed are simple and seductive. It costs about $1,000 to grow a kilo (2.2 pounds) of pot, which sells for up to $7,500 to a wholesaler. At a conservative $15 a gram, the $1,000 investment can ultimately be worth $15,000. If “medical marijuana” clinics are getting any part of the deal, you can imagine how sweet that is.
Another grower told the Reporter, “You should go up to
Pot = profit, and in broke
With low start-up and overhead costs, marijuana is the most profitable drug of all, according to local law enforcement officials. With that kind of profit margin, marijuana is increasingly filling the gap left by other failing industries, like lumber and fishing.
How marijuana became legal in
In 1996,
Since then, 12 states have enacted similar laws. A federal appellate court has ruled that the federal government cannot punish — or even investigate — physicians for discussing or recommending the medical use of marijuana with patients.
State law allows anyone to grow a limited amount of
marijuana for medicinal purposes as long as they have a prescription for it. In
So in most places in
More astonishingly, there are about 700 medical marijuana
dispensaries now operating in
These “compassionate-care clinics” are outpatient facilities that sell marijuana and its concentrated resin forms, hashish and kif, sometimes alongside a range of enticing, non-inhaled alternatives, including marijuana-imbued brownies, cookies, gelati, honeys, butters, cooking oils (“Not So Virgin” olive oil), bottled cold drinks (“enhanced” lemonade is the most popular), capsules, lozenges, spray-under-the-tongue tinctures and even topically applied salves.
In
To the Feds, though, it’s all drug dealing.
The Federal Government vs. marijuana
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), NIDA (National Institute of Drug Abuse), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) all maintain that marijuana has “no currently accepted medical use.”
The feds continue to classify marijuana, like heroin, as a “Schedule I controlled substance,” forbidden from being prescribed by doctors. Viciously addictive drugs like Oxycontin, ironically, are more leniently classified as Schedule II drugs, allowing prescription use.
Thirteen states now allow residents to use marijuana medicinally, typically as an anti-nausea and anti-vomiting agent, for example, for those in chemotherapy, to assuage chronic pain, for movement disorders and muscle spasticity, e.g., multiple sclerosis, and as an appetite stimulant for AIDS and cancer patients.
Another 15 states are weighing legislation or ballot initiatives that could turn them into medical marijuana states by next year.
Under Presidents Bush, Bush Jr. and Clinton, the U.S. Justice Department treated state medical marijuana laws as nullities. Such laws were contradicted and therefore preempted by federal drug laws, the Justice Department reasoned, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that position in 2005.
So the feds raided and prosecuted defendants who said they were complying with state medical marijuana laws. In court, defendants were not allowed to tell juries about the existence of those laws.
In late February, President Obama signaled a new approach. His attorney general, Eric Holder, confirmed at a press conference that he would no longer subject individuals who were complying with state medical marijuana laws to federal drug raids and prosecutions.
By the way, the past three presidents have all admitted trying pot, but apparently no one ever got high off of it until Obama, who, when asked if he inhaled, quipped, “I thought that was the point.”
How it works
To obtain a prescription for marijuana in
The doctor will ask you about this condition of yours that requires marijuana. The law allows physicians to recommend marijuana for disorders like cancer, anorexia (loss of appetite and inability to eat), AIDS, chronic pain, glaucoma, arthritis, and a migraine. (Asthma is, apparently, one of the legitimate conditions for medical pot as well, according to one clinic.) The exam will take less than half an hour.
Then you will be handed a “prescription” for marijuana — Good for one year, with no refill limits. The next step is to find a dispensary where you can actually get the prescription filled.
Although there are no marijuana dispensaries in
The domestic grower
“Robby D.” is a round-face, shaved-head Iranian kid who
lives in
Robby spent a day in jail in 2006 because he grew too many
female marijuana plants. How many is too many? In
Robby was arrested when a SWAT team of Sheriff’s Department deputies, equipped with weapons and an armful of warrants, burst into his house and swept him and his plants, and many of his possessions, including his computer, away. He spent a day in jail before his wealthy family bailed him out.
Thus began an arduous legal battle, headed by a famous attorney/marijuana advocate who eventually got Robby off with rehab and probation.
You’d think that Robby would have learned his lesson from
that experience, but he still grows marijuana today, in another
Lots of girls around the house, lots of great weed and other drugs, and easy money.”
Robby sells some of his weed to a marijuana dispensary in
But he makes most of his money selling weed illegally on the street.
Although there are exceptions for both locale and situation, California has what are called its SB 420 Statewide Default Patient Guidelines: “To be as safe as possible from arrest and prosecution, patients and caregivers should stay below the medical marijuana immunity law passed by the California legislature, HS 11362.77, which sets a minimum statewide guideline of six mature plants or 12 immature plants and up to eight ounces of processed cannabis flowers. Cities and counties empowered to set guidelines that are greater than those amounts, but not less.”
However, a “physician’s note exempts larger amounts.”
To make the matter even more confusing, the California Attorney General has issued his own set of guidelines. These are not binding law, but give an idea of how prosecutors will consider the circumstances of a medical marijuana patient or garden. These guidelines are exactly the same as those above, with the proviso that “if a qualified patient or primary caregiver has a doctor’s recommendation that this quantity does not meet the qualified patient’s medical needs, the qualified patient or primary caregiver may possess an amount of marijuana consistent with the patient’s needs.”
The grower’s garden of grass
Marijuana is dioecious, meaning that it has separate male and female plants. In nature, the male plants fertilize the female plants with pollen that infiltrates the flowers. Growers cull out the male plants and cultivate only females. The unpollinated, sterile plants then produce prodigious flowers in an attempt to entice nonexistent males, and create Buddha plants that are rich in resin and THC content. This sterile technique produces marijuana without seeds.
There is a whole lingo around pot growing that has cropped (no pun intended) up: “Mids” are plants that have been grown in the presence of males, and “crip” is weed that was grown only with other females. Crip has a higher THC and resin content and hence potency. Other common terms for seeded, or otherwise low-quality, cannabis are schwag, regs, booty, greta or mersh. There are strains galore, and more are being invented every day, with poetic names like Jack Herer,
Bubba Kush and HOG.
A grower in the
Greenhouse strains can go from $2,800 to $3,200, and finally, outdoor strains can range from $1,000 to $2,500 a pound. All of these usually do not have many seeds at all, if any. People whose herb has seeds usually don’t even try to sell to the clubs.”
“We used to call the first price category ‘kush,’ and the second ‘chronic’ or ‘purps,’ if it was purple weed. The third is called ‘greenhouse’ and the last is called ‘outdoor,’ ” he continued.
“Nobody really uses seeds anymore. Nearly all medical growers use clones, which are rooted cuttings of a mother plant, and which are genetically identical to the mother. This means they are 100 percent guaranteed to be female, with no chance of seeds in the buds. Clones are available at many collectives and are priced $5-$15 dollars per clone. There are even some clone-only collectives, which do not even sell the finished product.”
There are Web sites, forum, and blogs, too numerous to mention here, devoted to growing herb. Small-time stoners and entrepreneurs alike exchange pictures of their prized projects, information on their “grows” (crops or plants), techniques on fertilization, harvesting, drying and curing, and just about anything that has anything to do with weed. Growing pot is not only big business, it’s a culture.
Governmant stash
There is a perception that most medical marijuana is grown
by the
There are rumors that the University of
By contrast, back in the day of flower power and free love, good commercial-grade marijuana available to most smokers had a THC content of about 2 percent to 5 percent, and premium sinsemilla had a THC content that was somewhat higher. Today, the good commercial grade marijuana available to most users has a THC content of about 5 percent to 10 percent, and premium sinsemilla is about 10 percent to 20 percent THC.
There is only one legal marijuana farm and production
facility in the
Since 1968, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has contracted with the university lab to grow, harvest and process marijuana and to ship it to licensed facilities across the country for research purposes. The lab also collects samples of marijuana seized by police to determine its potency and to document national drug trends.
There is a small group of patients — like a guy named Irv Rosenfeld, who can be found on low-quality videos all over the Internet — who actually gets medical marijuana legally from the federal government. Rosenfeld is part of the Compassionate IND (Investigational New Drug) program, and he legally receives about 300 marijuana cigarettes in a metal tin per month.
Contrary to stoner lore, the government’s weed, like its cheese, isn’t very good. According to reports, it has very low potency and it’s full of seeds and stems.
Pot gone wild
There is really no purely “legal” medical marijuana in
When states like
“Medical marijuana is God’s little joke on the [marijuana] prohibitionists,” says Richard Cowan, 69, a longtime legalization activist.
And marijuana, both medical and recreational, will continue
to grow and be grown in
George (Butch) Warner, MA, MFTI, CADC is an addiction
therapist in
End Transmission