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November 23, 2009
· Biggest obstacle to climate bill is rural America
· Syngenta AG CEO sees better prospects in 2010
· Agriculture can adapt to climate change
· Dole Food 3Q loss widens to $54 million
· Eurofresh successfully emerges from bankruptcy
Biggest obstacle to climate bill is rural
America
(The
Economist) –
To grow his crops, Mr Wright needs fertiliser, fuel and pesticides—all of which are derived from oil. When the price of oil hit the sky last year, Mr Wright’s operating costs nearly trebled. He survived because the oil-price surge also forced up the price of grain. But such wild swings make him nervous. If he has to invest three times as much in his crop and the crop fails, he says, he will be buried in debt.
Mr Wright has nothing against alternative energy. He grows camelina, a type of oilseed, to make biodiesel. He cares about energy-efficiency, too: his watering system is powered by gravity, as the water is piped down from the nearby mountains. But he cannot see how he could run his farm without cheap fossil fuels. The work that four generations ago was done by men and horses is now mostly done by machines. He has no full-time employees, but owns about 20 vehicles, plus another 20 broken-down ones he tinkers with or plunders for parts.
Barack Obama wants to save the world by curbing carbon-dioxide emissions. Earlier this year the House of Representatives voted to erect a “cap-and-trade” system, which would set a ceiling on such emissions and lower it each year. The government would issue tradable permits to emit carbon, at first by giving 85% of them away, but eventually by auctioning them. The bill is complex, and many of its costs are pushed several years into the future. But the main point is to discourage the use of high-carbon fossil fuels. If it does not make them more expensive, it will not work. That alarms people like Mr Wright.
Rural Americans are on average poorer than their urban compatriots, and rely more on fossil fuel. Their draughty homes cost more to heat than snug apartments. Their tractors are seldom solar-powered. They cannot ride the subway to work, or haul their hogs by bicycle. Even rural folk whose jobs are not energy-intensive—Mr Wright’s wife, for example, is a telecommuter—must drive miles to the shops, or to visit friends. A study by Michael Cragg and Matthew Kahn found that poor, conservative areas emit more carbon dioxide per head than rich, liberal ones. By an amazing coincidence, the politicians from such areas are much less likely to support carbon curbs. That was why the House cap-and-trade bill had to be sweetened—and made less effective—with hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of giveaways.
The action has now moved to the Senate, where cap-and-trade
is proving to be a much tougher sell. House seats are apportioned by
population, so
A time to bribe
Proponents of cap-and-trade reckon they can win in the
Senate the same way they did in the House—by buying support. Any final deal is
sure to include vast handouts for farmers and subsidies for “clean coal”—the
idea that you can burn the stuff and then bury the CO2 underground. This is
hideously expensive and won’t work if the CO2 leaks. But the political appeal
of “clean coal” is irresistible. Both of
Yet as the debate has intensified, the number of American
voters who believe there is “solid evidence” that the earth is warming has
actually fallen, from 77% in 2007 to 57% today, according to the Pew Research
Centre. Few voters understand the science. Many are perhaps influenced by the
perceived trustworthiness of the people they hear calling for action, the
loudest of whom are politicians. Al Gore may be universally admired in Europe,
but in
The debate about climate change prods all sorts of cultural
sore spots: liberal versus conservative, urban versus rural, the coasts against
the heartland. To an urban locavore, pricey fuel does
not sound so terrible. In his book “$20 per gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in
the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better”, Christopher
Steiner, a journalist, rejoices that Americans will eventually give up driving
and move to densely-packed cities where they can walk to the shops. To people
like Mr Wright, that sounds like Hell. “It’d be like
living in
Syngenta CEO sees better prospects in 2010
(Reuters) – Syngenta AG, the world's largest agrochemicals maker, is more optimistic about its prospects for 2010 and sees a return to growth, its chief executive told Reuters.
Syngenta, which makes products to kill weeds and bugs as well as genetically modified seeds, posted a 12 percent drop in third-quarter sales to $2.0 billion, hurt by adverse weather hitting demand for its pesticides, and broadly in line with forecasts.
The group confirmed its full-year guidance for earnings per share to be close to its 2008 level and chief executive Mike Mack said headwinds like currency and raw materials costs were now easing.
"Emerging markets are offering some signs of stabilisation, so frankly the conditions are in place for some growth ahead next year and I'm cautiously optimistic for 2010," he said in a phone interview.
Agricultural suppliers like Syngenta, as well as Canadian fertiliser Potash Corp (POT.TO) and
Syngenta shares rose 3.7 percent to 260.00 Swiss francs by 0742 GMT, outfperforming the the DJ Stoxx European chemicals sector .SX4P0, which was up 1.4 percent.
"For 2010, we expect good growth on reversal of several factors -- credit cycle, currency, weather -- plus a boost from new products and capacities," said Kepler Capital Markets analyst Florian Gaiser.
Cash return or big buy?
Syngenta had said it could consider bidding for Dow Chemical's (DOW.N) agricultural sciences unit if it were put up for sale, but the U.S. group has since said it wanted to hang on to the business for now.
The Swiss group could now consider returning cash to shareholders or going after more acquisitions, and did not rule out a major buy.
"Our history also has us sometimes returning cash to shareholders in the years where we're not otherwise competing with growth projects. So we'll take a look at all of those things," Mack said.
Syngenta trades at about 14 times forecast 2010 earnings, a
discount to
Agriculture can adapt to climate change
(SciDev.net) – Innovative agricultural technologies can produce crops that meet climate change challenges, says William Dar head of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tripics.
Sustainable land and water management combined with innovative agricultural technologies could mitigate climate change and help poor farmers adapt to its impacts.
New knowledge, technology and policy for agriculture have never been more critical, and adaptation and mitigation strategies must urgently be applied to national and regional development programmes.
Without these measures developing countries will suffer increased food insecurity. For the 1.5 billion people engaged in agriculture in the developing world, even a small loss in agricultural productivity could mushroom into a large loss of income.
And new strategies must be built around 'green' agricultural technologies, such as adaptive plant breeding, pest forecasting, rainwater harvesting and fertiliser microdosing, where small amounts of fertiliser are given to each seed.
Water and land use
Water is critical for agriculture across the semi-arid tropics. Although rainfall predictions remain uncertain, scientists agree that climate change will reduce water availability and storage, and warmer temperatures will increase the amount of water needed by crops.
Improving crop production in these regions largely depends on better capture and storage of rainwater. But rainwater harvesting and storage technologies remain underdeveloped. And we know little about the economic viability of such systems — implementing them may well require financial investment beyond the capacity of most rural communities.
As almost 95 per cent of water in developing countries is used to irrigate farmlands, policies to improve irrigation efficiency are also critical. Research is needed on water flows and water quality, and infrastructure needs to be improved.
Better land and crop management are equally important. There are already some promising and economically viable technologies to reduce risk of crop failure, improve soil fertility and increase productivity under variable climatic conditions.
These include methods to reduce agricultural inputs, such as fertiliser microdosing and smarter application of pesticides, as well as technologies for minimising soil disturbance such as reduced tillage, conservation agriculture and crop rotation.
Revising planting dates, plant densities and crop sequences
can help cope with delayed rainy seasons, longer dry spells and earlier plant
maturity that are already being observed across parts of Africa including
Climate-proof crops
Changes in growing seasons in the tropics can also, to a large degree, be mitigated by redeploying existing improved crop varieties that can cope with a wide range of climatic conditions.
For example my organisation, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), has developed pearl millet hybrids that can cope with temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and deliver normal yields with limited water. Our short duration varieties of chickpea and pigeon pea mature in 65–75 days and so can escape terminal drought — lack of water at later stages of growth.
What we need now is a better understanding of the physiological mechanisms underlying heat tolerance so that we can develop more effective screening techniques for desired traits, and identify wider gene pools to develop 'climate-proof' crops.
Developing technologies to help farmers control pests is just as important.
Climate change could have positive, negative or no impact on each pest. But we need better models to assess their global impact as most pest population prediction models have different spatial and temporal scales than global climate models.
Pests are usually controlled by cultural practices, natural enemies, host plant resistance, biopesticides and synthetic pesticides. But many of these control tactics are highly sensitive to the environment and climate change may render them less effective.
It may alter the interactions between pests and their host
plants, directly affecting resistance to pest control. For example, there are
indications that stem rot (Sclerotium rolfsii) resistance in groundnut is temperature dependent,
while in
We must urgently identify and develop crops that can resist
pests under variable climates. ICRISAT has started work in this area,
developing mildew-resistant pearl millet in
Invest in innovation
In the medium term (2010–2050), scientists are well placed to help poor farmers mitigate the challenges of climate change.
The impact of climate change on yields from low-input agriculture is likely to be minimal as other factors will continue to be the overriding constraints on crop growth and yield. Adopting the agricultural technologies outlined above will substantially increase the yields of smallholders, regardless of climate change.
But adopting better 'temperature-adapted' varieties could completely mitigate the climate change effects that result from global warming.
We urgently need better policies that support the adoption of agricultural innovation. Not only will these improve the welfare of rural populations now, but they will also do a great deal to mitigate the future impacts of climate change.
William D. Dar is director general of the International
Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT),
Dole Food 3Q loss widens to $54 million
(AP via Yahoo! News) WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – Dole Food Co. said Thursday its third-quarter loss widened as the loss of two businesses cut into the fruit and vegetable producer's revenue compared with a year ago.
It was Dole's first quarterly report since its initial public offering. Shares of Dole began trading Oct. 23, and the IPO closed Oct. 28, raising about $415 million to repay debt.
The company is controlled by investor David H. Murdock, who took the company private in March 2003 in a transaction valued at $2.5 billion. Dole had previously been publicly traded.
For the three months that ended Oct. 10, Dole reported a loss of $54 million, compared with a loss of $21 million a year earlier.
Its revenue fell 14 percent to about $1.94 billion from $2.26 billion, which dole said was primarily due to its divestment in last year's fourth quarter from the JP Fresh and Dole France businesses. Unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates also hurt its financial results.
Excluding one-time items, the company, which is based in
The results were released after the market's close.
Dole shares rose 16 cents, or about 1.3 percent, to end the regular trading day at $12.50. They climbed 10 cents to $12.60 after hours. And they have traded in a range of $11.28 to $12.87.
Eurofresh successfully emerges from bankruptcy
(Wire Services) – Eurofresh Inc, one of Southern Arizona’s
largest employers and the leading year-round producer and marketer of
greenhouse tomatoes in the
Eurofresh Inc., DBA Eurofresh Farms, and its subsidiary Eurofresh Produce Ltd., emerged from bankruptcy less than seven months after they originally reached a recapitalization agreement with their investors, including Eurofresh founder and current chairman, Johan van den Berg. The company originally announced their financial reorganization on April 21, 2009.
Dwight Ferguson, chief executive officer of Eurofresh, said the company is emerging from bankruptcy stronger than ever, and will continue searching for future growth opportunities.
“The future for Eurofresh has never been brighter,” he said. “We look forward to providing the highest quality produce and services available to our customers for many years to come.”
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