Agriculture News
IRS Complaint Filed Against HSUS, Whole Foods, GAP
Humane Watch | Posted on May 11, 2017Today, we filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against Whole Foods Market, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and Global Animal Partnership (GAP) for what we believe is an improper profit-driven effort to benefit Whole Foods. HSUS and surrogate animal-liberation allies are currently engaging in campaigns threatening restaurants and other companies to switch to GAP-certified meat. GAP was created by Whole Foods (its first address was the Whole Foods corporate HQ) and has been funded predominately by Whole Foods since its inception. Currently, Whole Foods is paying the salaries of three GAP employees, including the executive director.Why was GAP created? To create animal-welfare labeling that Whole Foods could use to promote its high-priced meats.So why did HSUS join in on the racket? Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is on the board of HSUS, while HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle is on the board of GAP. See why it smells rotten? HSUS and GAP are both non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations, yet the ménage á trois between the entities appears to benefit Whole Foods. Essentially, it sees HSUS being the “enforcer” pressuring companies to commit to only buying products certified by the Whole-Foods-employee-run GAP. That will drive up the costs for Whole Foods’ competition or cause them to face a public brand attack. It also tells consumers that GAP meat at Whole Foods is the only “humane” meat—because Whole Foods and HSUS are the ones who get to define what it means to be “humane.”
ChemChina gets around 82 percent of Syngenta in $43 billion deal
Reuters | Posted on May 11, 2017ChemChina [CNCC.UL] has won around 82 percent support from Syngenta shareholders for its $43 billion takeover of the Swiss pesticides and seeds group, China's biggest foreign acquisition to date.
Products containing certain neonic insecticides should be subject to ESA analysis, judge finds
Agri-Pulse | Posted on May 11, 2017The Environmental Protection Agency may have to assess the effects on endangered species of 59 products containing clothianidin and thiamethoxam, two neonicotinoid insecticides. A federal judge has found that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by registering the products without complying with Endangered Species Act consultation requirements, said Center for Food Safety attorney George Kimbrell, who represents his group and other plaintiffs in the case, including four beekeepers, Beyond Pesticides, the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Health.U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney of the Northern District of California did not order EPA to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service on the effects of the products on listed species. Instead, she ordered the parties, including EPA and Bayer CropScience, which intervened on the side of the agency, to schedule a settlement conference. If settlement talks fail, the parties will have to address in court what the next step will be.
Monsanto subsidiary, Climate Corporation, buys fellow digital agriculture company, HydroBio
St Louis Today | Posted on May 11, 2017
Monsanto subsidiary, The Climate Corporation, announced the acquisition Monday of Denver-based software company, HydroBio, bolstering the company's focus on digital tools applied to agriculture. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.“HydroBio has unique irrigation-focused data analytics capabilities, and as global water use for crop production increases, efficient irrigation is becoming even more important to the future of sustainable agriculture,” said Mike Stern, chief executive officer for Climate Corp., in a statement. “HydroBio has built a successful business, and their tools will complement our Climate FieldView digital agriculture platform offerings in the future.”
U.S.D.A. forecasts smallest winter wheat crop since 2002
Food Business News | Posted on May 11, 2017The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its first survey-based forecast of the year, projected 2017 winter wheat production at 1,246,392,000 bus, down 425,140,000 bus, or 25%, from 1,671,532,000 bus in 2016. If the forecast is realized, the 2017 winter wheat crop would be the smallest since 1,137,001,000 bus in 2002. The forecast was based on a projected harvested area of 25,564,000 acres, down 15% from 30,222,000 acres in 2016, and a projected average yield of 48.8 bus per acre, down 6.5 bus per acre from the record 55.3 bus per acre in 2016. The U.S.D.A. said if its initial winter wheat harvested area forecast for 2017 is realized, harvested area this year would be the smallest on record. The U.S.D.A. forecast the 2017 hard red winter wheat crop at 737,458,000 bus, down 344,232,000 bus, or 32%, from 1,081,690,000 bus in 2016. It would be the smallest hard red winter wheat crop since 682 million bus in 2006 but similar in size to the 2013 crop of 739 million bus. The recent five-year average hard red winter wheat outturn was 879 million bus. The U.S.D.A. noted the hard red winter wheat harvested area was forecast to be down 18% from 2016.
Western Milling faces $526K fine in tainted feed settlement
The Business Journal | Posted on May 11, 2017Under a settlement with state officials, Western Milling, LLC, will stop producing horse and specialty feeds at its Goshen manufacturing plant and pay $526,500 in fines after feed produced there killed and sickened dozens of horses and cows. In addition, the company will invest more than $200,000 to buy new manufacturing equipment to elevate its food-safety measures above industry standards, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Feed and Livestock Drugs Inspection Program announced
Record Milk Powder and Whey Volumes Drive Q1 Exports
http://blog.usdec.org/usdairyexporter/record-milk-powder-and-whey-volumes-drive-qi-exports-0-0 | Posted on May 11, 2017U.S. exporters see double-digit gains in first quarter of the year. U.S. dairy exports in the first quarter of 2017 were up 14 percent by volume and 17 percent by value compared with a year ago—the best Q1 result since 2014. Exporters realized gains to nearly all markets and across nearly all product categories, with only butterfat and whole milk powder lagging.During the quarter, exporters shipped 461,898 tons of milk powder, cheese, butterfat, whey and lactose. Total dairy exports were valued at $1.32 billion. March export value of $482 million was the most in 22 months, and export volume has topped year-ago levels for 10 straight months.
New farmers face dwindling land, soaring prices in Triangle
The News & Observer | Posted on May 11, 2017In the fast-growing Triangle, farmland is often lost to development and the price of the arable land that remains has skyrocketed, putting it out of reach of young farmers. To ease the challenges faced by would-be farmers like Saile, local conservation and agricultural groups are joining forces to preserve farmland in the Triangle and boost the region’s agricultural industry.Conservation Trust for North Carolina, Community Food Lab, Triangle Land Conservancy and other groups recently created a strategy for conserving important farmland in Wake, Durham, Orange, Johnston and Chatham counties. They want to encourage more people to become farmers by helping both new and existing farmers succeed.The goal is not only to preserve working farms, but also to feed the growing demand for local food. Less than 0.1 percent of food spending in the region is direct farm-to-consumer, meaning there is much more potential, said Edgar Miller, government relations director for the Conservation Trust.
There's good news and bad news in the antibiotic dilemma
Beef | Posted on May 8, 2017“Consumers care about this issue,” says Angie Siemens, vice president of food safety, quality and regulatory at Cargill. “You will continue to see the marketplace move, no matter what the science is, no matter what the metrics are, no matter what the regulations are.” Siemens participated in a NIAA antibiotics roundtable last summer that included stakeholders from across the spectrum. She sensed an understanding among all stakeholders that there is a need to figure out how to maintain antibiotic use as a viable solution for both human and food animal health care.“I do think we walked away with a collaboration across stakeholders,” Siemens says. “Different stakeholders have different ideas about what it means to have antibiotic stewardship, how impactful animal agriculture is on human medicine. What we did have was the ability to sit down and have a conversation and try to understand how we can work together and do it consistent with a One Health Goal. What we don’t share is how we’re going to get there.”
It's Tough Being a Dairy Farmer Right Now
Bloomberg | Posted on May 2, 2017America's dairy farmers have been having a tough couple of years. There's a glut of milk on the market, and prices are low.Wisconsin's dairypeople seem especially put out. They've persuaded one of their U.S. senators, Democrat Tammy Baldwin, to introduce legislation that "would require non-dairy products made from nuts, seeds, plants, and algae to no longer be mislabeled with dairy terms such as milk, yogurt or cheese." And now a small group that lost its Canadian buyers for a specialized product (ultra-filtered milk used in making cheese and yogurt) have gotten President Donald Trump to launch a trade skirmish on their behalf.One obvious reason for dairies' struggles is what Baldwin was out to slow down: the rise of almond milk and its ilk. Almond milk sales rose 250 percent from 2011 through 2015, according to Nielsen. Meanwhile, the decline in breakfast-cereal eating has presumably also been a factor depressing consumption of all kinds of milk. So why are dairy farmers so cranky, especially in Wisconsin? It seems largely due to the maddening nature of farming: When conditions are just right, allowing you to produce a lot, it means they're probably just right for lots of other people, too. Milk production went up at a healthy pace in 2015 and 2016. Milk prices went down. It's something happening all over the place in agriculture right now. There's a corn glut. There's a wheat glut. And there's a dairy glut. But if you look at the trajectory of milk prices over the years, this looks more like a cyclical downturn than the end of the world.