SEED DAILY - China to look to Africa for food: study

by Staff Writers, SEED DAILY
Johannesburg (AFP) Nov 23, 2011

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/China_to_look_to_Africa_for_food_study_999.html

China will increasingly look to Africa over the next decade as the world's most populous nation seeks to ensure it has sufficient food supplies, according to a study published Wednesday.

While China has is recent years turned to Africa to secure energy and raw material resources to fuel its rapidly-growing economy, it will soon be for food commodities, according to Standard Bank research analysts Simon Freemantle and Jeremy Stevens.

"Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) immense and largely untapped agricultural potential is being increasingly viewed by China as a cog in an unfolding and inclusive food security strategy," they said in their report.

They noted Africa's underperforming agricultural sector gives China an opportunity to build and improve bilateral ties with the provision of developmental and technical assistance.

They noted it is already clear that Beijing is seeking to build deeper relationships in agriculture with land-rich and politically stable countries that are friendly to China, such as Mozambique where China has made extensive agricultural investments.

"For now, China's strategy is overtly developmental and, though commercialism inspires many of the cooperative farming projects, profits are generated almost entirely in local and regional markets," said the report.

"Most of these initiatives will look to bolster China's agricultural trade ties with Africa, though some, as has been evident in nascent moves in Latin America, will position Chinese firms to control the external source of production," they added.

The authors noted that China can offer Africa capital and skills that are desparately needed, but authorities will need to ensure that investmentsare properly structured to ensure that domestic food security interests are protected.

"Managed well, partnerships with China can be meaningful. However, domestic food security must be placed first," the wrote.

Fran Korten - Young Farmers -- A Growing Movement

In spite of the daily discouraging environmental, political, and economic news, coaxing living things to grow somehow seems to make folks optimistic.

by Fran Korten

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/new-livelihoods/a-growing-movement

Recently during lunch at the YES! offices, online editor Brooke Jarvis made a casual comment I found quite stunning. Brooke, a sharp, talented 20-something, said “I don’t know a single person under 30 who doesn’t want to own a farm.”

What? Own a farm? I turned to several 20-somethings at the table and asked if they agreed. They did. They waxed eloquent about their love for lambs, ducks, chickens, bees. (No one mentioned weeding.) They confessed they weren’t sure they would ever actually own a farm, but their yearning was definitely real.

What the people at the fair shared in common was not their politics, but their optimism.

I think that just five years ago the 20-somethings in our office were not longing to own a farm. Something in our culture is changing. A growing segment of people don’t want to just buy organic, healthy food. They want to grow it. This new lust to farm seems to cross class, race, and politics.

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Cornucopia Institute - Future of Organic Food and Agriculture at Risk

November 17, 2011

http://www.cornucopia.org/2011/11/future-of-organic-food-and-agriculture-at-risk/

Cornucopia Institute

Use of Synthetic Preservatives, Genetically Mutated Ingredients and Weak Animal Welfare Standards Headed for Vote by USDA Panel

CORNUCOPIA, Wis. - November 17 - The Cornucopia Institute, one of the nation’s leading organic industry watchdogs, is urging members of the USDA's National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), in formal testimony, to vote to preserve the integrity of organic food and farming at its upcoming meeting in Savannah, Georgia.  

Some of the hot button issues on the agenda, including using artificial preservatives and genetically modified ingredients, would seem Orwellian to many longtime organic farmers and consumers.  The forecasted dustup will be debated by a USDA panel, deeply divided between corporate agribusiness representatives and organic advocates. 

Under the Bush and Obama administrations, the USDA Secretaries have been criticized for appointing a significant number of corporate representatives, whose primary interest appears to be loosening the federal organic standards, allegedly in pursuit of enhanced profits. 

"We think this meeting may well decide the fate of organic food and agriculture in this country," said Mark A.  Kastel, Codirector of The Cornucopia Institute, which represents family-scale organic farmers and their consumer allies across the U.S.

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TERRA DAILY.COM - Evidence supports ban on growth promotion use of antibiotics in farming

by Staff Writers, TERRA DAILY.COM
Boston MA (SPX) Nov 18, 2011

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Evidence_supports_ban_on_growth_promotion_use_of_antibiotics_in_farming_999.html

In a review study, researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine zero in on the controversial, non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in food animals and fish farming as a cause ofantibiotic resistance.

They report that the preponderance of evidence argues for stricter regulation of the practice. Stuart Levy, a world-renowned expert in antibiotic resistance, notes that a guiding tenet of public health, the precautionary principle, requires that steps be taken to avoid harm.

"The United States lags behind its European counterparts in establishing a ban on the use of antibiotics for growth promotion. For years it was believed that giving low-dose antibiotics via feed to promote growth in cows, swine, chickens and the use of antibiotics in fish farming had no negative consequences.

"Today, there is overwhelming evidence that non-therapeutic use of antibiotics contributes to antibiotic resistance, even if we do not understand all the mechanisms in the genetic transmission chain," says Levy, MD, professor of molecular biology and microbiology and director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine.

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Terra Daily - Fate of bees worries Europe's parliament

by Staff Writers, Terra Daily
Brussels (AFP) Nov 15, 2011

Bothered by spiking mortality rates for bees, Europe's parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to urge the EU to provide more funding for the beekeeping sector.

MEPs voted 534 in favour, with 16 against and 92 abstentions, to support research and development in veterinary medecine to save the declining bee population, while also enforcing legislation on killer pesticides.

"Beekeeping is crucial for our society as pollination plays an essential role in preserving biodiversity and maintaining sustainable European agriculture and food security," said Hungarian Socialist Csaba Tabajdi, who drafted the resolution.

"Albert Einstein once said that without bees, man would live no more than four years," he added.

Better data on hives and bee losses were needed as well as funding for medicines because pharmaceutical firms were reluctant to invest in a relatively small market.

The European Commission also needed to issue legislative proposals to turn recommendations on pesticides into law, parliamentarians said.

Some 84 percent of Europe's fauna and 76 percent of agriculture depend on pollination from bees.

JIM SUHR - USDA: 'Locally grown' food a $4.8 billion business

Posted: Mon, Nov. 14, 2011

JIM SUHR

The Associated Press

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/nation/20111114_ap_usdalocallygrownfooda48billionbusiness.html

ST. LOUIS - Carolyn Anderson likes to chat up the growers at her local farmers market in Missouri, at times hanging out behind the beds of pickup trucks brimming with ears of corn.

For Anderson, 29, it's all about keeping it "local." And there's fresh evidence of just how big of a deal that word can mean for farmers' finances.

A new U.S. Department of Agriculture report says sales of "local foods," whether sold direct to consumers at farmers markets or through intermediaries such as grocers or restaurants, amounted to $4.8 billion in 2008. That's a number several times greater than earlier estimates, and the department predicts locally grown foods will generate $7 billion in sales this year.

While there's plenty of evidence local food sales have been growing, it has been hard to say by how much because governments, companies, consumers and food markets disagree on what qualifies as local. The USDA report included sales to intermediaries, such as local grocers and restaurants, as well as directly to consumers through farmers markets, roadside stands and the like.

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GM Freeze - Insects Developing Resistance to GM Bt Crops

GM Freeze, 10 Nov 2011
http://www.gmfreeze.org/news-releases/171/

GM Freeze today published a review of insect resistance to Bt toxins in GM maize and Bt cotton crops around the world. It shows how, contrary to promises from GM companies, pesticide use is increasing to keep up with insects in GM crops. [1]

Scientists have confirmed five incidents of insects evolving resistance to Bt toxins in the field to date: Bt cotton in India (2010) and US (2008), moth pests in maize in Puerto Rico (2007) and South Africa (2007) and a beetle pest in maize in the US (2011).

Reasons for resistance developing are:

*Failure to provide adequate non-GM refuges in GM crops to ensure non-resistant adult insects can survive to breed with resistant ones so that the resistance gene does not become dominant. Refuges are required by US laws that are widely flouted.

*Levels of Bt toxin in the crops too low to deliver lethal doses to pests. Sub-lethal doses mean resistance can develop as pests survive, mate and pass on the resistance gene. If the number of resistant individuals is high they can multiply quite rapidly and become dominant.

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Phillip Geertson - Roundup Ready Alfalfa Damages US Seed Industry

Wednesday 19 October 2011

by: Phillip Geertson, Activist Post 

http://www.truth-out.org/roundup-ready-alfalfa-damages-us-seed-industry/1319042829

Phillip Geertson has spent the last 30 years farming and raising many diversified crops, and has been a partner in alfalfa breeding programs for 25 years. Alfalfa is a perennial plant, which makes it extremely vulnerable to contamination.

When Roundup Ready (hereafter “RR”) alfalfa was first suggested I did not think that it would be developed and introduced because most alfalfa fields are never sprayed for weed control. And, if a chemical weed control was needed, there is a long list of off-patent low-cost herbicides that are effective if used properly.

Alfalfa hay is usually cut on a schedule of 24 to 30 days for each crop harvest. The entire plant above ground is removed along with any weeds.  This frequent cutting and removal suppresses weed growth and will control, and sometimes even eliminate, persistent perennials and noxious weeds that Roundup will not control.

When alfalfa is properly fertilized and growing in appropriate soil conditions (correct Ph, well drained, etc.), alfalfa will outgrow and choke out most weeds.  When alfalfa stands become weedy, non-thrifty, and otherwise poor performing it is usually because of poor fertility, insects, water logging, or winter damage. Weeds in an alfalfa forage field are a symptom of problems and simply spraying with Roundup to kill the weeds will not correct the underlying problem that is causing poor performance. A weedy alfalfa field should be plowed out, the soil conditions corrected, and then rotated to another crop that is not a host for alfalfa diseases, insects, or nematodes so that they die away. Afterwards, a new stand of alfalfa can be replanted.

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Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) - Lawsuit to Halt GE Crops in All Midwest Refuges

CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

Kathryn Douglass [PEER]http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/11/02-8

Genetically Engineered Agriculture on 54 Refuges in 8 States Targeted as Illegal

WASHINGTON - November 2 - A lawsuit filed today in federal court seeks to end cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) crops on fifty-four national wildlife refuges across the Midwest.  The suit is the latest in a series of successful lawsuits by public interest groups to stop planting of GE crops on wildlife refuges.  

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), and Beyond Pesticides, this federal lawsuit charges that the Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) unlawfully entered into cooperative farming agreements and approved planting of GE crops in eight Midwestern states (IL, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, OH, and WI) without the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act  and in violation of the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act and FWS’s own policy. 

This is the fourth lawsuit filed by CFS and PEER challenging FWS permitting GE crops on wildlife refuges.  Previously, the two groups successfully challenged approval of GE plantings on two wildlife refuges in Delaware, which forced FWS to end GE planting in the entire 12-state Northeastern Region.  Earlier this year, CFS, PEER and Beyond Pesticides filed suit to block planting GE crops on twenty-five refuges across eight states in the Southeast. 

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“David Fogarty” - Plants take in more CO2 than thought, study finds

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/28/us-carbon-plants-idUSTRE78R43E20110928

By David Fogarty, Reuters   

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Scientists might be able to predict climate change with more accuracy after discovering that plants consume carbon dioxide 25 percent faster than previously thought.

The finding, by an international team of researchers, could help refine efforts to fight global warming just at a time when U.N. talks are struggling to agree on a broader climate pact that will be the focus of a major meeting in December in South Africa.

Scientists say climate change will cause more extreme droughts and floods and rising sea levels and that nations must curb carbon pollution blamed for heating up the globe. Better and more accurate climate science can help change energy policies.

Lisa Welp-Smith of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California, and her team came up with a new method for measuring how much CO2 is absorbed and released by plants.

The team used oxygen isotope markers in CO2 and more than 30 years of data from a global network that analyses air samples to measure changes in greenhouse gases, pollution and other factors.

"What this (finding) means is that plants are working faster than we thought they did," said Colin Allison, an atmospheric chemist and one of the study's authors, told Reuters from Australia.

The study was published on Thursday in the journal Nature.

CARBON CYCLE

Plants form a major part of the global carbon cycle in which carbon is continuously recycled and reused by plants and animals, the oceans and land. Carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels and burning forests adds to the CO2 in the air, disrupting the balance that keeps the planet warm.

The team's finding suggests plants absorb 16 to 19 times mankind's total CO2 emissions, underscoring the powerful role they can play in regulating the climate.

Welp-Smith and Allison said it was too early to say how the new finding would affect climate change projections, in which supercomputer programs model how the climate will change.

"If we are right, and GPP needs to be revised upward by about 25 percent, it means that our fundamental understanding of how land plants function on the global scale is still a bit fluid," Welp-Smith told Reuters in an email, referring to gross primary production, a measure of photosynthesis.

But she cautioned that it doesn't mean more carbon is being locked away by plants. "It means more CO2 is passing through plants, not that it actually stays there very long."

Allison, of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Melbourne, said the study gives a better estimate of what's really happening in the atmosphere.

"It's still too early to tell what the final impact of this will be on estimates of future climate change. But by tying this down, it means that from now we will have a better constraint that might modify our understanding of what those future impacts could be."