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Agriculture News

Research: Viral pathogens can move from country to country through feed

Meatingplace (registration required) | Posted on November 1, 2016

Foreign animal diseases can enter the United States via feed imports from high-risk countries, according to new research from the Swine Health Information Center (SHIC).  Until recently, the industry wasn’t sure whether pathogens moved through feed imports from high-risk regions, largely because little research had been conducted.  But the research, conducted by Scott Dee at the Pipestone Applied Research, Pipestone Veterinary Services, South Dakota State University (SDSU) and Swine Health Information Center (SHIC) confirms suspicions.  “Via simulation, we’ve shown for the first time that viral pathogens can move from country to country through feed imports from countries of high risk to countries without the disease,” Dee said in a news release.


Decision on Dow-DuPont merger won't come until 2017

Detroit Free Press | Posted on November 1, 2016

Midland-based Dow Chemical confirmed that it does not expect a regulatory decision on its proposed merger with its chief rival until early next year. Dow, one of Michigan's largest publicly traded companies, confirmed the expected delay amid third-quarter earnings that had beaten Wall Street expectations. Company officials once hoped the European Commission would  weigh in on the merger by December. But the timing for the decision has been pushed back until February.


GMOs: Great modern opportunities (commentary)

Feedstuffs | Posted on November 1, 2016

The obsession with knowing how our food is raised, manufactured and processed  dates back to 1906 when Upton Sinclair penned The Jungle, a look at the dark side of the meat industry and caused the Pure Food & Drug Act to be passed. I don’t think the majority of consumers actually read the labels at the supermarkets as they make their choices based on taste, cost, quality, appearance and maybe what is on sale that day. Certainly I did not know that almost all milk containers had the little disclaimer on the bottom of the front label saying their cows were not injected with any artificial hormones until I did some work with Elanco on the product, a product which, by the way, is a Genetically Modified (GM) product and IS used extensively in the cheese and yogurt making process. But many advocacy groups and most consumers, it seems, are asking for all products containing GM food or GMOs, genetically modified organisms, be labeled as such.


Bovine tuberculosis discovery leads to quarantine for 30 Alberta ranches

The Hamilton Spectator | Posted on November 1, 2016

About 30 southeastern Alberta ranches are being quarantined after bovine tuberculosis was reported in a single cow from the province that was slaughtered in the United States.  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday its veterinarians and inspectors are making contact with cattle producers in five Alberta agricultural zones and are working with provincial authorities to investigate the report.  "The investigation is ongoing and it is not yet known how many animals will require testing," said agency spokesperson Denis Schryburt.  "The number of animals requiring testing will depend on a number of factors such as whether additional animals test positive and the movements of exposed animals to other locations."  He said the affected cow came from a ranch near Jenner, about 250 kilometres east of Calgary. The agency said the United States Department of Agriculture reported the case of bovine TB in September.  The quarantine means that animals must remain on the ranch unless they are moved directly to an inspected slaughter facility, said Schryburt.


Falling prices, borrowing binge haunt Midwest 'go-go farmers'

Reuters | Posted on November 1, 2016

Some farmers loaded up on easy credit when grain prices were high - and kept borrowing after they crashed. Now debt and delinquencies are rising fast, raising fears of broader turmoil in U.S. agriculture. Their distress could foreshadow broader economic turmoil in the grain sector, which includes corn, soybeans and wheat.  “We’re in for a very, very rough time,” said Jim Mintert, director of Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture. “It’s going to take several years to work our way through this.”  A Reuters analysis of federal data on agricultural lending in the grain-producing “I-states” - Illinois, Indiana and Iowa - shows that delinquency rates on farmland and production loans are rising sharply. “It’s definitely a red flag,” Robert Johansson, chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told Reuters.


Huron County steer tests positive for bovine TB

Michigan Live | Posted on November 1, 2016

Bovine tuberculosis was found in a 2-year-old steer in the state's thumb region. United States Department of Agriculture's food safety inspection service identified the Huron County steer as possibly diseased during inspection and removed the animal from the human food chain, according to a statement from Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development.


Safe for now, Canadian dairy farmers fret over E.U. trade deal

New York Times | Posted on November 1, 2016

On both sides of the Atlantic, many of the people who are most upset about the new free trade deal between Canada and the European Union are dairy farmers. But they have opposite worries.  The deal was nearly derailed by enraged farmers in the Wallonia region of Belgium because of how much they had been struggling. In Canada, by contrast, farmers are anxious because they have been doing so well.  The way the country’s “supply management” system works now, Canadian dairy farms are almost guaranteed to prosper. Milk production is controlled by quotas, marketing boards keep prices high and stable, and import duties of up to 300 percent largely shut out competition from abroad.  But after the deal, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, which was signed on Sunday, comes into effect, much more imported cheese will be allowed to enter Canada duty-free from the Continent. And farmers worry that this one dent in their defenses could be the beginning of the end for supply management.


Seed Prices, Proposed Mergers and Acquisitions Among Biotech Firms

Choices magazine | Posted on November 1, 2016

Over the last two decades, the big companies—that is, Monsanto, DuPont—have led the way with massive investments in biotechnology research and with seed and biotechnology company mergers and acquisitions. Historically, the seed-biotechnology companies have been dependent on numerous small and medium scale companies as major sources of innovation (Fuglie et al., 2012). The new small and medium-sized enterprises were specializing in developments of transgenic seed traits. By 2010, however, there were fewer than 30 active small and medium-sized enterprises that were specializing in crop biotechnology, primarily due to acquisitions by larger firms.  Because of the enormous number of mergers and acquisitions that expanded agricultural biotechnology, many remaining smaller companies could not compete with large firms that owned rights to much of the transgenic resource base in seed. Also, licensing transgenic traits from these firms was costly. Hubbard (2009) reports that at least 200 independent seed companies were lost in the 13 years prior to 2009. Moreover, biotechnology research has increasingly demanded financial resources that a majority of smaller firms do not have. Large firms investing in these technologies and earning royalties from licensing agreements quickly achieved a market advantage that led to many of the buy-outs.


USFRA to ramp up its food company outreach on GMOs

Agri-Pulse | Posted on November 1, 2016

The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance announced a new “Straight Talk” campaign on Thursday, hoping to “engage the food industry in a dialogue on sustainable agriculture production.” The campaign comes after last week's message to Dannon expressing concern over a pledge to eliminate GMO feed from some of the animals that produce its dairy products, an unusually blunt move for USFRA.  “This is a different approach for us, but from an agricultural standpoint, we can't sit back anymore and let this happen,” Randy Mooney, the chairman of the National Milk Producers Federation, said on a call with reporters. “When something is out there that's outrageously wrong, all of us are going to have to speak up and attack it.” Dannon is one of several companies that have made corporate pledges relating to GMO ingredients. The Hershey Company has switched away from using genetically modified sugar beets in favor of non-GMO sugar cane. Campbell Soup, Mars Inc., General Mills Inc. and The Kellogg Co. announced plans to voluntarily label products with genetically modified ingredients as Congress struggled to break an impasse on a GMO labeling bill that eventually passed in July.


Agriculture officials use sterile male flies to rid Monroe County of screwworms

Local 10 News | Posted on November 1, 2016

Agriculture officials are working hard to stop the spread of screwworms that are threatening endangered key deer in Monroe County. Officials showed reporters boxes that each hold 76,000 sterile male flies. Once released, their job is to trick females into thinking they have mated. Because the male flies are sterile, the females stop breeding and do not lay new eggs."We do this rain or shine for as long as it takes to eradicate this," John Welch, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said.Officials said the eggs produce the flesh-eating parasite, which has killed 117 key deer in Monroe County.The parasite attacks animals through open wounds and feeds on its flesh. 


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