Lamy Sets Agricultural Tone

In a speech before the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council in Salzburg, Austria, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said - food and agricultural trade policy does not operate in a vacuum. In other words, he said, - no matter how sophisticated our trade policies may be, if domestic policies do not themselves incentivise agriculture, and internalize negative social and environmental externalities, then we will always have a problem.

To explain his point, Lamy pointed to the issue of farm size. In many parts of the world, in particular in the world's poorest corners, land is getting divided through inheritance amongst a growing population, and farm sizes are dwindling. For example, Lamy said, - in India, the average landholding fell from 2.6 hectares in 1960 to 1.4 in 2000, and is still declining. According to Lamy, - some of the world's poorest countries have taxed agriculture the most, and that reinvestment of tax revenue into agriculture has been low.

Lamy told the gathering, - trade policy — no doubt — has its place in this landscape. But it cannot and does not, by itself, answer each and every challenge in agriculture. Land management, natural resource management, water availability, property rights, enforcement, storage, transportation and distribution infrastructure, credit systems, and science and technology, are all key elements of the agriculture and food security puzzle.

Canadian H1N1 Herd Culled

A Canadian official says it has nothing to do with the H1N1 virus, but 500 hogs on the farm where the virus was detected have been culled. The hogs were not sick. Alberta’s chief veterinarian, Dr. Gerald Hauer, told the Canadian Press – the decision to cull was to ease overcrowding on the central Alberta farm. Hauer said it had nothing to do with – animal welfare. The remaining herd of 17-hundred pigs remains under quarantine.

Under the quarantine, Dr. Hauer explained, the population continues to grow and space was running out. The veterinarian added, - these animals cannot be moved off the farm as they normally would. The living conditions would soon become unacceptable due to overcrowding and the pigs would have been in distress.

Ag Education Planned for Urban Reporters

The organization known as – The Hand That Feeds U.S. - has been organized to educate urban news reporters, to answer agriculture’s critics and explain why farmers and farm policy are so important to the nation’s future. The American Sugar Alliance, the peanut, rice, cotton, corn, sorghum, and ethanol industries have joined forces and have introduced their web presence. www.thehandthatfeedsus.org.

Andy Quinn, a Minnesota corn and ethanol producer, admits, - we’re the best farmers in the world, but we’re far from being master communicators. He says; - for too long, we’ve let a handful of environmental extremists and coalitions, bankrolled by big business, define our industry in the news.

Linda Raun, a rice grower from Texas, is a spokesperson for the campaign. Raun says, - it makes no sense that we’re being demonized in many of the nation’s top media markets. But, she says - it’s not the journalists’ fault. We haven’t done a good enough job telling them our story.

Texas cotton farmer and coalition member Steve Verett pledged - we plan to build long-lasting relationships with journalists and show them that family owned and operated farms, not giant agribusinesses, are the true face of agriculture.

Online Tool Guides Peanut Drying

When peanuts are harvested, the moisture content is too high for safe storage, so they must be cured until the moisture content is below 10 percent. Curing normally occurs at a centralized facility which holds between 2-thousand and 10-thousand tons of in-shell peanuts with a value of up to 4-million dollars. Under ideal storage conditions, the peanut value will decrease 2-3 percent, but under poor storage conditions, losses can be as high as 10 percent. Good storage practices include adequate ventilation of the space above the peanuts to remove moisture-laden air and prevent condensation.

A new calculator that helps peanut handlers and processors determine the right amount of ventilation for their storage warehouses is available on the Agricultural Research Service website. The calculator gives the recommended airflow rate based on changing the volume of air in the space above the peanuts once every 2 or 3 minutes. The calculator also provides the proper amount of inlet area. By selecting the peanut market type that will be stored in the warehouse, the tool adjusts its calculations to account for the differences among the types of peanuts.

The warehouse ventilation calculator can be accessed at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=7338

Kraft Reports Profits as Consumers Struggle with Recession

Kraft Foods has announced its profits rose 10-percent to 660-million dollars in the first quarter. Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis (by-us) notes this increase is partly due to higher prices for consumers - at a time when putting food on the table got harder for more and more Americans. According to Buis - it’s now been 175 days since Growth Energy launched its countdown clock - challenging food manufacturers to lower their prices and stop using ethanol as a scapegoat for food price hikes.

Buis points out that commodity prices - including those for corn and energy - have dropped drastically since last summer - proving that the claims of the highly profitable food industry have no basis in reality. He says expert after expert and study after study - including one by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office - has shown ethanol is not to blame for food price increases. Buis says Big Food should admit its argument about biofuels last year was fundamentally flawed - or give American families some relief at the supermarket. Growth Energy’s countdown clock - he says - is still ticking.

DDGS Exports Up

The U.S. Grains Council reports good news concerning the U.S. export of distillers’ dried grains with soluble, or DDGS, a co-product of U.S. ethanol production. The level of exports continues to climb. For the first two months of 2009, USGC reports exports were up 36-thousand metric tons or 6 percent above the same period in 2008.

The Council’s Manager of International Operations for DDGS Dan Keefe says, - we anticipate the increase of DDGS exports in 2009 will boost domestic ethanol production. He said, - there is no doubt, in the short term; the macroeconomic impacts of the recession have slowed the pace of U.S. exports, especially in DDGS. However, the Council believes the economy will recover and ethanol production will continue to increase.