In Brief… – for May. 26, 2011

Accelerated efficiency: The chief executive of Viterra says plans to scrap the Canadian Wheat Board’s marketing monopoly on western wheat and barley would likely accelerate improvements to the grain transportation system. “Obviously, change brings more change, so that certainly may accelerate that change in creating greater efficiencies in that system,” said Mayo Schmidt May 18.

“To Operate As Needed” Is Not What’s Needed

Farm groups, commodity organizations and most ag checkoffs have spent 25 years and billions of dollars refining and repeating their modern message: American agriculture is a business and farmers and ranchers are business people. In the process, cowboys became beef producers and hog farmers became pork producers and a half-million or more of each became


GM Crop Patents Near End, U.S. Farmers Ask What Next?

The biotechnology industry should develop a format to handle the looming expiration of patents on the first wave of genetically modified (GM) crops, to avoid seed shortages or trade disruptions, the largest U.S. farm group said. “There just needs to be a way to deal with it,” Rosemarie Watkins of the six-million-member American Farm Bureau

Vilsack Seeks Biotech Compromise

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the largest U.S. farm group on Jan. 10 that farmers could see less government interference if they find a way for traditional and genetically modified crops to coexist. Farm groups and the biotechnology industry are skeptical of Vilsack’s “coexistence” proposal. He launched it last month at the same time the


In Brief… – for Jan. 13, 2011

Dangerous beetle found in L.A.:U.S. customs officials last week said they had found a beetle considered one of the world’s most dangerous agricultural pests in a shipment of rice arriving at Los Angeles International Airport. Officials found an adult khapra beetle, eight larvae and a shed skin in a shipment of Indian rice from Saudi

U.S. Farmers Urge Sanctions Against EU’s GM Crop Ban – for Aug. 12, 2010

The largest U.S. farm group has urged the Obama administration to begin steps towards imposing sanctions on the European Union in a long-running dispute over the EU’s treatment of genetically modified crops. The American Farm Bureau Federation, in comments given to the administration July 26, complained the EU still has not complied with a 2006


U.S. Farmers Urge Sanctions Against EU’s GM Crop Ban – for Aug. 12, 2010

The largest U.S. farm group has urged the Obama administration to begin steps towards imposing sanctions on the European Union in a long-running dispute over the EU’s treatment of genetically modified crops. The American Farm Bureau Federation, in comments given to the administration July 26, complained the EU still has not complied with a 2006

Beef Checkoff To NCBA: Drop Dead

“NCBA just doesn’t get it.” In a toughly worded statement June 22, the executive committee of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, the group created by Congress to collect and oversee the $1-per-head beef checkoff, served notice that it strongly backed the independence of the Federation of State Beef Councils in the ongoing debate over the checkoff’s


U. S. Supreme Court Hears GM Alfalfa Arguments

WASHINGTON, D. C. The U. S. Supreme Court was asked last week to rule on whether the courts have the authority to block genetically modified crops due to environmental concerns. The case involving Monsanto’s genetically modified Roundup Ready alfalfa heard here April 27 marks the first time the controversies over commercializing new technology have reached

Obama Export Plan Nudges Farm Trade Agenda Forward

U. S. farm exporters are relieved that trade has finally made it on to President Barack Obama’s agenda, although his new goal to double U. S. exports in five years might be a little too optimistic. After a year when farm expor ters wondered aloud whether the administration even had a trade policy, Obama linked