U.S. Farm Bill could be delayed until April 2013

Reuters / The U.S. Congress could delay passage of a new five-year Farm Bill until spring planting given the full plate of legislation needed after the election to avoid a fiscal cliff with its mandatory U.S. budget cuts, a top farm policy expert said Nov. 5. “My prediction is that we will get a Farm

U.S. Senate overhauls Farm Bill, but time running out

washington / reuters / The U.S. Senate has approved sweeping new farm legislation that would cut almost all traditional farm subsidies while expanding a costly crop insurance program. But chances are slim the bill will pass this year. The $498-billion, five-year Farm Bill, passed by a 2-to-1 margin, would compensate growers when revenue from a


EU Food Aid Scheme In Place Until 2014

BRUSSELS/REUTERS European Union member governments agreed Nov. 14 to spend one billion euros ($1.37 billion) of the EU s budget on food aid for Europe s neediest citizens for the next two years, though the deal foresees ending the program in 2014. The food aid scheme for the needy will be maintained in 2012 and

Funding For Food Programs Facing Cuts

In China, dairy cows revolve on carousels in synchronized milking, while in Kenya, small farmers are planting a new high-yielding sweet potato. These projects, and scores more, are shaping a new century of agriculture. Whether it be cattle herders in sub-Saharan Africa or rice growers in rural Asia, farmers and ranchers need help to produce


North Koreans Suffering Chronic Malnutrition

In a pediatric hospital in North Korea s most productive farming province, children lay two to a bed. All showed signs of severe malnutrition: skin infections, patchy hair, listless apathy. Their mothers have to bring them here on bicycles, said duty doctor Jang Kum Son in the Yellow Sea port city of Haeju. We used

Floods Damage 70 Per Cent Of Crops In Southern Pakistan

Heavy rains and floods have destroyed or damaged 73 per cent of crops and 67 per cent of the food stocks in southern Pakistan s Sindh province, the United Nations food agency said Sept. 23 urging donors to step up support. Millions of people are destitute and face an uncertain and food-insecure future, the UN


More Than Six Million Need Food Aid In N. Korea

More than six million people in North Korea urgently need food aid because of substantial falls in domestic production, food imports and international aid, the United Nations said May 25. In a report providing a rare glimpse into the reclusive communist state, where a famine in the 1990s killed an estimated one million people, three

Zimbabwe Lacks Funds To Transport Food Aid Minister

Zimbabwe does not have the money to transport food aid to areas experiencing acute shortages, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said on March 21. The country wants to send its entire 270,000 tonnes of grain reserves to provinces that are worst hit by drought and where 1.7 million people need aid, but the Grain Marketing Board


Meal In A Can Contains Hulless Oats

Campbell’s Canada’s launch of a new canned meal product containing naked oats is pure vindication for the Interlake farmer who has invested years in promoting the variety as an important new crop. The Canadian food product company recently announced the launch of Nourish, a 425-g completely meal-in-a-can product which, in addition to two servings of

Chronic Food Deficit In N. Korea — UN

Impoverished North Korea faces a chronic food shortage following a harsh winter which has affected its harvest, a United Nations official said March 11. Years of mismanaged farm policy and natural disasters in the 1990s resulted in famine that some estimates said killed as many as a million people. “We know that they have had