Largest U. S. Farm Group Rallies Against Climate Bill

The largest U. S. farm group will oppose aggressively “misguided” climate legislation pending in Congress and fight animal rights activists, said American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman Jan. 10. In a speech opening the four-day AFBF convention, Stallman said American farmers and ranchers “must aggressively respond to extremists” and “misguided, activist-driven regulation … The

Foreigners Buying African Farms A Good Thing

The outsourcing of food production in Africa by some Asian and Middle-Eastern countries will boost global stocks and may help stave off future food crises, the World Bank says. In the aftermath of last year’s food crisis, capital-rich nations who lack sufficient arable land to feed growing populations started buying or leasing large portions of


Cheap Loans Buoy Canada Farmers In Recession

Canadian farmers have survived a year of recession with the ratio of debt to equity little changed and optimism still in place, said a key official with Canada’s top farm-lending institution. Cheap access to credit in Canada, in contrast to that in the United States, has been the key to the relatively buoyant agriculture economy,

Buying Of Developing Countries’ Farmland Slows: UN

“Maybe some of them don’t want to take this political risk, reputational risk and economic risk.” – JEAN-PHILIPPE AUDINET, IFAD The pace at which investors in richer countries have been buying farmland in developing nations has slowed with the fall in food prices this year from peaks hit in 2008, United Nations farming experts said


Future Food, Fuel Conflict Can Be Avoided

An increasing shift away from fossil fuels such as gasoline to alternatives derived from plants and waste need not produce an increase in food prices, U. S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Reuters. Speaking on the sidelines of a UN climate conference in Copenhagen, Vilsack added he expected the U. S. Department of Agriculture to

U. S. Agencies Want To Ban Some Kid Food Ads

WASHINGTON/REUTERS In a bid to tackle rising youth obesity, U. S. companies would be prohibited from advertising to children foods that contain large amounts of sugar or salt, or even low levels of trans fats, under a proposal released Dec. 15 by a working group from several U. S. agencies. The working group made up


UAE Firm Leases Farmland In Morocco

An Abu Dhabi-based private sector investment firm has signed a contract to lease up to about 1.7 million acres of farmland in Morocco, a company executive said. Food prices have risen sharply over the past year, prompting governments and private sector firms in the Middle East to look into ways of securing supplies, as most

End To “Banana Wars” Seen Within Reach

Adeal to end the world’s longest-running trade dispute over import tariffs on bananas is virtually complete, but a final agreement may not be reached until next week, diplomats involved in the talks said Friday. The European Union and Latin America had hoped to wrap up a deal Friday to end the 16-year-old “banana wars.” An


Bill To End Engineers’ Strike

Locomotive engineers at Canadian Nat ional Railway (CN) who have been on strike since Saturday may soon be ordered back to work if the federal government gets backing for legislation to do so. Federal Labour Minister Rona Ambrose said in a release Monday she would introduce a bill that afternoon to end the strike, but

Funds Eye Poor-Performer Wheat In Hunt For Laggards

“Our discretionary managers… are long wheat because in an absolute sense it’s been extremely beaten up.” – ALEX ALLEN, EDDINGTON CAPITAL MANAGEMENT Wheat has been the poor cousin of commodities this year, losing value as star performers such as copper, lead and sugar have flown, but the humble grain is now beginning to catch the