Office of Communications (202) 720-8138 AgNews Summary for USDA Executives Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION * * * * * * * * * * * * * * AgNews is intended for use by authorized government personnel only. Redistributing AgNews by any means to any unauthorized person violates copyright on the source material. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To access AgNews on the USDA Intranet, go to http://agnews.usda.gov FARM & FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL SERVICES FARMERS USING BIOTECH SEED MAY PAY LESS FOR INSURANCE (101 Reuters 8/19) In a move that benefits biotech crop companies and their farmer customers, USDA has approved the expansion of a risk management program that effectively lowers crop insurance costs for producers planting certain biotech corn seeds. The program was expanded from the original 2008 pilot to include more states for Monsanto Co. products and other corn hybrids from DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred division, Syngenta and Dow AgroSciences. Farmers who plant certain corn hybrids will qualify for crop insurance premium reductions in some states. Monsanto estimated that premiums for certain policies were reduced on average by more than $3 per acre during the 2008 pilot program. Similar savings are expected in 2009. FOOD, NUTRITION AND CONSUMER SERVICES FOOD STAMP THEFT A GROWING PROBLEM IN N.Y. (102 AP 8/20) A brief article reports that identity thieves are stealing food stamps from program participants in New York City. A fraud officer with the state Human Resources Administration says it has become a common occurrence for identity thieves to break into welfare accounts and steal food stamp benefits. The agency has distributed flyers to inform clients that they could be targeted. Officials say the scammers typically pose as HRA employees and call food stamp recipients to obtain their Social Security numbers. They can use that information to break into accounts. MARKETING & REGULATORY PROGRAMS WIND-BLOWN CANKER IS STORM’S THREAT TO FLORIDA CITRUS (103 The Ledger, Fla. 8/19) Florida’s citrus groves appear to have escaped significant damage from Tropical Storm Fay on Tuesday, but the full damage may not be known for months, and perhaps years. Although winds from Fay were not strong enough to blow fruit off citrus trees and growers were able to avoid flooding from the storm’s rain, the biggest impact may be from the amount of canker bacteria it spreads across the state. “Canker is spread through wind and rain,” said a spokesman for Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s biggest growers representative. “This was a significant wind and rain. Putting A and B together, we’re going to have to deal with canker.” The article also quotes a professor at the University of Florida’s Indian River Research and Education Center who says, “I think we’re probably going to see a bloom of new canker infections.” THREAT OF SOY RUST FADES IN MIDWEST (104 Dow Jones 8/19) Experts across the Midwest are beginning to sound the all-clear on Asian soybean rust for another season, after the fungus again failed to gain a significant foothold in the U.S. soybean crop. The article quotes an Extension plant pathologist at the University of Iowa who says the state’s soybean crop is “no longer in danger.” Although two new infections were found this week on the Georgia-Florida border, USDA points out that the fungus has been found in only about 30 counties in five states in 2008, compared to 75 counties in eight states at this time last year. NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT FIREFIGHTERS MAKE PROGRESS ON CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES (105 AP 8/19) Firefighters have tamed two wildfires that burned hundreds of acres of forest land in Southern California. A blaze in the Angeles National Forest was 100 percent contained and many of the 355 firefighters were expected to be sent home late Tuesday, a Forest Service spokeswoman said. A blaze in Riverside County that burned 100 acres in the Cleveland National Forest was also 100 percent contained. A cluster of five lightning- sparked wildfires burning in remote wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest about 20 miles east of Santa Maria was 61 percent contained at 256 acres. RESEARCH, EDUCATION & ECONOMICS TOUR SEES PROMISING CORN, SOY CROPS IN SOUTH NEBRASKA (106 Reuters 8/19) The corn crop in southern Nebraska is showing better-than-average yield potential, and soybean pod development also is beating the historical average, scouts on an annual crop tour said Tuesday. Corn yields in the area were seen at 157.3 bushels per acre, according to a survey of 17 fields along the route of the ProFarmer Midwest Crop Tour. In 2007, the tour forecast Nebraska yields at 147.11 bushels. The average soybean pod count of fields on the tour was 1,279.1, up from last year’s count of 1,143.69. Conditions in soybean fields were much improved from areas farther north, where dry weather in the past few weeks has slowed pod development. Most of the fields surveyed on the south-central Nebraska route had been irrigated. The corn crop also was further advanced compared with fields surveyed Monday in northern Nebraska. INDIANA CORN YIELDS LOOK GOOD, BUT DRYNESS A WORRY (107 Reuters 8/20) Corn yield prospects are better than average in Indiana this year, but more precipitation is needed in the remainder of the growing season for the crop to reach its full potential, crop scouts on the annual ProFarmer Midwest Crop tour said Tuesday. Soybean yield potential is about average, but as with corn, more rain is needed to help the crop fill pods in the weeks ahead, the scouts said. They estimated Indiana’s corn yield at 163.82 bushels per acre based on 133 fields surveyed – up 10 percent from last year’s tour estimate of 148.17. Soybean pods counts were near average: 1,298.77 pods per three- by-three-foot plot in Indiana, versus 1,169.47 last year. RURAL DEVELOPMENT DORR IN MINNESOTA TO DELIVER $9.1 MILLION FOR WATER PROJECT (108 Worthington Daily Globe 8/19) USDA Under Secretary Thomas Dorr visited the Minnesota West Community and Technical College Monday to offer $9.1 million in Rural Development funds for the Jackson-Martin Rural Water System Project. The project could provide water for approximately 431 rural sites in Jackson and Martin counties. Dorr praised the many entities involved in the project, and cited the importance of infrastructure – including a source of safe, dependable water – to rural development. He also tied the efforts to what he termed a “rural renaissance” and the expansion of rural opportunities. USDA -- MULTI-MISSION FARM COUNTRY’S BOOM HINTS OF A BUBBLE (109 Washington Post 8/20) The article looks at the current economic boom in the Plains states, where the housing market is holding up just fine, banks are making plenty of loans and employers keep adding jobs. While interest rate cuts and stimulus checks are helping ease the pain in other parts of the country, the area stretching from the oilfields of Texas north to the Dakotas is doing fairly well – and those government actions may prove unnecessary. The article cites the continuing rise in farmland prices, high commodity prices, low jobless rates and strong availability of loans to farmers among the signs of economic prosperity in the region. There are exceptions – the article notes that high feed prices are hurting livestock producers, and flooding caused damage in Iowa – and it also acknowledges that some previous booms have ended with a thud. SENATORS DEFEND ETHANOL; LIVESTOCK PRODUCERS DOUBTFUL (110 AP 8/18, dailies 8/19) A Senate Agriculture Committee hearing organized to address the ongoing food-versus-fuel debate over ethanol offered confidence to its organizers, but left livestock producers troubled that their concerns weren’t fully recognized. Sens. Tom Harkin and Ben Nelson took a largely defensive stand against criticisms of ethanol at the hearing Monday in Omaha, Neb. “I’ll admit corn-based ethanol’s not perfect, but it’s been blamed for practically every problem under the sun,” Nelson said. Supporters of ethanol and other biofuels contend they burn cleaner than fossil fuels, reduce dependence on foreign oil and give farmers another market to sell their produce. The hearing included testimony from a panel with ties to agriculture, food production and renewable energy. The Associated Press article also quotes an executive of a company that specializes in egg products, who says the hearing didn’t give enough attention to the impact of ethanol on the livestock industry. GROWERS UPSET AS FARM BILL EXCLUDES NUTS, DRIED FRUITS (111 Sacramento Bee 8/19) Congress dissed dried fruits and nuts in the latest farm bill, and growers are feeling ambushed. In a last-minute maneuver that is only now coming to light, farm bill authors cut out dried fruits and nuts from an ambitious school snack program. The action could slam the door on some potentially lucrative markets. It also illustrates how Capitol Hill works, sometimes in the dead lf night. The farm bill expanded an existing fresh fruit and vegetable snack program that had been limited to 14 states. “There was a general assumption that nuts and dried fruits would be included in this program,” says Rep. Jim Costa. But after Congress finished the farm bill, California lawmakers realized the bill and an accompanying report had been adjusted. In part, the report language limited the reach of the fresh snack program. “It is not the intent of the (bill’s) managers to allow this program to provide other products, such as nuts, either on their own or co-mingled with other foods, such as in a trail mix,” the report said. A lobbyist for California specialty crops says the provision was included “when no one was looking...It caught us all by surprise.” U.S. SUGAR BUYOUT: SWEET DEAL FOR THE EVERGLADES? (112 Christian Science Monitor 8/20) The $1.75 billion taxpayer-funded plan to buy 187,000 acres of U.S. Sugar’s cane fields in Florida’s Lake Okeechobee basin marks one of the largest conservation buyouts of a major industry in the U.S., promising to break a major chokehold on the slowly dying Everglades. But will it really work – and at what cost? Those are the tough questions facing Floridians. The buyout reflects a major change of political direction on behalf of the state’s fragile backwaters. What’s more, the implications of the U.S. Sugar deal could go far beyond the Sunshine State, offering a new Republican vision to downsizing polluting industries in a globalized economy while reducing – in Big Sugar’s case -- $2 billion in annual subsidies from Uncle Sam. The article also quotes a University of Miami economist who warns that the buyout could turn out to be a back-room deal among politicians and industrial interests that fails to deliver salvation for one of the world’s wildest and most important ecosystems. FTC COMMISSIONER TACKLES ADS FOR KIDS (113 Wall Street Journal 8/20) Federal Trade Commission commissioner Jon Leibowitz is at the center of the agency’s scrutiny of marketing to children by food and beverage companies. He was particularly outspoken on in a recent FTC study on the issue, urging marketers to do more to regulate themselves and saying that if they don’t, the FTC could step in and do it for them. That has made him something of a lightning rod for people on both sides of the issue. Groups such as the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood say his call for self-regulation is too passive, while food and beverage companies argue that he is trampling on their First Amendment right to advertise as they choose. The article goes on to report highlights of a conversation with Leibowitz, in which he defends self-regulation and says the FTC is taking a “middle ground” approach to children’s marketing issues. A PASSION FOR TOMATOES (114 Smithsonian 8/08) The article leads with a description of the harvesting process in a California tomato field that produces processing tomatoes. After harvest, the tomatoes are trucked to a processing plant where they are converted into tomato paste in a matter of a few hours. Some people turn up their noses at these Roma tomatoes, which are bred for processing, but “the industrial tomato has its place,” the writer says. However, he also describes a visit the next day to an organic farm that grows up to 100 crops, including 25 varieties of tomatoes. Heirloom varieties such as are grown here have become a mainstay of gourmet culture in recent years. However, the writer says, he knows of no evidence that heirlooms are any more nutritious than hybrids. He goes on to explore questions of why tomatoes inspire such passion, and to look the history of the tomato, some of the varieties that are grown and consumed throughout the world, and at some of the research being done in tomato breeding. OLIVE GROWERS BRACE FOR SECOND-WORST HARVEST IN 10 YEARS (115 AP 8/19) California and federal agriculture officials have predicted that the table olive crop is down by half this year because of harsh spring weather. In addition, farmers say sparse fruit means it’s not practical to pick the fruit from many trees, reducing supply and driving up prices. Since 2000, the harvests on California’s 26,000 acres of table olive trees have been increasingly inconsistent. That has prompted some growers to sell off their trees to landscapers and plant citrus or pomegranates in their place. Last year’s boom harvest of 132,000 tons followed a record-low 23,000 tons in 2006. A recent USDA probability survey predicts that there are 65,000 tons of olives in the field, but growers say less than 45,000 tons will be harvested because rising fuel and labor costs mean they might not make enough from the crop to cover the cost of picking it. EDITORIAL AND OPINION ETHANOL POLICY FIELD HEARING SETTLES NO ISSUES (116 AgWeb.com 8/19) Columnist Jim Wiesemeyer says Monday’s Senate Agriculture Committee field hearing in Omaha, Neb., was “mostly a stacked deck” in favor of ethanol. Those opposed to ethanol mandates and subsidies said they were not given an opportunity to address the hearing. Wiesemeyer quotes an Iowa State University economist who says ethanol is adding to higher food costs, and an official of the Nebraska Cattlemen who says his organization doesn’t think it’s “long-term good policy to mandate demand.” MOVE FORWARD ON ROADLESS PLAN (117 Denver Post 8/19) An editorial says objections that have been raised to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter’s effort to write new rules protecting roadless areas in the state are not reasonable. Roadless areas aren’t wilderness, it says, and only a small percentage of them would be opened to oil and gas exploration under the governor’s rules. The editorial suggests that the real reason for objections is that those opposed “simply don’t trust the Bush administration to do the right thing by our environment.” It says there is some justification for trusting Ritter over the Bureau of Land Management, in part because the governor has chosen to work with Forest Service Regional Forester Rick Cables. Cables, it says, “has worked openly and fruitfully with state agencies and environmental groups to protect our state forests, watersheds and wildlife.” The roadless area review process has dragged on for more than 40 years, the editorial says, and was recently complicated when a federal judge struck down – for the second time – Clinton administration rules that restricted logging and other activities in roadless areas. That could lead the issue to the Supreme Court, and the editorial says Cables and Ritter are likely to produce a better plan for the state than would come from the court. It urges state and federal officials to listen to citizens in upcoming hearings, and to “get on with the job” of protecting roadless areas. AGRICULTURE AND TRADE PRESS AGRICULTURE ONLINE 8/19 (118) Experts don’t see any return to cheap food soon (119) Grassley says 10-acre rule may need clarifying legislation FEEDSTUFFS 8/19 (120) USDA and Chinese ministry sign biofuels agreement (121) Scientists working on test to detect BSE DTN 8/19 (122) Tour finds crops way behind MEATINGPLACE 8/19 (123) Seoul expands scrutiny of Nebraska beef products (124) USDA awards grants to improve rural economic conditions AGWEEK 8/19 (125) Lawmakers protest subsidy crackdown AND ALSO… FOUR-LEGGED WEED WHACKERS MUNCH FOR HIRE (126 Monterey County Herald, Calif. 8/19) About 450 grass-chomping, leaf-stripping goats are grazing on the hillsides in California’s Pebble Beach this week on a mission to chew down weeds and brush that could fuel a forest fire. It’s an annual visit that similar herds have made for almost 10 years. “The goats don’t punch a time clock,” said the forest and ecology manager for the Pebble Beach Company. “This herd works relatively quickly.” The goats are on loan from Goats R Us, a company that bills its service as “organic vegetation management.” To obtain a USDA release, access USDA’s Home Page at http://www.usda.gov To access AgNews on the USDA Intranet, go to http://agnews.usda.gov * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * DISCLAIMER -- AgNews content is derived from major wires, news magazines and mass distribution press. Inclusion of an item in AgNews does not imply USDA agreement; nor does USDA attest to the accuracy or completeness of the item. * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ACCESS AGNEWS ARCHIVES ON THE USDA INTRANET – AgNews archive files are available on the USDA Intranet at http://agnews.usda.gov. 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