Sydney Mintz: the father of food anthropology
Sydney Mintz "profiled the rural proletariat" - millions of people employed in appalling conditions to produce food for Western consumers - in provocative books that earned him the unofficial title of father of food anthropology, says a New York Times obituary.
WTO members agree to eliminate ag export subsidies
In a meeting that ran a day longer than scheduled, trade ministers of WTO nations agreed to phase out export subsidies for agricultural goods. The commitment would apply at once to industrialized countries, and only a handful of products would be excluded.
An economic irony: Solar farm boom, biomass gloom
"More than trees have withered in California's sun. The state's biomass energy plants are folding in rapid succession, unable to compete with heavily subsidized solar farms, many of which have sprouted up amid the fields and orchards of the San Joaquin Valley," reports the Los Angeles Times.
Vilsack asks for long-term solution for forest-fire funds
"In a smoldering letter to lawmakers," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Congress failed to enact a long-term plan to pay the cost of fighting forest fires, despite giving the Forest Service a healthy increase in funding this year, reports the Washington Post.
Cage-free, other specialty eggs command a premium
Eggs are a minor part of U.S. food spending; Americans spend slightly less than 1 cent of each food dollar on supermarket eggs. The USDA regularly notes that eggs are more volatile in price than other items in the food basket and respond to holiday demand.
Global wood production recovers from recession
Wood industries, ranging from pulp and paper mill to saw mills, were among the hardest-hit by the global recession in 2008-09 and finally are recovering, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
‘Plants are the new meat’
Traditionally a side dish, vegetables are moving to the center of the plate, says the NPR blog The Salt, adding, "it appears that plants are the new meat."
Agriculture, the unspoken piece of Paris climate-change deal
The Paris agreement on climate change was "a game changer," according to the FAO director general for giving priority to food security in its preamble. But, notes Think Progress, the text of the agreement does not mention food security or agriculture at all.
In arid California, farmers punch above their weight
"A water utility on paper," the Westlands Water District in southern California "is a formidable political force" with a $950,000 budget in 2015 for government and political relations, reports the New York Times.
Hot, dry weather cut Brazil coffee crop 10 percent
The world coffee crop is up marginally from last year to a total of 150 million bags weighing 60 kg apiece, boosted by record-setting harvests in Indonesia and Honduras, said the USDA's semi-annual Coffee: World Markets and Trade report.
Child-nutrition bill leads ag calendar for 2016
Congress returns to work this year with two issues on the must-do list for the Agriculture Committees: reauthorization of child nutrition programs costing $22 billion a year and reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the overseer of the futures markets.
Congress could send COOL repeal to Obama today
By the end of the day, the Senate could give final congressional approval to a $1.1 trillion government funding bill that includes repeal of a meat-labeling law that has driven a wedge between the United States and its two biggest trading partners, Canada and Mexico. Repeal of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL), also a goal of U.S. meatpackers and foodmakers, would defuse the threat of up to $1.01 billion in retaliatory tariffs against U.S. manufactured and agricultural products.
Biggest food and farming stories of 2015 will roll into next year
Looking back on 2015, editors at FERN listed more a dozen newsworthy stories from the year that could have lasting effects. Here's a look at them, starting with half a dozen top-tier developments, including the FDA's approval of the first genetically engineered animal.
Chefs love sorghum, though it’s mostly fed to livestock
Long overshadowed by corn in the United States and used mostly as livestock feed, sorghum is getting its turn as the wonder grain of cuisine, says the Guardian. The Hugo's restaurant chain in California substitutes sorghum for rice in many dishes on its menu, which declares, "Introducing sorghum: the drought-tolerant, low-water-usage, wonder grain."
Settlement talk in USDA scientist whistleblower case
An administrative law judge set a Jan 6 session to discuss a possible settlement of a complaint by a USDA scientist of mistreatment after he suggested neonicotinoid pesticides are a threat to insects that pollinate crops, said the Washington Post.
Lake temperatures rising faster than land or sea in climate change
A study of 235 lakes representing half of the world's freshwater supply found that climate change is warming lakes more rapidly than the land or ocean, said research presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting this week. Researchers looking at records over the past 25 years found that lakes warmed by an average of 0.61 degrees F per decade.
Food industry sees chance for GMO label deal in January
Rebuffed this year on pre-emption of state labeling laws, the food industry sees the chance for a compromise on GMO food labeling in January under the leadership of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "We stand ready to roll up our sleeves to work with him and others to find a solution that can be passed by Congress quickly," said Roger Lowe of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
U.S. hog inventory hits a record high
Two years after Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea killed 7 million piglets and drove up pork prices, hog farmers have rebuilt their herds. The quarterly Hogs and Pigs report says there are a record 68.3 million hogs on the farm, "the highest inventory of all hogs and pigs since quarterly U.S. estimates began in 1988."
Largest November stockpile of frozen meat since 1916
Americans are reluctant to buy high-priced beef at the grocery store, so supplies are building up in warehouses across the country despite a slowdown at packing plants. Frozen pork also is piling up, reflecting a rebound in hog herds and the impact of the strong dollar on exports.
FDA withdraws approval of last arsenic-based drug in livestock
As of Dec 31, FDA is withdrawing approval for nitrasone, the last arsenic-based drug used to treat food-bearing animals. The drug is used to prevent blackhead disease in poultry and is used primarily with turkeys.