Does Big Data mean bigger farms or surviving thin margins?
With 20,000 acres, Indiana farmer Kip Tom "harvests the staples of modern agriculture: seed corn, feed corn, soybeans and data," says the New York Times.
Large cotton surplus, low prices are a multi-year problem
The world cotton surplus will top 21 million tonnes at the end of this marketing year, an 87 percent stocks-to-use ratio, says the International Cotton Advisory Council.
Modern Farmer is Adweeks’ “hottest newcomer” magazine
Adweek declares National Magazine Award-winner Modern Farmer to be the "hottest newcomer" among magazines. "Founded in 2013 by former Monocle editor Ann Marie Gardner, the indie is targeted at anyone with an interest in where his or her food...
US to weigh if monarch butterfly is endangered species
The US Fish and Wildlife Service says it will conduct a status review, which typically takes a year, to determine if the monarch butterfly should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Women are getting counted as farmers
Sondra Pierce, who grows sugar beets, hay and sunflowers on a Colorado farm, "doesn't look like the average American principal (farm) operator," says Harvest Public Media, but she is emblematic of a change in agriculture and its data-keeping.
Thirsty almond trees and parched wildlife in California
California is the world's largest grower of almonds, with trees on 860,000 acres, a crop that be imperiled especially in the drought now entering its fourth year, says the New York Times.
Nutrition advisor Sam Kass leaving White House-Report
Sam Kass, nutrition policy advisor at the White House and executive director of the Let's Move! initiative against childhood obesity, is leaving the White House, says the Wall Street Journal.
For food and agriculture, a lengthy to-do list for Congress
Congress is to open its new, two-year session on Tuesday with a hefty list of food and agriculture policy issues already on the agenda for lawmakers. The "to do" list includes reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and federal child nutrition programs such as school lunch and WIC, proposals for federal pre-emption of states in labeling foods made with genetically modified organisms, attempts to block EPA from completing its...
Record world soybean crop and China soy imports
World soybean production will hit a record 308 million tonnes this year, up 8 percent from the previous season and fractionally larger than an estimate made a month ago, said the International Grain Council. In its Grain Market Report, the IGC said "planting weather in South America was more favourable and, with potentially large 2014/15 outturns in Brazil and Argentina, as well as a bumper US harvest," peak soybean production was in the cards.
Companies pursue genetic technology free of US review
Seed companies such as Scotts Miracle-Gro and Cellectis Plant Sciences are utilizing techniques to genetically modify crops that are outside of federal jurisdiction or use methods that were not imagined when the regulations were created, said the New York Times.
Canada harvests bumper oilseed crops
Canadian farmers harvested their sixth record soybean crop in a row and their second-largest canola crop, said Statistics Canada, with the harvest season over. The canola crop was 11 percent larger than the previous StatsCan estimate in October and was 1 million tonnes more than traders expected. Canola is Canada's major oilseed, at 15.6 million tonnes this year, down from 18 million tonnes last year. Soybeans totaled 6 million tonnes this year, up 13 percent from 2013.
Black barley joins the parade of new, niche crops
Camelina and quinoa, an alliterative pair, are among newcomer crops in North America, says Country Guide, based in Canada, before pointing to black barley, another new specialty crop.
Farmers sue to overturn GE crop ban in Oregon county
Two farm operations in southwestern Oregon filed suit in state court against a voter-approved ban on genetically engineered crops in Jackson County, says the Medford Mail Tribune.
Earliest date for mechanically tenderized meat labels – 2018
Food Safety News says "the earliest consumers will see labels on mechanically tenderized beef in grocery stores will be 2018" because the administration failed to complete work on the regulation during December.
“Little risk” of corn-for-ethanol to fall below 5 billion bushels
Ethanol makers are likely to need at least 5 billion bushels of corn for making the renewable fuel in the coming year despite the biofuel selling at a premium to gasoline, say economists Scott Irwin and Darrel Good of U-Illinois.
China among “least transparent” of ag import markets-USTR
Since joining the World Trade Organization 13 years ago, China has become the largest customer for U.S. farm exports, buying nearly $26 billion worth of goods in 2013.
Chefs stir up nutrition policy in Congress
The Chef Action Network is on the same page with Food Policy Action, says Politico. Both are recent creations with a food-movement orientation and both hope to influence lawmakers.
India to challenge WTO ruling in favor of US poultry imports
India plans to challenge a World Trade Organization ruling that it unfairly banned imports of U.S. poultry meat as a safeguard against avian influenza, says The Economic Times, of India.
Bird flu in Canada is different strain than in Europe
The avian influenza in British Columbia is H5N2, the same virus that caused previous outbreaks in Canada, says Canadian Press. Officials have quarantined four poultry farms in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver because of the disease.
Cereal, baked goods prices flat in 2014, pork to ease in ’15
Prices for cereal, flour and bakery items will finish the year unchanged from 2013, an indirect effect of record wheat crops worldwide, according to government forecasts, and pork prices will fall by 15 percent in the new year after soaring this year. "Many items in the center aisles of grocery stores/supermarkets have seen lower than average inflation or even deflation year-over-year," said USDA in its food price report.