Agriculture News March 2012

"Plow Boy" by Grandma Moses ~ 1950

Drovers: A rundown of rising input costs for crops this year.

EWG: The Environment Working Group released new research showing that companies owned by foreign insurance companies are paid billions in tax dollars through the U.S. crop insurance program.

Farm Doc Daily: Covering your (corn) costs.

Denver Post: The special Paonia agricultural region of Colorado is being threatened by drilling rigs.

AP: Large amounts of U.N. food aid sent to Somalia never reached starving people.

DesMoines Register: The skyrocketing value of Iowa farmland has slowed a little in the past six months but continues to grow at an average annual rate of more than 20 percent.

Creighton University: Rural Mainstreet Economy Remains Strong in March Goss Survey: Cash Ag Land Rents Grow by 8 percent.

Stock Journal: The worst drought in 70 years takes toll on Mexican agriculture.

Science: Grazed Grasslands Are Biodiversity Hot Spots.

Seattle Times: Efforts are under way to create an aviation biofuels industry in the Northwest, harnessing the presence of Boeing, Alaska Airlines and research labs across the state. "Making the fuels viable, however, almost certainly would require a big hand from government via subsidies and regulatory support."

Southwest Farm Press: Challenging times persist for U.S. rice producers.

Star Tribune: Study ties GMO corn, soybeans to butterfly losses.

Texas Tribune: Texas Farmers Battle Ogallala Pumping Limits.

Fox News: Kashmir scientists clone rare cashmere goat.

Iowa State: William Edwards reports the newest farm custom rates for 2012. In it, he states, "Fuel prices are predicted to increase drastically over the coming months, which could affect the rates custom operators charge. In the survey, the average price for diesel fuel in 2012 was assumed to be $3.25 per gallon. As a rule of thumb, a $0.50 per gallon increase in the price of fuel will cause total costs for machinery operations to increase about 5 percent."

WSJ Letter: One Quick Way to Lower Gas Prices -- All (Obama) has to do is remove the ethanol mixed with gasoline at the pump. Refineries are having to pay millions of dollars for cellulosic ethanol waivers because there is no cellulosic ethanol production.

WSJ: Risks of Heavy Spring Floods Recede.

NCBR: A Colorado State University biologist will lead a national team that plans to simulate severe drought conditions in Great Plains grasslands to study how the land responds.

NCBR: New USDA program will help protect the least productive farmland with a high erosion index.

NCBR: The governor of Colorado has signed the Colorado Cottage Foods Act. The measure creates alternative methods for producers to sell homemade, value-added goods. The law will allow small growers to sell products directly to consumers.

Mercury News: How to Dry Farm tomatoes for increased flavor. (gardening technique)

WSJ: No Relief in Sight at Pump -- U.S. Gasoline Prices Jumped 6% in February as Critical Refineries Shut Down. (predicts gasoline shortages on the East coast by mid-summer)

Project Syndicate: Nouriel Roubini "Scary Oil"

UT San Diego: Sprouts and Sunflower organic grocers are merging.

Business Insider: Potash Mining in Africa.

York Dispatch: Spring has sprung early, causing concern in area orchards. (Pennsylvania)

Drover's: Ethanol plants to use corn stover in Iowa. [K.M. Note: This won't work, it won't be profitable, and it spells ecological disaster all around.]

Harvest Plus: Scientists Adapt Mining Technology to Breed Nutritious Food Crops.

MSNBC: Experts say 30 to 50 percent of world's food thrown away.

Black Sea Grain: Non resident foreign citizens will be able to buy Romanian farmland starting 2014.

Food and Wine: Boulder's own Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson of Frasca's is Food & Wine's featured Chef this month.

Guardian: Groundwater used for crop irrigation in China has grown from 10bn cubic metres in 1950 to more than 100bn today. The country is now second only to India in tapping largely unreplenishable aquifers.

EIA: Five states accounted for about 56% of total U.S. crude oil production in 2011.

Energy Shortage: The bunker fuel market is growing as supplies dwindle.

IPS: The recent death of five prematurely born children in the northern German city Bremen as a result of infections acquired in the hospital has strengthened fears among environmental and health experts that massive use of antibiotics in industrial livestock farming is creating extremely resistant bacteria.

IPS: Researchers in Argentina have isolated a sunflower gene and implanted it into corn, wheat and soybean seeds to make them more resistant to drought and soil salinity, problems increasingly faced by this South American agricultural powerhouse as a result of global warming. [K.M. note... this is a perfect example how being an anti-G.M. American is now a moot viewpoint. The technology is available and is being used around the world and there is no stopping it. We are living in the Anthropocene age.]

Economist: Taiwan, America and meat wars.

Farm Futures: Agriculture Trucking Exemptions Passed -- Senate passes transportation amendments important for agriculture in the Highway Bill. (but not the biodiesel tax credit)

Bloomberg: Water pollution from agriculture is costing billions of dollars a year in developed countries and is expected to increase in China and India as farmers race to increase food production.

BBC: Trade deal eases EU-US beef war over hormones.

IOL: African Farmers’ Association of South Africa president Mike Mlengana said criminals saw farmers as soft targets, and that crime was affecting every farmer regardless of race.

Two Circles: Potato farmer in India sets new world production record experimenting with organic methods.

MailOnline: UK drought could lead to a surge in food price as farmers warn they are already being ‘seriously affected’.

NPR: Record-High Food Prices Boost Farmers' Bottom Lines.

Idyllic Farming on Île d'Orléans

NOTE that this post was inspired by a late summer visit to Quebec, Canada in 2010.

A visit to this 73 square mile, 18-mile long island named Île d'Orléans near Quebec City in the Saint Lawrence River is enough to give anyone small farm fever. Oh, but for a piece of land on this island to grow food and join the camaraderie of small farms here.

Originally inhabited by native American tribes, French explorer Jacques Cartier landed on this island in 1535. He discovered an island filled with wild grapes and abundant hunting and fishing. One hundred fifty years later, it had over 1200 French inhabitants and 917 livestock. Boat building became an early industry. Today, many French Canadians trace their ancestry to Isle de Orleans.

A bridge connecting Île d'Orléans with the mainland was built in 1935, and in 1970 the whole island was designated a National Historic District. Today's island population of 7,000 is dotted with small 300 year old towns.

When I travel, getting to know a place means getting to know the artists who previously lived there and left their legacy. Here, well-known artists were painter Horatio Walker and songwriter Félix Leclerc.


The above 1933 photo shows artist Horatio Walker painting in his Île d'Orléans garden. He spent his summers here and his winters in New York City, where he sold his work.

Below, is his painting, Ploughing, the First Gleam at Dawn, which was completed in 1900. An art critic described this painting as evoking "the apparent balance between mind and body that was commonplace when people lived in harmony with the rules of nature."

Walker and his contemporaries feared that the agrarian lifestyle was being threatened by a dirty and less desirable industrial age. Though his own life was filled with tragedy, he painted agrarian scenes in an effort to cling to that which was disappearing from the modern world.


Forever amongst us is that human genre which rebels against the advances of civilization and since the dawn of the industrial revolution, that has included the subject of agriculture. This island served as a hold-out for such idealists. By the late 1800's, those seeking refuge from the undesirable changes to civilization brought about by the use of fossil fuels and mechanization, gravitated here where life remained serene and agrarian.

The Loi sur la Protection du Territoire Agricole [Agricultural Land Preservation Act] reserves 90 percent of this island's land area for agricultural purposes. Had this act not been instated, it is easy to imagine what this isle would look like today, and it would not be small farms. Even so, tourism drives this economy now, and so it is a mix of local farm producers, artists and artisans, and land owners with tourism interests as well as vacation cottages.


Photo credit: Amerique Francaise
No small part of the visual appeal of this island, next to the charming landscape of rolling hills with water views, are the picturesque cottages, the quaint French villages, the old churches with their cemeteries, and rustic barns which are visible throughout the island. It is home to six parishes and 600 heritage buildings. To visit here from the urban U.S., one feels one has walked back in time, seeing clothes hanging out on clothes lines, small houses and villages, backyard gardens and orchards, and the variety of local food being grown on small farms. The pace is noticeably slower.


A French house on Isle de Orleans.
In the days of early European settlement of the island, fishermen hauled in eel, salmon, sturgeon, muskellunge, tilefish and walleye. Hunters bagged snow geese, ducks, and Canada geese and abundant passenger pigeons, which disappeared from the island around 1850.

Traditional farming on the island produces fruits, vegetables, cereals, and dairy including cheeses. In addition, today one can find smoked fish, wine, cider, farmed game, blackcurrant aperitifs and ports, maple products, and organic jams, chutneys and jellies made from local orchards. There are a few eat local eateries.

Food growing on the island tends to be regional, determined by the soil and micro-climates. The island has mixed growing conditions and rich soils that are either clay based or sandy mixes. There are wetter and drier areas, higher and lower lands, hills, plateaus, and slopes. The northern end tends to raise berries and carrots, the southern side apples and grapes, and the west side grows leeks and potatoes. The island is located in plant hardiness zone 4 with an annual precipitation of about 48 inches.

Today, tourism helps support local artists and the island farm endeavors which are tugged by less authentic interests of outside ownership and competition from nonlocally produced food. Walking and biking by tourists is encouraged, although designated bike trails are lacking. One senses that the farmers here, too, are faced with that same never ending struggle to make ends meet that small farmers everywhere have always faced.

Next, are some of my photos to show you why the word idyllic comes to mind here.


Vineyards with a nice water view


Ripe plums still on the tree


Plums for sale


Large round bales of straw in this farm field. From the island roads, you look down towards the water and see farms.


A field of leeks


Nearly ripe apples


This is the view the apple trees enjoy each day.


A potato harvester was parked along one roadside. The tractors that I saw on this island were all "small."

The next set of photos show an Isle de Orleans farm produce stand and the fruits and vegetables which were for sale inside.


Ferme La Jeunesse


Ripe tart cherries


These were the best strawberries I've ever tasted! I suspect they were mara des bois strawberries.


Yellow wax beans


Apples


Crab apples


Tomatoes
It is regrettable that more land near urban populations in America was not preserved for farming as it was here on Isle de Orleans. Instead, we have urban sprawl reliant upon a car culture which has gobbled up much of our most productive and convenient farmland. When you can stand in one place and see that in one direction is a small potato farm, another an apple orchard, another a carrot field, and another a vineyard, like you can here on this island, something feels very right. So right, in fact, that you wish you could be a part of it or that more of your own world looked like that.

Agriculture News March 2012

Denver Post: Near-booming economy for Northeastern Colorado as crop prices rise.

The Star: Toronto’s top chefs get creative as cost of food goes up.

EPI: Peak Meat: U.S. Meat Consumption Falling.

Drovers: Competition from global buyers and the limiting effect of high consumer prices will weigh on per capita meat consumption in the United States in the next few years.

The Poultry Site: The average US consumer is eating less meat and poultry in general, a shift in consumption that reflects tighter budgets, fewer animals on the market and more meat going to foreign countries.

IPS: WTO and Agriculture: A dark decade ahead.

Policy Pennings: There was a time when the US had the corn export market locked up, with everyone else playing a minor role. Over the last decade or so, US farmers and commodity traders have had to pay more attention to South American corn production, particularly Brazil and Argentina. Today that view has to include countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa as well.

Telegraph: Biodiesel plants in Europe are closing due to overcapacity and lack of policy support.

Reuters: Improved grain supplies will help lower food prices this year after sharp rises in 2011 and take the wind out o price volatility, easing inflation concerns.

Bloomberg: Global inventories of wheat and soybeans are falling more than forecast, while U.S. corn reserves head to a 16-year low, as farmers fail to keep pace with rising demand for food, livestock feed and biofuel.

Reuters: Brazil corn to hit record despite drought.

Green (nyts): Spike in Food Prices Projected by 2013.

WSJ: Oversupply of global dairy hurts New Zealand.

Agrimoney: Dairy prices fell to their lowest in 19 months as output rises.

NYTs: Even Dairy Farming Has a 1 Percent.

Bloomberg: Chinese soybean imports may rise again this year.

AP: American rice farmers are furious after Iraq stops buying their rice.

NYTs: Canadian grain operator giant Viterra is a takeover target as the wheat export monopoly ends. Cargill and Glencore are two possible suitors.

Omaha World Herald: After nearly two years of reconstruction, Nebraska's only turkey processing plant is beginning to increase production as it prepares to ship turkey, pork and eventually beef products overseas.

The Australian: A salt-resistant wheat variety developed by an Australian team through old-fashioned cross-breeding rather than genetic modification is increasing crop yields by up to 25 per cent in salinity-prone areas, and could help counter food security concerns.

ABC: Sheep numbers are at a 50 year low in Western Australia due to drought and low prices.

Bismark Tribune: The number of North Dakota farmers and ranchers who consider farming their primary occupation dropped to about 58 percent in 2007 from about 70 percent in 2002.

China Daily: This is an update on how China is striving to be a food secure nation.... High crop yields will help tame inflation.

NYTs: U.S. Trade Deficit Surged to 3-Year High in January.

Forbes: Dow Chemical Chief Wants To Limit U.S. LNG (liquid natural gas) Exports.

CNN: Natural gas prices hit 10-year low.

WSJ: Natural Gas to Power Pickups.

National Journal: There is little data on the amount of methane being produced by the boom in natural-gas drilling across the country and scientists say methane has 20 times more impact on climate change than carbon dioxide.

Huff Post: Do You Know Where Green Electricity Will Come From?

Bangor Daily News: About High Energy Costs on Maine Farms.

BBC: Hose-pipe bans to begin in drought-hit areas of the UK. Vegetable prices will rise.

Capital Press: The federal government has banned machinery dealers from importing and selling European versions of forage harvesters from Deere & Co. here in the U.S.

Motherjones: Of the major field crops (wheat, feed grains, rice, soybeans, and cotton), cotton accounts for about 4% of global area.

Lincoln Journal Star: A new Farmland price report out of Nebraska shows back to back annual gains of 31% and 22%.

Canadian Cattlemen: Farmland prices are rising along with increased demand across Western Canada.

Reuters: Agricultural commodities exchange traded funds (ETF) are on the rise, with 11 new funds added last year alone.

IPS: At a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, spoke out against the financial aid that Mexico will give to large producers at the expense of small farmers. He also criticised trials of genetically modified crops in this country.

The Telegraph: Australian Farm exports to rise by 10% this year, with the value of Australia's exports of agrifood products rising by 140 per cent. The largest increases are for beef, sheep meat, wheat, dairy products and sugar.

Yahoo: Thousands of spiders blanket Australian farm after escaping flood (great photos).

Union of Concerned Scientists: When Congress reauthorizes the Farm Bill this year, it should replace existing policies that subsidize junk food and encourage harmful farming practices with policies that prioritize healthy foods and farms.

NPR: Researchers are calling on farmers in some parts of the country to stop planting corn with anti-rootworm genes altogether.

BBC: The Northern Ireland economy may be struggling to regain traction but agriculture is one sector which is performing strongly.

NYTs Green: All about dung beetles.

Omaha World Herald: Gavilon LLC has drawn interest from suitors including Bunge Ltd. and Glencore International Plc as the grain handler weighs a sale that could fetch as much as $5 billion.

Food Politics: U.N. Special Rapporteur: Five Ways to Fix Unhealthy Diets.

Farmgate: Are We Really Exporting Ethanol So It Will Not Compete With Imported Gasoline?

NPR: Farmers Face Tough Choice On Ways To Fight New Strains Of Weeds.

AP: Jamaica's famed coffee industry facing hard times.

Foreign Policy: The Last Famine. A natural history of hunger. [Lengthy piece]

LA Times: Old sheepherders spin poignant yarns.

BBC: 'Slipper farmers' harvest money (in the UK).

CNBC: Rising Gas Prices Create Smoking Hot Demand for Used Cooking Oil.

Drovers: Target is adding fresh food, meat to 100 stores.

Reuters: Kroger Co (KR.N), the biggest U.S. supermarket chain, posted slightly higher-than-expected quarterly results and outperformed rivals Safeway Inc (SWY.N) and Supervalu Inc (SVU.N) at a time when higher food and fuel prices are weighing on industry sales volumes.

Hobby Farms: Top 5 Rural-development Issues Facing Hobby Farmers in 2012.

BBC: Era ends as Thomas Jones brothers move from hill farm Nantllwyd.

BONUS... Youtube: The Most Astounding Fact (Neil DeGrasse Tyson).

Hot Five

STEYR NATURAL GAS POWERED TRACTOR



CNH Global N.V. has produced a prototype tractor which runs on natural gas. This "Steyr Profi 4135 Natural Power" has a Fiat turbocharged compressed natural gas engine which is 3.0 litre, four-cylinder, and 100kW/136 hp rated. The gas storage is divided into nine tanks totalling 300 liters. This tractor is to be on the market in 2015, and is especially encouraged for farms having their own biogas systems.

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PORT OF LONGVIEW, WASHINGTON, EXPORT GRAIN TERMINAL



Just recently completed, this was the first export grain terminal to be built in the U.S. in more than 25 years. Located on the Columbia River, it is serviced by both the Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads, plus barges and trucks. It has the capacity to unload rail cars at the rate of 3,000 MT/hour. Having a storage capacity of 4.7 million bushels in 36 concrete silos, it handles corn, soybeans, wheat, soybean meal, and DDGs. Export destinations are Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam in Asia; Guatemala, Chile, El Salvador, Peru, and Colombia in Latin America. In addition to the $200 million project, a $32 million South Dakota project near Kimball, capable of storing 3.2 million bushels of grain for export by rail to West Coast ports will be completed later this year.

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SUPER WEEDS


Photo credit: Colorado State
Pigweed, which can get 2-4 feet tall
It didn't last long, did it? Ever since Roundup, or glyphosate, was approved for general use in 1994, weeds have been evolving to resist it. There are now more than 20 types of Roundup resistant weeds, in 24 states, which have developed over the past 15 years. Even though seed companies are working on the next generation of herbicide tolerant crops, experts believe that this development may put us on the downward slope of industrial Ag efficiency. Increased expense, labor, herbicides, and a return to old methods required to manage escapee weeds could mean a gradual reversal of the ever larger fields and equipment being used to produce today's monoculture crops. Perhaps the grain farming efficiency of scale pinnacle point has now passed.

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INDIAN FOOD AT HOME



I recently discovered this canned natural food Indian Cuisine product line, Jyoti, produced out of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, at my favorite local organic grocery store. It was started in 1979 by Jyoti Gupta who is a registered dietitian, as a mail order operation. I'm a huge saag fan, and this Delhi Saag is superb. I've had it plain, and I've tried it with lamb added to it. This is quality "convenience" food at a reasonable price. The Jyoti Indian Cuisine company is growing and its website urges consumers to request the product at their favorite grocery store if not found there. Try it, request it, or order it online!

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PRZEWALSKI'S HORSE



We headed for the Denver Zoo midweek and I took this photo of a Przewalski horse. This is the only surviving wild horse subspecies, and it roamed the border between China and Mongolia. It was discovered in the late 19th century by a Russian explorer named Przewalski. Currently, there are about 1,500 of these horses left, and most are in zoos. The FAO began reintroducing them into their native Mongolian habitat in the 1980's. Its coloring is like that of a Siamese cat.

Agriculture News March 2012

Friends,
This completes the catch-up phase of my news threads. It is time for us to take a look at the upcoming season's weather outlook.

From NOAA, upon the release of its current seasonal drought outlook in view of a weakening La Niña:

Prospects for drier-than-normal conditions for both March 2012 and March-May 2012 are elevated over the Southwest, the southern and central High Plains, the immediate Gulf Coast, and Florida.

And from the DesMoines Register:

Recent rain and snowfall has slightly eased the dry conditions in the state’s soil, but 86 percent of northwest Iowa continues to be short or extremely short of soil moisture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Monday. ... Iowa’s soil was considered at least 5 to 8 inches short of moisture at the end of February.

Hopefully, there won't be too much weather-related nail biting over the low corn stocks-to-use level this season. Midwestern droughts have historically followed southern droughts, like we've had in Texas recently.

Next, the news:

1. Chart comparing the cost of pancake ingredients from country to country around the world from the Economist [source]
2. Crop insurance costs outrace conservation by Alan Guebert [source]
3. Room-for-debate: The farm bill, beyond the farm [source]
4. Jim Prevor on Organics, Crop Yields and Food Politics [source]
5. The Missouri barn is disappearing as farmland prices soar [source]
6. W Virginia: At a time when American consumers are being hit with higher gas prices, now rising food costs are starting to dent household budgets. Manager of Grant's Supermarket in Princeton, Randall Shrewsberry said his store is trying to absorb part of the costs by buying locally and buying in bulk [source]
7. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's survey of ag bankers within its district found good farmland averaged $3,263 an acre during the third quarter - down 1.5% from the previous quarter and down 4.5% from a year earlier [source]
8. Maple Leaf looking to pass on higher meat and wheat costs to shoppers as it lays off employees [source]
9. World drinks more tea [source]
10. FT: Corn set to stay tight despite US crop hopes [source]
11. Food Safety official's ties to Monsanto spur petition for ouster [source]
12. Rabobank Report: The Future of Ethanol - Brazilian and U.S. Perspectives [source]
13. Diesel surpasses $4 nationwide [source]
14. Must read: Corn And Soybean Production Increases In South America Will Have A Domestic Market [source]
15. Private firms look abroad for solutions to Japan's food security [source]
16. Enlisting Nanoparticles to Help Replace Oil [source]
17. Traditional cider polishes its apples -- It's not only sales of mass-produced cider which are booming, the traditional tipple is also enjoying a renaissance [source]
18. Test tube burgers could hit kitchens this year after scientists create meat with taste of quarter-pounder [source]
19. WSJ: Doctors don't want to die any more than anyone else does. But they usually have talked about the limits of modern medicine with their families. They want to make sure that, when the time comes, no heroic measures are taken [source]
20. England: Scientists and farming leaders are urgently seeking ways of fighting a disease new to the UK threatening sheep flocks, the schmallenberg virus [source]
21. NPR: A New York federal court today dismissed a lawsuit against agribusiness giant Monsanto brought by thousands of certified organic farmers that they hoped would protect them against infringing on the company's crop patents in the future [source]
22. Developing countries have been struck by a powerful supermarket revolution during the past two decades [source]
23. U.S. Agricultural Machinery Exports Increase 23 Percent in 2011 [source]
24. McDonald's plans to expand franchising in China [source]
25. Thousands of Australia's agriculture workers have packed up their tools and walked off the land during the past two years. The average age of the modern farmer is 52 and climbing, and there are fewer farm businesses than there were four years ago [source]
26. A former top Pentagon official spoke at a Colorado State University forum addressing energy and national security, including biofuels [source]
27. Will farmers plant corn or soybeans? [source]
28. A hog farmer explains how ethanol policy has impacted his feed prices [source]
29. A shortage of poultry will drive up chicken prices for consumers [source]
30. The birds and the bees of plant fertility. Leave wild strips and weedy strips around your lawn, if you must have a lawn [source]
31. NYTs: Texas Court Says Landowners Own Groundwater [source]
32. Brazil’s government plans to boost investment in sugar-cane plantations by 60.5 billion reais ($35.4 billion) during the next four years to ensure an adequate supply of crops for the nation’s ethanol industry [source]
33. NYTs: Much to Savor, and Worry About, Amid Mild Winter’s Early Blooms [source]
34. BBC: A severe drought is threatening the livelihood of thousands of small farmers across Paraguay [source]
35. Bill Gates pledges $200m to boost smallholder farmer productivity [source]
36. Renewable Energy Group out of Iowa, sold 150 million gallons of biodiesel in 2011, an increase of 121 percent over 2010 when sales were depressed due to the loss of the $1 per gallon tax credit and before the mandate went into effect [source]
37. USDA: Genetically Modified Crops to Get Faster Approval [source]
38. Hammered by the financial crisis that has led to ever diminishing income, a group of residents in northern Greece have joined forces with potato farmers to slash consumer prices and ensure producers can get their crop to markets by cutting out the middle man [source]
39. The weather pattern known as La Nina has peaked in intensity and may start to fade, said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture [source]
40. BBC: Relatively mild drought conditions may have been enough to cause the collapse of the Classic Maya civilisation [source]
41. Zimbabwe: $2 billion pumped into agriculture but abused by new farmers. There are strong indications that many of the farmers who received land under the controversial land grab program, sold most of the free inputs they received from government [source]
42. USDA to help thousands of rural homeowners (again) [source]
43. Having opened in 1991, Organic Cotton Plus is the oldest organic-fabric business in the United States [source]
44. How to store food using less refrigeration [source]
45. Two enormous South Dakota Grain elevators are being constructed to store 3.2 million bushels of grain along rail lines to ship from West coast ports [source]
46. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have identified a temperate-tropical maize hybrid that can potentially revolutionize biofuels in this country [source]
47. Eating on Prince Edward Island from Gourmet Magazine [source]
48. "Land grabs" are now one of the biggest issues in Africa [source]
49. BBC In Pictures: Land Leasing or Land Grabbing? [source]
50. A BIG shift to corporate-style agriculture is emerging on Australian farms because the nation's army of baby boomer farmers can't convince enough of their offspring to take over their family enterprises [source]
51. Food & Wine tells you how to start growing your own sprouts [source]
52. NPR: How Using Antibiotics In Animal Feed Creates Superbugs [source]
53. MF Global failure creates tax crunch for farmers [source]
54. This blog got linked over at Marketwatch on Cody Willard's news titled "Facebook’s nudity guidelines revealed." ?!? [source]
55. A Pininterest Hobby Farm Site with pics worth looking at....[source]