Severe drought in Russia has sent world food prices 5 percent higher in recent months, according to a new report by the United Nations, and though they remain well below the record levels reached during the 2007-08 world food crisis, the higher prices have already fueled deadly riots in Mozambique.

Today police in the capital, Maputo, opened fire on a mob of several thousand people — some of them throwing stones — in what officials said was an unsanctioned protest over the rise in food and commodity prices. The Associated Press reported that at least seven people were killed, including at least two children. The cost of bread in the southeastern African country has risen 25 percent in the past year, the AP reported, amid other commodity price increases.

Yet the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said it expects no return to the crisis of 2008 despite Russia’s recent decision to ban grain exports and massive flooding on the eve of Pakistan’s wheat-planting season.

Abdolreza Abbassian, FAO’s senior grain economist in Rome, told AOL News that “fears of a global food crisis remain unwarranted.” Even though the Russian export ban shut off one of the world’s major conduits of grains, large stockpiles and increased yields elsewhere would provide enough grain to meet demand. But prices would rise for importing nations, “which would mean an additional burden on poorer countries,” he said.

“The big picture is this: After two consecutive years of record crops, world cereal inventories are able to cover the current anticipated production shortfall,” Abbassian said. “And stocks held by the traditional wheat exporters, the main buffer against unexpected events, remain ample. … FAO does not believe there is a crisis.”

Elsewhere, a separate report Tuesday by the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) warned that Pakistan’s woes were only beginning.

“There is a triple threat unfolding as this crisis widens and deepens,” WFP’s executive director, Josette Sheeran, said in a prepared statement after touring the flood-ravaged nation. “People have lost seeds, crops and their incomes, leaving them vulnerable to hunger, homelessness and desperation — the situation is extremely critical. We urgently need continued and strengthened commitment to the people of Pakistan in this time of crisis.”

In the United States, monthly Consumer Price Index updates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics through July showed relatively stable prices, with food up just under 1 percent. But the pressure on grain supplies has been a boon for American agriculture after the effects of the recent recession, according to reports released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

After dropping some 20 percent in 2009, projected farm earnings have rebounded this year, with net cash income expected to grow by 23 percent to $85.3 billion, the second highest total on record.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Tuesday that while a large share of the rise stems from meat production, grain exports were also spiking, leading the agency to raise its exports forecast for the current fiscal year to $107.5 billion. That’s a $3 billion increase from the May forecast for the same period and “the second highest year on record.” It also marks an $11 billion increase from the previous year, he said.

“Agriculture is one of the few major sectors of the economy today that has trade surplus, which we are now forecasting to be a little over $30 billion,” Vilsack said. “What’s more, we expect this progress to continue. … Increased ag exports, especially of grains and meat, are going to help drive this rebound.”

He said that every billion dollars of agriculture exports supports up to 9,000 jobs “and generates an additional $1.4 billion in economic activity.”

But the good days won’t be shared by all, said Steve Mercer, spokesman for U.S. Wheat Associates, a producers association.

“Some growers will be able to get higher prices, [but] many won’t because they had already sold their wheat before the price run-up started in June, or had already contracted to sell at a specific price,” he said. “Prices are up for sure because of crop problems in Russia and other exporting countries. U.S. wheat growers in the more northern areas and Pacific Northwest might benefit most.”

source:  http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/russian-drought-spurs-worldwide-food-price-hikes/19616813

MUCH has been said about how BHP Billiton’s bid for Potash Corporation and Canadian fertiliser company Agrium’s play for AWB fit in with the growing issue of food security and food shortages.

These are just new chapters in developments that resulted in China’s Bright Food Group trying to acquire Australia’s CSR sugar this year and Sinochem’s move to buy Australian agrichemicals operator Nufarm. Then there’s Qatar-based Hassad Food, backed by the Qatar Investment Authority, buying up rural land in Australia to feed Qatar and other Middle East countries worried about food security. Hassad has bought more than $40 million worth of sheep stations in northern New South Wales and South Australia in the past six months.

The corporate activity is a storm warning of how food shortages and famine will reshape the world and corporate strategies.

The Economist notes that by 2050 world grain output will have to rise by half and meat production will need to double to meet demand at a time when growth in grain yields is flattening out, there is little extra farmland and renewable water is running short.

Similarly, rising food prices are a poke in the eye that the world needs to remind us of how fragile the food production chain has become. The drought and bushfires in Russia, combined with limits on grain exports, have resulted in a 70 per cent price spike in wheat futures, which has caused prices for soy and barley to go up by 10 per cent.

Global warming is getting the press, but some are now warning that the threat to the human race is a looming food shortage. This seems unimaginable in a world where there has been almost half a century of abundance.

But in his chilling book The Coming Famine, journalist and science writer Julian Cribb warns we are headed towards global food shortages in the next 40 years because of scarcities of water, good land, energy, nutrients, technology, fish and, significantly, stable climates. You can add to that population growth, consumer demand and protectionist trade policies.

“The coming famine is also complex, because it is driven not by one or two, or even half a dozen factors but rather by the confluence of many large and profoundly intractable causes that tend to amplify one another,” Cribb writes. “This means that it cannot be easily remedied by ’silver bullets’ in the form of technology, subsidies, or single-country policy changes, because of the synergetic character of the things that power it.”

The world is running out of farmland. Advanced farming depends entirely on fossil fuels likely to become scarce, supplies of nutrients for farming have peaked and fresh water resources are finite. With global warming, up to half the planet faces regular drought by the end of the century. Storms and the kinds of floods that have devastated Pakistan are tipped to become more frequent and intense.

Cribb has several solutions; none will come easy. It could start with more free trade and diverting just a tenth of the $US1.5 trillion ($A1.7 trillion) global armaments spending to sustaining global food supplies.

It will be costly, but not as costly as failing to create food and water security. The choice is clear. In the 21st century, we either eat – or we fight.

But as Cribb points out, human beings are remarkable. In the 20th century, they developed weapons that could destroy the world but developed systems and agreements not to do it. They damaged the climate but there are strategies, which may or may not be successful, to tackle global warming. The looming food crisis calls for us to better manage water, land, nutrients and other inputs. Green cities that grow food will need to be established and the real costs of food to the environment and society might be passed on consumers.

If Cribb’s warnings are correct, the prospect of famine, the third horseman of the Apocalypse, will be the biggest trial of our common humanity. BHP and AWB are footnotes to a much bigger story of how it will reshape business and society.

source:  http://s-data.current.com/16g2n4c

Dear Minister Aglukkaq,  [Canada]

I am writing to ask you to ensure that the genetically modified (GM) pig
called “Enviropig™” which has been produced by splicing mouse and
bacteria genes into a pig, is never approved for human consumption in
Canada. I ask you to immediately reject the request for approval of
“Enviropig™” submitted by the University of Guelph.

Please put a stop to the development of GM animals into our food system is
unacceptable. I don’t want to eat “Enviropig™” and I want to keep
my family and friends safe from eating GM meat.

“Enviropig™” is unnecessary for farmers and unwanted by consumers.
If approved  “Enviropig™” will be rejected by Canadians who are
increasingly seeking healthy, wholesome food produced by independent family
farmers. Consumer rejection of “Enviropig™” will also harm the global
market for Canada’s hog producers at a time of economic crisis.

We have never been asked if we want to eat GM foods. Consequently, Health
Canada has no mandate to consider approving meat from GM animals for human
consumption. Furthermore, there is no mandatory labeling of GM foods to
even give us the choice to avoid GM meat or other GM food.

Proposed new government regulations to deal with GM animals and fish have
not even been completed, so Health Canada cannot claim to have the capacity
to make a proper decision on this complex technology.

Please uphold Health Canada’s responsibility to protect the health and
safety of Canadians by denying food safety approval of “Enviropig™”

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. I look forward to
your response.

Sincerely,
Priscilla Judd

contact AT priscillajudd.ca

source:  http://www.priscillajudd.ca/thexpress/?p=876

I just read an article that the FDA is looking into approving the use of GM Salmon Debate” genetically modified salmon for human consumption. (Supposedly, it takes too long to farm salmon. The GM’d salmon would reduce the time by 50%.) This is just gross to me. The idea that scientists are genetically engineering life forms for our food is just beyond me. It’s wrong. And we shouldn’t eat it.

I buy organic whole milk for Zack. I wasn’t going to, but after reading on a carton of Horizon milk that their milk comes from cows that AREN’T cloned got me thinking. Are we drinking milk from cows that have been cloned? That have been artificially genetically engineered? And if our milk is tainted, what else is? Organic milk is very expensive, but I just can’t bring myself to reach for the non-organic milk. (When we visit other people’s houses, I don’t insist on organic milk for him, by the way. Only in my home.)

Isn’t it bad enough that our produce is genetically engineered? I can’t even buy tomato plants that haven’t been subjected to some scientist’s needle. I buy organic soy milk since 90% of our soy is GM’d (genetically modified). And the same is true for corn. And as a side note, do you know how much corn and/or soy derivatives are in our everyday foods? Those two products are in almost everything we eat.

I never thought I would care about buying organic. But I do. For me, for my family, for my children. I’m not a doctor, nor am I a scientist. But I think SOMEONE should look into the astronomically high rates of cancer and what’s in our foods. All the crap preservatives, all the artificial junk you can’t pronounce…all the GM’d bleh.

I wrote a blog post (and it is my most popular by far) about genetically engineering our babies. I think it’s wrong to engineer our children in the way we want them to look, too.

Please, it’s up to us to put a stop to all this nonsense. Say no to genetically engineered specimens of all kinds. It can happen. I saw on a documentary that McDonalds wanted to use GM potatoes. Once the public found out about it and threatened a boycott, McDonalds went back to their old supplier. Make our foods safe again.

(This may sound a little dramatic, but I feel passionate about this. I think there may be a link to the stuff that is put into our foods and the rates of cancer among us. It’s just too much of a coincidence to ignore.) “What else will be GM’d?”

source: http://brandistrand.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/what-else-will-be-gmd/

LITTLE RIVER – Farmers in Bell County are struggling to deal with an unusually large amount of a toxin that is infecting their corn crops and cutting into their wallets.

It’s called aflatoxin, and the heat wave that hit Central Texas this month caused excessive amounts of it to pop up in corn. It comes from the mold found in corn and is a naturally occurring toxin. Some farmers have seen up to three times the amount of aflatoxin they normally see.

If consumed by animals, it can be deadly to some of them. Corn is the number one ingredient for feed given to most livestock, and aflatoxin has been shown to cause damage to the animal’s liver. How much of the toxin is considered dangerous is decided by the Texas State Chemist and varies depending on the animal.

Farmers are expressing growing concerns over the inspection process. A process that can determine whether crops can go on to be sold or destroyed.

“I consider it playing Russian Roulette,” said Richard Cortese, who owns a farm in Little River and also works for the Texas Farm Bureau. ”You don’t know what kernels of corn they’re going to pull out of that truck.”

Cortese cites how some loads can pass inspection while others from the same truck get rejected.  Estimates for how much money Texas corn growers have lost is at around $14 million.

Texas State Chemist Dr. Tim Herrman says there are programs in place to help farmers recoup some of the money lost by destroying crops.

“We work with the Risk Management Agency which administers federal crop insurance in a way that ideally should benefit producers if they’re carrying crop insurance,” said Dr. Herrman.

source:  http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13069739

Image of the new bee species, lasioglossum ephialtum, discovered in Toronto by York University researcher Jason Gibbs.

A new species of bee has been discovered and identified in downtown Toronto by a York University researcher, known to some as the “bee guru.”

Jason Gibbs, a 30-year-old biologist, has identified 19 new species of sweat bees across Canada, creating a buzz in the biology world.

In total his work identifies and describes 84 species of sweat bees — named for their attraction to perspiration — that have been previously neglected and poorly studied by biologists. The thesis has been published in a single issue of Zootaxa on Tuesday.

Gibbs found the Toronto sweat bee while he was heading to his laboratory at York University. He was walking from home to College St., heading to the subway and something caught his eye.

“I occasionally collected bees off flowers by the sidewalk,” he explained. “And one of the ones I collected was this one.”

After studying the bee under the microscope and doing DNA testing, Gibbs was able to determine the bee he had found in downtown Toronto was a new species that previously had not been identified.

“I got out of my chair and did a little dance,” Gibbs recalled. He named the new species Lasioglossum Ephialtum.

It looks subtly different from other sweat bees, but the big differences are in its DNA code, Gibbs said.

The son of a beekeeper, Gibbs has had a lifelong affection for bees. “Bees are beautiful,” he said in an interview with the Star.

“They’re fascinating. They’re not what you think they are. The bees I study, you can pick them up with your fingers and they wouldn’t sting you. It’s extremely difficult to get a bee to sting you.”

There are 19,500 species of bees in the world — 900 of those are species found in Canada. There are, however, only nine species of honey bees worldwide, Gibbs said.

Bees are responsible for not only pollinating wildflowers but also large amounts of agricultural crops. It is estimated that as many as one in every three bites of food that humans eat depends on pollination.

Gibbs said that one of the reasons sweat bees are so hard to identify is because they evolved so rapidly when they first appeared about 20 million years ago.

For the past five years Gibbs has been working on the identification of these sweat bees, examining tens of thousands of individual bees.

It was a task his supervisor, Professor Laurence Packer, described as “one of the most difficult problems in bee taxonomy in North America.”

“He took to it like a duck to water — within a year or two he was the world’s expert in this group of bees,” said Packer, who also has an international reputation for his work with bees and recently wrote a book about the important role of bees in human food production.

But Gibbs more than surpassed Packer’s expectations, finding a new species in downtown Toronto as well as on Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. Both discoveries Packer describes as “neat.”

In fact, Gibbs has made such an impact in the bee world that many who have been studying bees for as long as 30 years worship him, referring to him as the “bee guru,” Packer said.

Sweat bees are relatively small — only about 5 to 6 millimetres long, Gibbs said. They go relatively unnoticed by a lot of people. But Gibbs said they are very abundant and very common to Toronto. “You can almost go out and collect a sweat bee in downtown Toronto within minutes,” Gibbs said.

So he was truly astonished when he realized he’d found a new species of sweat bee in the downtown core. “You don’t expect to find a new species in such a densely populated area with such a high proportion of scientists and academics working in the area. If you went to the Congo and you found a new species of bee no one would be surprised.”

This new species of sweat bee is also fairly common in Eastern Canada and the United States. It’s a very social bee and is very common in your garden, pollinating fruits and vegetables in your backyard, Gibbs said. “Be happy it’s there,” he said. “It’s harmless.”

Gibbs also identified another sweat bee known as the cuckoo sweat bee, which like the cuckoo bird doesn’t build a nest or collect food. It has big mandibles for fighting. This sweat bee is believed to invade the nest of other sweat bees and lay its eggs on the pollen and nectar collected by its host.

Now Gibbs, the winner of a doctoral dissertation prize at York University, is off to Cornell University to continue his study of bees. And when he goes he’ll be packing not only his doctoral thesis and bee samples, but honey from his dad’s bee hives.

“I eat honey every day of my life. I have an unlimited supply because of my dad.”

source:  http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/855029–new-bee-discovered-by-york-researcher-triggers-buzz

Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) said Horizon’s release of the One Plan is big news for Horizons’ growers.

Chief executive Peter Silcock said the hearing commissioners have taken the red pen to the Proposed One Plan and it is a very different document from when it started life.

HortNZ’s newsletter said the decision has been important in that other regional councils around the country have been watching and are waiting to see how the process unfolds.

“No doubt with a view to operating similar plans in their own regions,” Mr Silcock said.

HortNZ is pleased all the hard work from growers, products groups and its own staff had paid off, because the One Plan reflected many of the comments and input growers and staff made.

The key point for growers was that they would not require land use consent to continue to grow in the Horizons region, he said.

Consents were proposed to be required to manage nitrogen leaching and were based around the use of Land Use Capability and leaching rate standards.

But HortNZ said the Commissioners accepted the evidence presented by it, that the consent requirements for growers with multiple properties and changing lease and land uses made the regime complex and costly for growers, some of whom would have required separate consents for individual paddocks.

It was also acknowledged that the industry had a third-party-assured certification programme, New Zealand GAP (Good Agricultural Practice), and so was taking active steps to address issues of concern.

Growers will still be required to meet the conditions of other rules, including for:

• Cultivation adjacent to waterbodies.
• Fertiliser applications.
• Agrichemical use.
• Water takes.

Horizons chairman Garrick Murfitt said it was confident the growers were working under best practice models, so that they could be excluded from many regulations associated with intensive land use.

source:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/rural/4079358/Good-work-pays-off

Maddening, creepy, ugly.

Those are the nicer words people use to describe the growing numbers of stinkbugs that have munched their way across many fields and orchards of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Now the shield-shaped pest, known for emitting a pungent odor when disturbed, is ready to bed down for the winter – in the walls and insulation of homes.

“We’re expecting an epic year for stinkbugs,” said research entomologist Richard Cooper. “I’m just concerned that this won’t be big news until it’s too late for people.

“When they’re knee deep in stinkbugs,” he said, “they’re going to want to know what to do about it.”

Now is the time to strike, said fellow entomologist George Hamilton, of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University, who studied the insect’s habits with Cooper.

Their work last year revealed the best time to attack the brown marmorated stinkbug: the end of August and first half of September, just before it heads indoors.

The Halyomorpha halys – which is native to China, Korea, and Japan – has flourished across the region since it showed up in Allentown about 15 years ago and has spread across several states.

Earlier efforts to eradicate this skunk of the insect world fell short. Exterminators didn’t know when to apply insecticide.

“A lot of insects, like ladybird beetles – ladybugs – come into buildings in the fall, after the weather turns cold,” said Cooper, author of The Bedbug Handbook and an owner of Cooper Pest Solutions in Lawrenceville.

Not these little stinkers. They’re coming in now, necessitating treatment at entry points – attic vents, and door and window frames. Exterminators use pyrethroids, a synthetic insecticide of low toxicity. No organic alternatives are available, the entomologists said.

“We’re talking about preventing them from coming into people’s homes,” Hamilton said.

Once indoors, “warm spells trick them into thinking it’s time to go outside, and that’s when people see them inside their houses,” he said.

The insects are more a nuisance than anything else. They don’t bite, but they do “like to get into the folds of things. They get into your clothes, into your shoes and papers,” added Cooper. “Every time you turn around, there’s another one.”

From the study, “we learned when to kill them with insecticide and how to keep them out of structures,” Hamilton said.

In warmer months, stinkbugs are drawn to plants, bushes and trees that bear berries or fruits. “They gravitate toward ripening fruit, seedpods, peach and apple trees,” Hamilton said.

Homeowners will never secure their properties well enough to prevent all of the unwanted guests. “But you don’t have to leave it open to them. Seal up the major entry points, then leave the [insecticide] applications to the professionals,” Cooper said.

Barbara McCormack battled the bugs for a few years at her home in Hopewell Township, Mercer County.

“I hate these guys. They’re so creepy,” said the retired gynecologist, who now lives in Plainsboro, Mercer County.

“They don’t bite you, but they’re so ugly,” she said. “They’re like little dragons.”

In Yardley, the pests took up residence in the drop ceiling of Jean Torongo’s kitchen in 2008.

“There were dozens of them,” said Torongo, 80. “They would drop down into the light when they died and you’d see their silhouettes.”

She saw their numbers sharply reduced after her home was treated last year, and she expects to see even fewer this year.

“You have a visceral reaction to them, said David McDonough, 58, of Hopewell, who began seeing stinkbugs at his home two years ago.

“They are ugly and bumbling and fly in a slow pattern, so they’re easy to catch,” McDonough said. “But if you squash them, they stink – like stale perfume.”

An exterminator treated McDonough’s home last year and reduced the insects by an estimated 75 percent. This year’s early treatment is expected to eliminate 90 percent.

“If you wash them down the sink, they crawl back up,” McDonough said. “The only way to get rid of them is flush them.”

The pests exit on their own in the spring, usually after other overwintering insects.

Large-scale eradication in the future may require introduction of natural enemies from the stinkbugs’ native countries, possibly other insects that attack their eggs, Hamilton said.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking at other options and may import something from Asia,” he said.

In the meantime, stinkbugs are “spreading in an unrestricted fashion, expanding quite a bit geographically,” Cooper said. “Our calls [about them] have gone up 50 percent over the past few years.

Stinkbugs have been found in Maryland; Virginia; Delaware; West Virginia; Tennessee; Ohio; New Hampshire; Long Island, N.Y.; Los Angeles; and Portland, Ore.

In these parts, “the heat may have had something to do with it,” Hamilton said. “The hotter it is, the faster they develop.”

In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, “it’s going to be heavy this year,” Cooper said. “This is going to be big news in three weeks.”

source: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20100831_Stinkbugs_are_coming_to_a_home_near_you.html

Riverland wine grape growers in South Australia are being urged to reconsider signing contracts for their grapes this year.

Many growers are without contracts following a number of wine companies folding, and not renewing contracts last vintage.

But Riverland Wine Grape Growers Association chief executive Chris Byrne says growers will have more bargaining power without a contract.

“It’s very tempting if a winery comes along and says look, we’ll offer you a five-year contract if you’ll plant up another several hectares of a particular variety,” he says.

“If the winery can’t add to that, a meaning financial return, or what’s called consideration, we’d be urging growers not to take the bait and not to get back into that supply trap.”

source:  http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201008/s2998301.htm

POMONA, Calif. — Members of the California Rare Fruit Growers meet each summer to share seeds, cuttings and knowledge about exotic fruit and rare varieties of more common fare, such as apples and oranges.

The organization founded in 1968 encourages gardeners and hobby farmers to plant unusual fruit, and members search the globe for new varieties.

Some also work to develop tastier, heartier strains suitable for backyard growing.

Seventy-year-old Edgar Valdivia says the big dream among members is to develop a variety that will be named after them. He says most aren’t doing the work for money, but for the pleasure of growing something new and sharing their discoveries.

source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hspwbY8yjGGT_Gzo15k2FFWv-LJAD9HTLEP00

The month of September is California Wine Month, and Temecula is ready to celebrate.

Proclaimed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for the sixth consecutive year, California Wine Month celebrates the Golden State’s wineries, grape growers and regional associations.

“California has long been known for our production of superior, award-winning wines,” Schwarzenegger said in his proclamation. “The Judgment of Paris in 1976 brought California wine to the world stage and established our wine producers as respected masters of their craft. This month is dedicated to celebrating our rich history of winemaking and the bright future of this important industry.”

To commemorate California Wine Month 2010, the Temecula Valley Wine Growers Association has created a special passport that allows guests to sip their way through local wineries.

The “SIP Temecula” passport will be offered throughout the month of September – it entitles guests to wine tastings at any five Temecula Valley Wine Growers Association member wineries (more than 30 to choose from). The passport cost is $40 per person and is valid any day of the week, from September 1 – 30 (2010 only).

During Wine Month, also check out the first-ever Temecula Valley Wine and Culinary Showcase at Monte de Oro Winery, Sept. 17, from 6:30-9:30 p.m.

The vineyard-surrounded patio of Monte de Oro Winery will play host to this premiere event that will have guests tasting their way through the wines of the Temecula Valley, all at one location.

Winery owners, winemakers and chefs will mingle among guests, and the spread will include a vast sampling of local wines and culinary creations from local wineries and restaurants.

One hour before the Showcase begins, guests are invited to watch and listen in as Monte de Oro hosts a Winemaker’s Roundtable that will be filmed and broadcast live.

The Roundtable will feature moderator Meredith May from The Tasting Panel magazine interviewing Temecula Valley winemakers in a panel discussion about the area’s past, present and future as Southern California’s premier wine region.

Cost for the Temecula Valley Wine and Culinary Showcase is $65 per person.

For more information about the events, visit www.temeculawines.org

source:  http://www.swrnn.com/southwest-riverside/2010-08-30/things-to-do/temecula-wine-growers-ready-to-celebrate-california-wine-month

By Jere White, Executive Director
Kansas Corn Growers Association and Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association

Monday, August 30, 2010—Some folks will burn the midnight oil trying to write written responses to EPA’s charge questions for the agency’s September atrazine science advisory panel. The questions were released Friday and comments are due Tuesday.

We have to wonder if the Environmental Protection Agency is being open and transparent in its handling of the Science Advisory Panel (SAP) on Atrazine when it gives stakeholders two working days to respond to complex charge questions for its September 15-17 meetings.

As an interested party in the EPA’s series of atrazine SAPs, we have been waiting for the release of the charge questions which will fuel the discussion at the September panel. We received them on Friday. EPA would like written responses to the question by tomorrow—Tuesday. Looking at the technical questions, it would take a month of Tuesdays to formulate answers to the questions.

Before each SAP, EPA releases a set of charge questions that the public can respond to and submit comments. The September SAP’s topic is: “Reevaluation of the Human Health Effects of Atrazine: Review of Non-cancer Effects and Drinking Water Monitoring Frequency”. That is certainly a mouthful and as one can imagine, the questions are much more detailed.

EPA has presented six multiple part questions that fill nine pages. The technical nature of the questions is great. It is difficult to see how EPA expects to get quality comments on these questions even by September 15, let alone by tomorrow.

The Obama administration continues to talk about how it operates in an open and transparent manner. However, this shows just the opposite.

To regular citizens like us, EPA’s actions raise questions and suspicions. It seems like surely some researchers received these questions in advance. These are complex scientific questions. It is difficult to imagine how one would be able to write acceptable answers in two weeks, let alone two days.

It is true that the documentation states that one could submit written responses after the August 31 deadline, but from what we understand, the late responses would not be considered in discussions at the September Science Advisory Panel.

As we continue to participate in this process, we have to wonder if we are playing by the same rules as others who are involved. We wonder if EPA is playing by its own rules and guidelines. In an open and transparent administration, citizens should not have these concerns.

Jere White is Executive Director of the Kansas Corn Growers Association and Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association based in Garnett, Kansas. He is also chairman of the Triazine Network, a national coalition of growers and agricultural organizations interested in regulatory actions involving the triazine herbicaides including atrazine. For more information, visit http://agsense.org.

source: http://agsense.org/epa-gives-stakeholders-little-time-for-thoughtful-responses-to-atrazine-panel-questions/

Dahlia growers throughout Northern California will take the cream of their crops to Soquel in a week for the annual Monterey Bay Dahlia Society show.

The admission-free event, planned for Sept. 3-4 inside the Soquel High auditorium, will showcase blooms and bouquets that won titles for 2010. The growers will be on hand to answer questions and help guide gardeners through the selection of dahlias for sale.

The largest, smallest and most unusual dahlias in show will be the judges’ call, but attendees will have a chance to vote for their favorite flower. The People’s Choice Award is reserved for the dahlia with the highest number of ballots.

The Monterey Bay Dahlia Society meets in Live Oak on the second Friday of every month at the Simpkins Swim Center Community Room, 979 17th Ave.

OVER THE HILL

For dahlia-lovers who already have Labor Day weekend plans, the John E. Stowell Dahlia Society will host its annual show Sept. 11-12 at the Westgate Mall in San Jose.

For details on the show, contact Jeff Miner at 408-736-1975 or e-mail him at jndbminer@comcast.net.

source:  http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_15947374

HARVEST time is here and gardeners across the city are proudly picking their produce. But some growers have a gargantuan goal. On the eve of the UK’s giant vegetable competition,

Environment Reporter Mary Griffin finds out how to crop a whopper.

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THIS weekend Britain’s biggest gardeners will gather for a fruit and veg extravaganza where size really does matter. Gigantic pumpkins cradled in huge nets will be carried into place by forklift trucks at the UK National Giant Vegetable Championships. And, thanks to the rainy summer, there could be some mammoth specimens and new records. Never satisfied with last year’s performance, the competing growers who have made an extreme sport out of gardening will each be hoping that this year’s crop is bigger – and better. Midlands man Peter Glazebrook is a double Guinness World Record holder. Peter, 66, who has been growing giant veg for decades, holds the record for the world’s heaviest parsnip (at 13lb or nearly 6kg) and the world’s longest beetroot (at 21-feet or 6.4 metres). He is the undisputed king of giant veg, and having won ten years in a row, this weekend he will once again be entering the UK National Giant Vegetable Championships. “The secret to success is starting with the right seed,” says Peter. “It’s learning how to grow, putting a lot of effort in and picking up tips from other growers and reading what you can about it. “People generally get into it after entering local shows with ordinary veg. “You often find classes for the heaviest marrow or the biggest runner bean in the little shows.” Because of their eventual size, Peter grows only two long-rooted beetroots each year. His parsnips are so long they have to be grown in tubes running up the side of his house. Peter has to climb a 20-foot ladder each time he wants to water them.

The retired buildings surveyor says the good soil and moderate climate provide good conditions for his garden near the Trent Valley in Nottinghamshire, where his crops don’t have to contend with temperature extremes. This, he says, is vital because if the weather is too hot, onions and leeks will stop growing and start to ripen early, and if it’s too cold, growth will slow down. “That’s what sorts out the keen growers from the normal gardeners,” he says. “It’s a case of trying to grow veg steadily right through until harvesting. You’re constantly monitoring temperature, ventilation and watering. “When they get too big in pots in the greenhouse you then have to transfer them to their growing areas. “You have to plant them under a tunnel to grow them on or home-made enclosed structures made of timber and polythene where you can take the sides off when summer arrives.” As well as needing a greenhouse, there’s a wealth of other potential expenses such as under-soil heating, costly polytunnels, heavy frames and sturdy supports. But many of the champion growers have come up with innovative home-made contraptions to allow their vegetables to grow to their optimum size.

And before you stock up on synthetic plant foods and pesticides to get your gigantic growing going, our local expert says there’s no reason giant veg can’t be grown organically. Andy Strachan, head gardener at Garden Organic in Ryton, said: “It’s absolutely possible with organic growing, it all comes down to technique. “For example, really long carrots and parsnips can be grown in tubes. It’s mainly about getting the right seed.” Some companies, such as Exhibition Seeds, sell seeds specifically designed to produce behemoth veg.

And the craze can also go in the opposite direction.

Before taking up his current post in Ryton, Andy was running the biggest micro salad nursery in the country. He still produces his own micro salads for dinner parties, germinating seedlings two weeks before the party and growing leaves to just two-inches before cutting them fresh for dinner.

He said: “I like my carrots small so I harvest them quite young. I find it negates pest and disease issues because the plants aren’t in the ground long enough to be affected.

“And by harvesting that way you can get four or five crops of carrots out of a single pot.”

Restaurants have also turned to serving mini vegetables, offering “baby” leeks, courgettes, carrots and onions. “I think that trend comes down to a combination of looks and flavour,” says Andy.

“The flavours are often more intense in younger veg.”

So, does that mean giant veg are superficially satisfying but lacking in taste?

“I really don’t think they’re the best tasting veg. The onions and the leeks are good, and giant pumpkins tend to work, but the carrots and the parsnips tend to go too woody.”

Len Parnell, secretary of Coventry Allotments and Gardens Council, agrees.

He said: “For these competitions carrots, for example, are measured by either length or weight, which I don’t really subscribe to.

“I grow them to eat and obviously the giant veg are not going to taste as good as the smaller, fresher vegetables.”

So if flavour isn’t the attraction of these monster crops, what is? Len said: “I’m sure some people are pot collectors and just want to win a cup, but most people do it for fun rather than prestige.

“It’s a good way to get kids interested and involved.”

Andy added: “I’m sure when you come away with a ‘Best In Show’ for your giant parsnip there’s a huge sense of achievement.

“It’s a very, very competitive world. This is not stuff people take lightly.

“Growing beautiful and perfect veg is something we all aspire to do and that’s a challenging thing in itself.

“But growing beautiful and perfect and giant veg – well, you can see why it draws such a lot of attention.”

* The UK National Giant
Championships takes place at the National Gardening Show, which runs from September 3-5 at The Royal Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

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