Air Force One | Reuters — Syngenta, the world’s largest crop chemicals company, has commitments to sell its entire supply of a genetically modified (GM) corn variety that is not approved by China, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Friday. Vilsack said whether or not China eventually approves the corn, known as Agrisure Viptera or MIR […] Read more
Syngenta will sell GM corn not approved by China, Vilsack says
EU, U.S. leaders launch free-trade talks
The United States and the European Union launched negotiations for the world’s most ambitious free-trade deal on Monday, promising thousands of new jobs and accelerated growth on both sides of the Atlantic. Trade between Europe and the U.S. is worth almost $3 billion a day and a pact could boost both the EU and U.S. […] Read more
U.S. fiscal plan averts ‘dairy cliff’
A deal approved by the U.S. Congress late on Tuesday to avoid the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts known as the "fiscal cliff" also includes measures to avert the "dairy cliff" — a steep increase in milk prices. The tax agreement contains a nine-month fix for expiring farm subsidy programs by extending a 2008 […] Read more
BP second company this year to drop cellulosic ethanol plant
Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters / BP Plc on Oct. 25 said it cancelled plans to build a plant in Florida to turn tough grasses such as sorghum and cane into cellulosic biofuel, the second oil major this year to back out of plans to produce “next generation” ethanol from non-food crops. Once seen as a promising alternative to […] Read more
Biodiesel fraud roils U.S. industry
Jennifer Case had big plans for expansion of her small San Diego plant that turns used restaurant cooking oil into biodiesel fuel after it sold out its entire production of about 1.5 million gallons in 2011. By the end of the year, business had taken a "devastating turn," Case told lawmakers at a Capitol Hill […] Read more
Corn Stocks To Rise If Ethanol Tax Credit Cut
Reading Time: 2 minutes Stockpiles of U.S. corn would begin to rebuild if Congress allows tax credits for ethanol expire at the end of the year, a key group of economists at the University of Missouri said March 7. The university’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, or FAPRI, forecast corn stocks at the end of the 2011-12 marketing […] Read more
U. S. Seeks Consistency In Beef Trade: Chief Negotiator – for Aug. 2, 2010
Reading Time: 2 minutes The United States will seek a beef trade agreement with China that goes beyond the deal that Canada last month agreed to accept from Beijing, the chief U. S. agricultural negotiator said July 19. China has banned Canadian and U. S. beef since 2003, when the two nations reported their first cases of mad cow […] Read more
Expect More U. S.-China Farm Trade Tension
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chinese farm exports are set to become a greater source of trade tension as China boosts its production and becomes a bigger player in world markets for labour-intensive crops, a U. S. agricultural economist said Feb. 19. Importers around the globe have already launched more than 30 farm trade cases against China in recent years, […] Read more
Hunger Levels “Alarming” In S. Asia, Africa-Report
Reading Time: < 1 minute The world has made little progress in reducing hunger since 1990, a new report said on Oct. 14, pointing to 29 countries with alarming levels of malnutrition, mainly in Africa and South Asia. Those countries also are most vulnerable to the impact of historically high food and energy prices, as well as economic recession – […] Read more
World Falling Short On Emergency Food Aid
Reading Time: < 1 minute The world is falling far short in feeding its most critically hungry, pledging only $3.7 billion of the $6.7 billion needed to fund the World Food Programme for 2009, the head of the United Nations relief agency said on July 29. The agency has so far received only $1.8 billion and has had to cut […] Read more
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