Agriculture

As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time — the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.

With permission from the patients, investigators followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat.

Never before had the CDC successfully mined the mountain of data that supermarket chains compile.

“It was really exciting. It was a break in the investigation for sure,” CDC epidemiologist Casey Barton Behravesh said.

At least 245 people in 44 states have been sickened in the outbreak. That includes 30 in California, 19 in Illinois, 18 in New York and 17 in Washington state.

The victims included Raymond Cirimele, a 55-year-old Chicago man. He said no one asked for his shopper-card data, but he would have provided it if someone had.

“I don’t have any secrets, so I’m not worried about it,” he said. “It’s kind of like the whole airport security and all that. I’d rather fly on a safe plane.”

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Some privacy advocates, though, are troubled.

Longtime shopper-card critic Katherine Albrecht, director of a group called Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, said she worries that the practice could lead to a switch from a voluntary system to mandatory use of such cards.

“That sends chills down my spine,” she said.

Source/Full Story: Yahoo! News

The recall of products containing a potentially salmonella-tainted flavoring ingredient ballooned this week with the addition of 1.7 million pounds of ready-to-eat beef taquito and chicken quesadilla products from a Houston firm.

Ruiz Foods of Denison, Texas, also recalled 115,700 pounds of Tornados Ranchero Beef & Cheese roll-ups.

All the recalled products contained hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP). That is an MSG-like flavor enhancer made by Basic Food Flavors of North Las Vegas, Nev., which on March 4 announced a recall of its entire production dating to Feb. 17, 2009. The company has declined to comment.

To date, 105 products containing the ingredient have been recalled, including bouillons, dip mixes, salad dressings, gravy mixes, snacks, soups and ready-to-eat foods. The Food and Drug Administration is continuously updating the recall list at www.foodsafety.gov.

Source/Full Story: USATODAY.com

It’s not the signal it used to be.

When employers hire temporary staff after a recession, it’s long been seen as a sign they’ll soon hire permanent workers.

Not these days.

Companies have hired more temps for four straight months. Yet they remain reluctant to make permanent hires because of doubts about the recovery’s durability.

Even companies that are boosting production seem inclined to get by with their existing workers, plus temporary staff if necessary.

“I think temporary hiring is less useful a signal than it used to be,” says John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo. “Companies aren’t testing the waters by turning to temporary firms. They just want part-time workers.”

Source/Full Story: msnbc.com

One in eight Americans needed emergency food help in 2009—–one of five children in New York City are relying on emergency food.

These sad statistics come from Feeding America and the Food Bank for New York City.

“Food insecure” is the bureaucratic term for hungry people — and New York is, unfortunately, a textbook case in food insecurity. Our food pantries and soup kitchens are overloaded. Yet, without a healthy infusion of federal stimulus money, it could be a lot worse. So says Joel Berg, executive director of the NYC Coalition Against Hunger.

Berg says 37% of South Bronx residents had trouble affording food in the last year. “The federal stimulus money is helping us avert disaster,” Berg continued. “We are fortunate to have that money at this time.”

Source/Full Story: NBC New York

Dreaming of biting into a garden-fresh cucumber sandwich this summer? Better order your seeds now.

A poor growing season last year and increased orders from Europe could make it difficult for home gardeners to get seeds for the most popular cucumber variety and some vegetables this spring. Farmers, who usually grow different varieties than home gardeners, aren’t likely to be affected.

Seeds for what’s known as open-pollinated cucumbers seem to be most scarce, but carrots, snap peas and onions also could be in short supply.

“I suspect there will be some seeds you just won’t be able to buy if you wait too long on it,” said Bill Hart, the wholesale manager in charge of seed purchasing at Chas. C. Hart Seed Company in Wethersfield, Conn. “The sugar snap peas we’re not able to get at all, and other companies that have it will sell out pretty quickly.”

The problem is primarily due to soggy weather last year that resulted in a disappointing seed crop. European seed growers also had a bad year, leading to a big increase in orders for American seeds.

Demand for seeds in the U.S. soared last year, as the poor economy and worries about chemical use and bacteria contamination prompted many people to establish gardens. Homegrown food seemed safer and more affordable. But some wonder if the wet weather that ruined gardens in many areas last summer will discourage first-time gardeners from planting again.

Source/Full Story: Yahoo! News

Britain must grow more food in a different way to respond to mounting ecological challenges such as climate change, and help provide food for burgeoning world populations, the environment secretary Hilary Benn has told farmers.

“Food security is as important to this country’s future wellbeing – and the world’s – as energy security. We need to produce more food. We need to do it sustainably. And we need to make sure that what we eat safeguards our health,” he said.

Launching the government’s food strategy goals for the next 20 years at a farming conference in Oxford, he proposed a consumer-led, technological revolution which would transform UK farming over the next generation. “We know that the consequences of the way we produce and consume our food are unsustainable to our planet and to ourselves. There are challenges for everyone involved in the food system, from production right through to managing food waste.”

The government aims to develop a “meanwhile” lease to formalise arrangements between landowners and voluntary groups by encouraging people to set up temporary allotments or community gardens on land awaiting development or other permanent use. It is also considering establishing a “land bank” to broker better links and ensure plots are not left idle.

Ministers believe the move could foster community spirit and skills as well as improve physical and mental health.

Source/Full Story: guardian.co.uk

Confidential contracts detailing Monsanto Co.’s business practices reveal how the world’s biggest seed developer is squeezing competitors, controlling smaller seed companies and protecting its dominance over the multibillion-dollar market for genetically altered crops, an Associated Press investigation has found.

Source/Full Story: ajc.com

Bayer has admitted it has been unable to control the spread of its genetically-engineered organisms despite ‘the best practices [to stop contamination]‘(1). It shows that all outdoors field trials or commercial growing of GE crops must be stopped before our crops are irreversibly contaminated.

Source/Full Story: organicconsumers.org

Food banks across the country are undergoing a high-tech revolution, adopting sophisticated databases, bar coding, GPS tracking, automated warehouses and other technologies used in the food industry that increasingly supplies their goods.

It’s a long way from handing out macaroni and canned soup from a church basement.

Source/Full Story:  Yahoo! News

A former lobbyist and Monsanto employee who is credited with playing an instrumental role in introducing genetically modified milk and known carcinogens into the U.S. Food supply has been hired as a key advisor for the FDA.

Michael Taylor has been hired to advise Margaret Hamburg, the FDA’s commissioner of food and drugs. In his new position, Taylor will also work with the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the Center for Veterinary Medicine, the Office of Regulatory Affairs, Congress and the White House.

Source/Full Story: naturalnews.com
Technorati Tags: Monsanto

The number of Americans that have trouble putting food on the table shot up last year in an unprecedented spike to a record 17 million households, the government reported on Monday.

The Department of Agriculture report, which has been released annually since 1995, said the number of Americans that were hungry rose to 14.6%. In 2007, 13 million households or 11.1% of Americans had trouble getting enough food.

The one-year jump is all the more significant, given the number of hungry Americans had never been higher than 11.9% since these surveys began.

Of the near-15% of the nation that couldn’t secure enough food last year, the USDA said one-third of them had “very low food security,” meaning they reduced the amount that they ate or disrupted their eating patterns during the year. That group made up 5.7% of all U.S. households, which was also a record high.

More than 500,000 households that scaled back the amount that they ate were households with children, making up 1.3% of all U.S. homes with children.

The USDA said the main cause of hunger and food insecurity in the country is poverty.

Source/Full Story: CNN

Contaminated fresh ground beef caused a possible E. coli outbreak that killed two people and sent 16 others to hospitals, federal health officials said Monday.

Twenty-eight people may have become ill after eating beef produced by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. All but three of the suspected infections are in the northeastern U.S. and 18 are in New England, said CDC spokeswoman Lola Scott Russell.

Fairbank Farms recalled almost 546,000 pounds of fresh ground beef that had been distributed in September to stores from North Carolina to Maine. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recall notice, dated Saturday, said the possibly tainted meat had been sold in numerous ways, from meatloaf and meatball mix to hamburger patties.
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Some of the ground beef was sold at Trader Joe’s, Price Chopper, Lancaster, Wild Harvest, Shaw’s, BJ’s, Ford Brothers and Giant stores in packages that carried the number “EST. 492″ on the label. Those products were packaged Sept. 15-16 and may have been labeled with a sell-by date from Sept. 19 through Sept. 28, meaning they’re no longer being sold as fresh product in supermarkets, Fairbank Farms said.

The rest of the ground beef, packaged in wholesale-sized containers under the Fairbank Farms name, was distributed to stores in Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. That meat was likely repackaged for sale and would likely have differing package and sell-by dates.

The USDA was urging customers with concerns to contact the stores where they bought the meat.

Ron Allen, Fairbank’s CEO, urged consumers to check their freezers for the recalled ground beef.

Companies subject to such recalls are allowed to cook tainted meat to kill the bacteria and then use it in other products, a common practice in the food industry.

That won’t happen in this case, the company said.

Source/Full Story: FOXNews.com
Technorati Tags: E. coli

Soaring food prices could leave UK consumers forking out almost £6.50 for a loaf of bread and more than £18 for a pint of beer by 2030 unless urgent action is taken to avert dangerous climate change, environmentalists have claimed.
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The report by Ray Hammond, who studies how future trends will affect society and business and is a visiting lecturer at Oxford University’s Institute for the Future of Humanity, warned food prices could rise well above inflation by 2030.

His research, based on previous price hikes recorded by the World Bank and projections by the International Food Policy Research Institute, suggested an 800g loaf of white bread which currently costs 72p would rise to £6.48 – as opposed to the £1.44 it would cost under normal inflation.

A litre of corn oil would rise from £1.99 to £17.91, a kilogram of basmati rice would increase from £1.69 in today’s prices to £15.21 by 2030, and 500g of cornflakes would shoot up from 78p to £7.20. Even beer would increase, with a pint of Pilsner lager rising from £2.05 to £18.45.

Source/Full Story: guardian.co.uk

Corn and soybeans rose on speculation that cold, wet Midwest weather will slow the harvest and reduce production in the U.S., the world’s largest grower and exporter of both crops.

Temperatures below freezing this weekend occurred north of a line from Amarillo, Texas, to Kansas City, Kansas, and east to Toledo, Ohio, ending the growing season for immature plants, said Dave Tolleris, president of WxRisk.com in Richmond, Virginia. Harvesting across the U.S. will be delayed by wet weather in next two weeks, Tolleris said.

“The harvest rates are very slow,” Jonathan Barratt, managing director at Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney, said by phone today. If the harvest turns out smaller than expected, then the market “will refocus and reprice,” he said.

Corn for December delivery rose 9.5 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $3.7175 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade at 1:35 p.m. London time, after gaining Oct. 9 to $3.73, the highest since Aug. 3. The most-active contract advanced 8.6 percent last week, the most this year.

Soybeans for November delivery rallied 17 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $9.81 a bushel in Chicago. It earlier reached $9.8325, the highest since Sept. 1. The most-active futures gained 8.9 percent last week, the most this year.

The U.S. corn and soybean harvests are lagging behind the pace of recent years after rain delayed planting in May and below-normal temperatures in July and August slowed crop development, government data show.

Source/Full Story: Bloomberg.com
Technorati Tags: corn, soybeans

Food production will have to increase by 70% over the next 40 years to feed the world’s growing population, the United Nations food agency predicts.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation says if more land is not used for food production now, 370 million people could be facing famine by 2050.

The world population is expected to increase from the current 6.7 billion to 9.1 billion by mid-century.

Climate change, involving floods and droughts, will affect food production.

The FAO said net investments of $83bn (£52.5bn) a year – an increase of 50% – had to be made in agriculture in developing countries if there was to be enough food by 2050.

Climate challenges

“The combined effect of population growth, strong income growth and urbanisation… is expected to result in almost the doubling of demand for food, feed and fibre,” FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told delegates at a forum entitled How to Feed the World 2050.

Source/Full Story: BBC
Technorati Tags: famine