Month: December 2009

December 26, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Fields of gold – Hawaii Business – Starbulletin

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Fields of gold

Pioneer Hi-Bred grows sunflowers on Oahu, one part of the isles’ rapidly growing seed industry

By Nina Wu

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 26, 2009

Drivers passing by a stretch of Farrington Highway in Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore likely have seen a field of sunflowers reminiscent of a Van Gogh painting.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International of Iowa, a biotech seed company, planted the bright yellow sunflowers on 85 acres for a three-month period this year as part of its operations.

The sunflowers were planted in mid-October and likely will finish blooming this week, according to Pioneer Hi-Bred spokeswoman Cindy Goldstein. It is the fifth year in a row Pioneer has planted the sunflowers, which include up to 28 different hybrid varieties.

The sunflower seeds are evaluated for quality standards in Hawaii, and if approved, the same varieties are grown and harvested in California.

"Hawaii serves a vital role because we can do a very quick grow-out here as part of quality production and get quick results to report back," said Goldstein.

Hawaii has the ideal climate and growing conditions for sunflowers year-round.

The seeds, according to Goldstein, are then sold to Midwestern farmers, who crush them to make sunflower oil, which is in high demand in European markets.

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December 26, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

The Amazing Maze of US Health Care » Pay according to ability

Amazing seems a most appropriate word to describe the financing and delivery of health care services in the United States of America.
James L. McGee, CEBS--On Health Care Reform

Pay according to ability

I think 6% of income is too high. I don’t think it should be based on income. It makes more sense to base it on age, just like younger drivers pay more for car insurance, it makes sense that older people pay a little more.

This comment was offered in a conversation at the web site, Change.org in response to a post by Gillian Hubble.

I can’t disagree more.

Premiums absolutely should be based on income and absolutely should not be based on age.  I say that not just because I am in the 60+ age bracket and you likely are not.  I say that because of my 25+ years in employee benefits.  However, I do agree that there should be a penalty for delayed enrollment similar to what Medicare Part B imposes.

When you come right down to it, the whole health care debate boils down to two issues.  How do you expand health care coverage and how do you pay for health care.

Expanding coverage is important because it spreads the risk among the sick and the healthy equally.

Make it straightforward and uncomplicated

Please Click Here to Read the Complete Article by Jim McGee » The Amazing Maze of US Health Care » Pay according to ability

December 26, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Farm subsidies: the dirty little secret of the right

The next time you hear a Republican or a teabagger complain that President Obama is moving the United States closer to "fascism and socialism" (despite the two philosophies being ideologically opposite of one another), remember this: some of these same people are taking thousands of dollars in a form of "socialism" that we usually don’t think about: farm subsidies.

For those not in the know, farm subsidies are when the government pays farmers and businesses in the agricultural field to (a) supplement income, (b) manage commodity supply, and (c) influence commodity cost.

Here’s the dirty little secret: some politicians, mostly Republicans but also a few Democrats, figured out how to make tons of money off of this "socialism for the wealthy."  It also comes as no coincidence that most of these particular politicians come from largely rural states.

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December 24, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

FINAL HARVEST: Sun sets on ML&P cultivation of pineapple – The Maui News

Deal in works for new, smaller company to farm golden fruit

By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer

POSTED: December 24, 2009

WAILUKU

Fieldworkers picked their last pineapples Wednesday as Maui Pineapple Co. ceased operations after 100 years of farming.

About 285 Maui Pine workers are being laid off in the shutdown, with their last official day of employment Dec. 31. Another 133 employees were expected to be offered positions at Maui Land & Pineapple partner companies.

Some remained hopeful a startup company would take over Maui Pine land, equipment and operations to continue pineapple farming on Maui and hire back some of the laid-off workers.

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December 24, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Bo a no-go for Hawaii trip – PATRICK GAVIN | POLITICO

Sorry Bo. The first family may be vacationing in Hawaii this holiday season, but the first dog will be stuck in cold, snowy D.C.

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture said that the Portuguese water dog will not be allowed into the state thanks to strict anti-rabies quarantine rules.

Had the family elected to bring Bo, he would have had to either spend 120 days in quarantine or endure two rounds of rabies vaccinations and a 120-day waiting period.

The Honolulu Advertiser also notes that Bo "would have been subject to Hawai’i’s sometimes contradictory leash laws. City ordinances require dogs to be leashed on Kailua Beach — and their owners to clean up their feces. But the State Department of Land and Natural Resources — which has jurisdiction over the ocean — allows dogs to swim in the water without leashes, Laura Stevens, DLNR’s education and outreach coordinator, said today."

Bo a no-go for Hawaii trip – PATRICK GAVIN | POLITICO CLICK

December 22, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

American’s Crazed Corn Habit – Mises Institute

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 by Justin Rohrlich

According to a recent Congressional Budget Office report, the increased use of ethanol is responsible for a rise in food prices of approximately 10 to 15 percent.

Why?

We’re turning corn into fuel — a highly inefficient one, at that — instead of food.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy points out that "mixing food and fuel markets for political reasons has done American consumers no discernable good, while producing measurable harm."

However, perhaps summing up the issue most succinctly is Mark J. Perry, professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan-Flint:

Anytime you have Paul Krugman agreeing on ethanol with such a diverse group as the Wall Street Journal, Reason Magazine, the Cato Institute, Investor’s Business Daily, Rolling Stone Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, John Stossel, The Ecological Society of America, the American Enterprise and Brookings Institutions, the Heritage Foundation, George Will and Time magazine, you know that ethanol has to be one of the most misguided public policies in US history.

But Brazil seems to have made it work. Using just 1 percent of its arable land, Brazil produced 6.57 billion gallons of sugar ethanol last year, roughly half the annual oil production of Iraq. Ethanol accounts for about 50 percent of Brazil’s automotive fuel. General Electric and Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer are working to develop ethanol suitable for powering commercial aircraft, with a test flight possible by early 2012. Most importantly, Brazil relies on imported oil for only 10 percent of its energy needs today — due in large part to its ethanol industry.

So, what’s Brazil doing right?

The answer is simple. Unlike the United States, Brazil makes its ethanol from sugar, which yields over eight units of energy for each unit invested, whereas corn-based ethanol yields a paltry one and a half units of energy for each unit invested.

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December 22, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

French body says Monsanto maize needs more study – Yahoo! News UK

Tuesday, December 22 06:38 pm

More research is needed into Monsanto’s genetically modified maize MON 810, the only biotech crop commercially grown in Europe, to assess its environmental impact, a French advisory body said.

The opinion given by biotech committee HCB, published on Tuesday, was requested by the French government, which last year banned cultivation of MON 810 citing environmental concerns.

In an debate about whether to renew the license for the maize type, France and other European Union states have criticized as insufficient a favorable opinion in June from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

HCB called for further studies to evaluate potential drawbacks in MON 810, such as damage to non-targeted insects or the development of resistance to the crop among targeted pests.

"The only way to highlight … a significant increase or decrease in populations of non-targeted invertebrates is to implement monitoring over several years," the HCB said.

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December 21, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Early ag lands identified – Starbulletin

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Research determines acreage Hawaiians used for growing

By Helen Altonn

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 21, 2009

Combining technology and traditional archaeology, scientists have identified thousands of acres of land farmed by early Hawaiians.

The findings also have implications for crop self-sufficiency in Hawaii — that is, the possibility of ending the need for agricultural imports.

"At the peak of Hawaiian population, there were perhaps a million people," said Samuel M. Gon III, ecologist, cultural adviser and senior scientist with The Nature Conservancy. "It takes thousands and thousands of acres to feed all those people. Where was all that farmland?"

He said scientists began collaborating to find the answer to that question and the findings have broad implications for anthropology and conservation biology.

Early Hawaiian language newspapers referred to agricultural systems that aren’t known today, either because they were abandoned, destroyed by sugar and pineapple cultivation or "they’re in places where no one has looked," the researchers said.

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December 20, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Minority farmers seek redress, claim USDA discrimination – Washingtonpost

By Kari Lydersen

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 21, 2009

In November, the Agriculture Department began negotiations with Native American farmers in a class-action suit alleging systematic discrimination in the agency’s farm loan program. About 15,000 black farmers have received almost $1 billion since the settlement of a similar class-action suit, known as the Pigford case.

Hispanic farmers who have filed similar lawsuits hope this means the government may settle with them, too, even though a federal judge has denied them class certification. Female farmers also filed suit but have been denied class certification.

All four groups allege that they were denied farm loans and given loans with impossible conditions because of their race or gender.

Alberto Acosta, a New Mexico chili farmer, sought help a decade ago from the loan program meant as a last resort for farmers who cannot secure private financing. In 1998 and 1999, he was granted $92,000 in loans by the department.

But because Acosta speaks Spanish, a USDA loan officer was required to sign off on every significant expense. That meant he had to drive 260 miles each way to the office whenever he wanted to buy a piece of farm equipment, and he had to pay for and provide his own translator for each visit.

These conditions ultimately proved so taxing that Acosta’s home and farm went into foreclosure, he said in a sworn declaration.

"I feel that this discrimination would not have occurred if I were Anglo," Acosta stated.

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