Executives of Monsanto told skittish investors on Wednesday that earnings per share would grow 13 to 17 percent in the next fiscal year and that the company was on its way to fixing problems in its seed business that have undermined the confidence of Wall Street.
The remarks, in line with some previous assurances by company executives, were made as Monsanto reported that net income for the year that ended Aug. 31 had dropped by nearly half from a year earlier.
“I believe we’ve taken steps to allow our company to return to growth,” Hugh Grant, the chief executive, told analysts and investors Wednesday on a conference call.
He said the seed business was going to offer “more products at more price points” to help regain the trust of farmers who have been put off by high seed prices and lower-than-expected yields for some products, particularly Monsanto’s new SmartStax corn.
CLICK HERE for Larger ImageMarketing “energy” is big business. Many people are choosing “energy drinks” spiked with caffeine and other supposed energizers. Sadly, many energy drinks and pre-workout boosters provide little information about the amounts of caffeine and other ingredients because they are a proprietary blend.
As an alternative to consuming beverages with unknown levels of possibly harmful ingredients, why not have a cup of coffee? And, no, we are not subsidized by the coffee industry. The common 8-ounce cup of coffee provides about 100 milligrams of caffeine. The amount of caffeine, however, depends on the type of coffee and the strength of the brew. For example, just 1 fluid ounce of espresso can provide 65 mg of caffeine.
In attempts to find health problems caused by coffee, thousands of studies have been conducted. Many of these were looking for health risks and found none. Other studies actually found health benefits. Most research on coffee supports the concept that if coffee was recently discovered in a faraway location, coffee would be the hottest selling herbal beverage in the health food market. Question: What potential health benefits are linked to coffee drinking?
Answer: Epidemiological studies that look for positive and negative associations with health have identified some encouraging links to specific health benefits. Although these results can’t prove cause and effect, they indicate those who drink coffee have a decreased risk for conditions like type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, liver disease, Alzheimer’s disease and colorectal cancer. Overall, the more recent well-designed studies have found no association between coffee consumption and cancers in general. There also is evidence that coffee consumption helps to prevent tooth decay.
Question: Why would coffee be beneficial to health?
Answer: Coffee contains many things besides caffeine. Two cups of strong coffee provide as much potassium as a medium banana and about 40 percent of the daily need for the vitamin pantothenic acid. In addition to these nutrients, coffee also contains compounds with names like chlorogenic acid, cafestol and kahweol. Finding potential positive and negative aspects of these compounds is an ongoing area of research. Chlorogenic acid may be the key component that contributes to the reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. Cafestol and kahweol, present mainly in unfiltered coffee, are thought to contribute to a small but significant increase in blood cholesterol levels, but also may help to prevent cancer.
Question: Is there a downside to drinking too much coffee?
Answer: Everything in life seems to have its diminishing point of return. A report from Health Canada concluded that caffeine intake up to 400 mg per day is not associated with adverse health effects in healthy adults. However, caffeine is a drug. And, like most drugs, individual sensitivity to caffeine can vary. For some, caffeine boosts blood pressure. Too much caffeine too close to bedtime can, of course, adversely affect sleep. The absorption of iron from foods can be decreased when coffee is consumed with the food. It is commonly recommended that women who are pregnant, lactating, or planning pregnancy do not consume more than 300 mg of caffeine per day (about three 8-ounce cups of coffee). There is conflicting evidence that excess coffee consumption (more than four cups per day) during pregnancy can increase the risk of childhood acute lymphoid leukemia.
Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S., and Alan Titchenal, Ph.D., C.N.S., are nutritionists in the Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Animal Sciences, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii-Manoa. Dobbs also works with University Health Services.
After more than 28 years of free public service to home gardeners in our communities, the University of Hawaii Master Gardeners will host its first statewide conference Oct. 15 to 17.
The Master Gardener Program in Hawaii started in 1982 with a group of 15 Oahu residents interested in learning about home gardening. It is part of the program found throughout the United States and Canada. The program, started in Washington state in 1972, is a public service to provide training to volunteers under the leadership of land-grant universities and the national Cooperative Extension Service.
To date, more than 94,865 people have become master gardeners nationwide. Local master gardeners answer home gardening questions on a plant help line and expand educational outreach efforts of the UH extension service.
For the conference, some of the top specialists in their fields will share new information about agriculture in Hawaii and backyard gardening ideas.
Drought is a farmer’s worst nightmare. But imagine the few plants that make it through the summer are then eaten by something other than your family or customers.
On top of a dry summer, the Molokai agriculture community is facing a deer problem – lack of water and food in their usual habitat has driven deer into the fields for nourishment at the farmer’s expense.
“The problem is there’s not a whole lot you can do about it,” said Rick Tamanaha, owner of Kaleikoa Farms in Ho`olehua. “They’ve actually stopped me from planting for 2010. They’ve shut me down.”
Tamanaha said he will be installing an electric fence to ward off the deer. This is one of many problems that come with farming that he prepares for.
“If it’s not deer it’s going to be something else,” he added. “You take the good years, and you [have] to take the bad years.”
Farmer Testimony
The number of deer heading into farms and people’s gardens may be disturbing, but the problem isn’t overpopulation, according to a few hunters familiar with the west end. A contractor for the Molokai Ranch said at last count two years ago, there were 8,000 deer on the west end.
The dry summer has caused the worst deer pressure for many farmers in recent memory.
“All these years, we’ve never had a deer problem,” said Grant Schule, owner of Kumu Farms. His plan of attack: “We’re just kind of moving crops around…basically we’re running from them.”
Recalls push more companies to adopt digital tools that can prevent or contain the harm caused by contaminated food.
By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from San Jose — Inside a Silicon Valley company’s windowless vault, massive servers silently monitor millions of heads of lettuce, from the time they are plucked from the dirt to the moment the bagged salad is scanned at the grocery checkout counter.
That trail can be traced in seconds, thanks to tiny high-tech labels, software programs and hand-held hardware gear. Such tools make it easier for farmers to locate possible problems — a leaky fertilizer bin, an unexpected pathogen in the water, unwashed hands on a factory floor — and more quickly halt the spread of contaminated food.
This Dole Food Co. project and similar efforts being launched across the country represent a fundamental shift in the way that food is tracked from field to table. The change is slow but steady as a number of industry leaders and smaller players adopt these tools.
If FDA doesn’t approve GM salmon to at least some extent, I don’t see how you can do any of the monitoring/study work that Dr. Zunin proposes or do anything to address global hunger because there will be no GM salmon businesses and no market for sale of GM salmon.
While Dr. Zunin says he is suggesting a careful, planned approach, his advice is actually tantamount to killing the GM salmon initiative from the start. By the way, Dr. Zunin has many degrees, but is his advice based on his “science course in middle school” or actual scientific expertise and study?
LAHAINA – Maui Land & Pineapple Co. executives told Maui County Council members Wednesday night that the bad days are behind them and as soon as the housing market shows firm signs of improvement, they will be ready to move forward with long-planned developments, such as Pulelehua.
But first, they need the county to give them the land entitlements, said Ryan Churchill, ML&P president and chief operating officer.
However, Churchill was met with some skeptical members of the council’s Land Use Committee. Council Chairman Danny Mateo and Vice Chairman Mike Molina both pointed out that they went out on a limb five years ago to grant ML&P’s Kapalua Mauka development all the zoning and other land classification requirements it needed to move forward, but not one shovel of dirt has been turned on the project.
