Month: June 2011

June 3, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Philippines files charges over smuggled corals

MANILA » Philippine officials have filed criminal charges against several people linked to a huge shipment of endangered sea turtles and rare black corals.

The shipment’s seizure last month has raised alarm that the archipelago’s rich marine life is being devastated by the illegal trade.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez filed the case Friday at the Justice Department against the owner, consignee, shippers and haulers of the $808,000 cargo. They are facing charges of violating the ban on coral exploitation and exportation and related offenses.

Exequiel Navarro, who is listed in the shipment’s manifest as the consignee, has denied the charges saying he was not aware what was in the cargo.

Philippines files charges over smuggled corals – Hawaii News – Staradvertiser.com

June 2, 2011 General Ag News and Notes, Vegtables Post a Comment

U.S. farmers, processors not required to test for deadly E. coli strain

TU.S. farmers, processors not required to test for deadly E. coli strain
By Lyndsey Layton, Thursday, June 2, 8:28 AM

The bacterium that has killed more than a dozen Europeans, sickened nearly 2,000 more and raised international alarms would be legal if it were found on meat or poultry in the United States.

If the bacterium were to contaminate fruits or vegetables grown here, there would be no way to prevent an outbreak, because farmers and processors are not required to test for the pathogen before the food heads to supermarkets.

“If somehow this strain got into that same environment and spread rapidly, it would represent a major disaster in terms of the U.S. food industry and risk to humans,” said J. Glenn Morris, a former official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture who directs the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida. “The regulatory framework is a couple of steps behind.”

The strain that has emerged in Europe is a particularly virulent version of E. coli 0104 and, in the outbreak that began in early May, has been linked to more than 1,600 illnesses and 18 deaths. About 500 people — an unusually large percentage of those who have been sickened — have developed a life-threatening kidney complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, for which there is no treatment.

Continue reading
June 2, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Japan restricts green tea over radiation fears

TOKYO – JAPAN banned the shipment of green tea leaves grown in four prefectures around Tokyo on Thursday after radioactive caesium above legal levels was found in samples, a media report said.

It was the latest produce shipment ban since the massive March 11 seabed quake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant northeast of Tokyo, which has since leaked radiation into the ground, air and sea.

The ban covers tea leaves from parts of the Tochigi, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures and all of Ibaraki prefecture, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said, Kyodo News agency reported.

Kanagawa, southwest of Tokyo, said in early May it had detected radiation above the legal limit in tea grown there and blamed it on the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, which suffered partial meltdowns.

Kanagawa prefecture then started a recall of the tea after measuring about 570 becquerels of caesium per kg in leaves grown in the city of Minamiashigara. The legal limit is 500 Bq/kg.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant is located some 220km north-east of Tokyo and 280km from Minamiashigara. — AFP

Japan restricts green tea over radiation fears

June 1, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

India joins forces with Minemakers for Northern Territory phospate deposit

THE fertiliser story just keeps getting stronger.

Just a week after New York-based Global X Funds launched the world’s first fertiliser exchange-traded fund – in which Australia’s Incitec Pivot (ICP) is the third largest investment – now an Indian state-owned company has signed the initial agreements to participate in a Northern Territory phosphate deposit.

National Minerals Development Corp will, as had been rumoured, work with Minemakers (MAK) to conduct a feasibility study into the latter’s Wonarah project which has a resource of 1.26 billion tonnes at 12 per cent phosphate.

India and China between them account for 40 per cent of world fertiliser use, but India’s grain yields are still less than half those of crops in the US. Recent figures issued by the Indian government show the demand for fertiliser in the country is higher than ever.

However, Indian newspapers have been reporting in recent weeks there could be a fertiliser shortfall ahead of the summer sowing season. The product most affected by world demand and disruptions in North Africa, diammonium phosphate, is also likely to keep growing in price.

India therefore faces more food price rises, a growing problem in the country. The country’s food price inflation is now running at 8.55 per cent.

Continue reading
June 1, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Molokai Anti-Wind Group Forms

I Aloha Molokai (IAM) News Release

The acronym IAM represents “I Aloha Molokai,” a newly formed working group comprised of Molokai residents opposed to the proposal to develop a 200 megawatt industrial scale wind power plant to serve the energy needs of Oahu. IAM’s mission is to share information, as well as educate the general public to the potential impacts of the project. This is a grassroots effort to raise awareness and provide balance as the developer and proponents of the project move forward in their attempt to persuade the island community to support the project.

IAM is fortunate and pleased to announce that on June 2 at 6 p.m. at the Kulana `Oiwi Halau, Robin Kaye from Friends of Lanai (FOL) will be sharing the “Lanai Wind Fall Out” video and their experience with the Big Wind and undersea cable project. IAM invites the public to join us to talk story and learn how others are proactively engaged in mitigating efforts to challenge the Big Wind and Undersea Cable project.

Numerous testimonies, letters printed in the local paper and a recent voting survey reveal major concerns and opposition to the proposed project. IAM stands firm on the position that the cultural, social, economic and environmental impacts far outweigh the benefits and opportunities of the project. “NO DEAL” is worth sacrificing our integrity and island for.

Continue reading
June 1, 2011 General Ag News and Notes, Ginger Root 1 Comment

Ginger adds aroma and flavor to dishes

Check out the hands of ginger at your supermarket or farmers market: Look for smooth, paper-thin, golden, shiny skins and plump fingers, signs of ginger freshly harvested.

It’s time to enjoy this robust, flavorful rhizome from island farmers; as ginger ages, it becomes more fibrous, potent and shriveled.

Ginger is essential to Chinese cooking, used for its aroma, flavor and physiological effects. It’s considered a yang food because it stimulates such functions as blood circulation, perspiration and digestion; it can also prevent nausea.

It is always paired with fish to kill off fishy odors and is used in a wide array of dishes that are boiled, braised or steamed. Nothing compares to ginger in chicken long rice, shredded atop steamed fish or finely minced over cold chicken.

Ginger adds aroma and flavor to dishes – Hawaii Features – Staradvertiser.com

June 1, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Destruction of world’s biggest rainforests down 25%

BRAZZAVILLE – THE rate of destruction of the world’s three largest forests fell 25 per cent this decade compared with the previous one, but remains alarmingly high in some countries, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said.

A report entitled The State Of The Forests in the Amazon Basin, Congo Basin and South-East Asia, was released to coincide with a summit in the Congo Republic bringing together delegates from 35 countries occupying those forests, with a view to reaching a global deal on management and conservation.

The Amazon and the Congo are the world’s first and second biggest forests, respectively, and its third biggest – the Borneo Mekong – is in Indonesia. They sink billions of tonnes of carbon and house two thirds of the world’s remaining land species between them.

The study found that annual rate of deforestation across the three regions, which account for more than 80 per cent of the world’s tropical forests, was 5.4 million ha between 2000 and 2010, down a quarter from 7.1 million ha in the previous decade.

Statistics showed that forest destruction in the Congo basin had remained stable but low over the last 20 years, whilst in South-East Asia the rate of deforestation more than halved.

Continue reading
June 1, 2011 Gardening, General Ag News and Notes, Vegtables Post a Comment

Taming the unruly tomato vine

By Barbara Damrosch,
We’re all rooting for the tomatoes right now, hoping for fast growth, strong stems and branches laden with fruit. How easily we can forget what happens when tomatoes run amok.

It’s probably too late to warn you not to grow too many of them and not to plant them too closely. But without dampening your enthusiasm, let’s talk about support. How much you invest in that is up to you. The easiest thing is to do nothing and let the plants flop on the ground. This works with the determinate types, which stop growing after a few feet and set all their fruits at once. But the indeterminate vining ones must be trained upward before their heavy fruit brings them to their knees in a tangled, impenetrable mess.

Tomato cages, if they’re strong, work fine. I make mine out of concrete-reinforcing wire, which I buy in five-foot-wide sheets from a building supply store. This sturdy mesh has six-inch-square openings through which I can easily reach the tomatoes for picking.

I form it into cylinders 16 inches in diameter and set them over the young plants to guide their ascent, pinching out the suckers at the bottom. (A sucker is a little shoot that emerges in the angle made by the leaf branch and the main stem.) The lowest suckers emerge just above the first pair of leaves, the smooth-edged seed leaves. Left to grow, they would branch out rather than up and just get in the way. After that, there’s little to do except remove wayward branches and a few more suckers if growth is rampant.

Continue reading
June 1, 2011 General Ag News and Notes, Vegtables Post a Comment

E coli outbreak in Germany adds 365 more confirmed cases

The mysterious German E coli outbreak that has killed 16 people shows no sight of abating, with 365 new cases confirmed on Wednesday.

The source of the outbreak remains unknown, though the majority of those affected either live in Germany – particularly in or around the northern city of Hamburg – or have travelled there recently.

The German disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), reported 365 new E coli cases today, a quarter of them involving the hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication resulting from E coli infection that affects the blood and kidneys.

European Union officials said three cases had also been reported in the US, adding that most infections reported outside Germany involved German nationals or people who had recently travelled to the country. On Tuesday, a Swedish woman became the first person to die outside Germany after returning from a trip there.

On Wednesday, the northern state of Mecklenburg Western Pomerania issued a plea for blood donations in case the number of victims continues to rise.

German authorities initially identified cucumbers imported from Spain as the likely source of the outbreak but they admitted on Tuesday that further tests on the cucumbers showedthat, while contaminated, they did not carry the bacterium strain responsible for the deaths.

Continue reading