Talking about Natural meat, Korea, Corn, AgriProcessors, Iowa farmland, Dan Gralian

''In the consumer's mind, there's a connection to better health and to better for the environment and to good corporate citizenship. It's just starting, but I think it's going to be a very powerful movement.''
(Source: New York Times, June 2, 2008)
Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic Inc., telling a reporter that the market for fast food prepared with naturally-raised meat will keep expanding, as more consumers grow increasingly disenchanted with the industrial model of meat production.
>PS: Even more worrisome for big packers; for the first time people actually seem to be willing to pay with cold, hard cash - not just lip-service - for the privilege.

Point:
"Because the public is most concerned about meat from cattle over 30 months old, we have asked the United States not to export that kind. The latest decision is based on a desire to maintain good ties and trust (with the United States) while at the same time reflecting the national interest and wishes of the (Korean) people.”
(Source: Yonhap News, June 3, 2008)
Chung Woon-chun, Korean Agriculture Minister, telling reporters that until the two nations reach an agreement on the age limit of cattle when they are slaughtered for meat to be exported to South Korea, Seoul will not implement its revised sanitary and phytosanitary standards.
>PS: The move effectively allows South Korea to keep its ban on U.S. beef.
Counterpoint:
"The agreement that our two governments reached in April is a good agreement, based on recognizing international science, and there would be no reason for any type of renegotiation."
(Source: ABC Rural – Australia, June 5, 2008))
Sean Spicer from the US Trade Representative's Office, ignoring Chung Woon-chun and a large number of Korean consumers.
>PS: Sean, you’re right, the U.S. position is scientifically valid and let’s hang on to that all the way to the poor house.

"There is no doubt Eastern Canada will need to boost its imports of U.S. corn given the domestic production shortfall, livestock requirements and the need to supplement the growing ethanol sector"
(Source: Manitoba Co-Operator, June 2, 2008)
Ron Frost, manager of AgProfit, a division of the Pike Management Group in Calgary, talking about problems created by an expected dip in corn production.
>PS: Then there is that question about a shortfall in U.S. production, livestock requirements and the need to supplement the growing ethanol sector.

"She's a vegetarian."
(Source: NWI Times, June 5, 2008)
Bill Kurtis, TV icon, newsman, grass-fed cattle rancher and master griller telling a family secret about Donna La Pietra, his better half of 30 years.
>PS: Proving once again that mixed marriages can work.

“We got 21 or 23 inspectors. Every minute the plant is open, there is USDA inspector. We got maybe 30 rabbis. How can we do something which is wrong? If I want to, God forbid! We are ethical people. We don’t do no injustice to nobody, not to a cat.”
(Source: The Jewish Journal, June 4, 2008)
Aaron Rubashkin, owner of Agriprocessors, defending his business against a wagon load of allegations brought on by the ICE raid.
>PS: Poor cat.

“People coming there looking for jobs—they bring ID with a photo, with a number. With the same card the person go to the bank. With the same card he got his credit card. With the same card he bought a car. 19 million illegals here? I don’t bring ‘em here. I pay taxes and the government supposed to control the stuff.”
(Source: The Jewish Journal, June 4, 2008)
Aaron Rubashkin, owner of Agriprocessors, suggesting the real fault lies a bit further upstream.
>PS: Rubashkin expects the feds to do what?

“It’s going on big time. There is considerable interest in what we call ‘owning structure’ — like United States farmland, Argentine farmland, English farmland — wherever the profit picture is improving.”
(Source: New York Times, June 5, 2008)
Brad Cole, president of Cole Partners Asset Management in Chicago, which runs a fund of hedge funds focused on natural resources, talking about a potentially huge run-up on ag resources.
>PS: The price of an acre of good Iowa farmland equaling the outrageous price of a square foot of New York City apartment space? Let’s watch this bubble grow large and burst!

“We believe the problem is much more political than everything else. We have to differentiate between the countries who are really affected by the food crisis and those who are seeing it as an economic opportunity.”
(Source: New York Times, June 5, 2008)
Walter Poveda Ricaurte, agriculture minister of Ecuador, questioning the ethics of the political posturing at this week’s emergency Food Summit conference in Rome on food shortages, climate change and energy.
>PS: This particular Hall of Shame started with U.S. Ag secretary, Ed Schafer, talking about the benefits of biofuels and genetically modified crops, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaking for half an hour about how Brazilian biofuels were superior to American ones and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, urging that religion should be injected into food politics.
>PPS: Did anyone speaking from the podium mention feeding the starving millions that were supposed to be the primary reason for this summit?
>PPPS: So here is Tuesday’s lunch menu befitting the moral agenda recognized by the Food Summit delegates:
• Vol au vent with maize and mozzarella
• Pasta with a cream of pumpkin and prawns
• Braised veal slices with cherry tomatoes and basil
• Spinach a la romaine
• Fruit salad with ice cream

“When the Humane Society of the United States released a film they had taken with a hidden camera of a ‘downer’ cow being abused by employees of the Hallmark/Westland packing plant in California, we all said it was deplorable but an ‘isolated’ incident. As it turns out, we were wrong.”
(Source: Elko Daily Free Press, May 23, 2008)
Dan Gralian, President of the Nevada Cattlemen's Association, writing a mea culpa editorial.
>PS: His position? Animal welfare is a critical responsibility for everyone throughout the distribution chain – ranch to harvest - and everyone shares in the guilt when anyone crosses the line.