Meat Industry Network

Global conference aimed at implementing animal welfare standards

2008-12-08T21:38:00.002-06:00

Some of the attendees from the United States at the second global animal welfare meeting were Dr. Paul DuBois, Cargill Pork; Dr. W. Ron DeHaven, AVMA CEO; Dr. Michael David, USDA-APHIS; Joan Galvin, JD, Kelley Drye & Warren; Dr. Elizabeth Parker, National Cattlemen's Beef Association; Kay Johnson Smith, Animal Agriculture Alliance; Chuck Lambert, PhD, USDA; Dr. Gail C. Golab, AVMA Animal Welfare Division; Dr. Jennifer Greiner, National Pork Producers Council; and Dr. Chester Gipson, USDA-APHIS.

The AVMA CEO is encouraging veterinarians worldwide to take responsibility for implementing animal welfare standards.

"Veterinarians in all types of practice have the opportunity and obligation to help animal owners, caretakers, handlers, and policy makers improve animal welfare," Dr. W. Ron DeHaven said.

Dr. DeHaven delivered the comments at a global animal welfare conference Oct. 20-22 in Cairo, Egypt, where he was among more than 400 veterinarians, government officials, humane group representatives, and industry representatives who met to discuss animal welfare standards. He and Dr. Gail C. Golab, director of the AVMA Animal Welfare Division, actively participated in the event.

He is also encouraging veterinarians to back standards that are driven by science, with appropriate consideration given to the environments in which they are being implemented.

"Among the most important responsibilities that veterinarians have in development and implementation of animal welfare standards is to ensure those standards are science-based and that consideration has been given to interactions among the various components of animal care systems," Dr. DeHaven said.

The conference was the second global animal welfare meeting for the World Organization for Animal Health, the first having been held in 2004 in Paris. The recent meeting was primarily focused on implementing OIE standards in developing countries.

Dr. Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), also said veterinarians, veterinary services, and their partners throughout the world need to take more responsibility for animal welfare and implementing humane animal care standards.

Dr. DeHaven was invited to present a paper on the veterinary profession's role in implementing OIE standards, and he emphasized in his presentation that there are no better advocates for animals than veterinarians. He also encouraged development and implementation of animal welfare standards that include considerations of human needs, environmental concerns, and economic realities.

In his presentation, Dr. DeHaven talked about the roles veterinarians could fill in implementing standards in developed and developing countries. In doing so, he invoked consideration of animals' physiologic, safety, and psychologic needs.

Veterinarians in developing countries often have limited resources and encounter human needs that compete with animal welfare concerns for attention, Dr. DeHaven said. "They will likely spend most of their time helping owners find ways to fulfill animals' physiological and safety needs, since meeting these needs generally provides the greatest return on investment in terms of quality and quantity of animal product."

He encouraged veterinarians practicing in developed countries where resources are more plentiful to look beyond basic needs to satisfy animals' more complex safety and psychologic needs. Dr. DeHaven said veterinarians have a professional obligation to comprehensively evaluate approaches to animal care, use their expertise and influence to maximize all aspects of the animals' welfare, and help people understand the complexity of animal care decisions.

The conference theme was "Putting the OIE Standards to Work," and attendees reviewed the state of implementation of standards for transporting livestock, slaughtering animals for human consumption, and killing animals to control disease.

Dr. Nestor Tadich, dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science at Universidad Austral de Chile, said Columbia, Mexico, Paraguay, and Uruguay have legislation based on OIE standards, and Chile is introducing OIE recommendations on animal welfare and producing guides on good practices for farmers and veterinarians.

Among 22 veterinary schools in Latin America that provided answers to a questionnaire, four have only optional animal welfare courses, 10 have only compulsory courses, one has one of each, and seven have none, Dr. Tadich said. Of those that have such courses, five have more than one.

The universities polled are located in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Salvador, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Respondents at 18 of the veterinary schools indicated animal welfare is taught in other courses, Dr. Tadich said. Respondents at 19 said animal welfare is an important issue, and 12 indicated their schools conduct research in animal welfare.

Dr. Tadich said in his presentation that constraints or limitations in Latin American universities include a dearth of staff trained in animal welfare concepts, overloaded curricula, lack of support for research, lack of research for postgraduate programs, cultural traditions such as bullfighting, poverty, lack of legislation supporting animal welfare recommendations, lack of public awareness, and distrust toward people encouraging observance of animal welfare standards.

Dr. Nils Beaumond of the Animal Welfare Committee of the International Meat Secretariat advocated against animal welfare labeling on meat products, which he said could present a new trade barrier. He argued in his presentation that the focus should be on outcomes, not means.

Dr. Beaumond said demands from provegetarian and extremist groups surpass animal welfare requirements, and collaboration with the extremist groups is impossible.

Dr. Peter Thornber, manager of Australian Animal Welfare Strategy and Communications, talked about how planning and management can be used to mitigate stress for animals during transportation. He said farmers, agents, drivers, and shippers have to share responsibility, and appropriate vehicle design, trained drivers, travel plans, and prepared animals are needed.

Research and data analysis can help in creation of practical standards, Dr. Thornber said.

Dr. Thornber said indications of acceptable welfare include animals that are free of visible injuries or postslaughter evidence of carcass bruising, animals that walk up loading ramps with minimal intervention, animals are deemed fit before loading, and animals that can walk off vehicles unaided.

—Greg Cima

Point/Counterpoint: Pacelle vs Mucklow

2008-12-08T21:32:00.002-06:00

Recent videos taken by undercover investigators from The Humane Society of the United States at a well-known slaughter plant and at several auction sites have painted the beef industry in a bad light.

The California video showed mistreatment of cattle at a harvesting facility; investigations at five auctions sites showed other types of neglect or mistreatment of downer cows. Animal protection groups say the findings reveal that abuse is not isolated and rare. The beef industry says those cases are anomalies and, as rare as they are, must and will be addressed quickly.

How widespread is the abuse and what is the beef industry doing to combat the problem? I posed that question to two of the most erudite people standing on opposite sides of the fence; Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and Rosemary Mucklow, Director Emeritus of the National Meat Association.

Their comments about the severity of the taped incidents were remarkably similar; uniformly condemning the offenses. As you might have expected, they started to part ways after that initial agreement. Are those offenses really an anomaly as Ms. Mucklow suggests or possibly endemic as Mr. Pacelle fears?

One point of contention - Pacelle, upon finding more cases of animal abuse, will continue to play his videotapes at the most newsworthy time. He wants to make an impact with heavy press coverage. Mucklow, who thinks HSUS should be more forthcoming, will continue to insist that the organization “promptly convey their observations and concerns to the proper authorities.”

Here is how they answered the question –

Wayne Pacelle: “First, let me say that I appreciate the opportunity to discuss animal welfare issues in a serious and direct way in an important meat industry forum. When I read some of the industry press about me, I think "I don't know that guy," because it seems like such a caricature of me and HSUS's positions. That's why I appreciate the opportunity to communicate directly to folks in the industry and allow them to make judgments based on my words.

I also appreciate being able to communicate after November 4th and after the votes have been tallied on Proposition 2, the California ballot initiative to ban the lifelong confinement of veal calves, breeding sows, and egg-laying hens. It does not directly relate to the question posed to me and Ms. Mucklow today, but it is pertinent because it speaks to public attitudes on animal welfare and animal agriculture and how the public is seeing the issues and the respective messengers.

As most folks within the agriculture sector know by now, Proposition 2 passed by a vote of 63.3% to 36.7%, and it was approved in 46 of 58 counties. Prop 2 got more "yes" votes than any of the other 11 propositions, and it won throughout the vast majority of the state, including in agricultural counties in the Central Valley such as Kern and San Joaquin counties.

In terms of spending, it was a fair fight. Both sides spent about the same money after the signature-gathering phase was completed and the measure was approved for placement on the ballot. About 250 agricultural producers and trade associations donated about $8.5 million in an attempt to defeat Proposition 2; most of the contributors were large-scale egg factory farms, but many were farm bureau groups and some were pig producers from throughout the nation.

By a nearly two-to-one margin, the public opted to phase out the confinement systems, believing that the industry has gone too far in treating animals like commodities and has lost sight of its animal welfare responsibilities. I think it's another wake-up call to the industry -- following on the heels of the Hallmark/Westland investigation -- to reform.

To answer the question posed above, we just do not know how widespread problems are in the slaughter industry. But here's what we do know. HSUS investigators looked at six locations -- one slaughter plant and five auctions. We found problems at every location. Lighting may strike once or twice, but not six times. There's a major problem here, and that's what we reported. USDA's Office of Inspector General also found major problems when it looked at slaughter plants in a January 2006 report. And other animal welfare groups have found problems at a wide variety of slaughter plants -- from Agriprocessors in Iowa to Pilgrim's Pride in West Virginia. A worker was just charged with criminal cruelty at a major hog factory farm investigated by PETA in North Carolina. The industry needs to address these problems head-on and not dismiss them as rogue actors or isolated incidents, yet that is how some trade associations continue to frame the issue.

Hallmark/Westland was chosen at random. Our investigator was attempting to investigate a different location in California, but did not get hired by the facility, so instead he applied at Hallmark, got a job, and worked there and documented terrible, routine abuses, even though USDA had five inspectors at the plant. The treatment of the animals was unconscionable, yet this plant was recognized as recently as 2005 by the Agricultural Marketing Service as the "Supplier of the Year." The plant workers and management were to blame, but so was the USDA, whose inspectors allowed this mistreatment to continue day after day. The USDA's failures call into question the effectiveness of its oversight and enforcement program. If this can occur at a "Supplier of the Year," what must be happening at the thousands of other plants?

The first four auctions we looked at were also selected at random -- a sampling of places in four different states. The final one, Portales, was selected specifically because our investigator at Hallmark said that many of the cows sent there had come from Portales. The industry shouldn't tolerate this mistreatment of animals anywhere, and it is more than distressing to see these problems at every location we examined.

I'd like to say that if we conducted six additional investigations that we'd find no major problems. But based on our experience, I'd not expect that outcome. As the old saying goes, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.”

Rosemary Mucklow: “The incidents at the slaughter facility documented by HSUS were exceptional, and were universally condemned by the industry.

Those responsible have paid a very heavy price – the individual employees have been prosecuted, the company is out of business, and its customers have suffered enormous financial losses.

Can there be better evidence that it is in the self-interest of the meat industry to maintain humane handling standards? Not only is humane handling of livestock the law, it is good business and clearly the right thing to do.

For many years the industry has voluntarily developed best practices, improved facility designs for movement of livestock and executed focused training programs to assure proper animal handling. The meat industry is very aware of the importance of handling livestock humanely and has, through ongoing efforts, met the standard.

However, even isolated incidents are unacceptable. Accordingly, in response to the HSUS reports the livestock and meat industry associations, as well as associations representing marketing and transportation entities, have thoroughly reviewed the many means of guidance on animal handling. Best practices, training materials and operational oversight have all been closely scrutinized and, where appropriate, modified and enhanced for maximum effectiveness. These actions are all part of the industry’s commitment to continuous improvement.

Furthermore, the U.S. regulatory system sets parameters for acceptable behavior. And there are checks and balances to ensure these parameters are met.

It was unfortunate that HSUS chose to delay for several months reporting their observations to USDA and other authorities thereby delaying corrective actions. I encourage HSUS or any other organization that truly wants to have a positive impact on the humane handling of livestock to promptly convey their observations and concerns to the proper authorities.”

Talking about…Corn, E. coli, NR’s, Importing Mad Cows, Best-tasting cattle breed, Agriprocessor justice

2008-07-27T19:21:00.000-05:00

"It's as if the June flooding didn't even happen. The entire rally in corn has been taken off."
(Source: Associated Press, July 21, 2008)
Vic Lespinasse of Grainanalyst.com talking about the surprising drop in corn prices.
>PS: Good news for animal ag – corn is down about 20 percent in the last month.
>PPS: Ideal growing weather in the U.S. Corn Belt après flood and a big drop in oil prices last week make for semi-reasonable feed prices.

"When you find yourself in a hole, you have to quit digging. And we are in a hole."
(Source: International Herald Tribune, July 22, 2008)
Rick Perry (R), Texas Governor, talking about his no holds barred push to overturn the ethanol lobby in favor of the cattle lobby.
>PS: He thinks we can feed our cars or our cattle, not both.

"After changes in meat regulation dropped recall amounts from 23 million pounds in 2002 to only 181,900 pounds in 2006, 39 million pounds of E. coli tainted meat has been recalled since the spring of 2007. The numbers have just shot up in the last year, and so have illnesses. If this was a serial killer -- which, actually, it is -- every resource in this country would have been mobilized against it. Nothing less is acceptable."
(Source: Wall Street Journal Market Watch, July 21, 2008)
William Marler, noted E. coli attorney, talking about a Georgia lawsuit stemming from the E. coli outbreak linked to seven states.
>PS: The lawsuit is based on an allegedly E. coli tainted meal eaten at a barbecue joint! Any ‘cue joint that doesn’t cook its meat well and long enough to kill E. coli deserves to be put out of business.

"Consumers should know the record of the company responsible for any meat they purchase. We've paid for the inspections -- we're owed that much, at least."
(Source: Wall Street Journal Market Watch, July 25, 2008)
William Marler, again, urging that NR’s ne as readily available as those restaurant inspection notices that have to be posted on the front door in many cities.

POINT MADE:
"APHIS does not adequately track live animal imports and, if problems are detected, does not collectively analyze import violations. Additional controls are needed at northern ports-of-entry to obtain stronger assurance that all animal shipments are inspected."
Report by the USDA’s Inspector General saying the Department of Agriculture failed to properly track hundreds of Canadian cattle coming into the United States, the department's inspector general has concluded
POINT TAKEN:
"We know that Canada has an ongoing disease problem. These rules that recently relaxed our import restrictions should be reversed until the agency can demonstrate that it has the capacity and the will to carry out its congressional mandate to protect consumers and the cattle producers against the introduction of disease."
Bill Bullard, R-CALF USA Chief Executive, claiming the audit proves the USDA can't regulate the cross-border cattle trade.
(Source: Chicago Tribune, July 23, 2008)
POINT TAKEN II:
“The inspector general may not be able to say whether there is a systemic problem, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that there is one – and it seems to exist at USDA, which rarely seems to do anything to prove that it has its act together regarding mad cow disease.
The USDA response to mad cow problems always seems to have been to say “it is a Canadian issue,” but now we find out that it isn’t even doing a good job tracking Canadian cattle coming into the US.
Something has to give here. And I’m beginning to wonder what it is going to take to force the kind of real and profound change that is needed in the US food safety apparatus.”
(Source: MorningNews, July 24, 2008)
Kevin Coupe, MorningNews editor/commentator, talking about the impact of the Inspector general’s report.
>PS: It does seem that the various pieces and parts of the USDA are dazed and confused as they stumble over each other, trying to find the politically correct path in these increasingly uncertain political times.

"We have to eat them to save them. When we eat them, we're giving farmers an economic reason to conserve rare breeds and the important genetic diversity they represent."
(Source: American Agriculturist, July 24, 2008)
Sandy Lerner, talking about the reasons behind a gourmet tasting of beef from 10 different breeds hosted by a partnership of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, Humane Farm Animal Care, Slow Food USA and Ayrshire Farm.
>PS: Want to know the runaway best tasting breed? Click on Lerner’s name.

"This looks and feels like a cattle auction, not a criminal prosecution in the United States."
(Source: Associated Press, July 25, 2008)
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), former immigration lawyer and chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, talking about the legality of the Agriprocessors raid during a hearing last Thursday.
>PS: Running the defendants through court 10 at a time sounds like assembly line, pre-determined justice to me.

“My work was very hard, because they didn’t give me my breaks, and I wasn’t getting very much sleep. They told us they were going to call immigration if we complained.”
(Source: New York Times, July 27, 2008)
Elmer L., an illegal, underage immigrant/Agriprocessor employee who claims he regularly worked 17 hours a day and was paid $7.25 an hour and often had to forgo overtime pay.
>PS: Really interested in ‘protecting our border”? Go after the bosses, not the bottom tier.

Talking about...Corn, Hot dogs, Food inspection, JBS bank

2008-07-23T07:13:00.000-05:00

"We're hemorrhaging. Whether it's beef, pork, turkey, or chicken, we're hemorrhaging right now. The economics have just turned completely upside down because of corn prices."
(Source: U.S. News & World Report, July 15, 2008)
Daniel Bluntzer, a livestock analyst for Frontier Risk Management, talking about the state of animal agriculture.

“The industry is going to implode. Politicians were in a rush to do something, and it became a terrible snowball.”
(Source: New York Times, July 18, 2008)
Dick Stevens, President, Consolidated Catfish Producers, blaming the government’s ethanol mandates for the impending demise of catfish farming.
>PS: His friend, Keith King of Dillard & Company, says for every dollar spent raising catfish, the return is just 75 cents when they take them to market.

“A girl from PETA called me a while back, asking if we were going to be having the hot dog lunch this year. I asked what office she was calling from, and she kept saying, ‘my office, my office.’ Eventually I said, ‘you’re from PETA, right?’ and she sort of sheepishly said that she was. But she never asked what the date was. I think she got nervous and hung up. You know, the funny thing about it is, every year we’re having this event that is jam-packed, and we are turning people away because hot dogs are so popular. And outside they have to have people in lettuce leaf bikinis trying to entice people to eat their food because everyone prefers hot dogs.”
(Source: Washington City Paper, July 16, 2008)
Janet Riley, senior vice president of public affairs and professional development for the American Meat Institute, explaining how PETA managed to jump the gun on AMI’s annual Hot Dog Lunch at the Rayburn Building.
>PS: Careful, Janet. PETA just might ramp it up with ladies dressed in less than lettuce leaves.
>PPS: Save me a Kosher dog with mustard and (horrors) ketchup. No faux doggies, please.
>PPPS: To set the record straight, those PETA babes don’t really wear lettuce leaf bikinis. They wear lettuce leaf PRINT bikinis, stitched together from whole cloth, like many of the organization’s claims.

"They're moving towards the U.S. model, where the inspectors don't actually do the inspection, they just oversee and the companies actually do the inspection. That's a really dangerous thing.”
(Source: Edmonton Journal, July 12, 2008)
Michael Hansen, senior scientist with Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, warning about pitfalls in Canada’s plan to turn over food inspection to the food industry.
>PS: I’m a big fan of third party inspection. If you don’t have an iron in the fire, you’re less likely to flinch when the heat rises.

"We created this bank with products and services directed toward cattle breeding. Clients that will have accounts in this bank will need to prove to be a cattle producer."
(Source: Meatingplace, July 18, 2008)
Joesley Batista, JBS President, telling a Meatingplace.com reporter that they plan to back the world’s cattle industry with specialized banking services.
>PS: They’re starting out in Brazil with $18.7 million in starting capital to help Brazilian farmers “develop production of bulls and cows.”

COOL, Smithfield's Chinese Connection, Cattle Feed

2008-07-16T18:00:00.001-05:00

"We have this huge growth in imports, this huge growth in trade; at the same time we have severely cut back on our regulatory agencies and their ability to do their job, especially the food portion of the Food and Drug Administration. If they are only checking 1 percent of the stuff and finding lots of problems, then ... there are a lot of problems that are never caught.”
(Source: Dallas Morning News, July 1, 2008)
Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, talking about a critical failure of the food inspection system.
>PS: More American-produced food is recalled because more of it is inspected. Got a problem product? Simply take production off-shore. No problem.

"China is experiencing rapid growth in pork consumption and consumes more pork than the rest of the world combined. COFCO has introduced Smithfield to many opportunities in China and we look forward to continue working together.”
(Source: Forbes, July 2, 2008)
Larry Pope, Smithfield President, announcing that he’s selling almost 5% of his company to COFCO, a Chinese ag company.
>PS: The Chinese are coming! The Chinese are coming! And Smithfield’s stock drops 12% on the news.

“All these cattle will eat 40 lbs. of feed a day and it went from two cents to nine cents a pound for that feed, that's a big, big difference."
(Source: CBS News, July 2, 2008)
Steve Foglesong of Black Gold Ranch, Illinois, talking about the dramatic increase in the price of feed caused by the increased demand for corn to feed ethanol plants.
>PS: He raises 4,000 head of cattle but he’s planning to cut way back on that number ASAP.

"We demand that you do not reference this fine company in your press conference tomorrow. This is notice that Caviness Packing Co. will hold legally responsible you, your organization and any investigators or other personnel for any damages to its name and reputation caused by any false or misleading statements made about the cattle slaughtered at its official USDA establishment."
(Source: MEAT&POULTRY.COM, July2, 2008)
Rosemary Mucklow, director emeritus, National Meat Association, strongly cautioning HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle about the perils of linking Caviness Packing to the animal handling offenses videotaped at Las Portales during a scheduled press conference.
>PS: In an emailed response, Pacelle said he wouldn’t. A furious Mucklow said he did, anyway.
>PPS: CN published an op-ed piece written by Steve Dittmer taking Pacelle to the wood shed for this one, calling it something like guilt by association. We’ve offered Pacelle equal time. Stay tuned for his response.

“(Caviness has) ceased purchasing from the Portales auction market and did not participate in their last sale and (has) no plans to participate until Portales can show that they’re meeting the same animal handling procedure that they (Caviness) meet in their own business.”
(Source: Clovis News Journal online, July 2, 2008)
Jeremy Russell, NMA Communications Director, affirming the action Caviness took against Portales Livestock Auction.
>PS: Wayne, it’s your turn.

"The products subject to recall may have been produced under ‘insanitary’ conditions."
(Source: Associated Press, July 3, 2008)
Statement by the Food Safety and Inspection Service claiming that Nebraska Beef's production practices were ‘insufficient to effectively control E. coli bacteria.’
>PS: The result? 5.3 million pounds of ground beef produced between May 16 and June 26 recalled and another black eye for the beef business.
>PPS: ‘Insanitary?’ As in insane?

"Then we would be talking about a corn supply crisis that would probably require some type of government intervention."
(Source: Marketwatch, July 4, 2008)
Shawn Hackett, president of agriculture futures brokerage Hackett Financial Advisors, warning of the potential of a major crisis in corn production if bad summer weather manages to push corn to $10.
>PS: Corn futures hit an all-time high of $7.548 on CBOT last week, up 21% for June, 28% higher in the second quarter and surging 60% in the first half of the year.

“If all that carbohydrate could be extracted into ethanol, then we estimate you could get about as much out of an infested field of kudzu as you could from an intensively managed field of corn. The difference is that the field of kudzu is there for the taking, while the field of corn has to be planted and maintained.”
(Source: The Chattanooga Times Free Press, July 6, 2008)
Dr. Rowan Sage, University of Toronto researcher, proposing that kudzu’s starch-filled roots and green leaves are perfect for ethanol production.
>PS: As one who has lived below the Mason-Dixon line for much of my life, I can attest to this: If Dr. Sage is right, South Carolina will become the Saudi Arabia of ethanol production.

Talking about…JBS, Animal abuse, Ethanol, Korea, 13 mad cows

2008-06-29T19:53:00.001-05:00

"By reducing the number of major buyers for ranchers' cattle from five to three -- and in some regions even one or two -- this deal will give the remaining beef processors enormous buying power. The antitrust laws should not countenance such a dangerous outcome. I therefore urge the Justice Department to bring an antitrust enforcement action to block these acquisitions.”
(Source: New York Times, June 24, 2008)
Herb Kohl, (D-WI), head of the senate’s anti-trust subcommittee, in a letter to the Justice Department’s Thomas Barnett, pointing out the deal would leave just 3 beef packers controlling more than 80% of the market.
>PS: Kohl’s group has influence but no real decision-making power.
>PPS: The subcommittee could require the divesture of Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding LLC, if the deal is approved, though.

“R-CALF USA acknowledges that the JBS proposal would be good for JBS and its shareholders. The problem is that what is good for JBS and its shareholders is not at all good for R-CALF USA and its cattle-producing members. That is why this is a fight and not a negotiation. JBS wants to capture a greater share the U.S. beef market, just as it wants to capture a greater share of the profits from each animal it slaughters, and the proposed merger would help it accomplish both.”
(Source: Cattlenetwork, June 27, 2008)
Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALFUSA, expressing his extreme opposition to the JBS merger.
>PS: Expect this to be an ongoing battle worthy of a WWE Smackdown, a Super bowl brawl reminiscent of the Giants vs the Patriots; it will be a titanic struggle.

“The food-animal production system failed these animals. Everyone involved in animal agriculture, whether on farms or in processing facilities, shares an ethical responsibility to protect the health and welfare of animals used for food production."
(Source: Meatpoultry.com, June 25, 2008)
Dr. Ron DeHaven, ex-APHIS administrator, now CEO of the AVMA, talking about the latest stealth video taken by undercover HSUS agents.
>PS: It was taped in May 2008 at the Portales Livestock Auction. Abuse is serious and critically damaging to the industry. It should be dealt with swiftly – shut down the offending operation. Period.

POINT
"While I have no doubt this mandate was a well-intentioned effort to move our country toward energy independence, it is doing more harm than good and must be modified before our livestock industry suffers permanent damage,"
Rick Perry (R), Texas Governor, leading the following industry heavyweights in a concerted effort to cut the ethanol mandate in half.
POINT
"Cattlemen are now confronting $7 and even $8 corn, and that may just be the beginning. Even before the wet spring pushed into June, we were already seeing a lot of acres migrating away from corn this year. By the time conditions improve in many of these fields, planting corn will no longer be an option."
Gregg Doud, chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
POINT
"The prices for beef, pork and dairy products have risen dramatically over the past few months and this upward trend will continue, as the food used to feed these animals is washed away by flood waters and the projected size of the corn harvest shrinks. Mother Nature is refusing to adhere to Congressional mandates for corn production.”
J. Patrick Boyle, president and CEO of the American Meat Institute.
POINT
"However, with the current ethanol mandate diverting one-third of U.S. corn to gas tanks, feed prices have shot higher and higher, making it difficult for the industry to keep high-quality foods reasonably priced."
Joel Brandenberger, president of the National Turkey Federation.
POINT
"We must ensure that we are not forcing our needs on food and fuel to compete against each other. The restaurant industry supports the development of efficient renewable fuels -- including the promotion of the use of recyclable restaurant oil -- while safeguarding against price distortions in the food supply. These prices distortions have harmed our customers and businesses."
John Gay, senior vice president of government affairs and public policy for the National Restaurant Association.
POINT
"At a time when tens of thousands of Americans are turning to food banks to feed their children, no Administration could reasonably conclude that ethanol refiners should be given priority over working families, food companies, and livestock farmers"
Cal Dooley, Grocery Manufacturers Association President and CEO.

"We will start the inspection on Friday morning (June 27), and the first meat that passes the test will be released from the facilities around July 3 or 4."
(Source: New York Times, June 27, 2008)
Lee Byung-kwon, spokesman for Korea’s National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, talking about the availability of American beef.
>PS: Don’t start the party just yet - ‘availability’ doesn’t mean sales. McDonald’s and Outback steak houses have placed newspaper ads declaring they aren’t using American beef and consumer group and massive street protests continue.

"We can tell by the intensive surveillance that the cases are not increasing. If the checks and balances were not working, one would expect (the disease) to become more common over time, and that's not the case."
(Source: Canada.com, June 28, 2008)
George Luterbach, senior veterinarian at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, trying to put the best face possible on the 13th case of mad cow disease found in that country.
>PS: This one was born 5 years after the feed ban indicating there was an incredible amount of suspect feed in Canada’s hoppers.

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

2008-06-07T20:09:00.000-05:00

''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.

Talking about...Downer Cows, Ethanol, Farm bill, Korea, Agriprocessors

2008-05-25T09:16:00.000-05:00

"The current regulation allowing downer cattle into the human food supply is confusing to consumers and our trading partners, expensive to administer and unnecessarily risky from a public health standpoint."
(Source: Los Angeles Times/Baltimore Sun, May 21, 2008)
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) urging USDA Secretary Ed Schafer to close the downer cow loophole.
PS: Also pressured by the likes of AMI CEO J. Patrick Boyle and other industry heavyweights, Schafer agreed to the ban.

"If you sell one product and the only reason there's a market for it is because the government makes a law requiring consumption -- if that law goes away, obviously you're in trouble."
(Source: Business Week, May 21, 2008)
Ann Gilpin, Morningstar analyst who follows Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland, the country's second-largest ethanol producer, talking about the difficulties that industry is suddenly facing.
PS: Ethanol was a popular product in Washington until politicos began feeling some voter heat.
PPS: Ain’t it cool watching a self-righteous politician trying to change horses in mid-stream?

"How can those who are responsible for preparing religiously fit meat not conduct themselves in a religiously proper manner? It's an embarrassment to the Jewish community -- how can this be seen as Jewishly fit?"
(Source: Washington Post, May, 22, 2008)
Henry Karp, a Reform rabbi in Davenport, Iowa, talking about the recent ICE raid at Agriprocessors, Inc and the troubled history of the company.
>PS: If the Rubashkin family can’t overcome this problem and are forced to close Agriprocessors, it will be a huge loss to those in North America’s Jewish community who keep a Kosher table.

“The government is not bashful about the fact that they are trying to send a message…that if you get caught working illegally here you will pay a criminal penalty.”
(Source: New York Times, May 24, 2008)
Christopher Clausen, a lawyer representing 21 Guatemalans seized in the Agriprocessors raid, talking about the new facts of immigrant life in America.
PS: First offense – five months in jail followed by immediate deportation.
PPS: Now that we have disposed of the employees in record time, can we go after the management team that did the hiring?

"If the government wants to send a message, it ought to pay more attention to prosecuting abusive employers who hire undocumented immigrants and mistreat them by withholding pay or doling out verbal and physical abuse. So far, no officials at Agriprocessors have been charged."
(Source:Boston Globe, May 25, 2008)
Unsigned editorial talking about the Agriprocessors raid and suggesting a much more sensible solution to the problem.
PS: It’s been going on for years – corporations, knowingly and with malice aforethought, do this kind of underground hiring because they’re confident they won’t have to pay the same price as the illegals if the feds come knocking.
PPS: Take the profits out of it and assign some direct, Folsom prison style punishment to execs at the highest level and it will stop. Immediately.

POINT:
“Then farmers got a look at the bill's formula for determining benefits under ACRE. It pegs the subsidies to current, record-high prices for grain, meaning farmers would get paid if prices fall back to their historical and, for farmers, perfectly profitable norms. A program that started out as a streamlined insurance policy against extraordinary hardship has mutated into a possible guarantee of extraordinary prosperity.”
Unsigned editorial comment, by an inside-the-beltway writer annoyed that the current farm bill might deliver an unconscionable windfall to farmers.
COUNTERPOINT:
"The program does not look excessively expensive for the lifetime of the farm bill."
Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-VA), ranking Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, quoted in the same unsigned editorial.
(Source: Washington Post, May 22, 2008)
PS: Are you giving or receiving the money? It all depends on which end of the pipeline you’re standing.
PPS: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money." Senator Everett McKInley Dirksen.

“I admit the government’s efforts to listen to and understand the public were insufficient and also humbly accept criticisms that my administration did not fully address public concerns about mad cow disease. I deeply apologize to the people.”
(Source: dongA.com, May 23, 2008)
Lee Myung-bak, Korean President, apologizing to the Korean people for the controversy over resuming U.S. beef imports.
PS: Now what about the deal we had?

Talking about…Ethanol, Downers, Korea, Animal welfare, the Pew Commission

2008-05-04T21:06:00.000-05:00

"The price of grain is now directly tied to the price of oil. We used to have a grain economy and a fuel economy. But now they're beginning to fuse."
(Source: Washington Post/MSNBC.com, April 30, 2008)
Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute, a Washington research group

"He's serious about addressing the issue. There's no position being taken right now."
(Source: Riverside, CA Press-Enterprise, April 30, 2008)
Chris Connelly,Agriculture Department spokesman, speaking a strange language called ‘inside the beltway bureaucratese, the mumbo/jumbo dialect’ while explaining Ag Secretary Ed Schafer’s position on the No Downers issue.
>PS: With the major trade associations finally agreeing that allowing downers to enter the food chain is a really bad idea, Connelly reports “Schafer is mulling a ban as he awaits the results of a federal investigation and audit now being conducted by the Agriculture Department's Office of Inspector General.”
>PPS: It’s no longer a ‘mullable’ issue. Mr. Schafer; it’s an issue of reclaiming public trust.

"The food and feed people are beginning to realize what it means to have subsidies and tax breaks for the ethanol plants. They weren't alert to this particular issue. They now are entering a period of active lobbying against the corn-based ethanol people."
(Source: CNNMoney.com, May 2, 2008)
James Thurber, a professor of political science at American University in Washington, D.C., talking about two industries that got caught with their pants down on the effects of diverting corn to ethanol.
>PS: They’re hitching up their pants and getting down to some serious business.

"With the logic that people should be able to eat cheap beef, the government deserted people's right to health only to stabilize its power. The Grand National Party called the candlelight vigils an anti-American, anti-government, leftist conspiracy, which is an insult to the people and an attack on common sense."
(Source: Yonhap News, Korea, May 4, 2008)
Rep. Cha Young, spokesman for the opposition United Democratic Party, attacking the Korean government’s decision to open their market to U.S. beef.
>PS: About 7,000 people showed up Saturday night for a candlelight vigil at the Cheonggye stream in downtown Seoul to protest the decision.

“Whatever the reasons for foot-dragging may be, they are small potatoes compared to the serious threats animal activists present right now. It's high time that producer-leaders of commodity associations individually and collectively decide to be proactive in ways that yield a strong chance for success.”
(Source: Feedstuffs Foodliunk, April 25, 2008)
Dr. Stanley Curtis, a professor with the University of Illinois and one of the nation's leading authorities on animal welfare, writing about the need for the animal ag industry to get its collective act together.

“Many livestock feeders are losing equity, some are having difficulty obtaining operating financing from lending institutions, and others are simply getting out of the business of feeding livestock.”
(Source: North Platte Bulletin, April 30, 2008)
Keith Olsen, Nebraska Farm Bureau President, talking about the farm crisis caused by soaring feed costs and stagnating product demand.
>PS: He said cattle feeders are losing $200 to $300 per animal, pork producers are losing up to $60 per animal.

Point:
"Bottom line - there's been a very clever marketing disinformation campaign directed at biofuels by those with deep pockets. If you really want to know who the real axe murderer is that's slashing our grocery food budget, look at $4.00 a gallon gasoline; look at $120 a barrel oil."
Rick Tolman, National Corn Growers Association CEO, at last Wednesday's National Press Club telling reporters corn-based ethanol had been the victim of aggressive and well-funded smear tactics by its opponents.
Counterpoint:
"We urge you and your colleagues to continue examining food-to-fuel mandates in the context of national and global priorities. We must quickly transition toward supporting solutions that don’t pit our energy needs against our food needs."
Patrick Boyle, American Meat Institute CEO, in a letter also signed by the National Meat Association and others, urging congress to reconsider the federal decision to fund the ethanol industry.
(Source: Brownfield Network, May 1, 2008)

Point:
"Retreat from biofuels is wrong; it's dangerous, it's a mistake. It won't fill anybody's stomach and won't fill any gas tanks."
Patricia Woertz, ADM chairwoman and CEO, making a passionate defense of the ethanol industry that has been a major contributor to the company’s bottom line.
>PS: ADM saw its financial gas tank filled with a 42% increase in its quarterly profit, to $517 million, amid its shrewd maneuvers in the grain market.
Counterpoint:
"In 2007, ethanol production will replace only 3 percent of U.S. oil imports. The fact is we can't grow enough corn in this country to make a dent in our petroleum dependency."
Richard Bond, Tyson Foods CEO, questioning the wisdom of investing in a form of energy that ‘will never displace oil's role in the economy.’
>PS: Proving the price of chicken feed isn’t exactly chicken feed, anymore, Tyson was clobbered by a $5 million quarterly loss mostly caused by higher feed costs.
PPS: In this food vs. fuel controversy, you can never go wrong if you just ‘Follow the money!’
(Source: Chicago Tribune, May 1, 2008)>

“One of the most serious unintended consequences of industrial food animal production is the growing public health threat of these types of facilities. There is increasing urgency to chart a new course in agriculture, which has been shifting over the last 50 years from family farms to large livestock meat producers.”(Source: Kansas City Star, April 28, 2008))
Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production report, trying to plow under a century’s worth of progress in making agriculture more efficient.
>PS: Sorry, but after reading all the news about food riots and a greater number of the world’s population suffering from the real public health threat - ‘food insecurity,’ a federally-sponsored euphemism for ‘facing imminent starvation,’ I think the report was ill-timed, ill-advised and dead wrong.
>PPS: The Commission would have been better off to issue a report on the new efficiencies needed to produce and transport more food at an even lower cost per unit.

Jolley: Talking About…Aussie-Korea FTA, PETA, Farm Bill

2008-04-29T23:13:00.001-05:00

"We have obtained significant market advantage. Presumably (lifting the ban) will have some impact in that area. It's imperative that Australia strikes a deal with parity of access otherwise we will be placed at a clear disadvantage."
(Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, April 21, 2008)
David Inall, executive director of the Cattle Council of Australia, talking about the recent U.S./Korea agreement to lift the ban on American beef.
>PS: To remain competitive, Inall urges an Aussie/Korea free trade agreement ASAP.
>PPS: So about a year ago, did I hear someone say that when the U.S. regained access to the S. Korean market the Aussies would be sent packing?

“You are not going to market the 2009 crop the way you marketed the 2007 crop. You may never market grain that way again.”
(Source: New York Times, April 22, 2008)
Robert E. Young II, chief economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, talking about the demise of the commodities system and the growing distrust of the C.B.O.T. way of doing business.
>PS: Here’s an outrageous thought: Will we soon be marketing corn by the barrel alongside Nigerian crude?

"Japan, the Philippines, [South] Korea, Taiwan -- they all came in with huge orders, and no matter how high prices go, they keep on buying, We have never seen anything like this before. Prices are going up more in one day than they have during entire years in the past. But no matter the price, there always seems to be a buyer. This isn't just any commodity. It is food, and people need to eat."
(Source: Washington Post, April 27, 2008)
Jeff Voge, chairman of the Kansas City Board of Trade and an independent trader, talking about the unprecedented worldwide demand for grain.
>PS: Panicked foreign buyers are stockpiling, ordering U.S. grain at up to triple normal amounts as food riots erupt in third world countries.

“As I talked and listened to people outside our industry, I realized people don’t know of the high losses we are facing with no end in sight. Everyone that is in the livestock industry is struggling with record high production costs, with feed costs at prices that we have never experienced — so collectively I am hoping we can come up with ideas that may help us through these trying times.”
(Source: Farm News, April 26, 2008)
Mitch Truebenbach, hog producer and owner of Agri Swine Alliance Inc., talking about the crisis that’s hurting the entire North American hog industry.
>PS: Let’s be honest. It really is a food vs fuel problem – the price of a barrel of crude AND the price paid by converting food crops to ethanol are twin problems that threaten world order.

“If these PETA nuts are only showering 18 times a year, we have a new reason PETA stinks.”
(Source: New York Times, April 22, 2008)
David Martosko, director of research at the Center for Consumer Freedom, talking about PETA’s nude shower stunt on Times Square.
PS: An hour long shower was supposed to persuade people to go vegetarian. All it did was bring out the spring ‘peepers’ who brought along cell phone cameras to record the silliness.

“We are disgusted by the conventional meat industry in this country, which raises animals — especially chicken and pigs — in inhumane confinement systems that cause significant environmental damage. There is every reason to change the way meat is produced, to make it more ethical, more humane.”
(Source: New York Times, April 23, 2008)
Unsigned editorial discussing PETA’s million dollar bounty for producing commercially viable test tube chicken.
>PS: Time-after-time, the New York Times proves many of their contributors still dismiss everything west of the Hudson as crude ‘fly-over country’ when the realities of the modern food delivery system don’t match their Disneyland approach to filling the grocery cart.
>PPS: Porky Pig as a slab of bacon and some country ham? Say it ain’t so! Has anybody seen Donald Duck lately?
>PPPS: Sorry, ‘we’ are mad as hell about the not so subtle inference by ‘Mr. Unsigned Editorial’ that people involved in meat production are less than ethical.

“With record farm income, now is not the time for Congress to ask other sectors of the economy to pay higher taxes in order to increase the size of government. The proposal would increase spending by at least $16 billion, masked in part by budgetary gimmicks and funded in part by additional tax revenues. I therefore call on Congress to provide our agricultural producers with the certainty to make sound business and planting decisions about this year's crop by extending current law for at least one year.”
(Source: White House press release, April 22. 2008)
G.W. Bush, President of the United States, sharing his opinion of the House and Senate’s farm bill efforts.
>PS: Mike Johanns bailed on it months ago, now Bush seems eager to hand it off to the next POTUS. Maybe they know something stinks inside the beltway?

"Allowing the current rule to remain in force could ultimately undermine the confidence of U.S. consumers and foreign customers, in markets that are proving difficult to reopen in the first place."
(Source: FoxNews.com, April 22, 2008)
J. Patrick Boyle, AMI President and CEO, explaining his group’s decision to finally get behind the ‘no-downer’ rule.
>PS: Thank you, Mr. Boyle, for leading the way on this one. The lengthy and misguided fight by various trade associations against the ban has hurt the industry’s image with consumers here and abroad.

"Japan, the Philippines, [South] Korea, Taiwan -- they all came in with huge orders, and no matter how high prices go, they keep on buying, We have never seen anything like this before. Prices are going up more in one day than they have during entire years in the past. But no matter the price, there always seems to be a buyer. This isn't just any commodity. It is food, and people need to eat."
(Source: Washington Post, April 27, 2008)
Jeff Voge, chairman of the Kansas City Board of Trade and an independent trader, talking about the unprecedented worldwide demand for grain.
>PS: Panicked foreign buyers are stockpiling, ordering U.S. grain at up to triple normal amounts as food riots erupt worldwide.

"Bulgogi Korean barbecue is like the cheeseburger in the United States. We're thrilled to get that market back."
(Source: TradingMarkets.com, April 27, 2008)
Gregg Doud, chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, expressing unbridled glee at regained market access.

Talking about...Corn, ethanol, farm bill, Korea, YouTube

2008-04-23T22:44:00.001-05:00

"If you're going to compare corn prices today with past years, you've got to allow for inflation," he explains. "For example, in mid-1984, corn at the farm gate sold for $3.05 in Iowa – but it would take $6.27 in today's dollars to equal that. In 1981, Iowa corn sold as high as $3.21 per bushel, which would be $7.98 today."
(Source: Wallaces Farmer, April 14, 2008)
Julius Schaaf, chair of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, refuting claims about "record" corn prices.

“Ethanol is the one thing we can do something about. It’s about the only lever we have to pull, but none of the politicians have the courage to pull the lever.”
(Source: New York Times, April 15, 2008)
C. Ford Runge, an economist at the University of Minnesota, saying there was little that could be done to mitigate the effect of droughts and the growing appetite for protein in developing countries but backing off the push to produce more ethanol would help.

"We simply have an inability for the House and Senate to agree on what a farm bill would encompass."
(Source: The Chicago Daily Herald)
Ed Schafer, USDA Secretary talking to a group of Illinois farmers at an Elgin farm.

"There's no progress at all and the meeting is going nowhere at the moment because the two sides are so different in terms of what they are asking of each other."
(Source: Reuters, April 14, 2008)
Min Dong-seok, Korea’s deputy farm minister, telling reporters that an open marketplace for U.S. beef is still a long way off.

"This is an operation targeting specific individuals who are suspected of engaging in identity theft. Pilgrim's Pride cooperated fully with our execution of today's operation."
(Source: The Dallas Morning News, April 16, 2008)
Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, talking about the raid on five Pilgrim’s Pride plants that netted about 400 arrests.
>PS: Cooperated fully? Where have I heard that before?
>PPS: Let’s hope Pilgrim’s Pride hasn’t been ‘Swift’ boated here.

"We've gone, I think, too far. The government should let the free market decide if our food should be used for fuel or food. If it should be used for fuel, and the public wants fuel more than they want food, the market will decide."
(Source: Minnesota Public Radio, April 16, 2008)
Bob Taubert, Minnesota hog famer, saying the government should let a free market decide how corn should be used.
>PS: Hog farmers say they’re losing up to $30 per animal due to the artificially high price of corn.

"We are launching this YouTube Channel with a three-part video that features Dr. Temple Grandin and other members of our Animal Welfare Committee. We will soon add new videos on other timely topics so that we can enhance our relationship with the 95 percent of Americans who enjoy our products."
(Source: Meatingplace.com, April 18, 2008)
J. Patrick Boyle, CEO of the American Meat Institute, announcing a new communications initiative during his testimony at a House hearing.
>PS: At last, the meat industry has a vehicle that will allow it to go nose-to-nose with its critics.
>PPS: They’ve given us a few bloody noses recently, can we return the favor?

Talking about...Hormones, Farm bill, WTO, $6 corn, JBS Swift

2008-04-07T21:03:00.000-05:00

"It is high time for the E. U. to come into compliance with its obligations.”
Susan Schwab, US Trade Representative, calling the WTO decision on a long-running trans-Atlantic trade spat over hormone-treated cattle an "important victory" for the US livestock industry.
AND
“This government is standing up for Canadian farm families at home and around the world. This ruling once again shows that Canada is playing by the rules and delivering safe, healthy food to markets around the world.”
Gerry Ritz, Canadian Agriculture Minister, hailing the WTO ruling.
(Source: Cal Trade Report, April 2, 2008)
>PS: It’s good to see the U.S. and Canada on the same side of the cattle fence for a change.
>PPS: Let’s not start the celebration, yet. Despite the WTO ruling, it’s the E.U. consumer who will make the final decision.

"The findings confirm the principle that measures imposed for health reasons must be based on science. It is high time for the EU to come into compliance with its obligations on this matter.”
(Source: AFP, March 31, 2008)
Susan Schwab, US Trade Representative, talking about the WTO ruling that struck down the EU ban on American and Canadian beef treated with growth hormones, deeming it an "important victory for all US farmers and ranchers.”
>PS: It’s a victory ONLY if E.U. consumers are willing to buy hormone-treated North American beef.
PPS: Really want to sell beef to those persnickety Europeans? Here’s an acronym for you: NHTC.

“We’ve got to keep urban support in the House of Representatives to get a farm bill through and that urban support is going to be weakened when people find out that 10 percent of the biggest farmers are getting 73 percent of the benefits out of the farm program.”
(Source: Brownfield Network, April 1, 2008)
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), still optimistic about a new farm bill by April 18.
>PS: Is he just whistling through the graveyard?

"Food prices are rising twice as fast as inflation, placing significant pressure on American families who are already suffering from economic uncertainty. It's time for Congress and the administration to offer families some relief and stop food inflation.”
(Source: Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2008)
Scott Faber, spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, ‘viewing with alarm’ the recent USDA estimate that this year’s corn crop would be about 8% lower than 2007.
>PS: I don’t care what the ethanol folks say, it really IS a food vs fuel debate.

“Higher corn prices is [sic] going to affect meat prices. If you're feeding with $6 corn, you'll definitely have some (cost) pressure.”
(Source: Business Media, April 4, 2008)
Elaine Kub, a grains analyst with Data Transmission Network talking about $6 corn with the Associated Press.
>PS: $6 corn? Seems like only a few months ago. We were worrying about $4 corn and prime Iowa farmland going for $4,000 an acre. We blew past both those price points in a hurry, didn’t we?

Point:
"It's a continuation of a bad trend we've been dealing with in not only agriculture, but in a lot of industries that have been trending toward bigger and fewer companies. The main problem is a lack of competition. If you had competitive markets, you could have smaller players re-injecting an accurate price into the system quite easily and effectively."
Dan Teigen of the Western Organization of Resource Councils, warning of a loss of competition and its effects on Montana cattle ranchers if the JBS Swift purchase is OK’d by the Department of Justice.
Counterpoint:
"We've reached out to the Montana stockgrowers, and we've already told them we would love to bring our senior management to meet with anybody in Montana anytime to talk about JBS's vision. We're ready to do that."
Chandler Keys, a JBS spokesman, assuring cattlemen that they have nothing to worry about.
(Source: Billings Gazette, April 1, 2008)
>PS: Keys also said the feds generally approve any change on the competitive scene as lon as at least three competitors are left standing.
PPS: His opinion is borne out by history. Get used to a new cattle business industry landscape.

Talking about...Self regulation, HSUS, JBS, Hallmark

2008-03-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

Point:
"The video of the Hallmark plant is evidence of what can happen when packing plants are left to police themselves without the government oversight they need. When the company is in charge of creating their own records and doing their own food safety checks, they're not going to find problems themselves"
Trent Berhow, the Vice-Chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Safety Inspection Locals.
Counterpoint:
"Clearly, what we have in Hallmark/Westland is an anomaly, an extreme circumstance. I don't think it requires a systematic change in how we run our plants or how government inspectors monitor them.”
J. Patrick Boyle, president and chief executive officer of the American Meat Institute, in a conference call with reporters.
(Source: Baltimore Sun, March 3, 2008)

"We specifically did not give this information much in advance to the USDA. If it had been given to USDA in advance and they excused the behavior and shut them down for a half a day or a day … that would have been an unacceptable outcome."
(Source: Meatingplace.com, March 3, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, HSUS CEO excusing his 4 month lapse of good judgment in an interview with Meatingplace.com.
>PS: He was making a point that his assumption of unacceptable behavior by the USDA excuses actual unacceptable behavior by HSUS.
>PPS: And no one spoke up for thousands of animals that went through the Hallmark plant from October, 2007 until the end of January, 2008.

“Consider again the time frame: the Humane Society investigator began shooting film in early October. If what he saw was really a danger to the food supply, didn’t he and Mr. Pacelle have a responsibility to bring it to the federal government immediately? Instead, the undercover investigator stayed on site for another six weeks. Even then, the federal government didn’t learn of the video until it was leaked to The Post at the end of January — nearly two months later.”
(Source: New York Times, March 8, 2008)
Joe Nocera, questioning the motives behind the delay in Wayne Pacelle’s recent activities.
>PS: His motive, Joe, was simply pandering to the press.

"That's how I was taught. He taught me to do the work. I didn't know it was serious crime.”
(Source: The San Bernardino Sun, March 6, 2008)
Luis Sanchez Herrera in Spanish at the Adelanto Detention Center.
>PS: Daniel Ugarte Navarro, Sanchez Herrera’s supervisor, said the methods he used were taught to him by one of the owners of the company.

"As the CEO of the company with the dubious distinction of being responsible for America's largest meat recall, it is important the committee hear Mr. Mendell's perspective"
(Source: The Press-Enterprise, March 3, 2008)
Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, politely saying Hallmark’s president – and one of the owners of the company - will be coerced into testifying.
>PS: The subcommittee held a business meeting Wednesday morning and voted unanimously to authorize a subpoena ordering Mendell to testify at a March 12 hearing titled "Regulatory Failure: Must America Live With Unsafe Food?".

"These phone calls were never returned by Mr. Mendell, his company, or counsel. In the only instance in which committee staff was able to speak with Mr. Mendell, Mr. Mendell told committee staff he would contact the staff later that day with his attorney. Almost two weeks later, the committee is still awaiting his call."
(Source: The Press-Enterprise, March 5,2008)
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), said at least 15 attempts were made to reach Mendell between Feb. 19 and Feb. 25.
>PS: Stonewalling a congressional committee is NOT a wise PR or legal maneuver. It’s time for Mendell to ‘cowboy up’ and take some responsibility.

"The industry lost billions of dollars because of the mad cow case in 2003 because we had this permissive policy with downers. I am absolutely confounded as to why the industry is prepared to assume this level of risk for the very minimal financial return from slaughtering downers."
(Source: Washington Post. March 9, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, CEO, HSUS, making a particularly sharp-edged point
>PS: Does risking the good name of a multi-billion dollar industry over a paltry few nickels and dimes make any kind of sense?

“JBS is about to rewrite the history of the U.S. beef processing industry. Arguably, this is the most significant change in beef processing in the U.S., the structure of it, in a hundred years or more.”
(Source: Kansas City Star, March 6, 2008)
Steve Kay, editor of Cattle Buyers Weekly, making a bold statement about the long term effects of a bold move by JBS.
>PS: Adding National and Smithfield to their Swift holdings, JBS is consolidating a North American industry that many think is already over-consolidated. What will the Feds say?

"Time and time again, cattle producers have had to watch helplessly as the multinational meatpackers manipulate the cattle market for their own benefit, and additional concentration among the packers likely will reduce even more the number of cattle operations in the United States,"
(Source: Rapid City Journal, March 5, 2008)
Randy Stevenson, regional director for R-CALF USA, suggesting the organization might contest Department of Justice approval of the JBS purchase.

"I’ve been pressing the Justice Department about consolidation in agriculture, but the department doesn’t appear to think there is a problem. Quite honestly, I don’t know how much longer they can continue to let these mergers slide by. Now producers will only have three major beef packers to sell their livestock to. Is it going to take only one packer in the industry for the Justice Department to say there isn’t competition?"
(Source: MeatPoultry.com, March 6, 2008)
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) expressing concern about the recent JBS buying spree in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett.
>PS: So Mr. Batista thinks his shopping habits won’t create some heartburn on the Hill? Time to hire some of Washington’s best spin meisters.

"We believe consolidation is necessary in beef packing, given only 80 per cent or so utilization with reduced export markets, too much capacity bidding too much for live cattle, therefore depressing packing margins."
(Source: Canadian Press, March 5, 2008)
Eric Katzman, Deutsche Bank-North America analyst, in a note to investors about the JBS purchase.
>PS: Whose margins get depressed now, Mr. Katzman? And when do we have to start discussing monopoly?
>PPS: A lesson from my Econ 101 class, Mr. Katzman: Market control by one or a few is a key source of inefficiency unless you’re just looking at the next quarter’s P & L.

“This is not proprietary information. This is information that is directly engaged in the health and safety of the American people, which we have a responsibility, along with you, to protect.”
(Source: NWA News, March 7, 2008)
Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), telling Richard Raymond, the USDA’s food-safety chief, at a congressional hearing that the House would push ‘very hard’ for a list of outlets that received meat from Hallmark.
>PS: Packers claim the lists are proprietary information.
>PPS: The recall was a Class 2, meaning it wasn’t caused by food safety issues, making it a dodged bullet…so far. Most of the facts are not in.
>PPS: It’s information that should be released on a ‘need to know’ basis and the public needs to know.

“Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe. But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”
(Source: New York Times, March 9, 2008)
Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago agricultural consultancy, warning of ever higher prices for food and hinting at a golden age for farmers.
>PS: Farmers might have to make more trips to the bank to deposit additional income from their grain (and grain-fed) crops.
>PPS: Consumers might have to make more trips to the bank to find money so they can pay their grocery bills.

Talking about...The Hallmark Incident

2008-02-24T08:28:00.000-06:00

“We have suspended operations at 65 slaughter plants. Twelve of those suspensions were for egregious humane animal handling violations. While it’s not a huge number, it is a number that is troublesome.”
(Source: porkalert eMagazine, February 18, 2008)
Kenneth Petersen, USDA assistant administrator, Office of Field Operations, signaling heightened enforcement of humane handling standards at the Animal Handling Conference.
>PS: He said most of the 12 suspensions for animal handling violations were small or very small plants.

"I don’t see any way we could reopen. If the USDA wants payment back, we're dead meat. We're done. There's no way we could pay it all back."
(Source: Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2008)
Anthony Magidow, Hallmark General Manager, in a late Friday telephone interview from the meatpacker's plant in Chino, CA.
>PS: And with the closing of their doors, let’s hope that it also brings any hint of animal abuse in this industry to an absolute end. It’s a door that must be permanently closed.

"Sitting here today, I cannot tell you how many locations the product has gone to. Our focus is identifying the locations and making sure the product is under control."
(Source: Washington Post, February 22, 2008)
Kenneth Peterson of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service talking about efforts to trace the missing 15 million pounds of recalled beef still in the school lunch program.
>PS: The meat poses ‘little or no hazard’ say the feds? Most parents are going to focus on the ‘little’ part of that statement. Doesn’t that mean there is some risk?
>PPS: After all, what’s the risk of the equivalent of 60 million untraceable quarter pounders floating around out there?
>PPPS: By the numbers:
(1). 50 million pounds went to school foodservice
(2). 20 million pounds already consumed
(3). 15 million pounds on hold at storage facilities
(4). 15 million pounds still missing
>PPPPS: And I know the recalled meat isn’t a food safety issue. It’s more important. It’s a consumer confidence issue.

"Consumers are losing confidence in USDA's ability to ensure the meat they eat is safe."
Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, sounding the alarm.
>PS: Maybe she saw the Associated Press survey that showed slightly more than half of the respondents no longer believed their food was safe?
>PPS: An ever rising percentage of Americans no longer believe that old saw, “Our food supply is the safest in the world.” They no longer agree that it’s “among the safest in the world.” So can we stop regurgitating the phrase until we can once again prove it?

The Associated Press finds that the government hasn't stepped up inspections since last year's E. coli scare. In light of the news, do you feel your food is safe?

Yes.........26%
No..........51%
Not sure....23%

Hallmark/Westland: Largest Recall Ever
Meat Consumption Projected to Decline through 2017
(Source: porkalert eMagazine, February 18, 2008)
Awkwardly successive headlines
>PS: E. coli last year, animal welfare this year. Let’s hope against hope that this unintentional headline juxtaposition doesn’t describe a ‘cause and effect.’

"How much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?"
(Source: Washington Post, February 18, 2008)
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, calling on the USDA to get tough with its inspection requirements.
>PS: The USDA issued 20 meat recalls last year, including one of more than 20 million pounds, and slammed Hallmark with the record-setting 143 million pound recall.

“This recall is not an isolated case – it is yet another troubling reminder that our food supply is at risk. Each year, tens of millions of Americans contract food-borne illnesses every year; hundreds of thousands are hospitalized; and thousands die. And the risks are only growing.”
(Source: PRNewsChannel, February 19, 2008)
Hillary Clinton (D-NY) becoming the first presidential candidate to weigh in on the recall.
>PS: It’s an election year. They’ll all hazard an opinion.

"A recall of this staggering scale shows it's bad for animals, bad for consumers and bad for business to have slipshod enforcement and porous laws when it comes to handling animals at slaughter plants."
(Source: The Independent, London, U.K., February 19, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, HSUS C.E.O., applauding the recall, saying it sent an unmistakable message to other meat processing companies.
>PS: Loud and painfully clear to every bad actor in the business.
>PPS: The writer put the 143 million pound recall in perspective by noting that it was enough meat to feed two hamburgers to every man, woman and child in the U.S.

"Our food safety system should not have to depend on a non-government organization to unearth violations of the law.”
(Source: CNN.com, February 22, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, HSUS CEO, reacting to Ag Secretary Ed Schafer’s charge that the Humane Society shoulders part of the blame for the abuse at Hallmark.
>PS: I agree. And we shouldn’t have to rely on any organization – government orr non-government – to fritter away valuable time while figuring out what to do with obviously incriminating evidence.
>PPS: Correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t the tape taken in October and held back throughout the months of November and December before they released it to the S.L.O. D.A.?
>PPS: One annoyed side-line commentator told me that if the HSUS was going to throw this load of well-aged meadow muffins at the USDA, they needed to look at their own hands afterwards. Maybe a little of it got on ‘em?

"The failure of the inspection program to stop the company's egregious behavior is just another sign of how USDA's thousands of meat inspectors are locked into a rigid, antiquated form of inspection that is not filling the bill on either food safety or animal welfare."
(Source: Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2008)
Mike Taylor, former Agriculture Department food-safety official, now a research professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health.
>PS: Sensible observers have been saying it for years. Our inspection system needs a significant overhaul to work in an increasingly complex 21st century. How big of a failure do we need to make the point obvious to even the densest of politicians?

“It was so blatant, so commonplace. It was so in your face. They were pushing animals we felt never should have qualified for human consumption.”
(Source: Kansas City Star, February 19, 2008)
Deep undercover HSUS informant and vegan, interviewed by L.A. Times reporters from an undisclosed location, talking about his experiences as an employee at Hallmark.
>PS: USDA officials have stated there is no evidence that the animals entered the food chain.
>PPS: It’s time to wake up and smell the cattle feces, guys. Those workers were NOT noble men wearing white hats.

"The USDA is very adamant in saying there are inspectors continuously at the facility, and that's absolutely correct. But that can mean a whole range of things, and it doesn't necessarily mean there is anyone watching the slaughter."(Source: Sacramento Bee, February 21, 2008)
Deep Undercover HSUS Informant who infiltrated the Hallmark plant and took the video, talking about his experiences.
>PS: USDA records show that federal inspectors spent an average of 90 minutes a day at the plant on routine checks to ensure animals were handled humanely.

“This recall raises a whole host of issues, and the disclosure of retail outlets involved is certainly one of them. It’s another unfortunate episode of all talk and no action, and certainly something we will discuss with [the Food Safety and Inspection Service] at our hearing next week.”
(Source: CQ Politics, February 20, 2008)
Herb Kohl (D-WI).Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman, who has scheduled a food safety hearing for Feb. 28.
>PS: Consumers Union joined other interest groups in urging Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer for an immediate change in policy that would identify specific retail outlets where recalled meat and poultry products were sold.

"Food safety ought to be of a high enough priority in this nation that we have a single agency that deals with it and not an agency that is responsible for promoting a product, selling a product and then as an afterthought dealing with how our food supply is safe."
(Source: International Herald Tribune, February 20, 2008)
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) chair of the House subcommittee responsible for the USDA's funding, speaking at a press conference about the Hallmark recall.

“Senator Richard Durbin and Representative Rosa DeLauro have a more ambitious idea: creating a single, powerful agency to oversee all food safety, instead of the current bureaucratic tangle of inspectors, some for vegetables, some for beef and some for imports. Right now the Agriculture Department oversees the safety of the home-grown beef supply (while also promoting the cattle industry) and the Food and Drug Administration monitors the safety of cattle feed. With Americans increasingly — and legitimately — mistrustful of the food they eat, their proposal is worth serious consideration.”
(Source: New York Times, February 21, 2008)
Unsigned editorial urging a complete overhaul of the U.S food inspection system.

And NYT readers responded with these statements
“Of course, the guilty (of animal abuse) should be severely punished--not surprisingly, many are undocumented workers who do as they're told for fear of being fired and/or deported. It's the owners/managers/corporations responsible who should serve the most jail time.” (Eric Mills, California)

“The editorial is well meaning. But before enacting more controls, a complete investigation should be conducted and a careful and thoughtful analysis of corrective actions be made. After all our food safety is still very good.” (TEK, NY)

“If the US Department of Agriculture wants to help US agriculture, then it has to do everything in its power to insure that the nation's home produced food supply is safe. All it takes is several necessary large scale recalls like this one before one or more of our key trading partners and WTO members decide that the US food supply is under inspected, under regulated and under protected and simply ban US agricultural products from their borders.” (Blacklight, New York City)

Talking about…Farm bill, Cloning, Cattle futures, Biofuels, Animal abuse, Fried chicken

2008-02-10T19:44:00.001-06:00

“We continue to express our concerns to the U.S. Congress. Specifically, the government is concerned with the level of support provided to certain industries. We question some of the programs that tend to mask market signals and create incentives to overproduce.”
(Source: Country-Guide Canada, February 4, 2008)
Stephen Lavergne, director of U.S. trade advocacy for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, talking about the U.S. farm bill and the possibility that it might invite W.T.O. sanctions in its current form.
>PS: If we want to compete in the international marketplace, we might have to follow international rules and regs.

"I'm confident we can come together and get a good farm bill. But if Congress sends me legislation that raises taxes or (does) not make needed reforms, I'm going to veto it."
(Source: Reuters, February 6, 2008)
George W. Bush telling government employees in an appearance at the U.S. Agriculture Department that there is little room for compromise.
>PS: Bush was speaking at a ceremony marking the arrival of new Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer. Schafer, former governor of North Dakota, now has a tough row to hoe – getting the Mike Johanns abandoned farm bill passed.

“We'll find a better way of resolving it if we have the support of the new Secretary of Agriculture, that he's able to make the commitment that his predecessor didn't make and that is to see that the job gets done."
(Source: Brownfield Network, February 6, 2008)
Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) suggesting that maybe Mike Johanns is guilty of an old political ploy called ‘duck and cover.’
PS: When asked to clarify, Nelson said "If the shoe fits, people have to wear it." Mr. Johanns, what’s your shoe size?

“Not a lot of ranchers are huge Star Trek fans. It’s an interesting, philosophical discussion.”
(Source: Flathead, MT. Beacon, February 6, 2008)
Jeremy Seidlitz, executive director of the Montana Cattlemen’s Association, talking about cloned cattle.
>PS: Computer, a cheeseburger, please.

"We have about 20 percent excess packing capacity. We are likely to continue to see some further closures of capacity in North America. I think you will see more (closures) this year."
(Source: Reuters, February 6, 2008)
Randy Blach, executive vice president of Cattle-Fax, talking with a reporter about the recent Tyson plant closure at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association annual convention in Reno, Nevada.
>PS: If you’re in the cattle business, all the rules are changing…all the time.

“While it is important to analyze the climate change consequences of differing energy strategies, we must all remember where we are today, how world demand for liquid fuels is growing, and what the realistic alternatives are to meet those growing demands. Biofuels like ethanol are the only tool readily available that can begin to address the challenges of energy security and environmental protection.”
(Source: New York Times, February 8, 2008)
Bob Dineen, Renewable Fuels Association director responding to two scientific studies that claim renewable fuels are an ecological disaster. “Simplistic,” he said and it failed “to put the issue into context.”
>PS: Joseph Fargione, lead author of the one of the studies and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy, summed up his findings by saying, “So for the next 93 years you’re making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions.”

"The land we're likely to plow up is the land that we've had taking up carbon for decades. We can't get to a result, no matter how heroically we make assumptions on behalf of corn ethanol, where it will actually generate greenhouse-gas benefits."
(Source: Washington Post, February 8, 2008)
Tim Searchinger, who conducted the other study at Princeton said the research he and his colleagues did is the first to reveal the hidden environmental cost of producing biofuels.
>PS: Hey, Bobby, should we ignore the elephant in the room because we need the fertilizer it generates today?

"It is unfortunate that one instance can give the industry, not just the dairy industry, but give the cattle industry as a whole a black eye. It's just an action that we certainly condemn. We are very concerned about how our animals are treated while they are in our care and would like to see that carried on as they go through the production chain, including the harvest facility."(Source: Capital Press, February 8, 2008)
Bill Moore, president of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association, making a statement about the Hallmark incident that everyone in the industry can/should support.

Point:
"The Humane Society, since late October, has been willing to let animals suffer out there, rather than notify USDA immediately of the abuses.”
(Source: Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2008)
Ed Schafer, USDA Secretary, chastising the Humane Society of the U.S. for sitting on the video for months.
Counterpoint:
"It's USDA's responsibility to prevent this abuse. USDA personnel were on site and they are the ones who are paid with American tax dollars to prevent this appalling cruelty."
(Source: Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president and CEO calling Schafer's statement, “an astonishing and outrageous comment.”
>PS: The award for the most ‘astonishing and outrageous’ inaction goes to the HSUS for not blowing the whistle immediately. No excuses.

"If the state legislature moves forward with this one, then they should change Kentucky's state bird from the cardinal to the debeaked, crippled, scalded, diseased, dead chicken.”
(Source: Lexington, KY Herald-Leader, February 8, 2008)
Bruce Friedrich, PETA vice president, playing the drama queen card in a comment about a Kentucky bill that wants to name fried chicken the state’s official picnic food.
>PS: Brucie continues his long history of over-the-top, chewing-the-scenery histrionics, worthy of a third-rate Shakespearian actor.

Talking about…Hallmark’s Animal abuse, Ethanol, Food-borne illness

2008-02-03T09:49:00.000-06:00

"This must serve as a five-alarm call to action for Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Our government simply must act quickly both to guarantee the most basic level of humane treatment for farm animals and to protect America's most vulnerable people -- our children, needy families and the elderly -- from the potentially dangerous food."
(Source: CNN.com, January)
Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society of the United States president, belatedly raising the alarm over alleged animal abuse.
>PS: Wayne, you waited patiently for two months to raise a general alarm? I expect the feds will react with greater speed. The USDA, in its news release, rightly said it was "unfortunate" the Humane Society "did not present this information to us when these alleged violations occurred in the fall of 2007."
>PPS: Let me issue an open invitation to everyone at Hallmark and Westland - the alleged perps and their partners-in-crime company - to attend the Animal Care and Handling Conference in Kansas City, February 14-15. Maybe you can claim the time as Community Service. Click here for more information. Please come well-disguised. Temple Grandin will be there and she won’t be happy.

"These were not rogue employees secretly doing these things. This is the pen manager and his assistant doing this right in the open." (Source: Washington Post, January 30, 2008)
Anonymous HSUS investigator talking in a telephone interview about the videotape of extreme animal abuse allegedly taken at Hallmark Meat Packing.
>PS: The videotape was taken in October and just released by the investigator and Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society. Doesn’t sitting on something this long make them accomplices in the abuse?
>PPS: Here is the rogue’s gallery of sinners in this deal –
(1) The folks at Hallmark who are hands-on guilty of abuse and the rest of management and employees at Hallmark and Westland who were complicit in the abuse.
(2) The San Bernardino county district attorney who received the tape in December and asked the Humane Society not to go public until they ‘had time to assess the information’ and then sat on it for much too long.
(3) The normally media-happy folks at HSUS who claimed they waited – two unforgivably long months - until they thought no action was forthcoming from the D.A.’s office before going public.

“We are shocked, saddened and sickened by what we have seen today. Operations have been immediately suspended until we can meet with all of our employees and be assured these sorts of activities never again happen at our facility.”
(Source: Burbank Leader, February 1, 2008)
Steve Mandell, president and chief executive of Westland Meat Co. and Hallmark Meat Packing, claiming he was astonishingly clueless.
>PS: What’s that old saying? Ignorance of the law is no excuse?

"By lifting the ethanol tariff, we'd end up subsidizing Brazilian ethanol. I can't figure out why Secretary Bodman would want the United States to risk becoming dependent on Brazilian ethanol when we're already dependent on Middle East oil.”
(Source: Meatingplace, January 31, 2008)
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), responding to a statement made by Energy secretary Sam Bodman that the Bush administration "will start to deal with that question" of whether the tariff should be renewed or allowed to expire at the end of this year, according to Reuters.
>PS: Bodman said, "I believe that, the best I can tell, this industry is pretty close to being able to stand on its own"
>PPS: In addition to the import tariff, U.S. ethanol blenders get a separate 51-cent-per-gallon tax credit through 2010 under current law. Chucky, my boy, please get your hand out of my tax-paying pocket. Time to let this industry stand on its own.

“Now we have this whole new question mark about leafy produce and the whole ecological question out there as we grow our leafy greens in the same area where more and more intensively we are producing milk. Wisconsin used to be the biggest dairy state, and California was where we grew produce. Now California is both. And there's also wine production in California, so you have vineyards and cattle and lettuce patches competing for the same land and water. Agriculture is really sort of bumping into each other."
(Source: USA Today. February 1, 2008)
Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the division of food-borne bacterial and mycotic diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trying to explain the increase in food borne illnesses in 2007.
>PS: It’s a fact of life in raising “free range” animals: they poop on the ground, rain falls, E. coli washes over the landscape. &*it happens.

“For the last 3,000 years or so, we asked crop farmers to produce food for people and feed for our livestock. Now suddenly we're asked to produce food for people, feed for our livestock, and fuel for our automobiles. My take on things is this is a watershed once-in-three millennia change that will have implications for all sorts of things.”
(Source: The Prairie Star. February 2, 2008)
Ron Plain, University of Missouri Extension hog economist, talking about ethanol-driven $5 corn changing forever the way we see agriculture.
>PS: Will the cost of an acre of good Iowa farmland start to rival the price of real estate in Manhattan (the Big Apple, that is)?

Talking about...Immigration reform, Ethanol, Horse slaughter, Food safety

2008-01-14T20:58:00.001-06:00

“From a legislative point, both on the state and national level, we have to put forth practical and pragmatic approaches in dealing with this issue (immigration). To do nothing, especially in the agricultural area, that needs a lot of seasonal workers, is going to create a great deal of harm to this industry. In some cases, because of the shortage of seasonal workers for perishable fruits and vegetable crops, U.S. growers are now buying land in Mexico to raise crops once grown in the U.S. but now imported from aboard. If you clamp down, saying this way or no way and more and more of our food is being produced in a foreign country, I don't think that is what Americans want, either.”
(Source: The Grand Island Independent, January 8, 2008)
Rob Robertson, Nebraska Farm Bureau, worrying about the effects of the proposed immigration bill on that state’s agriculture and food businesses.
>PS: Cheap labor=cheap food. Can’t have one without the other.

"If it wasn't for government subsidies, that (ethanol) industry wouldn't work. It's been strongly driven by a political agenda."
(Source: The London [ON] Free Press, January 11, 2008)
Ron Bennett, Ontario feedlot operator, says he's losing at least $300 on each steer sold, with much of the pain coming from near-record corn prices.
>PS: Grass is looking ‘greener’ all the time.

POINT:
“It’s a step closer to the long-term goal of banning slaughter in North America.”(Source: New York Times, January 11, 2008)
Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, expressing delight at the 'death' of the horse slaughter industry in the U.S.
>PS: And highlighting his real long-term agenda.
COUNTERPOINT:
“My worst nightmare has happened. This is an example of well-intentioned but very bad unintended consequences.”
(Source: New York Times, January 11, 2008)
Dr. Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University. responding to the same issue in the same story.
> PS: Temple’s concern was based on reports that workers in some Mexican plants disable horses by stabbing them with knives to sever their spinal cords.

“Now we have this whole new question mark about leafy produce and the whole ecological question out there as we grow our leafy greens in the same area where more and more intensively we are producing milk. Wisconsin used to be the biggest dairy state, and California was where we grew produce. Now California is both. And there's also wine production in California, so you have vineyards and cattle and lettuce patches competing for the same land and water. Agriculture is really sort of bumping into each other."
(Source: U.S> News & World Report, January 14, 2008)
Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the division of foodborne bacterial and mycotic diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pointing to the problem of over-crowded agriculture and the downturn in food safety.
>PS: And then there is the problem caused by vegans eating a ‘healthier’ raw foods diet consisting of veggies grown on the ground – in the dirt. We cook foods for a reason, folks.

“Inflation in the energy field is really doing more to push food prices higher”
(Source: Mason City, IA Globe Gazette, January 13, 2008)
Ron Litterer, Greene area farmer and National Corn Growers Association president isn’t “buying” the corn is driving inflation talk.
>PS: Ron, can we talk about the price of corn doubling to help feed an ethanol industry encouraged by a 51 cent/gallon government production subsidy? Ethanol is an energy source, Ron.

Talking about...Beef, Biofuels, NAIS, International Agriculture

2008-01-07T20:13:00.001-06:00

“We know consumers aren't buying beef for the protein. They buy beef for the tender, juicy flavor compared to competing proteins.”
(Source: Farm and Ranch Guide, January 5, 2008)
Rob Maddock, NDSU professor of meat science, speaking at the North Dakota Stockmen's Association Feeder Council's Beyond the Bunk III, called beef a costly protein; as much as $12.27/pound more than soy protein.
>PS: Munching a handful of soybeans vs dining on a nice filet? Now there’s a no-brainer.

"We think a balance could be met. There are lots of opportunities for agriculture to participate [in the biofuels business] outside of corn alone. When Congress is stuck on just one trick pony, it hurts all of us."
(Source: Biofuels Journal, January 3, 2008)
Jesse Sevcik, vice president, legislative affairs, American Meat Institute, talking about the new energy law which expands the Renewable Fuel Standard to 9 billion gallons of ethanol in 2008, requiring about three billion bushels of corn.
>PS: Jesse, you may be working for a special interest group but you’re opinion is refreshingly non-partisan.

"I have voted to stop the mandatory National Animal Identification System because one of the effects of NAIS could eliminate the family farm and replace family farms with huge corporate farms.”
(Source: Suburban Journal, January 6, 2008)
Rep. Belinda Harris, D-Hillsboro, MO., House Appropriations Committee for Agriculture, talking about her opposition NAIS because she believes it will be an unbearable financial burden for small farms.
>PS: “Could?” Belinda, if you want to fight NAIS and its benefits, you’ll just have to be more committal than that.

Mitt Romney “would develop large-scale renewable energy — ethanol, biodiesel, solar, wind — and increase domestic fuel production, including drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore. Would promote research in energy storage, efficiency, other sources of clean energy.”
John Edwards “more investment in solar, wind and biomass technology; and "clean coal" and carbon storage. Opposes nuclear power and coal-to-liquid investment. Supports raising fuel economy standard to 40 miles per gallon by 2016, helping automakers retool factories, increasing ethanol production, and encouraging transit-oriented development and use of public transportation.”
John McCain “prefers "profit-motive, free-enterprise-system-driven green technologies. Supports use of cleaner coal technology if it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and includes carbon capture and storage. Backs higher vehicle fuel efficiency standards but sets no target. Supports alternative bio-fuels, but not subsidies for ethanol.”
(Source: Hartford Courant, January 6, 2008)
>PS: Several presidential candidates positioning themselves on the Ethanol/energy issue for Connecticut’s voters.
>PPS: Suggestion – find a way to harness all the excess hot air coming off these campaigns and you’ll solve the energy problem until the next election

“If China was becoming the world’s workshop and India its back office, Brazil is its farm — and potentially its center of environmental services.”
(Source: New York Times, January 6, 2008)
Michael Reid, in his new book about South America, “Forgotten Continent,” talking about the future direction of world agriculture.
>PS: Those crazy Brazilians are already busy cornering the world market on beef.

Talking about...Feed, Checkoff funds, Ethanol

2007-12-31T12:06:00.000-06:00

"It is possible that some pet food manufacturers who have heard of the depletion of feed sources in Utah because of drought and fire may offer their scrap material to Utah ranchers. Both buyers and sellers must know that any pet food containing cattle or other ruminant material cannot be fed to other cattle."
(Source: Billings Gazette, December 30, 2007)
Earl Rogers, Utah State Veterinarian, warning cattlemen about the dangers of taking shortcuts in a feed-starved section of the country.
>PS: taking shortcuts almost always leads you down the wrong path.

"To go out there and say that you want to double the checkoff with a 100 percent increase and it's gonna happen all at once, I'm not sure what producers' reactions would be. I personally would have reservations."
(Source: Agri News, December 29, 2007)
Tom Pyfferoen, president of Minnesota State Cattlemen's Association, suggesting a 100% increase in the checkoff might be a hard sell.
>PS: Yeah, it’s going to take more money to get the job done, but catching up with 20 years of financial neglect all in one day?

"At the start of 2006, the ethanol industry had a production capacity of 4.3 billion gallons, and by the end of 2008, that could be up to 13.4 billion. We had excess world (crop) production capacity that we could draw on at first. That is gone, and ethanol and other biofuels are growing by leaps and bounds."
(Source: USAToday, December 31, 2007)
Chris Hurt, Purdue University agricultural economist, saying that with production ramping up so quickly, the ethanol industry might not be able to acquire enough corn from the 2008 crop to run at full capacity.
>PS: He’s talking about Renewable Fuels Association Bob Dineen’s hubris-laden claim that "We're already producing 7 billion gallons today, with another 7 billion (in capacity) that is under construction and will be online shortly. There's little question we'll be able to meet the needs."
>PPS: Uhhhh, Bob, at what cost? It will undeniably become a food vs fuel problem at that stage of the game.

"This year's dead zone (the lifeless area in the Gulf of Mexico caused by pollutants ‘running off’ farm lands upstream of the Mississippi river) is the third highest on record, and I think we're already seeing an impact from increased ethanol use."
(Source: Houston Chronicle, December 31, 2007)
Donald Scavia, a University of Michigan professor who studies farm practices and hypoxia, or low-oxygen water.
>PS: It’s the law of unintended consequences. You neve know what's going to happen 'down stream.'

"Livestock producers in all segments of the industry are now entering into a new era, where they will see increased volatility and much higher prices for livestock feed."
(Source: Rapid City Journal, December 30, 2007)
Scott Jones, president of the South Dakota Cattlemen's Association, saying members of SDCA are expressing concern about the energy bill's requirement for more corn-based ethanol.
>PS: Get used to a whole new set of rules in farming. Risks will rise, so will rewards. Agriculture was never a game for the faint-of-heart.

Talking about...Ethanol, FDA, USDA

2007-12-27T19:44:00.000-06:00

“A bushel of corn sold for $2 in 2002; today one goes for $4. More than 93 million acres were under corn last summer, the most in more than 60 years.
“That translates into fewer acres for vegetables, alfalfa, soybeans, etc. – and higher prices all around for consumers. Feed for cattle is costing more, which means that dairy products and beef cost more.
“The price of groceries has been rising faster than inflation, some staples very much faster. Dairy products are up 14 percent over the past years; eggs are up more than 25 percent. The price of fuel is another culprit here, but it can’t be cleanly separated from the ethanol mandate: It takes a lot of natural gas and petroleum to grow corn.”
(Source: The Tacoma News Tribune.com, December 19, 2007)
Unsigned editorial questioning the wisdom of ‘another vast expansion of the corn ethanol mandate: 15 billion gallons by 2015’ included in the new energy bill.
>PS: One sure way to foul up the free market – get the government involved.
>PPS: If an increase in ethanol is critical, why are we still slapping a 54 cent per gallon tariff on Brazilian production?

“Corn growers have worked for over two decades to help get us to this point, and now we are seeing the benefits of expanded ethanol production not only in the value of our commodity, but on the main streets of rural communities, in the bottom line of agribusinesses and in our states’ economies, new jobs and tax revenue and in our energy independence.”
(Source: Southwest Nebraska News, December 19, 2007)
Jon Holzfaster, chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board, pointedly disagreeing with the folks in Tacoma.
>PS: Nebraska is home to 21 ethanol plants using nearly 500 million bushels of corn to produce approximately 1.4 billion gallons of ethanol and 4 million tons of distillers grains. William Goldman said it first when he wrote the screenplay for All the President’s Men. “Follow the money.”

"We're relying totally on the plant. We're doing very little testing ourselves. We're saying, 'You tell us you have a problem. And if we don't hear from you, we assume you don't have a problem.'"
(Source: Washington Post, December 21, 2007)
Stan Painter, USDA inspector and representative of the inspectors' union, pointing to a fundamental problem in the inspection system.
>PS: Self reporting vs self interest? Guess which one wins most often?

“In the budget climate we're in, any increase is better than nothing. But we're disappointed and surprised in light of soaring imports and declining consumer confidence."
(Source: USA Today, December 18, 2007)
Scott Faber of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, expressing disappointment in the miniscule increase in funding for the FDA.
>PS: A coalition of special interest groups pushed for big food-safety increases in the past year because of a string of high-profile food recalls. The Coalition for a Stronger FDA, a group that includes three former secretaries of Health and Human Services, wanted a 15% increase for the FDA for each of the next five years.
>PPS:It isn’t going to happen.

Talking about. . .Corn, COOL, SRM's

2007-07-14T10:45:00.000-05:00

"They have high meat prices due to disease issues in their swine and poultry sectors. They want to keep corn prices moderate and supplies available for the livestock industry
(Source: Biofuels Journal, July 9, 2007)
Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association, talking about a possible link between the rising price of corn and higher prices for food…in China, at least.
>PS: Way back in January, Tolman told me “The farm level price of corn has very little impact on food prices. There has been virtually no correlation between price changes in corn and changes in the price of food at the retail level. The current value of corn in a $2.79 box of corn flakes is less than 7 cents. The cost of packaging, marketing, wages, energy, etc. have a much bigger impact on the price of food than do changes in the price of corn.”

"We do still have the best food inspections on those foods that are produced here. Imports have two problems. First is we don't know and can't verify the food safety inspections at foreign facilities, and second is that the inspections here on imported products are very limited."

(Source: USA TODAY, July 10, 2007)
Phil Lempert, Supermarket Industry observer, talking with a reporter during a store tour designed to find out how easy (or difficult) it is to determine country of origin on our food supply.
>PS: Want to know what the public thinks? Click on Lempert’s name to go to the full article and check the reader comments at the bottom or read Dr. Rangan’s comment below.

“I was definitely shocked at how high these numbers were (92% wanted country of origin labeling). It’s much like a nutrition label or an ingredient label in that it needs to be part of the general information coming in about imported foods.”
(Source: MSNBC/Reuters, July 11, 2007)
Dr. Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist and policy analyst at Consumers Union, the nonprofit organization that publishes Consumer Reports magazine, expressing amazement at the overwhelming results of their survey.
>PS: Reader comments on MSNBC about the story were even more overwhelming. 98% insisted on a ‘COOL’ like program.
>PPS: Can I say it? The party’s over. The fat lady has sung. It’s a walk off home run for the visiting team. Even the most assiduously bought-and-paid-for politico has to see the handwriting on the wall. Vote this one in or get voted out.

“If they take it down there and have it slaughtered and want to bring it back cut and wrapped (as meat), no problem, just as long as it comes back without the SRM."
(Source: Canada.com, July 11, 2007)
Freeman Libby, national director of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's feed ban task force, giving the OK for Canadian cattlemen to dodge stricter Canadian rules to control Mad Cow Disease by shipping cattle to the U.S.
>PS: Something about SRM’s can still be used in feed south of the border? See quote below.

"There is no estimated time frame on when a final rule (on banning SRM’s from feed) will be published. The agency is working to develop and issue a final rule as expeditiously as possible."
(Source: CIDRAP- Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, July 13, 2007)
Michael Herndon, FDA spokesman, talking with CIDRAP News about the timing for an SRM ruling from the feds.
>PS: Expeditious? The FDA proposal dates back to October, 2005 and the comment period has been open for a year.
>PPS: He said he couldn't give any explanation for the delay. I can: politics, as usual.

People talk...

2007-07-07T13:24:00.000-05:00

"Neither the Chinese or American government is doing their job."
(Source: Washington Post, July 2, 2007)
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) calling for a federal import czar, blaming safety and quality problems with Chinese imports on lax inspection and a “bureaucratic morass” perpetrated by both governments.
>PS: Both governments have taken pot shots at each other lately in a pot vs kettle argument.

“Realistically, it’s possible that we will need to extend the current farm bill a year or two. There are a lot of pieces to this thing that we are trying to put together. It’s already $8 billion over budget, and they haven’t done conservation or commodities yet. There’s some really weird stuff going on.”
(Source: The Rapid City Journal, July 2, 2007)
Senator John Thune (R-SD) calling the Senate version of the farm bill a budget buster and likely to grow larger when key provisions are added.
>PS: Do we really expect a congress overdosed on Lunesta to actually wake up and do something BEFORE the next presidential election? Oh, puh-leeze! as my eye-ball rolling daughter used to say in her teen years.
>PPS: And let’s not forget the usual last minute pork barrel polka…always a source of financial amusement for our elected officials.

“This right here is going to be a zero. This is what we call a weed.”
(Source: New York Times, July 4, 2007)
Dennis Bragg, the biggest farmer in Madison County, Alabama, center point of the Southeast’s drought of the century, holding up a stunted corn stalk and talking about his lost crop.
>PS: Alabama is ground ‘zero’ for proof of global warming. At least 75% of that state’s 2007 farm crops are already lost.

“With imports of agricultural products rising sharply and sporadic scares about their safety, Americans surely have a right to know what country their food has come from. Unfortunately, they have little chance of finding out, due to the intransigence of meat importers and grocery retailers.”
(Source: New York Times, July 4, 2007)
Unsigned editorial urging immediate implementation of country of origin labeling (COOL).
>PS: Is this just more foolish ramblings by a naïve “Eastern” press or are they really on to something? See Tim Hammonds’ comment below.

"You don't see drops in confidence that large that quickly that often. It got our attention."

(Source: Washington Times, July 5, 2007)
Tim Hammonds, chief executive officer of Food Marketing Institute, an association of supermarket chains, worrying about the public’s rapidly diminishing confidence in the safety of our food supply.
>PS: A study by his group found consumer confidence dropped from 82% last year at this time to just 66% today.
>PPS: Peanut butter, spinach, pet food, ground beef. Melamine, salmonella. E.coli, listeria! It’s nervous times for carnivores, omnivores and vegetarians.

Talking with Sam Rovit, Swift & Co.

2007-06-30T12:16:00.000-05:00

When Sam Rovit agreed to take the top job at Swift & Co two years ago, he wasn’t banking on the business becoming front line news. Sure, lots of friendly press on the brand would have been nice. But the news was about pre-Christmas ICE raids that emptied the plants of every worker who was even remotely of Latin heritage, killed production for weeks and drilled a deep, cash hemorrhaging hole in the corporate P & L.

One would also guess that it was a well-aimed shot through the corporate heart of the Swift organization, fired by a sharpshooting Michael Chertoff. Swift had worked long and hard with the feds in an effort to solve the lingering problems created by illegal immigrants. For their efforts, they were expecting a major “attaboy” from the feds, not Chertoff’s stern lecture that sat cross-wise to what Swift had been told by an ICE Investigations Director a few weeks before the raid.

• What Michael Chertoff said, post ICE raid: "Over 400 workers were terminated, quit or did not show up. ICE wasn't notified and we don't know where those 400 workers are. . . . We asked the company not to do that. We asked the company not to reveal that we were going to be coming in in advance because common sense tells you, if you do that, everybody who is illegal is going to flee."

• What ICE Investigations Director Marcy Forman's Oct. 26 letter said: "I feel compelled to write you to clarify a point. . . . Specifically, at no time has anyone from ICE told any Swift official that they cannot take action against employees who Swift determines, on its own, are unauthorized to work in the United States."

Hey, you didn’t expect the right hand to know anything about the left hand, did you? These are the same people who brought you the continuing afternoon soap opera that’s known as Hurricane Katrina.

Swift’s financial losses, already burdened by the closure of Asian markets, accelerated after ICE’s raid and spurred rumors of takeovers, buy outs, and even selling the company piece-by-piece. The wolf was definitely at the door, huffing and puffing and threatening to blow the entire corporate house down. Survival meant a merger or being acquired. It was unavoidable.

Fortunately, mergers and acquisitions are a part of business that Rovit knows well. Shortly before joining Swift, he co-authored a book called “Mastering the Merger.” With partner David Harding, he poked a hole in the generally accepted idea that M & A’s were good for business. Far from creating wealth for shareholders, they failed 70% of the time. More often that not, such practices destroyed value and signaled the end of the road for the CEO.

But Rovit wrote the book on the pitfalls of poorly planned M & A’s…literally.

Swift & Co. was sweet talked by many and Rovit refused to expand on the juicy details. It was a dark horse, JBS-Friboi, Latin America's biggest beef producer, that would gallop out of Brazil and buy the debt-laden meat packer. For a reported $225 million and an assumption of $1.16 billion in debt, the cowboys from Brazil expanded their reach into the lucrative but until now forbidden U.S. market and gained a potential foothold in Asian markets. It will create the world's largest beef producer in terms of animals slaughtered, easily surpassing Tyson and Cargill.

Just how big will the new organization be? In 2006, JBS-Friboi and Swift slaughtered 9.6 million head of cattle and had about $11.5 billion in total sales. The combined businesses have the plant capacity to slaughter 47,100 cattle a day, topping Tyson's capacity of 37,100 and Cargill's 36,000.

"What we see as important are the distribution channels Swift has, both in Japan and Korea and also in the United States," JBS-Friboi's CEO, J. Mendonca Batista, said. He’s betting on the future, of course, since those Japanese and Korean channels aren’t exactly open for deep draft shipping.

Rich Nelson, an analyst with Allendale, Inc., expanded the scope of those distribution channels, telling MEAT&POULTRY’s Steve Bjerklie, "JBS becomes a very serious player in the global meat industry. With Swift’s operations in Australia, JBS becomes the No. 1 meat company in Australia, the No. 1 meat company in Brazil, and the No. 3 meat company in the U.S."

Nelson pointed out that the acquisition also bodes well for Mercosur, the trading partnership shared by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay. It gives them almost instant access to the U.S. and our NAFTA partnership.

On the downside, though, JBS-Friboi’s acquisition seems to ignore one of the major points in “Mastering the Merger” – determining the target's value under "business as usual" conditions. In his book, Rovit wrote that most of the purchase price should reflect the business as it is, not as it may be after you own it. Batista might be rolling some big bones, betting on the quick return of Swift’s Asian markets and access to a healthy cash flow from its North American operations.

You can bet one of Rovit’s other major points – integrate quickly in critical areas - will be at the top of the Friboi agenda. The attempt to integrate the Brazilian and American business cultures will be interesting to watch. Its success or failure might well be the real key to the success of the deal. And with Rovit's recent announcement that he will step down as soon as the merger is completed, the successful integration of the two businesses is a long way from assured.

Whatever happens, the JBS-Friboi/Swift & Co. deal is one of the watershed moments in the history of the American meat industry, more impactful in the long run than the rise of IBP and the development of boxed beef four long decades ago. It signals the beginnings of a truly international beef business.

Interviewing Sam Rovit was an interesting exercise. Like most successful CEO’s, he can play his cards close to the vest and get expansive on issues that rile his sense of fair play.

Q. The company was hurt by the loss of beef exports when Japan and Korea temporarily shut its borders to American beef, then again when ICE executed the pre-Christmas raid on your plants as part of an identity-theft investigation involving immigrants. How badly did those events hurt the business?

A: The loss of beef exports to key Asian markets such as Japan and Korea hurt the entire U.S. beef processing industry, not just Swift. While Swift’s volumes are below historical norms for both markets, our relative share has increased in the region and we look forward to building on that strong position as market access improves over time.

With respect to the December 12, 2006 ICE event, our latest financial impact estimate is $45 million to $50 million for the fiscal year ended May 27, 2007.

Q: The ICE raid created a lot of concern in the cattle business. Swift had worked with the government at trying to solve the illegal immigrant problem yet the company was singled out, nonetheless. What was behind the raid – political issues? A desire by ICE to make a high visibility statement to American business? And was it in anyway justified considering the final outcome?

A: Immigration policy is divorced from enforcement and the American employer is caught in the middle. Congress must pass immigration legislation that will fix a terribly broken system.

What seems bewildering is that an employer who follows all rules, would be treated by ICE in an adversarial as opposed to a collaborative manner when problems surface. Yet that is exactly what happened to Swift.

We are at a loss to understand how the December ICE raids could have been avoided. Swift is one of the few employers who checks all social security numbers through the government’s Basic Pilot program. Separately, every employee had to provide a government issued photo ID, and we cannot specify which of 29 forms of ID the applicant must supply, nor ask for additional forms. The law requires that we accept documents that on their face appear genuine. All employees had properly documented I-9 forms. Over the years, we’ve retained outside experts to scrutinize our hiring processes.

Simply put, a company cannot legally and practically do more than we have done to ensure a legal workforce with the current tools – and anti-discrimination guidelines – available from the government and no current or former member of management has been charged with any wrong doing.

Q: Swift was put in play over 6 months ago when several unsolicited inquiries came your way and you hired J. P. Morgan to help review the company's "strategic and financial alternatives." What made the JBS-Friboi offer the most attractive? And what are the advantages to both organizations?

A: While I won’t comment on the specifics of the other bids, I will say that this was a very competitive process.

The JBS / Swift strategic combination benefits our stakeholders – to include cattle producers and feedlot operators – in many ways:

The combination maintains a competitive U.S. and Australian meatpacking sector without further consolidation. Producers and feedlot operators will continue to sell cattle in a competitive marketplace.

Our prospective owners intend to maintain and grow the existing strong Swift business. JBS has a strong track record of growing businesses and is committed to using Swift’s valuable assets -- industry leading U.S. pork and Australian beef operations and a dramatically improved U.S. beef business -- to enhance its global presence.

Our prospective new owners are focused meat processors as compared to diversified conglomerate operators or financial managers. JBS has a 54 year family legacy in meat processing that has led to the creation of Brazil’s largest beef company. Their expertise will build upon Swift’s tradition of quality and innovation that dates back to 1855, creating stability for our communities and business partners.

The combined company has great operational and financial strength. JBS / Swift will become the world’s number one beef processor with operations on three continents and the ability to serve customers worldwide. The addition of JBS’ operations brings enhanced diversification to Swift’s existing business and creates a new company with improved profitability and balance sheet strength.

Q: There are governmental hurdles to leap before the deal is final and one of the major issues will be that of growing consolidation. Industry consultant John Nalivka in a recent Denver Post story said, "We've been consolidating for 25 years, but it was always one U.S. packer buying a U.S. packer. Now, we have another global player buying into a U.S. packer. I think the fringe cattlemen's groups will jump into this. There will definitely be comments made about a foreign company owning an American cattle company." How will you deal with that problem and are there other issues that might be a factor in the finalization of the deal?

A: Considering the other possible deal outcomes, the JBS / Swift transaction is a great deal for cattle producers and feedlot operators – period.

Q: There are two parts of the Swift business – beef and pork. Will they both remain in the new organization or, as some analysts have suggested, will pork be divested?

A: At this time we have no reason to believe that Swift would lose any of its organizational identity – to include our outstanding pork processing business.

Q: The Swift/JBS-Friboi beef business will be larger by a long shot – approximately 25-30% larger in slaughter capacity than current leader Tyson. What world markets do you expect will take that kind of volume and how will you develop those markets?

A: The market is already taking that volume. JBS is over 60% export oriented, AMH is about 80% export, and Swift N. America is poised to go after Asian markets once they are fully open. The upside we have with this merger is a tremendous cross-selling opportunity to meet the specific protein needs of customers throughout the world. Swift has sales offices in Mexico and throughout Asia, while JBS-Friboi has offices in Russia, Europe and the Middle East. We are very complementary.

People talk...E.coli, ethanol, immigration, Chic-fil-A, BSE

2007-06-30T11:32:00.000-05:00

"The USDA has been showing an unwillingness to trace it (E. coli) back to the slaughter plant of origin. All we've been doing is shoving the bad news under the carpet, hoping it would go away."
(Source: Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel, June 24, 2007)
John Munsell, forced to sell his family business, Montana Quality Foods, after an E. coli recall in 2002, talking about the loss of consumer confidence in meat production practices.
>PS: Munsell now manages the Foundation for Accountability in Regulatory Enforcement.

“They're presumed to be male, we don't do udders."
(Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 25, 2007)
Don Perry, Chick-fil-A public relations director, talking about evolution of the cow in their advertising campaign.
>PS: Illiterate bovines pushing the consumption of chickens? Hogs of America, unite! You could be next.

"We have a number of allegations that the government didn’t act in a prudent way to prevent risk to Canadian cattlemen. They never told anyone about the first B.S.E. case, for example.”
(Source: MEAT&POULTRY, June 29, 2007)
Gilles Gareau, Canadian attorney, talking to MEAT&POULTRY’s Steve Bjerklie about a court case asking if the government knew B.S.E. was in Canada 10 years before they admitted it.
>PS: The same old question asked of every government – who knew what and when did they know it? “Round up the usual suspects!” said Captain Renault.

"The American people don't have faith in their government's ability to win a war, enforce border security or even process passport requests."
(Source: Washington Post, June 29, 2007)
Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), one of the sponsors, talking about the defeat of the new immigration bill.
>PS: It was killed on the senate floor. Unindicted co-conspirators include the ACLU, the AFL-CIO and Rush Limbaugh.
>PPS: Bush’s last best chance to gain a moral victory of any kind before he leaves office goes down in flames.

"Critics of ethanol, including those in the animal feeding and oil industries, are engaging in baseless scare tactics to convince people that ethanol production will irreversibly increase their grocery bills. While it is true increased ethanol production is creating a real market-driven price for corn, this report clearly presents the undeniable facts: energy prices, not ethanol, are responsible for much of the increase in the price of food. Further, our industry is rapidly developing next generation cellulosic ethanol technology that will allow us to meet the growing demand for renewable fuels from wood chips, switch grass and other materials in addition to corn. Ultimately, the market will adjust and all those in the food, fuel and fiber industry will be able to prosper."
(Source: Mercopress, June 29, 2007)
Bob Dinneen, Renewable Fuels Association president, denying any real linkage between the rise in food and feed costs and the fast-rising price of corn.
>PS: Bob, four questions: 1. You don’t consider ethanol an energy resource? 2. Are only corn growers allowed to prosper for now? 3. Hasn’t the price of High Fructose Corn Syrup, an unavoidable ingredient in thousands of foods, skyrocketed in the past few months? 4. Are food processors all doing the noble thing and swallowing that added cost? Enquiring minds want to know, Bob.
PS: Hey, Spinmeister Bob, don’t worry about a thing. You’re serving your constituents well.

People talk...

2007-06-23T09:47:00.000-05:00

“We are already paying thrice for Washington’s love affair with corn-based fuel, in the form of higher taxes, higher gasoline prices and higher food prices. Yet, because of the prodigious amounts of energy and fertilizer used in its cultivation, corn-based ethanol provides little or no reduction in CO2 over the gasoline it displaces.”
(Source: Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2007)
Holman W.Jenkins, Jr. of Political Diary, the Wall Street Journal’s online opinion page, editorializing about the cost-benefit relationship between gasoline and ethanol.
>PS: Before we get stampeded by yet another fad du jour, can we do the math?

“In Alabama, we have had experience turning corn into alcohol for years.”
(Source: Newsweek, June 25, 2007)

Bob Riley, Alabama governor, talking about the state’s legendary history of making moonshine as he filled up his car with ethanol-based fuel.
>PS: Alabama’s 2,000+ vehicles will start using alternative fuel to “save money and help the environment.”
>PPS: According to the Wall Street Journal, Alabama will achieve none of those noble goals.

"In a marginal year, we should have grass up to your knee, and in a good year, up to your thigh, almost up to your hip. We don't even have it over the edge of your boot."

(Source: California Farm Bureau Federation News, June 20, 2007)
John Harvey, Ventura County cattle rancher, explaining why a lack of forage has forced him to get rid of two-thirds of his herd.
>PS: According to the National Agricultural Statistics Services, 82% of California's rangeland is in poor or very poor condition. Thirteen counties have been declared disaster areas by the USDA, making ranchers in those areas eligible for low cost loans.

"We sent inspectors to China. We had three people there for a couple of weeks.”
(Source: Washington Post, June 20, 2007)
David Acheson, FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, explaining the procedures FDA used to check into the problem of possible contamination for food imported from China.
>PS: “Three people. . .for a couple of weeks?” To check up on food processors in a country that sends over $6 billion worth of food to the U.S.? I’m doing the math and it doesn’t compute.
>PPS: The FDA inspected less than 1% of incoming food in 2006, down from an anemic1.5% in 1997 and it will probably drop to 0.7% this year. Chow down on that shrimp cocktail, guys, Acheson is from the government and he’s here to help you!
>PPPS: To be fair, the inspection problems have skyrocketed in the past decade but the dollars and personnel to keep up haven’t been approved by a short-sighted congress. The old hometown pork barrel will always come first.

"These two senators (Saxby and Isakson) have rolled up their sleeves and been willing to, against a lot of pressure, to get out there and participate in the development of this bill over many months. The purpose of this campaign at this time is to encourage them to stay the course, continue to be engaged in this important process."
(Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 21, 2007)

Wayne Lord, v.p. of Pilgrim's Pride, one of Georgia's largest poultry companies and spokesman for Georgia Employers for Immigration Reform, talking about the encouragement the ad hoc group is offering to make sure the two men “stay the course” and continue to support a wildly unpopular bill among Georgia voters.
Not cattle-related news, but…

Cinnamon helps keep blood sugar level down, study finds
Swedish researchers report cinnamon can help keep post-meal blood sugar levels down, a finding with potential implications for diabetes treatment. About one teaspoon of cinnamon added to a bowl of rice pudding lowered the blood sugar increase in a group of healthy volunteers, the study found.
(Source: Reuters Health, June 20, 2007)
Dr. Joanna Hlebowicz said she and her colleagues based their findings on 14 healthy volunteers who ate the cinnamon-laced rice pudding.
>PS: Cinnabons and lattes for everyone!

"USDA's resistance to restoring reasonable BSE import restrictions, implementing country-of-origin labeling (COOL), allowing voluntary BSE testing and strengthening the U.S. feed ban all of which would improve our ability to restore lost export markets makes me question what the agency's actual agenda is concerning restoration of lost export markets,"

(Source: The Grand Island Independent, June 21, 2007)
Eric Nelson, R-CALF USA trade committee chairman, chastising the USDA for not doing a better job of managing our export market problems.

"Our stance on COOL is that it's a bad law that adds tremendous costs, with no tangible benefits. It was really written as an anti-import law rather than to provide information to consumers. . .It’s just going to be a train wreck.”
(Source: SmokyHollow.blogspot.com, June 21, 2007)

Jeremy Russell, communications director for the National Meat Association, pointing out one of two problems with COOL.
>PS: Russell said one of the difficulties is the law prohibits a national animal-identification system, necessary to make the labeling law workable.

"When you open up the newspaper, turn on the radio or watch TV, you see China with this problem (exporting contaminated food and food ingredients) ... but is there a country in the world that doesn't have such problem at one point?"
(Source: China Daily, June 22, 2007)
Roland Vaxelaire, director for quality and risk management at Carrefour.
>PS: At one point, maybe. But, et puis zut, at dozens of unregulated points? Chinese officials have some serious work to do.

"It is inappropriate to single out China as we all have instances related to food safety issues in our backyards."
(Source: China Daily, June 22, 2007)
Jeffrey Ettinger, C.E.O., Hormel Foods Corp.
>PS: See previous PS. “The other guy did it first,” didn’t work as an excuse in the first grade. It doesn’t work today on the world stage, either.

"Rapid development of the corn-based ethanol industry is already having adverse impacts on food supplies and prices."
(Source: ReasonOnline.com, June 22.2007)
Letter to Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Majority Leader, from some leading food companies.
PS: Let’s talk about two Mexican crises driven by the high price of corn - a tortilla shortage, which has led to a rapid price increase in this staple food, and a future tequila shortfall because farmers are ripping up their agave fields to plant suddenly much more profitably corn. Are we really ready to trade Margaritas for moonshine?

Meat Industry News - Organic food, Bird flu, Corn, Laptops, China, COOL, Father’s Day, Animal disease

2007-06-16T07:04:00.000-05:00

"Adding 38 new ingredients is not just a concession by the USDA, it is a major blow to the organic movement in the U.S. because it would erode consumer confidence in organic standards."
Source: Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2007)
Carl Chamberlain, a research assistant with the Pesticide Education Project in Raleigh, N.C. complaining about the standard USDA politically-activated collapse on issues where large amounts of money are involved.
>PS: The list includes 19 food colorings, 2 starches, casings for sausages and hot dogs, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, gelatin and a few other obscure ingredients.

"If there was a health scare (closer to home), I could easily drop chicken without thinking about it."
Source: Phillyburbs.com, June 10, 2007)
Monique Vogelsang 24-year-old New York teacher, responding to a survey question about bird flu
>PS: Even some of the educated don’t understand the difference between a health problem with livestock and the safety of our food supply.

"The key driver for us is corn and more recently soy meal, following it up with some questions about acreage. Unlike a single-year equation, where corn is being driven by weather or carryover stocks, we see all of the ethanol plants coming on line, a number of them are in our region of the country. We don’t see any signs of wavering in terms of national policy as far as subsidizing ethanol facilities. So we feel we need to run our business prudently and we need to factor that in how our pricing needs to be going forward. We anticipate costs to be at the level we have today."
Source: MeatPoultry.com, June 12, 2007)

Jeff Ettinger, chairman, president and CEO, Hormel Foods Corp., talking about the effects of ever-increasing ethanol production on the price of a can of Spam during an interview conducted by Keith Nunes.

“Anybody that knows anything about the marketing of corn knows that when you raise the price of corn you are going to create problems in all of the markets that use corn."
Source: Washington Post, June 15, 2007)
Ronald W. Cotterill, director of the Food Marketing Policy Center at the University of Connecticut, talking about the rising prices of just about everything in the average market basket.
>PS: The Bush administration is toying with asking for a seven-fold increase in ethanol production. Hot times for the corn business, painful for everyone else.

“Everybody has to eat, and everybody has to drive to work. For households, the headline number truly is the more important number, and clearly the run-up in gasoline prices in the last few months has left consumers with less money to spend on everything else. I guess we need to walk to work and bring a brown bag lunch.”
(Souce: New York Times, June 16, 2007)
Mark Vitner, senior economist for Wachovia, talking about the run up in two very important components of the cost of living index.
>PS: The same article said gas prices were up 10.5% last month, compared with an increase of 4.7% in April. Beef prices climbed 5.1%, poultry prices 4.3% and pork prices 3.4%. Nothing was mentioned on the cost of a bushel of corn.

"Hyperbolic rhetoric is being substituted for fact. Critics in the animal feeding and oil industry in particular are using scare tactics to frighten the American consumer to believing their unsupported claims."
(Source: CNNMoney.com, June 14, 2007)

Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, trying to convince reporters during a teleconference that the fast-rising cost of a bushel of corn has little or nothing to do with the food price increase.
>PS: Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, here’s a fact: the Consumer Price Index says U.S. food consumer prices have risen from a year-over-year rate of 2.5% in September 2006 to 3.7% in April. The price of corn has almost doubled in that time – absolutely no cause and effect there?
>PPS: See Ronald Cotterill’s unbiased comments on the price of corn.

“Saying rising feed prices don't have a direct impact on the cost of food is as ridiculous as saying that rising gasoline prices will not result in people paying more to fill up their cars,"
(Source: Chicago Tribune, June 15, 2007)
David Ray, an American Meat institute spokesman, perhaps responding to Bob Dinneen?

Reader Poll: Do you take your laptop with you on vacation?
I bring it along to stay connected to work. 34.52%
I have it for leisure and work. 27.42%
I leave it behind. 18.71%
I do not use a laptop. 16.13%
I keep it with me for leisure. 3.23%
(Source: NAW Smart Brief, June 13, 2007)>
PS: The survey raises serious concerns about the mental state of half the respondents – the 34.52% who feel an unconscionable need to stay connected to work and the Luddite-like 16.13% who have not yet joined us in the 21st century.

"U.S. trade-remedies laws are already vigorously, even zealously enforced. Waving the banner of 'fair trade,' some domestic industries have taken advantage of popular anxiety over trade and globalization to push for protectionist measures and legislation to limit foreign competition and pad their own profit margins at the expense of U.S. consumers."
(Palm Beach Post, June 13, 2007)
Erik Autor, vice president of the National Retail Federation, trying valiantly to defend an untenable position.
>PS: Autor also said calls for tougher enforcement amount to “histrionics and disinformation.” And about that ‘vigorously, even zealously enforced’ comment? Come on, Erik, to what nationally respected (dis)information service do you subscribe? The Boston Globe says only about 1% of food imports are given even the most cursory inspection. If that qualifies as ‘zealous,’ how would you define ‘lax enforcement’?
>PPS: I want to ‘pad my health margins’ at the expense of unregulated Chinese business practices.
>PPPS: "I have watched FDA chase too many imports with too few resources for too many years." John Dingell, chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“There are 13 million food imports this year, with FDA able to inspect only about 1 percent. The system is so weak that many FDA professionals fear the word is out in the international community you can send virtually anything, of any quality, regardless of risk, to the United States, because no one's looking.”
(Source: Boston Globe, June 3, 2007)
Unsigned editorial talking about the inadequacies of federal inspection programs.

‘‘Mandatory labeling of fruits, vegetables and meats will be implemented. It is going to happen.’’
(Source: Farm News-Iowa, June 14, 2007)

Collin Peterson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, telling reporters that COOL is a done deal.
>PS: Oh, sure, a few “minor changes in the law. . .have to be ironed out” but country of origin labeling “will become the law of the land in 2008?” Not without a fight.
>PPS: Collin, let the battle begin.
>PPPS: Kevin Coupe, renowned supermarket industry observer, said this about that: “If we’re all so concerned about imported products, and recent experience suggests that some imports are not safe to consume, isn’t it time to reconsider the notion of country-of-origin labeling (COOL)? We know it is expensive and complicated, but doesn’t it make sense to put consumer welfare – and transparency – first?”

“Sitting down to a nice big juicy steak makes a man feel like he's done OK for himself. You just don't get the same euphoria from eating wasabi-crusted tilapia."
(Source: Cincinnati Enquirer, June 13, 2007)

Jeff Ruby, Cincinnati steak restaurant owner, talking about what to order dear old dad on Father’s day.
>PS: Mr. Ruby, you are a wise man.

"I thought there should be a relatively cheap diagnostic tool for monitoring animals"
(Source: Forbes, June 7, 2007)Eliav Tahar, founder of Veterix of Or Aqiva, explaining his reasoning behind developing a ‘swallowable’ diagnostic tool for cattle.
>PS: At $70 to $80 each for the capsules and up to $6,000 for the software, dairy farmers and ranchers might find the system a little too hard to swallow.

Facing East

2007-06-04T21:07:00.000-05:00

Seiyu Ltd., a major Japanese supermarket chain, plans to nearly triple the number of its stores selling U.S. beef, and possibly adding even more in the coming months. It puts a small light at the end of the long, dark tunnel that’s been the American beef business with what was once our major trading partner. But all lights seen at (or near) the end of long tunnels must be carefully considered.

Sometimes, it’s a headlight on the engine of an even longer freight train.

The good news: Increasing the availability of U.S. beef just as the Japanese summer grilling season starts is a very good thing. If Seiyu sells out of the product early and often, then the Japanese public will have spoken and all the other supermarkets will be clamoring for American beef.

The bad news: Kevin Coupe, a well-known supermarket industry observer, said it best. “There are two possibilities here. One is that Seiyu is getting so many requests for US beef that it is being forced to expand the number of stores in which it sells the product. The second is that Seiyu believes that it can force-feed US beef to the Japanese customer simply through force of marketing will.”

He’s betting on the latter.

Coupe doesn’t pretend to be an expert on the Japanese market but Aeon, the nation's biggest food retailer, told him in 2006 that local consumers were not interested in American beef and they had no intention of selling it.

Seiyu is not a major force in Japan. Although a good-sized organization, they’re a drop in the deep ocean of Japanese trade - small child’s sand pail sitting on a very wide beach - wee little dry creek bed occasionally feeding a river of commerce. To put it simply, the small ripple created by just respectable sales at Seiyu will not grow into a tsunami.

We haven’t exactly earned the trust of our far Eastern trading partners with our repeated missteps, either. Korea has made no bones about the fact that they want no bones. We respond by sending shipments of boneless beef with bones “inadvertently” mixed in. Can we call these “bone-headed” mistakes? Korean inspectors, undoubtedly under the gun to do their best to limit incoming raw product, have found their job to be ridiculously easy.

Koreans rejected two shipments totaling 66 tons of beef. A 51 ton shipment from a Tyson plant arrived a day after the arrival of a 15 ton shipment of U.S. beef produced by Cargill containing chuck short ribs. Further shipments from both offending plants have been banned by officials in Seoul.

Meatingplace.com reported that “S. Korea pinned responsibility for the 15.2-ton shipment to Wichita, Kan.-based Cargill Meat Solutions,” though the company and U.S. government officials said Cargill sold product intended only for domestic use to another company, which then shipped it to S. Korea. The AMI and NCBA immediately issued statements regretting the errors but urged Korea to not delist the innocent Cargill plant.

In a sternly worded press release, Jay Truitt, Vice President of Government Affairs, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, wrote, “U.S. and South Korean officials developed a strict protocol for exporting U.S. beef to South Korea, and the U.S. cattle industry is insistent that this protocol be followed to the letter. These shipments were standard U.S. bone-in beef products destined for our U.S. market or other export nations, but sent to South Korea. We are asking that the USDA conduct a full investigation of this incident to determine where the breakdowns in protocol occurred.”

And may the offender be thrashed at high noon on Main Street. His choice – Main Street in Wichita or Greeley.

FSIS acted swiftly making this statement: “Effective June 4, 2007, the Government of Korea advised the United States that Korea will suspend import inspection for U.S. beef until further notice. Certificates should no longer be issued for export of beef to Korea. Additional information about the suspension of beef import inspection in Korea will be provided as it becomes available.”

But the painful point remains. Shipment after shipment fails even their most basic scrutiny. We must appear to be either hopelessly inept or unbelievably callous. Inspectors, relaxing over a few Hite beers after a not-too-hard day on the job, are probably sharing a few laughs at our expense.

We’ve blown it again with the South Koreans. The Japanese, sitting right next door, are taking notes.

A senior Farm Ministry official with the Japanese government said on Thursday that Japan will prepare for bilateral talks on beef imports if and when the United States asks it to ease rules, but no such request has been made. Maybe a battered, bruised and embarrassed Johanns is holding off on making that request until we can prove to ourselves that we can finally get it right?

With the recent South Korean snafu, maybe that Farm Ministry official in Tokyo is rethinking his statement on bilateral talks. No government official – Japanese or Korean – is going to put his reputation on the line by relaxing their very strict import standards if we’ll just end up embarrassing him by dropping the ball.

Meanwhile, the beef boys in Adelaide, given a free shot at two of our most treasured export markets for almost three years now, are not-too-secretly gearing up for even greater sales in the Pacific basin. It’s their back yard, Nippon Beef is a major shareholder in one of their major beef suppliers and Swift, another biggie in the Land of Oz, is (probably) soon to be owned by Brazilian interests with aggressive world-wide trading ambitions. Can we talk about a perfect storm?

Meat Industry News for June 4, 2007

2007-06-04T20:43:00.000-05:00

"Nationwide, we didn't have as many kids in large animal medicine. A lot of rural clinics had the cow numbers but it was not a place that graduates wanted to go back to. Small towns didn't have the luxuries of the big city -- recreation, places to eat."
(Source: Sioux City Journal, May 27, 2007)
Kevin Klozenbucher, Huron, S.D. veterinarian, talking about a looming crisis in large animal vets.
>PS: Baxter Black, time to quit kidding around and get back to work. We need you.

“The problems with the restrictionist provisions of the Senate immigration bill are serious and many. It includes a path to citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants, which is a rare triumph for common sense, but that path is strewn with cruel conditions, including a fine — $5,000 — that’s too steep and hurdles that are needlessly high, including a “touchback” requirement for immigrants to make pilgrimages to their home countries to cleanse themselves of illegality. The bill imposes an untested merit-point system that narrows the channels through which family members can immigrate.”
(Source: New York Times, May 29, 2007)
Unsigned editorial pointing out several inequities in the proposed [anti] immigration bill.
>PS: Remember these famous words on the Statue of Liberty? ‘Give me your tired, your poor…yada, yada, yada’

"We were doing that anyhow, so it just helps out with defraying some of the cost in operating the way that we need to."
(Source: Galesburg [Il} Register Mail / Associated Press, May 29, 2007)
Mark Akin, general manager, Circle A Ranch, Iberia, Missouri, talking about the ‘little extra’ incentive to feed cattle in that state offered by a multi-million dollar tax break.
>PS: The tax credit allows up to $30 million in tax breaks but no more than $10 million per year. Way to defray!

"I can't go six months without growing a chicken. ... We'll be out of business when they come back."
(Source: Orange County Register, May 27, 2007)
Lucius Adkins, owner of one of the biggest chicken farms in Georgia and president of the United Poultry Growers Association, talking about the revolving door (stay, go home, come back) guest worker policy in the proposed new immigration bill.

“It is interesting that the (New York) Times story notes that it was the manufacturer that determined melamine was being used in its feed – not the government through inspections and oversight. Which speaks to the value of private testing, which the government is resisting when it comes to made cow disease. It isn’t exactly the same thing, but we think the connection is worth making.”
(Source: Morning News Beat, May 31, 2007)
Kevin Coupe, Supermarket industry analyst, drawing an interesting conclusion.
>PS: He's far from the mainstream cattle community but his comment is probably very close to that of mainstream America.

Meat Industry News for May 28, 2007

2007-05-28T09:31:00.000-05:00

"Critics on the right howl that the bill offers "amnesty" to 12 million illegal immigrants who in fact would face a long, onerous path to earned citizenship. But those critics are loath to acknowledge that deporting 12 million people, including droves of workers on whom the American economy relies, is economically suicidal, pragmatically unfeasible and morally repellent.”
(Source: Washington Post, May 23, 2007)
Unsigned editorial pointing out that ideological and uncompromising positions on the immigration issue puts the whole nation in a sadly compromised position.
>PS:(1) A ten foot tall fence can be broached by a twelve foot tall ladder. (2) A field full of lettuce can’t be picked by white collars. (3) Sheep can’t be herded from the inside of an air-conditioned Excalibur. (4) The original Minutemen fought for freedom, not elitist exclusion.

John Hofmeister
“If the national policy of the country is to push for dramatic increases in the biofuels industry, this is a disincentive for those making investment decisions on expanding capacity in oil products and refining. Industrywide, this will have an impact.”
Source: New York Times, May 24, 2007)
John D. Hofmeister, president of the Shell Oil Company, rattling his multi-billion dollar saber because he’s afraid the public trough might dry up.
>PS: What disincentives? His industry is making billions selling a dwindling supply of product to an increasingly voracious world market.
>PPS: Anyone feel sorry for the Hofmeister? The line forms on the Grand Canyon Skywalk just 80 feet from the canyon rim.

“Officials like me in the Chinese government can supervise the producers here, but U.S. companies doing business with Chinese companies must also be very clear about the standards they need, and don't just look for a cheap price.”
Source: USAToday, May 25, 2007)
Yuan Changxiang, deputy director in the ministry responsible for inspecting imports and exports.
>PS: It’s the old ‘you made me do it’ defense. The real culprit is lax or non-existent oversight by Chinese officials and old fashioned greed by unsupervised Chinese companies.

Gregg Doud
“It is simply unacceptable for such trade barriers to cause further economic damage to our industry. We expect this OIE categorization to trigger the lifting of long-standing political barriers to our products in various international markets.”
(Source: Prairie Star, May 25, 2007)
Gregg Doud, NCBA Chief Economist, talking about the recent OIE decision on the US’s BSE status saying ‘enough is enough, already! Open up your markets and let our products live or die on their merits.’

POINT: “This study supports what we have long known. In the absence of public-policy intervention, consolidated and non-competitive markets flourish, while independent family farmers disappear. Independent producers cannot be successful in the absence of protection from unfair and anti-competitive practices. Congress must take action to restore competition in the marketplace. The 2007 Farm Bill is the perfect opportunity to make that happen.”
Tom Buis, NFU President
COUNTERPOINT: “When it comes to market structure and competition issues, NCBA's position is simple - we ask that the government not tell us how we can or cannot market our cattle.”
John Queen, NCBA president
(Source: Prairie Star, May 25, 2007)>
PS: It’s about concentration in the livestock market: The National Farmers Union, American Farm Bureau Federation and R-CALF USA vs the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Pork Producers Council and American Meat Institute. Should the feds step in and stop it or let the market make the decision?

“If you're not willing to sacrifice children to the corn god, you will not get out of the Iowa primary with more than one percent of the vote. Right now the closest thing we have to a state religion in the United States isn't Christianity. It's corn."
Source: The Union Leader, May 27, 2007)Jerry Taylor, Cato Institute's energy expert, talking with John Stossel about the politics of ethanol on a recent "Myths" edition of ABC news program 20/20.

Talking about. . .Food safety, World grain shortages, Ethanol

2007-05-25T21:23:00.000-05:00

“We are going to end up paying more for food domestically because we have an ethanol policy that is basically tying the price of corn and feed and the resulting food to the price of imported oil."
(Source: Reuters, May 17, 2007)
J. Patrick Boyle, chief executive of the American Meat Institute, one of the organizations talking about an Iowa State University study to determine the impact of ethanol production on food/feed costs.
>PS: Hobson’s choice: Pay more at the pump or more at the supermarket. Ethanol production has increased the grocery bill for the average American by $47 since July, 2007, according to the study.
>PS: Only a small portion of the total end-of-the-year increase is reflected in those numbers. The big “hit” to the pocketbook will be later this year when the first of that $3.50 to $4.00 corn is harvested.

"I certainly don't think it's broken. I think we can improve, but I don't think it's broken."
(CBS News/WebMD.com, May 11, 2007)
Linda Demma, Ph.D., CDC senior epidemiologist who works in the enteric disease epidemiology branch of the CDC's division of foodborne, bacterial, and mycotic diseases. telling WebMD that all is not lost on the food safety front.
>PS: Battered and bruised, maybe, and too focused on U.S.-based food resources when more of our food is being imported from third world countries with little or no oversight. But broken? Heavens, no!
>PPS: Click on her name and check out the article for 15 ways to make your food safer.

"The U.S. is sitting on a powder keg.”
(Source: Business Week, May 21, 2007)
Peter Kovacs, food industry exec and consultant
>PS: To which the writer responded: “That powder keg hasn't exploded--yet. But every month there are a surprising number of near misses. Europe just had a scare from harmful bacteria in vitamin A from China that nearly got into infant formula. And in the past few weeks alone, the FDA has issued warnings or recalls for brands of milk, olives, bottled water, bread, prepared fruit trays, melons, oysters, and peanut butter. The pathogens or contaminants implicated in such scares form an unholy litany: salmonella, listeria, norovirus, nitric acid, arsenic, even wire fragments. Toxins such as lead routinely show up in vitamins and dietary supplements.”

"We think it's (ethanol) going to be a big business. In years where we have great weather, as we continue to grow our productivity and yields, the industry can grow. We just have to be sure that the more-is-better mindset doesn't get way out ahead of the capacity of the land to provide the fuel."
Source: TwinCities.com, May 15, 2007)
Greg Page, future CEO of ag giant, Cargill, talking with some apprehension about the promising future of the ethanol business.
>PS: In his next breath, he threw a little cold water on a rapidly overheating market by saying this about the possibility that the ethanol gold rush might cause a world grain shortage:
"We could be three months away, if we don't have the weather we all expect. What we would like to see is some thoughtfulness about what we will do if we have a weather calamity."

Summer gas - $6.65 a gallon?

2007-05-25T21:01:00.001-05:00

Scared you, didn’t I? Unless you’re a denizen of downtown London, then you were thinking, “What’s new?” Those poor blokes have been paying more for their fuel than anyone else on earth. Six bucks plus isn’t just and English thing, though. Parisians pay around $6.50. Driving in Oslo? They pay just a few pfennigs less than the French. Germans are in the same breathless, top-of-the-mark price bracket.

Europeans aren’t the only people surfing above the six dollar level. Filling up a Hyundai in Hong Kong can cost $6.30 per gallon and topping off a Kia in Korea is going to drain your wallet at the rate of $6.06 every time the pump goes “ding!”

Gas stations peddling cheap fuel aren’t history, though. You can top off a Cadillac in Caracas for just 37 cents a gallon. Got a Toyota in Teheran? 33 cents. A Rolls in Riyadh? 45 cents. A Corolla in Cairo? 86 cents.

We gas hogging Americans are in the same three-dollars a gallon range as folks in Moscow ($2.89), Johannesburg ($3.08), and Bangkok ($3.04).

Now, here’s the catch. Brazil is the number two producer of ethanol just behind we Norte Americanos. By law, fuel in that country must contain significant amounts of their sugar cane-based ethanol. By law, the Brazilian government also collects significant tax dollars on all fuel sold so citizens of Sao Paulo, one of the countries’ largest cities, pay nearly $5.00/gallon.

Paying those high prices is not what the American public wants to do. More than energy independence, they want access to cheap fuel at their local 7-Eleven. It's a wallet issue, especially during the summer driving season. In our bifurcated pursuit of energy independence from uncertain Middle East resources, though, we subsidize domestic corn-based ethanol with 51 cents per gallon production ‘bonuses’ on one hand and impose a 54-cents-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports from Brazil, with the other hand. It’s a policy conflict that will do nothing to minimize our addiction to foreign oil or reduce the price of a gallon of gas.

As a policy, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "It makes absolutely no sense. It's crazy, and it's definitely not in the best interest of the customers. We need to take down the barriers we have created."

What he was asking the feds to do is impose some rationality on the quest for two interlinked political goals – energy independence and controlling the sky rocketing cost of gasoline.

Bluntly, energy independence isn’t as immediately important to the average American consumer as the price of a gallon of gas when it’s time to pile the kids in the family SUV and drive a half day to the beach, grandma’s house, the lake or that state park in the mountains for their first, long Memorial Day summer weekend. Get us through our summer vacations and we’ll worry about energy independence later…maybe after Labor Day.

Want the distressing facts? U.S. energy independence is probably out of reach, anyway. We’re too addicted to automobiles that don’t come anywhere near the 20mpg level and blocking Brazilian ethanol prevents a solution to the price-at-the-pump problem anytime soon. We’re the largest consumer of energy and we need all the resources we can find – petroleum, wind, ethanol, geothermal - to supply our habit.

The price of petroleum will continue to drift upwards at an alarming rate as emerging economic powerhouses such as China and India belly up to bar and bid for the limited number of barrels of sweet crude coming out of the Middle East and elsewhere around the world. The energy demands of more nations reaching for parity with our standard of living will create serious political friction and encourage armed conflict, making supply and distribution even more uncertain.

As for that $6.65 price in downtown London? Don’t be surprised if the corner 7-Eleven station is within whispering distance of that insane level before the end of this decade.

Angus Beef, Kobe Beef, Food Safety, Chinese Chicken

2007-05-10T10:24:00.000-05:00

"What the restaurant and retail grocers are counting on is that the consumer can make broad distinctions about quality.”
(Source: Advertising Age, May 7, 2007)
Jay Grob, partner at Bain & Co. likening the selling of Angus and Kobe beef to coffee, where Starbucks redefined the category around premium blends and ended the era of nickle coffee.
>PS: Bank of America analyst Andy Barish estimated premium meats boosted same-store restaurant sales about 2% to 3% for publicly held chains, compared with just 1% a few years ago.

"With the passage of this amendment, we will make our nation’s food safety system stronger on several fronts. There is more work to be done to fix our food safety system, but today we have moved forward to address the growing concerns across our nation."
(Source: Meat&Poultry, May 8, 2007)
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., talking about the Senate’s approval, by a 94-0 vote, of a food-safety amendment that would establish ‘an early warning and notification system for human food, as well as pet food, establish fines for companies that don't promptly report contaminated products, improve inspections/monitoring of imports, and provide pet food safety standards.’ The amendment is attached to a bill reauthorizing FDA funding, which is still on the Senate floor.
>PS: An overwhelming vote --- did it take thousands of pet deaths to get the political will to take a long overdue step?

“Cyanuric acid scrap can be added to animal feed, I sell it to fish meal manufacturers and fish farmers. It can also be added to feed for other animals.”
Yu Luwei, general manager of the Juancheng Ouya Chemical Company in Shandong Province, admitting complicity.
...............................AND.................................
“I’ve heard that people add cyanuric acid and melamine to animal feed to boost the protein level.”
Yang Fei, salesman for Shouguang Weidong Chemical Company in Shandong Province, suggesting the practice in China is wide spread.
(Source for both comments: New York Times, May 9, 2007)
>PS: Are you buying feed? Until strict controls are put in place by the Chinese government and S. Korean style batch-by-batch inspection is instituted by the U.S. government, maybe you should avoid any supplier using Chinese resources.

“The system, as currently constituted, is flawed. Global and economic realities have put enormous holes in the safety net. If we don’t deal with the problem, it is only going to get worse, and the dropping public food safety confidence numbers we’re seeing today may look like just a happy memory in only a few years.”
(Source: Morning News Beat, May 9, 2007
Kevin Coupe, supermarket industry observer, warning of a fast collapsing public confidence in our food supply.
>PS: There has never been a more compelling reason to “eat local” and organic than the recent news that’s been published about the cavernous holes in our food inspection system. Ask your grand parents about Victory Gardens.

Our food inspection system is in crisis

2007-05-06T06:55:00.000-05:00

"Simply put, our food safety system is broken…The reality is that there currently is no mandate, no leadership, no resources, nor scientific research base for [creation] of food safety systems."
David Kessler

David Kessler is the former FDA commissioner and a man who should know. He was talking to the members of the House Oversight Committee about a rapidly growing crisis. Although he was referring to just the problems most recently evident with the FDA, it’s our entire food inspection system that’s failing miserably.

Here’s the most pressing recent problem: Monitoring the quality of imported ingredients to be used in animal or human food processing has proven itself to be the modern day equivalent of taming the wild and wooly West. Importers get an (almost) free pass to do as they please. For years, now, shady traders could ship anything into the U.S., safe in the knowledge that less than 1% of their shipments would receive even the most cursory inspection. Take that, Homeland Security! No holes in that safety net!

A few months ago, uninspected melamine-spiked wheat gluten from China found its way into pet food. By all reports, it’s a long-standing practice among many Chinese traders. The FDA assumed the crisis was handled after tons of product were recalled and thousands of pets died. Were the recalls the price of running a food business driven solely by least cost formulations? And would that make the resulting deaths merely collateral damage?

The crisis jumped ship, though. A Chinese rice protein concentrate, contaminated with melamine and melamine-related compounds, was fed to pigs and chickens. Federal investigators are looking into contaminated hog feed in six states - California, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Utah.

The problem was traced back to feed produced in March. The belated discovery allowed hundreds of thousands of chickens and an unknown quantity of pork to reach the corner supermarket. Was that March incident a one-time thing? Maybe not. The inspection problem and Chinese chicanery stretches back for years. If we’re to follow truth in labeling laws, we should call it the first discovered incident.

FDA officials then attempted a CYA maneuver when they said we shouldn’t worry about the product that had already found its way into the nation’s human food supply. The melamine content was too dispersed to worry about, they said. But, to be safe, they’re requiring the destruction of thousands of animals that haven’t been converted to packaged product. Legally, FDA spokesmen say, it’s all they can do because they don’t have the authority to do more. They also claim it’s a scientifically sound decision, but it doesn’t pass the consumer’s sniff test which is the ultimate arbiter of what’s acceptable.

If the consumer thinks it stinks, it stinks. End of story. Also, end of commerce for the stinker. “Science” be damned!

I keep thinking about the assurances that the British government handed out to a gullible public in the earliest days of the BSE panic. “Don’t worry, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” doesn’t necessarily cut it, anymore. Maybe the FDA should check with the UK Food Standards Agency for instructions on how to (mis)handle a food inspection crisis.

Simply put, the critical government agencies don’t have the manpower, money or political clout to do their job. The sweep of twenty-first century world commerce has overwhelmed the capacity of the USDA and the FDA. Both agencies are standing in the muddy backwaters of the mid-twentieth century, trying to figure out where undiscoverable and unknowable modern-day problems might be lurking.

Here’s the heart of the problem: Too many food (and feed) processors looked for the cheapest ingredients and found them in severely under-regulated foreign ports-of-call that the FDA and the USDA couldn’t touch. Processors didn’t understand the truth behind the Reagan dictum, “Trust, but verify.” They trusted their new foreign trading partner’s promises to deliver products equivalent to the more expensive (because they’re highly regulated) products they used to buy from North American suppliers. They weren’t able to verify those promises, though, and the true price of cheaper ingredients is now being paid by both the “control-costs-at-all-costs” processor and the consumer.

Washington needs to summon the political will to act now, even if they are a day late and a dollar short. A combined and better-funded USDA and FDA is the only answer to improved inspection of a much more complex food chain that’s been truly international for decades. Borders to our food supply simply do not exist and our responsible federal agencies haven’t been properly equipped to handle that kind of world.

More on the Safe Food Act of 2007

2007-05-06T06:31:00.000-05:00

I was trying to make sense out of the outdated, feeble-minded food safety system the U.S. has cobbled together over the last 100 years when I came across this article in the Ethicurean. Read it and weep.

by Mental Masala @ 2:37 pm on 5 May 2007.
The Safe Food Act of 2007 (H.R. 1148 and S.654) was recently submitted by Rep. DeLauro (D-CT) in the House and Sen. Durbin (D-IL) in the Senate. Although it might seem like DeLauro and Durbin are responding to the current series of food safety crises, they have been trying to change the food safety system for at least a decade (the Library of Congress’s THOMAS only goes back to 1997). In the 1997 edition DeLauro’s name was on it as a co-sponsor, and in subsequent years she has been the lead sponsor. In the Senate, Sen. Durbin has been the sponsor in each year.

The Safe Food Act calls for the creation of a single cabinet-level Food Safety Administration with a singular mission: safe food. The bill aims to increase the frequency of inspections of food processing plants, create a method to trace food ingredients to their points of origin, and to step up monitoring of food imports. Unlike the current FDA, the administration will have the power to order mandatory recalls of unsafe foods.

Fifteen agencies, unusual boundaries

The current food safety system is a mish-mash of government agencies. Fifteen agencies and over thirty laws govern food safety. In a recent report (PDF), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) described some of messiness:

The food safety system is further complicated by the subtle differences in food products that dictate which agency regulates a product as well as the frequency with which inspections occur. For example, how a packaged ham-and-cheese sandwich is regulated depends on how the sandwich is presented. USDA inspects manufacturers of packaged open-face meat or poultry sandwiches (e.g., those with one slice of bread), but FDA inspects manufacturers of packaged closed-face meat or poultry sandwiches (e.g., those with two slices of bread). Although there are no differences in the risks posed by these products, USDA inspects wholesale manufacturers of open-face sandwiches sold in interstate commerce daily, while FDA inspects closed-face sandwiches an average of once every 5 years.

Major bureaucratic surgery required

Getting from the current system to a unified food safety organization will be difficult. As mentioned above, fifteen federal agencies play a part in the food safety network, and so major bureaucratic surgery will be necessary. Sec. 102(b) of the proposed Safe Food Act of 2007 lays out the government agencies which would be folded into the Food Safety Administration if the law is enacted:

1. the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture;
the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the Food and Drug Administration;
2. the part of the Agriculture Marketing Service that administers shell egg surveillance services established under the Egg Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 1031 et seq.);
3. the resources and facilities of the Office of Regulatory Affairs of the Food and Drug Administration that administer and conduct inspections of food establishments and imports;
4.the resources and facilities of the Office of the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration that support–(A) the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; (B) the Center for Veterinary Medicine; and (C) the Office of Regulatory Affairs facilities and resources described in paragraph (4);
5. the Center for Veterinary Medicine of the Food and Drug Administration;
6. the resources and facilities of the Environmental Protection Agency that control and regulate pesticide residues in food;
7. the part of the Research, Education, and Economics mission area of the Department of Agriculture related to food safety and animal feed research;
8. the part of the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce that administers the seafood inspection program;
9. the Animal and Plant Inspection Health Service of the Department of Agriculture; and
10. such other offices, services, or agencies as the President designates by Executive order to carry out this Act.

That list covers four cabinet agencies: the USDA, Health and Human Services, the EPA, and the Department of Commerce. And thus many high-level political appointees will see their budgets and staff count decrease, two numbers which some see as measures of importance in Washington.

With Congress occupied by the disaster in Iraq, the Farm Bill reauthorization, and catching up on six years of oversight neglect, it’s hard to imagine such a major overhaul occurring this year. However, the E. coli in spinach crisis of 2006 and the current melamine contamination issue are focusing a lot of attention on food safety. The best bet in the near term is to add more co-sponsors to the bill, thus causing the Congressional leadership to pay more attention to the issue. You can help by writing or calling your Representative and Senators and informing them of your concerns about the current food safety system and asking them to sign on as co-sponsors of H.R. 1148 or S.654. The House bill currently has only 15 co-sponsors and the Senate bill has 3 co-sponsors, so there are plenty of lawmakers who have not signed on yet.

Five Minutes with Don Stull

2007-04-28T09:13:00.000-05:00

The ICE men raided half a dozen Swift plants on December 12, 2006; a sneak attack that might have done in the venerable old company. The pre-Christmas raid by dozens of agents in riot gear snared 1282 people and netted 65 arrests. One newspaper, reporting on the aftermath, surmised that “It didn’t make our country any safer but it did raise the price of pork.”

It deprived Swift of hundreds of workers and killed operations for weeks as they struggled to find replacements for semi-skilled workers doing jobs in cold, wet and generally unpleasant conditions. A few days “off-line” meant a leg up for all Swift’s friendly competitors who were more than glad to step into the breach and satisfy unfillable orders.

It meant a tough sales quarter and a long haul back to hopeful profitability for the company.

The effect of the raids was devastating. Today, Swift is rumored to be on the auction block, possibly to be bought out by Brazilian JBS S.A., an international exporter of fresh and processed beef based in Sao Paulo. According to industry observer and Cattle Buyers Weekly publisher, Steve Kay, the apparent asking price is in excess of $1.5 billion. Swift & Co. owners, HM Capital Partners, put the company in play in January and Swift president Sam Rovit said an announcement might be made as early as May.

The raid and the people caught up in the net recalled a book written in 2003 by Don Stull, a University of Kansas anthropologist, and Michael Broadway, a Northern Michigan University social geographer. "Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America." It was controversial in the beef business, of course, a label probably assured by the forward written by gadfly journalist Eric Schlosser, author of the sensationalistic, best-selling "Fast Food Nation.”

Still, if there is such a thing as a “spinless” overview of the packing industry, “Slaughterhouse Blues” was it. Stull and Broadway approached their subject as a scholastic study in the social sciences. They made some interesting points that should be revisited in the harsher light of recent events. I tracked down Don Stull at the University of Kansas and asked him a few questions.

Q. You and Michael Broadway conducted a two-year study of the impact of the meat industry on Garden City, Kansas and did similar research in Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Canada. Your work was detailed in “Slaughterhouse Blues,” a book published in 2003. It certainly gives you some bona fide, third-party credentials to talk about the working conditions within a meat plant and the people employed by the major beef packers. What can you tell me about it?

A. Twenty years ago next month, Michael Broadway and I joined forces with four other social scientists to begin a study of changing ethnic relations in Garden City, Kansas. From the summer of 1987 until early 1990 members of our team lived on and off in Garden City, where we carried out systematic research on the relations between new immigrant Southeast Asians (largely Vietnamese) and Latinos (mainly from Mexico) and established Anglo and Mexican Americans. This was part of a national study of what was being called the new immigration (set in motion by the 1965 changes in immigration laws) that was beginning to change the face of the United States. Other cities included in the study were Chicago, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, and Monterrey Park, California.

Michael's role, as our team's geographer, was to examine the presence of new immigrants in Garden City and document the social and economic changes that accompanied the arrival of the meatpacking industry in 1980. I was the team leader, and, like Michael, my research focused on beef packing and cattle feeding.

As our fieldwork in Garden City wound down in late 1989, we began to wonder whether what we were finding in Garden City was also happening in other packinghouse towns. A new IBP beef plant was then under construction in Lexington, Nebraska, and so Michael and I moved on to do similar research in that community. Over the course of the next decade we also teamed up to carry out research in Guymon, Oklahoma, site of a new Seaboard pork plant. Michael then went on to carry out short-term research in several communities in Iowa and began his long-term study of the impact of beef packing on Brooks, Alberta, Canada. I led another team in a study of labor relations in a major beef plant and began my long-term research on the impact of the poultry industry in western Kentucky, where I was born. Throughout this period, Michael and I, along with Mark Grey, another member of the original Garden City team, have consulted with numerous communities in the United States and Canada on the social, cultural, and economic impacts of meat and poultry processing on host communities, as well as its consequences for growers and processing workers.

Michael Broadway and I were the first social scientists to systematically study the modern meat and poultry industry and its impact on workers and communities that host its plants. Our research has taken us to farms, ranches, and towns across a good deal of the United States and Canada, and our publications have informed scholars and students, journalists and industry insiders, community leaders and general readers. Since we wrote our first article together in 1990, scholarly and journalistic writings on the meat and poultry industry have mushroomed. Still, our work remains the broadest in geographical coverage and the deepest in research experience on this subject. In fact, Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation and Chew on This, has called Slaughterhouse Blues the best book available on the meatpacking industry. It was translated into Japanese earlier this year.

Q. The recent ICE raids have put a microscope on undocumented workers in the meat and poultry industry. Approximately 10% of the employees at the Swift plants were apprehended and held as “illegals.” Some estimates place the total number of undocumented workers at 25% or more. Certainly the numbers of Latinos is very high in comparison to the general population. Do you have a grasp of the true numbers of people who are working without the necessary paper work?

A. Michael Broadway and I began studying the meatpacking industry shortly after the passage of IRCA, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which was supposed to solve the "growing problem of illegal immigration." IRCA granted "amnesty" to some "illegal aliens," then resident in the United States, and required employers to verify job applicants' citizenship or right to work in the United States. Employers who knowingly hired "unauthorized workers" could be prosecuted. In the two decades since the passage of IRCA the estimated number of "illegal aliens" has risen dramatically and very few employers have been penalized for hiring unauthorized workers.

Line work in a packing plant does not require pre-existing job skills or knowledge of the English language and it pays considerably more than other "unskilled labor." As a result it has attracted immigrant workers in larger numbers. And the packers themselves have also viewed immigrants as an attractive labor force. In the mid-1990s, for example, IBP went so far as to open a labor office in Mexico City (with the blessing of the Immigration and Naturalization Service) and pay recruits bus fare to the U.S. In 2006, Tyson's Lakeside beef plant in Brooks, Alberta, began bringing in temporary workers from China, the Philippines, El Salvador, and the Ukraine to staff its plant.

The meatpacking industry has a well-deserved reputation for hiring "illegal aliens," and anyone who is knowledgeable about the industry will readily admit that a significant number of its workers are unauthorized. But the question is what kind of numbers does "significant" translate into? And that is a very difficult question to answer. Twenty-five percent (25%) is the number most often cited, but when you try to track down the evidence from which this figure derives, it seems to disappear into thin air.

What we do know is that 90 percent of beef plant employees are hourly workers and of those a large majority are minorities and immigrants (around 90% in beef plants in southwest Kansas; 60% in Tyson's Brooks plant). And that percentage rose significantly during the past decade. Since all applicants for meatpacking jobs must present documentation of their citizenship or work authorization, it cannot be determined, without checking all employee records, just how many obtained employment with false documentation. However, recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, formerly INS, give us some idea.

The by now infamous ICE raids on several Swift plants in December 2006 arrested approximately 10 percent of the workforce at these plants. A raid on the Smithfield pork plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, in January arrested only 21 workers out of 5,200 workers, but another 500 Hispanic workers quit rather than face a Social Security card check. Assuming all of these workers had false papers--and that is not a certainty--then 10 percent of that workforce was also unauthorized. Based on these two "pieces of evidence" it is safe to assume that at least 10 percent of meatpacking workers are working without authorization.

Large meat and poultry plants regularly kill and process animals over two shifts--usually from 7:00 a.m. to midnight. The third shift, from the time the line shuts down till it starts up the next morning, is devoted to cleanup. This is very dangerous work. It is performed by workers employed by firms that contract with the meatpacking companies. And it has been generally believed that many of the workers on these crews are "illegal immigrants." This belief was borne out earlier this month when ICE raided the Cargill plant in Beardstown, Illinois. The raid targeted Quality Service Integrity Inc., which contracts with Cargill to clean that plant. ICE arrested 66 of the companies 100 employees in Beardstown: 27, including 2 managers, were charged with identity theft, while 49 were arrested or were being sought as being illegal aliens.

Q. The industry currently employs a significant number of minorities including first generation immigrants from Southeast Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It seems to be following an historical trend, stretching back well over 100 years. Why? Have “assimilated Americans” always refused to do these jobs?

A. In 1911, the US Immigration Commission estimated that 60 percent of meatpacking workers were foreign born. Today that figure is even higher. Why? There is no simple answer; however, much of it has to do with declining wages. Through the first half of the 20th century, meatpacking unions fought hard for improved working conditions and wages, and as a result an industry wide master contract was put in place that paid meatpacking workers 15 percent ABOVE the average manufacturing wage in 1960. The so-called IBP Revolution, which relocated and restructured the industry, dissolved the master contract, crippled the unions, and produced a steep decline in meatpacking wages, so that by 2002 they had fallen to 25 percent BELOW the average manufacturing wage.

During the mid 20th century, not only were wages and working conditions markedly better than they are today, but the workforce was composed in far greater numbers of native-born workers. And one of the reasons why the packers have aggressively recruited immigrants is because they believe that immigrants are not only good workers, but they also believe that they are more likely to accept lower wages and are less likely to organize.

Work on a meat or poultry processing line is hard, nasty work--and it is dangerous. Wages are better than in fast food or much of the service sector, but they are not good. For example, current wages at the Smithfield Tar Heel plant range from $7.50 to $13.00 an hour, with the typical pay in the $9-11 range. In terms of pay, pork plants generally pay somewhere between the scale for beef and poultry, so thy typical beef plant workers makes a little more, the typical line worker in a chicken plant a little less. With these working conditions and this pay scale, employee turnover is high--60-100 percent, even higher for new plants--but not as high as in fast food, where turnover often reaches 300 percent or more.

Given the above conditions, meatpacking work does not attract those persons--native born or immigrant--who have other options.

Q. The issue of undocumented workers has been with us for decades and, with the exception of the ill-fated Operation Vanguard in 1999 and raids on some Tyson poultry plants a few years ago, has been largely ignored by the U.S. Government. What’s behind the recent increased activity?

A. You are right. Unauthorized workers have become an integral--and growing--part of the US economy, and until the last year or two, the federal government paid little attention to it. Certainly the growing xenophobia that is a lasting legacy of September 11, 2001, is a contributing factor as has been the escalating rhetoric about securing our borders. This most recent interest can be traced to some degree to President Bush's 2004 proposal for a guest worker program and of course the campaign rhetoric of the 2006 midterm elections.

I think that this most recent surge of nativism will subside in time, but not, I fear, as soon as it did after IRCA. And I am convinced that building walls between Mexico and the US or adding more and more Border Patrol officers are not the answer. As long as economic opportunity is stifled in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America and other places in the "developing world," and as long as opportunities for economic betterment remain in the United States, people will find a way to come here. And how can we blame them? Our ancestors did the same.

Q. Dave Ray, speaking for the American Meat Institute, said "Hiring illegal workers just doesn’t make good business sense. Employee turnover is very disruptive.” But most data show turnover is endemic in the meat business. Good business sense or not, what’s been the effect of turnover in the industry? Does the Basic Pilot program work?

A. Regardless of what industry spokespersons say, turnover is endemic in the meat and poultry industry. The packers' prime directive remains: "Get the product out the door" as cheaply as possible. Let me quote from a testimony given by Arden Walker, former head of labor relations for IBP, in a 1984 National Labor Relations Board proceeding.

COUNSEL: With regard to turnover, since you are obviously experiencing it, does that bother you?

MR. WALKER: Not really.

COUNSEL: Why not?

MR. WALKER: We found very little correlation between turnover and profitability. An employee leaves for whatever reason. Generally, we're able to have a replacement employee, and I might add that the way fringe benefits have been negotiated and installed, they favor long-term employees. For instance, insurance, as you know, is very costly. Insurance is not available to new employees until they've worked there for a period of a year or, in some cases, six months. Vacations don't accrue until the second year. There are some economies, frankly, that result from hiring new employees.

Now, Mr. Ray would no doubt say that Mr. Walker was speaking of a time, two decades ago, when things were different. IBP is gone, purchased by Tyson. But turnover remains every bit as big a problem now as it was then. And work out on the floor--and the attitudes of management, from the suits in corporate offices right down to the line supervisors, remains pretty much the same. Until working conditions change, which will only come with significant change in corporate attitudes, turnover will remain a serious problem in meatpacking.

Q. In a story published November 21, 2006 by the Dallas Morning News, you were quoted as saying, “Immigrant workers make up as much as 80 percent of the non-management workforce at some plants in Texas, Kansas and other top meatpacking states. They're less likely to organize and don't necessarily know their rights, an attractive combination for the industry.” Certainly a large number of those workers are legally employed and your comment took dead aim at the industry. Do you think the industry is unfairly taking advantage of these workers? And, if so, what’s being done to protect their rights?

A. Let me begin by saying that I am an avid meat eater, and I am not, I repeat, not, anti-industry. But I am, as you know, a vocal critic of the industry and its treatment of its workforce. I believe that some improvements have been made in this area over the 20 years I have studied the industry, but much remains to be done. The American public is used to cheap food, including meat, and until the public demands better working conditions for those who produce and process its food--and is willing to pay for it--I fear that little real progress will be made.

I think the solutions are pretty simple, really. As Michael Broadway and I wrote more than a decade ago in a chapter in our book, Any Way You Cut It: "Provide better and longer periods of training. Adequately staff work crews. Vary job tasks to relieve muscle strain. Provide longer recovery periods for injured workers. But, most of all, slow down the chain."

Implementation of such measures would take concerted efforts on the part of the federal government, through its regulatory agencies. It would also take more public pressure, akin to that which has led to improvements in food safety and animal welfare. And it would, of course, require changes in corporate attitudes, which will only come from greater government pressure and public outcry.

Do I think the industry is unfairly taking advantage of workers? Absolutely. It exploits all its workers, not just the most vulnerable. But as the most vulnerable, they are least able to stand up for their rights. While more plant inspections and greater enforcement of existing laws would definitely help, we are also witnessing the erosion the rights of immigrant workers. In 2002, the Supreme Court held, in Hoffman Plastic v. NLRB, that undocumented workers are not entitled to back pay for lost wages if they are illegally fired for union organizing. I fear that in the present anti-immigrant climate, further erosion of such rights may occur.

Meat Industry News for April 24, 2007

2007-04-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

PRESS RELEASE: MARKETING
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Names Susan Lintonsmith as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc. (Red Robin), today announced that Susan Lintonsmith has joined the company as senior vice president and chief marketing officer.

Lintonsmith will be responsible for leading the development and execution of Red Robin's brand and marketing strategies and activities including national advertising and promotions, franchisee marketing, media buying and public relations. She will also manage Red Robin's internal marketing team and several outside agencies. Lintonsmith will report to Dennis Mullen, Red Robin's chairman and chief executive officer.

Lintonsmith is a seasoned marketing executive with nearly 20 years experience building world class brands. Before joining Red Robin, she was vice president and general manager for WhiteWave Foods' Horizon Organic brand, a $400 million business. Previous to WhiteWave, she served as vice president of global marketing with Western Union, a $4 billion leader in consumer-to- consumer money transactions. Lintonsmith also spent more than five years with the Coca-Cola Company and seven years with Pizza Hut Inc. in various marketing positions.
Web site: http://www.redrobin.com/
Editor’s note: It’s a good idea that the Robin has brought in somebody with Lintonsmith’s wide-ranging marketing background. Now if she can just influence someone in that organization to ramp up the quality of their product, her work will be much easier.

PRESS RELEASE: ANTI-MARKETING
Farm Sanctuary's Annual Event Includes a Demonstration to Educate the Public About Foie Gras
PHILADELPHIA, April 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Farm animal protection issues, advocate strategies and current events will be the focus of Farm Sanctuary's Sixth Annual Farm Animal Forum held this year in Philadelphia, Pa. Farm Sanctuary, the nation's leading farm animal protection organization, holds the annual conference to educate and motivate animal advocates to become more effective voices on behalf of farm animals. The Forum is Sunday, April 29, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at the National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St., Philadelphia.

"Now more than ever our society is calling for ways to end suffering and create a healthy and sustainable future for all," said Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary. "The Farm Animal Forum is an excellent chance for citizens and advocates to learn what it takes to build a successful movement based on truth, transparency, compassion and action."

On Saturday, April 28, animal advocates are invited to participate in a demonstration at an area restaurant to educate the public about foie gras. Recently, legislation has been introduced in Philadelphia to ban the sale of the product. Foie gras is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese until their livers become diseased and up to 10 times larger than normal. Should the birds survive this process, they are slaughtered and their livers are harvested for foie gras.

Sunday's lineup features exhibits, issues presentations, networking opportunities, book-signings and prominent speakers. In addition to Baur, speakers include: Dr. Jonathan Balcombe, a research scientist with Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine; Lawrence Carter-Long, long-time animal and disability rights activist; Dr. Holly Cheever, vice president of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights and the New York State Humane Association; Susie Coston, director of Farm Sanctuary's New York Shelter; Bruce Friedrich, vice president in charge of international grassroots campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA); David Wolfson, law professor and partner at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP and the author and legal expert behind Beyond the Law: Agribusiness and the Systemic Abuse of Animals Raised for Food or Food Production.

About Farm Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary is the nation's leading farm animal protection organization. Since incorporating in 1986, Farm Sanctuary has worked to expose and stop cruel practices of the "food animal" industry through research and investigations, legal and institutional reforms, public awareness projects, youth education, and direct rescue and refuge efforts. Farm Sanctuary shelters in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Orland, Calif., provide lifelong care for hundreds of rescued animals, who have become ambassadors for farm animals everywhere by educating visitors about the realities of factory farming. Additional information can be found at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/ or by calling 607-583-2225.
Source: Farm Sanctuary
CONTACT: Wendy Hankle of Farm Sanctuary, +1-607-583-2225, ext. 250,whankle@farmsanctuary.org
Web site: h ttp://www.farmsanctuary.org/
Editor’s Note: Farm Sanctuary is a prime example of the lunatic fringe: underfunded for their task, undereducated about the industry they’re attacking, misdirected in their efforts. But, like someone once said, "keep your firends close and your enemies closer."

PRESS RELEASE: MARKETING
Turkey is a breakfast meat at Hardee's
Hardee's has announced another fast-food first: turkey for breakfast. The new Breakfast Club Sandwich includes slices of roasted turkey breast, bacon, shaved ham, American cheese and a folded egg, served on grilled sourdough bread.

"We have had a great deal of success on our lunch and dinner menu by combining the great tastes of classic American sandwiches with the all-American burger, so we wanted to give the same approach a try at breakfast," said Brad Haley, Hardee's executive vice president of marketing. "A Breakfast Club Sandwich seemed like a natural since most of the ingredients found on a traditional club sandwich, like ham, bacon and cheese, were already staples at breakfast.

"However, one of the main things that really makes a club sandwich taste like a club sandwich is the turkey, but turkey had never made its way onto fast-food breakfast menus before so were weren't sure that our customers would even accept it," Haley added. "Fortunately, the resulting sandwich tasted great and the consumer research results in our test market indicated that it was the turkey that was primarily responsible for the menu item's strong appeal. So, why not give turkey a chance to shine in the morning?"

Sherrie Rosenblatt, speaking for the National Turkey Federation, agreed with Haley. “Anytime you start with turkey, you’re giving the consumer a healthier option,” she said. “We’re delighted Hardee’s is ‘giving turkey a chance to shine.’”
Editor’s note: After years of breakfasting on bacon, it’s rather pleasant to have a new protein resource on the table.

Meat Industry News for April 23, 2007

2007-04-23T17:17:00.000-05:00

NCGA looks at relationship between corn and food prices
April 23, 2007
Agriculture Online
During a 15-month period when corn prices nearly doubled, consumer food prices actually increased by less than average, the National Corn Growers Association has learned. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, at present rates, food prices will climb by only 3.3 percent in 2007.

NCGA's analysis of the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) reports shows almost no relationship between the corn prices and food prices. "The food index rose 0.3 percent in March, following larger increases earlier this year. Grocery store foods also rose less in March, largely reflecting a downturn in the index for fruits and vegetables."
Editor’s note: Can I throw the B.S. flag at the NCGA’s silly effort to avoid the obvious? For those few who can’t see through this
1. It’s a 15 month study, the price of corn has only been out-of-hand for about 6 of those months
2. The price rise was softened considerably by a downturn in the index for fruits and vegetables. No HFCS in any of those items.
3. Maybe the NCGA doesn’t understand the phrase “apples and oranges?”

McDonald's selling most of its Latin America eateries
By John Schmeltzer
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO _ McDonald's Corp. on Friday announced that it has reached an agreement to sell virtually all of its 1,600 restaurants in Latin America and the Caribbean to an Argentine businessman who has run the hamburger giant's outlets in Argentina for 20 years.

Under the deal, Woods Staton, who was president of McDonald's Latin America South division until last year, will assume ownership of nearly 1,100 McDonald's-owned restaurants and become the franchiser for 500 restaurants operated by other licensees.
Editor’s note: Can I buy stock? This little maneuver frees them of some riskier investments in a few unstable regions and let’s them concentrate on improving operations, a wise step that led to an increase customer count: an estimated 52 million customers each day, compared with the 46 million a day it served in 2003 when it refocused its efforts

Associated Press
U.S. Food Safety Strained by Imports
By JUSTIN PRITCHARD
04.23.07, 3:45 PM ET
The same food safety net that couldn't catch poisoned pet food ingredients from China has a much bigger hole.

Billions of dollars' worth of foreign ingredients that Americans eat in everything from salad dressing to ice cream get a pass from overwhelmed inspectors, despite a rising tide of imports from countries with spotty records, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal trade and food data.

"I don't ever remember working on ingredients," said Carl R. Nielsen, a former FDA official whose job until he left in 2005 was to make sure field inspectors were checking the right imports. "That was the lowest priority, a low priority."
Editor’s note: “We have 60,000 to 80,000 facilities that we’re responsible for in any given year.” Explosive growth in the number of processors and the amount of imported foods means that manufacturers “have to build safety into their products rather than us chasing after them. We have to get out of the 1950s paradigm.” (Source: New York Times, April 23, 2007)
Robert Brackett, Ph.D. Director, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, explaining why the feds can’t do their job. Enough said.

Meat Industry News for April 20, 2007

2007-04-20T17:06:00.000-05:00

PET FOOD
FDA asks if pet food tainted on purpose
By ANDREW BRIDGES,
Associated Press Writer
Fri Apr 20, 1:24 AM ET
WASHINGTON - Imported ingredients used in recalled pet food may have been intentionally spiked with an industrial chemical to boost their apparent protein content, federal officials said Thursday.

That's one theory being pursued by the Food and Drug Administration as it investigates how the chemical, melamine, contaminated at least two ingredients used to make more than 100 brands of dog and cat foods.
View full article
Editor’s note: This catastrophe for the pet food industry puts a 100,000 watt spotlight on food safety in general and the lack of federal oversight, especially of imported raw ingredients. Fido and Fluffy get sick this week, your children are next.

PRESS RELEASE: MARKETING
April 19, 2007 04:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Niman Ranch Furthers Leadership Position in Gourmet Natural Meat Industry Company Adds Natural Hog Farmers and Key Sales Staff to Meet Growing Demand
OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With Earth Day approaching, Niman Ranch announces significant growth of their network of hog farmers and new leadership of their gourmet natural and specialty grocery sales channel.

Since January, Niman Ranch has added 41 hog farmers to total more than 500 family farmers who provide pigs for the Niman Ranch gourmet natural pork program. Unique to the industry, Niman Ranch employs field agents to support and train family farmers and ensure farmers are upholding their protocols which are widely known as the industry’s strictest for the raising and handling of hogs.

“As the demand for our pork continues to increase, we rely on new family farmers to grow our business and meet consumer demands for our gourmet natural pork,” said Paul Willis, hog farmer and manager of the pork company. “We welcome the new hog farmers to the Niman Ranch family, and are glad they share our belief to humanely raise free-range pigs according to our strict protocols.”

In addition, Niman Ranch supports the retail side of the gourmet natural channel by adding key personnel. New team members are Michael (Mike) Cummings, Director of Sales for the Natural Channel and Robert (Robin) Hoffman as Account Manager, Retail.

Both Cummings and Hoffman spent a considerable part of their careers working for Wild Oats. Cummings was national meat category manager for Wild Oats and also held key positions at Andronico’s, Mollie Stones and The Fresh Markets. Hoffman held several positions with Wild Oats including meat cutter and national buyer.

Cummings will lead Natural Channel sales efforts with his extensive experience in the natural meat category. Hoffman’s position will focus on pricing and promotions to drive business. Together, their extensive knowledge will give Niman Ranch customers a powerful competitive advantage to help them grow in the Gourmet Natural Channel.

“Mike and Robin bring great value and expertise to our retail customers. Having been a part of that side, it gives them a unique perspective. Who better than successful meat category managers and meat cutters to help build our customers business,” said Jeff Tripician, executive vice president. “We continue to invest in the gourmet natural channel, which in the next couple of years is projected to be a $93 billion industry.”
Editor’s note: As the ‘natural’ segment grows to become a serious market in terms of profits, expect the big boys to start jockeying for position. There will be some serious bumping as they try to center up on the paint. The late-comers always look for the slam dunk.

PRESS RELEASE: MARKETING
Carl Buddig Turns Up the Volume With Digital Music Promotion
Deli Meat Producer to Offer Free Digital Music in Millions of Buddig and Old Wisconsin Packages
HOMEWOOD, Ill., April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Carl Buddig and Company, a leading producer of packaged deli meats and specialty sausages, is launching a multi-million piece digital music promotion to spotlight its Buddig and Old Wisconsin brands.

The digital music promotion, set to kick off nationwide starting April 23, will feature an offer for a free song in approximately 15 million Buddig and Old Wisconsin packages.

Under the terms of the promotion, each package will feature a unique package code, along with a URL directing consumers to either www.buddig.com or www.oldwisconsin.com. To redeem their free song, consumers need only to log onto the correlating URL and enter their package code and email address. Upon completion, a music code good for one free song will be emailed to them, along with download instructions.

Tom Padula, director of marketing for Carl Buddig and Company, says his company is excited about the music promotion, which he says gives Buddig customers their choice from nearly two million songs.

"The universal appeal of music makes it an ideal giveaway for us because our customers transcend demographics," notes Padula. "And because the music is delivered digitally, our customers are able to choose from a huge selection of songs and a wide variety of genres, ensuring something for every taste."

Promotional Currency, a Frisco, TX-based marketing strategies firm specializing in digital entertainment promotions, developed the digital music promotion for Carl Buddig and is administering the program. Puretracks is the digital music provider.
Editor’s note: Buddig need to figure something out. Target a buying audience, figure out what else they need/want and give it to ‘em. They should lure in a boatload of under 25’s with this promotion. That 'transcend demographics' thing is wishful thinking.

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Agribusiness Partners International, L.P. Prepares to Sell Chicken Kingdom OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Agribusiness Partners International, L.P. (API) announced today it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cherkizovo Group (LSE:CHE) for the sale of Chicken Kingdom located in Lipetsk and Bryansk, Russia. The signing of the MoU will allow Cherkizovo to acquire 100% of the share capital in Chicken Kingdom.

Chicken Kingdom is one of the largest poultry processors in Russia producing and packaging more than 950,000 birds weekly. The Chicken Kingdom brand is the number one most recognized poultry brand in Russia. The Company is one of the largest employers in the three Regions of Russia in which it operates with over 2,800 employees.

Cherkizovo was formed in 2005 by the combination of two companies and is currently one of Russia’s largest meat producers. The Company provides full production and sales functions for beef, pork and poultry. Cherkizovo consists of eight beef processing plants, two poultry and four hog farms, a poultry processing plant, a feed mill and two trading houses. The Company has a vast distribution network throughout the European section of Russia.

API is a $100 million Private Equity investment fund formed in 1996 with investor support from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). API was organized to invest in developing food and agribusiness companies in the Former Soviet Union. The Burlington Capital Group of Omaha, NE serves as the General Partner of the Fund.
Editor’s note: Not quite the heavyweights found in the U.S. or Brazil but still a signal that the territories that were once part of the old Soviet Union have the potential of becoming major factors in world agriculture.

PEOPLE
Buege & Marsh to be Inducted into Meat Hall of Fame
Wisconsin Ag Connection
04/19/2007
Two well-known Wisconsin meat scientists will be inducted into the Wisconsin Meat Industry Hall of Fame during a ceremony next month in Madison. The May 3 event will be held at the Sheraton Madison Hotel, where the late Dennis Buege and Bruce Marsh will be honored. They are both longtime University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members.
View full article
Editor’s note: May I ask a question? Wisconsin has a Meat Hall of Fame. Why doesn’t some industry organization create a North American Hall of Fame?

Meat Industry News for April 19, 2007

2007-04-19T14:09:00.000-05:00

THE BOARD ROOM – FINANCIAL REPORT
Kraft profits plummet in first quarter
By Alicia Karapetian on 4/19/2007 for Meatingplace.com
Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Inc. on Wednesday announced that earnings for the first quarter were down 30.5 percent, citing large spending increases in marketing in an attempt to ignite sales growth.

Kraft, which was spun off from Altria Group last month, posted earnings of $702 million, or 43 cents per diluted share in the three months ended March 31, down from $1.01 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the same period last year.

Analysts expected 42 cents per share, according to a Thomson Financial poll.

Sales were up 5.7 percent, with the greatest gains seen in the company's beverage sector. The convenient meals segment, boosted by deli meats and new pizza offerings under the DiGiorno and Tombstone brands, rose 2.6 percent.

The company has recently introduced a slew of new products, which, in addition to pizzas, includes the Deli Creations sandwich line — sandwich-making kits that include Oscar Mayer lunch meats and Kraft cheeses.

"While our first quarter results reflect improvement in several core categories, we still face many challenges," said Irene Rosenfeld, chairman and CEO. "We expect to see further progress, particularly in the second half of the year, as we set the stage for Kraft's return to consistent growth."

Shares of Kraft closed at $32.69 on Wednesday, down 61 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Editor's Note: Time to buy shares. Great new products and a marketing machine will drive profits in the second half

RULES AND REGS: HUMAN RESOURCES
Six more plead guilty in wake of Swift raid
By Tom Johnston on 4/19/2007 for Meatingplace.com
Six more former Swift & Co. workers pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from a December immigration raid at the company's Cactus, Texas, meatpacking plant, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Four of the defendants each pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in connection with an immigration document, and they face a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the Associated Press reported.

The other two pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of unlawful entry by an illegal immigrant, which carry a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

In December, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau raided Swift plants in six states, arresting more than 1,200 immigrant workers.

All 53 charged in the Northern District of Texas have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

No charges were filed against Swift.
EDITORS NOTE: Swift dangled the bait by offering jobs that paid significantly more than these “criminals” could earn in Mexico. They took the bait – jobs that paid slightly more than minimum wage - and now they’re facing quarter of a million dollar fines and a decade in prison, yet no charges were filed against Swift? Shades of the recent Tyson raids that ensnared the same class of criminals and a few mid-level managers. Can we make this a little less fair? Until the guys sitting in the board room face similar fines and jail time, this is a problem that will never end

MARKETING
A natural trend
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
BY KATE ROCKWOOD
Medill News Service
Chipotle's decision to swap the usual pork in its carnitas burrito for more expensive, naturally-raised pork resulted in a big price hike for the item in 2001, but it has more than paid off in increased sales.

"Ethically that was a very easy decision for us to make," said Jim Adams, Chipotle's marketing executive director, describing the 3-foot-by-7-foot indoor pens pigs are usually raised in. "But financially it was a difficult decision for us to make."
View full article
EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t get caught up in this success story. The real story here is Chipotle’s core audience was agreeable to an extra buck per burrito. Your core audience might view any price increase as outrageous.

INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
S. Korean import of U.S. beef likely to resume next week
SEOUL, April 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's import of beef from the United States is highly likely to resume next week, three years and five months after imports were originally banned over a mad cow disease scare, agricultural officials said Thursday.

"It was confirmed that the U.S. authorities are scheduled to issue a quarantine certificate for the export of 10 tons of beef around tomorrow," said an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. "If things go as scheduled, the beef shipment will arrive in South Korea by plane around Monday."

South Korea's quarantine authorities said they plan to conduct an X-ray inspection to see if the shipment is of boneless beef from cattle under 30 months old, a condition for imports agreed upon between the two countries in January 2006.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If anyone actually believes the flood gates will open unhindered by Korea’s contentious politics, go stand on the Brooklyn Bridge.

MARKETPLACE
Grass always greener for good beef
3% OF MARKET Resurgent grass-fed variety 'flies out the door'
Chicago Sun-Times
April 19, 2007
BY JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporter

Before the advent of the feedlot in the mid-20th century, most of the beef that Americans ate came from cattle that lived outdoors, munching on grass.

Looks like we're headed back to the future. Grass-fed beef is enjoying a renaissance among small-scale ranchers, consumers concerned about their health or the environment, and chefs and foodies who swear by the taste.

"It flies out the door," said Grant DePorter, managing partner at Harry Caray's, which sells grass-fed steaks from celebrated Chicago broadcaster Bill Kurtis' Tallgrass Beef company.

Grass-fed beef still amounts to just a small portion of the U.S. beef market -- 3 percent. But that figure is expected to reach 10 percent over the next decade, the American Grassfed Association estimates.
View full article
EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve tasted Tallgrass beef at Harry Caray’s. Excellent stuff. For more on the product, read my interview with Bill Kurtis on Cattlenetwork by clicking here. But let’s note get confused by those stratospheric growth numbers. Grass fed started from a very small base, the quality control and volume aren’t there (yet) and the price still screams niche market.

RESEARCH

Does Red Meat Deserve Bad Press?
Dr. John Briffa
Special to The Epoch Times
April 19, 2007
Red meat gets its fair share of bad press. An example is a recently published U.K.-based study, which assessed the relationship between meat eating and breast cancer. "Red meat ups breast cancer risk" was the way this study was headlined in the media. The brevity of such titles usually does not tell the full story, so I decided to take a closer look at the study and its findings.

Researchers at the University of Leeds assessed the diets and risk of breast cancer in almost 34,000 pre- and postmenopausal women over an eight years period [1]. Meat consumption and risk of breast cancer was assessed in all women. The researchers also provided separate data for premenopausal and postmenopausal women. This distinction turned out to be important, because the results in premenopausal and postmenopausal women were very different indeed.

For instance, high total meat consumption (defined as more than 103 grams (about 3 and a half ounces) of meat a day) in premenopausal women was associated with a 12 percent increased risk of breast cancer compared to eating none. On the other hand, low meat consumption (defined as less than 62 g (about 2 ounces) of meat per day) was associated with a 32 percent reduced risk of breast cancer compared to eating none at all.

Also, looking at the intake of different types of meat, higher intakes of red meat, processed meat, poultry, and offal were not associated with a statistically significant increase in cancer risk.
View full article

Study Indicates A Link Between Cured Meat Consumption And Lung Disease
April 18, 2007
Patricia Shehan - All Headline News Staff Writer
New York, NY (AHN) - Recent study results indicate a link between eating cured meat and incidence of lung disease.

The human study conducted by an associate research scientist, Dr. Rui Jiang from Columbia University in New York, found a statistical link between eating a diet rich in cured meats (hot dogs, deli meats and bacon) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Chronic lung disease, or COPD, may involve chronic emphysema, chronic bronchitis or asthma.
Jiang's study researched the diet and lung function of more than 7,000 participants. The average age of the study participants was 64.5 years.

People who ate more than 14 servings per month of cured meats had higher incidences of developing COPD. Even higher cured meat intakes were linked to even higher incidences of lung disease.
View full article
EDITOR’S NOTE: Eating food is the real culprit here. A diet of purified water will absolutely end any increased risk of food-borne illnesses, COPD’s, adverse reactions caused by allergies and environmental diseases such as certain types of cancer. Of course, you’ll die within a few weeks due to starvation…but you won’t get cancer.

RULES AND REGS: THE NEW FARM BILL
US pork producers make Farm Bill wish-list
19 Apr 2007
Pig Progress.net
The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has indicated to lawmakers what the country’s pork producers want and don’t want in the next Farm Bill.

There are several bills pending in Congress that could adversely affect pork producers’ ability to market their hogs, including a ban on meat packers using contract growers and a requirement that packers buy at least 25% of their pigs on the so-called spot market.

"Punitive actions against packers do not necessarily benefit pork producers in the long run unless the packers are clearly in the wrong," NPPC past President Joy Philippi, a pork producer from Bruning, Neb., told the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry.
View full article
EDITORS NOTE: The pork industry and the cattle industry agree – keep the feds away from the marketplace. It works fine without that guy saying, “Hi. I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

Meat Industry News for April 18, 2007

2007-04-18T17:03:00.000-05:00

PRESS RELEASE: RULES AND REGS
Dakota Beef CEO Scott Lively Invited to Testify Before House Subcommittee Congress Seeking Input on Growing Organic Industry
WASHINGTON, April 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dakota Beef 100% Organic, the nation's leading certified organic beef company, announces its CEO, Scott Lively, has been invited to provide testimony before the House Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture on Wednesday, April 18.

The Subcommittee will hear testimony from organic industry leaders, producers and processors in what's likely to be the first of several hearings as they prepare the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill. Mr. Lively, a leading expert in the organic beef industry, has been invited before the Subcommittee specifically to discuss the economic development impacts of organic production and processing in the U.S.

While the organic industry has historically enjoyed the ongoing support of Congress, this marks the first time the House Subcommittee has sought testimony from such a wide spectrum of organic industry leaders. "As the organic industry experiences continued growth and our products are accessible to an increasing number of consumers, the continued support of Congress is crucial in ensuring consistent growth and organic standards adherence," said Mr. Lively. "Consumer confidence in certified organic products is a direct result of organic product integrity which, in turn, is dependent upon National Organic Program oversight and enforcement," he added.

The organic industry as a whole has enjoyed strong growth over the last ten years and is projected to grow for the entire five-year life of the next Farm Bill. The testimony of Mr. Lively and other leading organic industry experts is expected to help shape future funding and oversight.

Dakota Beef LLC is the leading certified organic beef company in the country, operating its own certified organic, USDA inspected processing plant in Howard, South Dakota. The company only sells certified organic beef products and its cattle are never administered antibiotics or growth-promoting hormones. All of its cattle are born and raised on certified organic pasture in the Midwest. Its animals are always treated humanely both to reduce stress, and to help their natural immune systems operate at their fullest potential. Dakota Beef feeds its cattle on a proprietary mix of certified organic grains to promote high levels of marbling and ensure consistently flavorful and tender beef.

CONTACT: Scott Chavkin of Dakota Beef 100% Organic, +1-303-667-3486, schavkin@dakotaorganic.com
Web site: http://www.dakotabeefcompany.com/
Editor’s Note: “Organic” is the new buzzword and a market segment that’s growing geometrically, albeit from a very small base. Those that were first in are fighting to keep the concept “pure,” meaning out of the hands of the big boys in the meat packing business.

CROP REPORT
U.S. Supreme Court declines to review seed case from Mississippi
The Sun Herald/The Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. --The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear from a north Mississippi company that was sued by Monsanto Co. for saving seeds from one harvest and planting them the following season.

A federal appeals court in Washington in August 2006 ruled that Mitchell Scruggs, Eddie Scruggs, Scruggs Farm Supply Inc., Scruggs Farm Joint Venture, HES Farms Inc., MES Farms Inc. and MHS Farms Inc. violated Monsanto's licensing requirements and its patent for use of the company's seeds. The Scruggses operate in Lee County.
View full article
EDITOR’S Note: The Scruggs family operated under the mistaken belief that just because they bought the seed corn, they actually owned it. You don’t buy from Monsanto, you just rent for a while.

PRESS RELEASE: THE BOARD ROOM
Wendy’s International, Inc. Names Jay Fitzsimmons as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
New Wendy’s CFO Was Formerly a Senior Executive at Wal-Mart
April 17, 2007
DUBLIN , Ohio-- (BUSINESS WIRE)--Wendy’s International, Inc. (NYSE:WEN) today announced it has named Jay Fitzsimmons as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Fitzsimmons comes to Wendy’s after serving for more than 12 years as senior vice president and treasurer at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., where he had responsibility for treasury, planning, financial analysis, investor relations, financial operations and corporate mergers and acquisitions. Wal-Mart grew revenues from $64 billion to more than $350 billion during his tenure at the company.

Prior to his arrival at Wal-Mart, Fitzsimmons worked as a sell-side analyst covering the restaurant and hospitality industry. He has also served as a senior officer and chief financial officer of several publicly and privately held restaurant companies, including S&A Restaurants, National Pizza Company (the largest Pizza Hut franchisee), Sea Galley Stores and Flakey Jake’s.
At Wendy’s, Fitzsimmons will oversee the functions of Accounting, Finance, Internal Audit, Tax, Treasury and Information Technology, and will serve as a member of the strategic planning committee. He will report to Chief Executive Officer and President Kerrii Anderson.

“Jay’s experience in a senior leadership position with the largest retailer in the world, as well as his restaurant industry background, make him uniquely suited for Wendy’s CFO role,” Anderson said.

“We are excited about the experienced leadership and expertise that Jay will provide. We look forward to him joining our team.”

Fitzsimmons holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in accounting from the University of Notre Dame. He is on several boards, including the Advisory Board at The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, as well as the Business Consortium Fund (BCF), a nonprofit organization that provides funding to minority and women-owned businesses. BCF is an affiliate of the National Minority Diversity Council.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Not sure if getting your finance guy from Wal-Mart is a good idea if you’re in the food business? Like Willie Sutton the bank robber said when asked why he robbed banks, 'because that's where the money is'. Let’s just make sure Jay can count in units of less than a billion.

PRESS RELEASE: MARKETING REPORT
Good Times Launches “All Natural Beef” Ad Campaign
April 17, 2007
GOLDEN, Colo.-- (BUSINESS WIRE)--Good Times Restaurants, Inc. (Nasdaq:GTIM) is returning to television this spring with a campaign that touts the chain's exclusive use of all-natural beef throughout their system of restaurants. “Good Times introduced all-natural Coleman beef in 2003 and believe ourselves to be the first and largest fast food hamburger chain in the country to serve beef that is raised on an all-natural protocol and contains no antibiotics, growth hormones or steroids,” states Boyd Hoback, Good Times President & CEO.

The decision to exclusively use all-natural beef has become a primary and meaningful point of difference for the brand with consumers, according to Hoback. “It was time,” he says, “to use the power of television to really put that stake in the ground.”

The campaign was created by Morey Evans Advertising, the long-standing agency-of-record for Good Times. It features the Good Times spokesperson and brand icon: The Good Times Director of Global Expansion.

“The television spot we created is simple, bold and direct, yet still within the brand personality for which Good Times is so well recognized,” says Morey Evans Creative Director Tom Evans.

“It humorously points out, via an All-Natural Beef Detector machine, that the quality safeguards at Good Times are strict and uncompromising when it comes to their all-natural beef.”

“It’s not a commercial the big burger chains could do or, frankly, would do,” Evans explains, which he says is part of the unique appeal of a brand like Good Times and the unconventional way in which it markets to its customers.

The campaign was launched on March 14 and will be featured on both network and cable television stations in the Denver-Front Range market.

Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard has 52 restaurants, mostly in Colorado , serving high-quality, 100% all-natural Coleman beef burgers, chicken sandwiches, and fresh frozen custard.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Good Times is riding an all natural band wagon that started rolling years ago under the direction of Mel Coleman. It’s gaining serious momentum.

PRESS RELEASE: AGRICULTURE
Integrated Management Information (IMI Global) Launches AgNetwork.com, a Comprehensive New Information Service for the Worldwide Ag Industry
CASTLE ROCK, Colo., April 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Integrated Management Information, Inc. (IMI Global) (BULLETIN BOARD: INMG) , a leading provider of verification and Internet solutions for the agricultural/livestock industry, today announced the launch of AgNetwork.com, a comprehensive new source of news and information for the international agricultural community. The launch was accompanied by AgNetwork's first email newsletter, a periodic feature available to visitors to the site.

"Business dynamics within agriculture are increasingly multifaceted, global and interactive," said Dr. Nevil Speer, Professor, Western Kentucky University. "Within that environment decision making needs to be quick and accurate -- it requires access to the most up-to-date developments. Agnetwork facilitates the need for a one-stop, comprehensive and customizable outlet providing stakeholders with a continual stream of news and information."

The AgNetwork Web site is based on IMI Global's successful CattleNetwork.com model, which has grown steadily and rapidly into one of the nation's leading sources of news and information on the cattle industry. In 2006, CattleNetwork had 1.2 million unique visitors, up 108% over 2005, and reported strong growth in other traffic categories as well as advertisers and revenue.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s recognize the ag business for what it truly is: the world’s largest business.

RULES AND REGS
House Ag Subcommittee Reviews Economic Impact of Organic Agriculture
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congressman Dennis Cardoza, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture, held a hearing to review the economic impacts of organic production, processing, and marketing of organic agricultural products.

Organic food is currently a $14 billion industry, accounting for about 2 percent of total retail food sales in the United States. That number is projected to grow to as much as $23.8 billion and 3.5 percent of the U.S. food market by 2010.

To meet USDA standards, organic meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products must come from animals that are given no antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic crops must be produced without using synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, sewage sludge, bioengineering or ionizing radiation.

"This is a historic hearing," said Subcommittee Chairman Cardoza. "Today marks the first hearing ever in the House Committee on Agriculture dedicated to a substantial discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing organic agriculture. It was clear from the testimony that, while organic agriculture is certainly flourishing, we must ensure a steadfast commitment to the integrity of the program. I look forward to working with the organic community as we continue our work on the upcoming Farm Bill."

"The National Organic Program has proven to be a successful voluntary marketing program. Through standards that all producers and processors follow and a certification and enforcement process, consumers know that when they purchase products with the USDA organic seal, they are purchasing food that has been grown or raised in a certain manner," said Subcommittee Ranking Member Randy Neugebauer.

Witness testimony is available on the Committee website: http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/index.html. A full transcript of the hearing will be posted on the Committee website in 4-6 weeks.
Witness List
Ms. Caren Wilcox, Executive Director, Organic Trade Association, Greenfield, Massachusetts
Mr. Robert B. Marqusee, Director, Department of Rural Economic Development, Woodbury County, Sioux City, Iowa
Ms. Bea James, Category Leadership Program Manager, National Cooperative Grocers Association, St. Paul Minnesota
Mr. Mark Lipson, Policy Program Director, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Santa Cruz, California
Mr. Manuel Vieriera, A.V. Thomas Produce, Livingston, CaliforniaMs. Mary-Howell R. Martens, Lakeview Organic Grains, Penn Yan, New York
Mr. Scott Lively, President and CEO, Dakota Beef, LLC, Howard, South Dakota
Mr. Robert Pike, Vice President/General Manager, Braswell Foods/Glenwood Foods, Nashville, North Carolina
Ms. Sandra Marquardt, President, On the Mark Public Relations, Silver Spring, Maryland, on behalf of Ms. La Rhea Pepper, Chief Executive Officer, Organic Essentials, Inc., O'Donnell, Texas
Mr. Lynn Clarkson, President, Clarkson Grain Company, Inc., Cerro Gordo, Illinois
Mr. Rich Ghilarducci, President and CEO, Humboldt Creamery, Fortuna, California
Ms. Nicole Bernard-Dawes, President and COO, Late July Snacks, Hyannis, Massachusetts
EDITOR’S NOTE: A line is being drawn in the sand and it’s following the Washington beltway. Keep the feds out of it and this business will prosper.

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Weighs In On U.S.-S. Korea Beef Debate
The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea leaned on local officials to fully reopen Seoul's beef market to U.S. beef imports, reiterating that U.S. Congress won't otherwise OK the bilateral trade agreement recently reached by both countries.

"We firmly believe that if the Korean beef market is not fully reopened by July, the FTA will not be submitted to the Congress, AMCHAM Chairman William Oberlin said in meeting with Korea's pro-government Uri party, as reported by Yonhap News.

The parties met as part of Uri's assessment of the FTA, which is expected to be submitted to Korea's National Assembly in September after being signed by the presidents of both countries.
Oberlin reminded Korea officials that Congress members have major concerns, noting that, "Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus has condemned the failure of the U.S. trade negotiators to lift Korea's unscientific ban on U.S. beef before concluding the FTA negotiations."
AMCHAM said it is sending delegates to Washington next for annual meetings with key Congress members. Their mission is to encourage support for the FTA.

Source: Tom Johnston, Meatingplace.com

EDITORS’ NOTE: Can we cut through the crap here and call it like it is? It’s protectionism, politics at its most basic. Open the doors and let the (bone) chips fall where they may.

THE BOARD ROOM
Tyson Foods Promotes McNair
Arkansas Business
By Mike Capshaw
4/18/2007
Scott McNair was named group vice president of consumer products for Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale on Tuesday.

McNair will oversee marketing and sales for all divisions within Tyson's consumer products business, including deli, processed meats, wholesale clubs and retail.

View full article
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tyson figured out a long time ago that it's the marketing, stupid. And they keep growing by getting better at it every year.

Meat Industry News for April 17, 2007

2007-04-17T15:58:00.001-05:00

SCIENCE NEWS
Study ties cured meats to higher lung disease risk
Scientific American
April 16, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who frequently eat cured meats such as ham, hot dogs and bacon face a higher risk of lung disease, researchers said on Monday, citing additives called nitrites as a possible cause.

Those who ate cured meat products at least 14 times a month were 78 percent more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than people who did not eat these meats, even after the researchers sought to account for many other risk factors including smoking, overall diet and age.

"This article in no way changes a basic fact -- and that is that cured meats are among the safest meat products on the market," said institute spokeswoman Janet Riley.

"The very premise of this study -- that cured meats are high in nitrite -- is patently false," Riley added, saying less than 5 percent of human nitrite intake comes from cured meats and their nitrite levels have declined greatly in recent decades.
View full article
Editor's note: Nitrates are a preservative. They PRESERVE meat. Get it? Eating bad meat increases your chance of food borne illness to an absolute level. Same as crossing the street vs staying put. Crossing the street DRAMATICALLY improves your chances of getting hit by a car.

MARKETING
'Pretty extreme' Krystal lover lands in hall of fame
Orlando Sentinel
April 15, 2007
KISSIMMEE -- How far would you go to get a hamburger?

Ask Jay Barr of Cape Coral, and he'll tell you he flies roughly 150 miles from his home to pick up a box -- or, more accurately, a 24-burger "steamer pack" -- at the nearest Krystal fast-food restaurant.

Barr, 52, said he has been making the hour-long food flight to Kissimmee Airport for 10 years. In the past three years, he has made about 30 trips.
View full article
Editor's note: Krystal, White Castle, BMW, Rolex, Starbucks - they've all got marketing magnetism. To paraphrase a TV ad, "I totally don't know what that is, but I want it."

THE GOVERNMENT

COMMENTS BY SECRETARY MIKE JOHANNS REGARDING THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH KOREA
April 5, 2007
"The United States - Korea Free Trade Agreement is a historic and significant opportunity for U.S. agriculture that will create new export opportunities for farmers and ranchers. Nearly $2 billion worth of U.S. farm exports to Korea will become duty-free immediately, and market access will be expanded for beef, pork and poultry, among other commodities.

"While the agreement includes many beneficial provisions for U.S. agricultural products, I am confident in saying that it will not be ratified unless Korea opens its market to U.S. beef in accordance with science-based international guidelines."

Improved Market Access for U.S. Agricultural Producers:
Korea is our sixth largest U.S. export market.

The United States is the chief agricultural exporter to Korea at $3.2 billion despite Korea's average agricultural tariff rate at 52 percent.
Almost two-thirds of current U.S. farm exports to Korea, $1.91 billion worth (2004-2006 average), will become duty-free immediately under the Korea free trade agreement - chiefly, wheat, corn, soybeans for crushing, as well as hides and skins, cotton, wine, cherries, pistachios, almonds, and other products.
Five-year tariff phase-outs provide more access for grapefruit, a broad range of processed food products, chocolate and chocolate confectionary, sweet corn, sauces and preparations, alfalfa, breads and pastry, orange juice, and dried mushrooms.

These products represent $368 million or 12 percent of average 2004-2006 trade.

Two-year tariff phase-outs increase market access for avocados, lemons, dried prunes and sunflower seeds.

Immediate duty-free access within tariff-rate quotas is provided for skim and whole milk powder, whey for food use, cheese, dextrins and modified starches, barley, popcorn, and soybeans for food use.

Market access for beef and pork will be improved through duty phase-outs, which will ultimately lead to unlimited duty-free access by 2014 for most significant pork products and in 15 years for beef.

Market access was also expanded for apples, pears, grapes and oranges.

RULES AND REGULATIONS

ICE-y
Fear rules meat-plant communities as activists and industry blame political inaction for immigration raids
Meat&Poultry
April 13, 2007
A.M.I. president Patrick Boyle in a statement issued last year immediately following the Swift raids. "Over the last decade, we have seen instances in which companies have been penalized in one state for immigration violations and in another for civil rights violations when the same corporate hiring policies and practices are in place."
View full article
EDITOR'S NOTE: The effects of the ICE-y raids at Swift late last year will probably force their doors to close and quite possibly put them in the hands of a Brazilian buyer unless someone from Virginia with extra deep pockets steps up. How about one set of rules, uniformly and fairly enforced, that we can all live by?

Meat Industry news for April 16, 2007

2007-04-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

MEAT PROCESSING
ConocoPhillips, Tyson: Fuel from fat
By JOHN PORRETTO -- AP Business Writer
Last Updated 10:18 am PDT
Monday, April 16, 2007
HOUSTON (AP) Oil major ConocoPhillips and Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer, said Monday they were teaming up to produce and market diesel fuel for U.S. trucking fleets using beef, pork and poultry fat.

The companies said they've been collaborating over the past year on ways to leverage Tyson's expertise in protein chemistry and production with ConocoPhillips' processing and marketing knowledge to introduce a renewable diesel fuel with lower carbon emissions than petroleum-based fuels.
View full article
Editor’s note: Can the world’s largest producer of chicken fat become a major player in the energy business?

INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
U.S. food imports rarely inspected
FDA lacks resources to assure safety of fish and other products, experts say
Associated Press
Updated: 8:59 a.m. CT April 16, 2007
WASHINGTON - Just 1.3 percent of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected — yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption.

Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines — the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on.
View full article
Editor’s note: Do we still want to claim that we have the “world’s safest food supply?” Then it’s time to fund the forces manning the front gate.

THE BOARD ROOM
Cargill says it earned $553 million in third quarter
Wichita Eagle
April 16, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS - Agribusiness powerhouse Cargill said on Monday that its third-quarter earnings rose 49 percent on improving operations and tax savings.

The privately held maker of food ingredients and other agricultural products said it earned $553 million during the quarter that ended Feb. 28, up from $370 million during the same period a year ago.
View full article
Editors’ note: Ethanol production adds to their bank account and the price of feed corn takes it away.

MARKETING
McDonald's eyes reprise of 'Nothin' but Net' spot
Company in talks with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James to star in remake
Chicago Business
April 16, 2007
McDonald's Corp. is in talks with National Basketball Assn. stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to star in a remake of the fast-feeder's classic "Nothin' but Net" spots, Advertising Age has learned.

Should McDonald’s prevail in the months-long negotiations, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat stars would pick up where roundball greats Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Charles Barkley left off in 1994. That "Showdown" series began with a 1993 Super Bowl spot from Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, in which Messrs. Jordan and Bird faced off in a friendly shooting match similar to "horse."

The prize: M.J.'s Big Mac and fries.
View full article
Editor’s note: Should Wade and James even be on the same court as Jordan and Bird?

PRESS RELEASE: MEAT PROCESSING
Johnnie Cochran's Firm Suing Tyson Foods, Inc.
Source: The Cochran Firm
2007-04-16
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cochran Firm, founded by famed attorney Johnnie L. Cochran, has filed suit against the world's largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork. With annual sales of $26 billion in 2005 and with 50 poultry processing facilities in the U.S., Tyson Foods will prospectively see a fierce backlash from the various wage and hour suits filed against the company.

As of September 30, 2006, Tyson Foods employed approximately 107,000 employees, the poultry segment accounted for 31% of the company's total sales.
Based on an equation factoring the number of employees, hours worked on an annual basis, back-pay entitlement and costs for plaintiffs, Tyson Foods would be liable for over $4 billion, and would see a negative $13.50 impact on earnings per share if the poultry wage and hour litigation is successful.

This decrease does not take into account similar class actions filed against Tyson's beef & pork divisions.

Tyson operates a totally integrated poultry production process. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cobb-Vantress, Tyson is the number one poultry breeding stock supplier in the world. The company's integrated operations consist of breeding and raising chickens, as well as the processing, further- processing and marketing of these food products and related allied products.

Tyson Foods is the second-largest food production company in the Fortune 500, the largest meat producer in the world, and according to Forbes, one of the 100 largest companies in the United States. Tyson Foods is a supplier of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wal-Mart, Wendy's, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Burger King, Kroger, Costco, Harps, IGA, Yum!, Beef O'Brady's, and small restaurant businesses, as well as their private label prepared products.

The Cochran Firm has filed suits representing clients in a multi-state area of the southeastern U.S., with 16 lawsuits filed within the state of Alabama and 9 in the state of Georgia. 5 of these suits are filed specifically against Tyson Foods, Inc.

The thousands of claims for workers in the poultry processing industry stem from a recent Supreme Court decision where industry workers may be given back wages for time required to be on the job which was not fully compensated, this will also include attorneys fees and the liquidated costs in damages; doubled in the "back-pay" liability.

The annual wages for poultry workers based on a 40 hour week averages $19,600.
"I estimate that if workers' hours are recorded correctly, workers could earn an additional $6,000 to $8,000 annually, depending on their wage. These people must be properly compensated," says attorney Robert Camp of The Cochran Firm, who is heading the poultry lawsuits.

Camp was formerly a poultry industry human resources executive, where he cultivated his knowledge of the industry through his years working in the profession. He now sees himself as a worker's advocate.

"The poultry industry employs a vast number of Latino and Asian immigrants because a lot of Americans will not work in the industry, due to the fact that their wage rates are some of the lowest in the meat and food processing sectors," says Camp.

Very few supervisors are employed at the poultry plants, sometimes as many as 100 employees report to one supervisor. Managers overseeing 100-plus employees is considered acceptable, due in large to the fact that plant costs are reduced with fewer members of management. Employees therefore are all paid the same number of hours each week, regardless of the actual time worked under a master time system; master time was introduced to address the absence of managerial figures -- since in their absence, time clocks cannot be monitored.

"Immigrants are also less likely to report Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations, less likely to claim unemployment or workers' comp benefits, less likely to participate in law suits, enroll in company benefits, and less likely to participate in union organization. To Tyson's advantage, it is difficult to estimate what effect this will have on the wage litigation since immigrants are less likely to participate even though their illegal status does not necessarily prohibit them from joining the suit," Camp continues.

He sums The Cochran Firm's plights best within a few sentences: "United States poultry workers have the least among us. These people work hard to put food on our table while struggling to put food on their own. They are not asking for a lot, they just want to be paid according to the law for work they have already performed."
Editor’s note: If the (safety) glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.

Meat Industry News for April 13, 2007

2007-04-13T16:15:00.000-05:00

RESTAURANT REPORT
Smith & Wollensky Takes It in the Chops
New York Observer
Chris Shott
April 16, 2007
How's the shampoo?" asked Patrick, the chatty, bespectacled 54-year-old bartender at Wollensky's Grill on East 49th Street.

He meant the champagne, two big flute fills that he'd just served up to a smartly dressed middle-aged couple snacking on a plate of French fries at the bar.

"It sucked," answered the male of the duo, who promptly requested a glass of Pinot Gris instead.

The rather crude talk and mere pub fare might not exactly reflect the intended high-end image of such a traditionally refined outfit as the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group.
View full article

PET FOOD
FDA's Response to Tainted Pet Food Assailed
Senators Say Better Reporting, Inspections Needed
Washington Post
April 13, 2007
A Senate panel took the Food and Drug Administration to task yesterday for its "inexcusable" response to pet food contamination and a month's worth of expanding recalls that have left Americans fearful about what to feed their cats and dogs.

The Appropriations subcommittee, with a special appearance by the dean of the Senate, pressed the agency for better and faster reporting about tainted food and better and more-frequent inspections of pet food factories.

"This is inexcusable," Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said after a two-hour hearing in which an FDA official said he couldn't be sure that all the adulterated pet food has been recalled and is off store shelves. "The FDA's response to this situation has been wholly inadequate."
View full article

PRESS RELEASE: PET FOOD
Pet Defenders Applauds Congressional Hearing, Demands Further Action
Blasts pet food industry for suggesting self-regulation
WASHINGTON, April 12, 2007
Pet Defenders, the political action committee representing pet owners nationwide, called today's Senate oversight hearing into the national pet food recall a good first step towards regulating the pet food industry, but blasted the response of the pet food industry's public relations machine as uncaring and reckless.

While the Senate oversight hearing today to examine the recent pet food recall is a victory for pet owners nationwide, the Pet Food Institute, an industry group that represents the nation's pet food manufacturing companies, called any proposal for deeper federal regulations of the industry "presumptuous."

"The industry has been operating under its own set of self-imposed regulations, and that is precisely what led to the terrible contamination of pet food that has killed possibly thousands of our pets. It's preposterous that the industry continues to say that this is sufficient and continues to fight increased government regulation. The pet food industry remains reckless and more interested in profits than our pets," said Pet Defenders President Marty Stone. "Many pet owners believe that there is criminal neglect here and it is up to the government to investigate not a 'PR-firm created government- industry partnership,' the National Pet Food Commission."

Stone said more federal oversight of the pet food industry is necessary in the wake of the pet food recall. Recent reports indicate that FDA had never inspected the plants where contaminated pet food originated. Cases of kidney failure in pets have increased by 30% since the tainted food hit the shelves in early March.

Pet Defenders is also collecting testimonials from pet owners about sick pets and plans to deliver these stories to pet food executives and members of Congress.

"Pet owners who have lost their pets due to contaminated food deserve more than rhetoric on why the FDA failed to properly regulate the pet food industry," said Stone. "They deserve justice. That's why we're taking this issue directly to elected officials and industry leaders."
Founded in 2004, Pet Defenders is committed to candidates who support pet- friendly legislation at the local, state and federal level. Pet Defenders provides a voice in the political process to pet owners and their pets.
CONTACT: Marty Stone of Pet Defenders, +1-202-262-5362
info@petdefenders.org

PRESS RELEASE: RESTAURANT REPORT
OSI Restaurant Partners, Inc. Announces Appointment of Jeff Smith as President of Outback Steakhouse
Steve Erickson Named as Senior Vice President of Operations for Outback Steakhouse
April 12, 2007
Paul Avery, chief operating officer of OSI Restaurant Partners, Inc. (OSI), has announced the appointment of Jeff Smith as president of the Outback Steakhouse brand. He also announced that Steve Erickson has been promoted to senior vice president of national operations for the brand.
View full article

INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
S. Korea reiterates 'no renegotiation' in free trade deal with U.S.
Yonhap (Korea) News
April 13, 2007
South Korea will not renegotiate with the United States on the just-concluded free trade agreement despite news reports that Washington may ask Seoul to add or modify some labor provisions in the deal, the chief South Korean negotiator reiterated Friday.
View full article

INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
Johanns Warns That South Korea Is Endangering Free-Trade Deal
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told farm economists that South Korea's refusal to normalize beef trade with the United States will imperil a free-trade agreement between the two countries. "The problem is going to need to be solved," he said.

Otherwise, he suggested, a U.S. trade deal with Korea will be dead on arrival. Johanns also indicated that Korea is in violation of standards promulgated by the World Organization for Animal Health, which has recommended that the United States be classified as a "controlled risk" region for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

"We think we will have classification from the OIE by mid-May. That's an important catalyst for Korea, but I also think it's a very important catalyst for Japan," Johanns said.
John Gregerson on 4/13/2007 for Meatingplace.com

HUMAN RESOURCES
Workers at meatpacking towns preparing for possible raids
The Associated Press
April 13, 2007
DODGE CITY, Kan. - Frightened by raids last year at six Swift & Co. plants, illegal immigrants in the nation's meatpacking towns are preparing for their possible arrest.

For years, immigrant rights groups had been confident the meatpacking giants were so powerful immigration agents would never raid them.
View full article

RESTAURANT REPORT
Burger king: The man behind Ottawa's hit hamburger chain, The Works
Ottawa Citizen
April 13, 2007
A funny thing happened on the way to the 2007 Ottawa Restaurateur of the Year awards: Ion Aimers got himself nominated. Twice.

It’s funny because Restaurateur of the Year — which will be announced at a gala dinner on Tuesday — is typically bestowed upon someone like, say, Stephen Beckta, New York-trained owner and sommelier of the eponymous Beckta Dining and Wine, the hautest of Ottawa’s haute cuisine.

Beckta is, in fact, nominated this year too along with Aimers, who is anything but haute: a bearded, jean-clad man-child whose defining feature is a set of twinkling eyes bracketed by deeply etched laugh lines.
View full article

China's Food Safety Woes Expand Overseas
April 13, 2007
Associated Press
SHANGHAI, China
The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella.

Yet, it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus U.S. public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.
View full article

Meat Industry News for April 12, 2007

2007-04-13T07:37:00.000-05:00

LEGAL ISSUES
Meat Tampering Case in Court
WCBD, Charleston, SC
Wednesday, Apr 11, 2007
A federal judge has ruled there is enough evidence for the case to move forward against a Super K-Mart employee accused of putting rat poison into ground meat.

Karen Wyndham of Cottageville is charged with tampering with consumer products.

Wednesday, A FBI detective took the stand and said Wyndham admitted to putting rat poison into three packages of meat at the North Charleston Super K-mart, where she works in the dairy department. He also said she confessed to doing it as revenge after her supervisor asked her to do work in another section of the store.
View full article

RETAIL REPORT
US Retail Meat: Grocers Gearing For Grilling Gala
KANSAS CITY (Dow Jones)--U.S. grocers are in various stages of gearing up for the grilling season, which is already well underway in southern regions of the country while more dependable weather conditions for backyard cookouts in the northern areas could still be a few weeks away.

It's a safe bet though that shoppers will be seeing more grilling cut features in the weeks to come as the stores make the transition from cool weather promotions to products that are more popular during the warmer months, market analysts said.
View full article

FOOD PREP
Meat of the Month: Pork Butt
Just because it's a cheap slab of pig doesn't mean it ain't delicious.
By Ted Allen
Esquire magazine
April, 2007
Ask a man who knows his meat and he will tell you this: The cheap cuts are some of the best. Any jackass can blow 20 bones a pound on beef tenderloin -- silky, yes, but flavorless. You really want to pay top dollar for meat that requires bacon or butter sauce to taste like something?
View full article

PRESS RELEASE
Biofuels Bubble Lowers U.S. Meat Production, Hits Plantings
Executive Intelligence Review
April 11, 2007 (EIRNS)
U.S.A. farm regions have been hit by shortages of seed, fertilizer, and pressure to liquidate livestock, and other disruptions, as the North American Spring planting season proceeds under the insanity of the corn ethanol bubble, and economic breakdown generally. Yesterday's release of the monthly "Supply and Demand Report" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is receiving attention for its projection that U.S. meat production will decline in 2007, for beef, pork and broilers, for a total drop of one billion pounds in combined output. Per person, this means a yearly drop of 1.7 lbs. of consumption—about 1 percent. The decline in meat output is associated in part with higher feed costs as corn prices rose from their below-production cost level of $2.00 a bushel (typical of recent years) up to $3.50-4.00 (a price seen in 1996 and in years past).
View full article

SATIRE
Red meat: the oldest aphrodisiac
Brisbane Times
April 11, 2007
Is there anything more tedious than a vegan?

They're the dietary equivalent of conscientious objectors, who rail against war yet shelter under the protection it provides.

Vegans, especially the militant, preachy ones, tell us that eating meat is barbaric and unnecessary, yet they wouldn't have a brain complex enough to conceive of the term "barbarism" or be able to spell the word "unnecessary" if it wasn't for the increased brain size that meat provided our distant ancestors.

And don't even get me started on "white meat vegetarians", "aquatarians" or "whatever-the-frig-atarians" who get all misty eyed about chopping the head off Clarabell the cow, but are quite happy to scoff chicken nuggets or roast spatchcock or pan-fried barra because "it's not the same".
View full article

PRESS RELEASE
CPC: Pork Industry Appeals to Canadian Government to Address Competitiveness Issues
CCNMatthews - April 12, 2007
The pork industry is appealing to the federal government to assist in addressing short- and long-term competitiveness issues, in light of staggering challenges currently besieging the pork and processing sectors.A letter submitted earlier this week to Chuck Strahl and other key federal ministers by the Canadian Pork Council (CPC), Canada Pork International (CPI), and the Canadian Meat Council (CMC), underscores the dire situation facing the export-dependent sector, which has taken a pounding from a strong Canadian dollar and a dramatic rise in production input costs, including feed."We need government collaboration now," says CPC President Clare Schlegel. "Our industry is not looking for a hand-out, but we do need to work with government to find real solutions, both now and in the future, to drastically improve our ability to compete globally with other pork-exporting countries."
View full article

INTERNATIONAL MARKETPLACE
China's Food Safety Woes Expand Overseas
Associated Press
A farmer picks rape blossoms at a farm on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, seen in this March 10, 2006 file photo. The wave of American pet deaths linked to contaminated food is bringing home a frightening new fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.

Problems in China's food supply chain are legion and go right to the root: a farming sector dominated by tens of millions of tiny household farms, many an acre (two-fifths of a hectare) or smaller, making regulation difficult. Regulation is lax, corruption is rife and a go-go capitalism mentality prevails in a fast-changing society. A result is recurring food-safety scandals.

The list of Chinese food exports rejected at American ports reads like a chef's nightmare: pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella.Yet, it took a much more obscure item, contaminated wheat gluten, to focus U.S. public attention on a very real and frightening fact: China's chronic food safety woes are now an international concern.In recent weeks, scores of cats and dogs in America have died of kidney failure blamed on eating pet food containing gluten from China that was tainted with melamine, a chemical used in plastics, fertilizers and flame retardants. While humans aren't believed at risk, the incident has sharpened concerns over China's food exports and the limited ability of U.S. inspectors to catch problem shipments.
View full article

ENERGY
Ethanol fuels mixed feelings
Ranchers worry alternative gas driving up their feed prices
April 12, 2007
Durango Herald, Denver Bureau DENVER
Lawmakers working on the "New Energy Economy" heard protest Wednesday from one of Colorado's oldest economies - agriculture.

A national boom in ethanol has lifted the spirits of corn farmers, but ranchers and pork producers are hurting because they need corn to feed their animals.

"Corn is basically our only option," said Erin Daley with the Denver-based U.S. Meat Export Foundation. "We don't really have a substitute for corn."

Ethanol producers don't have a substitute at the moment, either. While the fuel can be made from a variety of crops, almost all American ethanol is made out of corn.
View full article

Daily news for Wednesday, April 11

2007-04-11T16:37:00.000-05:00

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
The Perfect Bacon Sandwich Decoded: Crisp and Crunchy
International Herald Tribune
April 11, 2007
Should it be slithery or scrunchy, glutinous or grilled? The answer, British scientists say, may be divined by a formula: N = C + {fb(cm) · fb(tc)} + fb(Ts) + fc · ta.

Researchers at Leeds University found that crisp bacon on white bread makes the perfect bacon sandwich. That is the scientific answer to the question: what makes the perfect bacon sandwich? And, no, it is not April 1.

Researchers at Leeds University spent more than 1,000 hours testing 700 variants on the traditional bacon sandwich, which many Britons refer to as a bacon butty (eschewing the term sandwich, said to have been coined to honor the fourth Earl of Sandwich's habit of eating meat between slices of bread in around 1762).
View full article

THE BOARD ROOM
Pet Food Officer Sold Stock Before Recall
Washington Post
April 11, 2007
The chief financial officer of Menu Foods sold about half of his stake in the company three weeks before the widespread pet food recall, Canadian insider-trading reports showed.

Finance chief Mark Wiens called it a "horrible coincidence" in the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper, adding that he did not hear of any problems with the company's products until at least a week later. Wiens sold 14,000 shares on Feb. 26 and 27 for about $90,000. The shares now are worth about $54,000.
View full article

RESTAURANT REPORT
Pizza Inn Names New Director of Operations
New Director to Lead Franchise and Corporate Operations
April 10, 2007
PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
PIZZA INN INC. (NASDAQ:PZZI) announced the appointment of Bo Czyz as its new Director of Operations.

Previously with Pizza Hut(R) and Applebees(R) International, Czyz brings more than two decades of operations, management and leadership experience to his new position at Pizza Inn.
View full article

RESTAURANT REPORT
Sally Smith Keeps Buffalo Wild Wings Soaring Uplifting Menu:
She found the restaurant chain on ground level and, as CEO, turned it into one hot company
Investors.com
April 11, 2007
Even though the founders of Buffalo Wild Wings produced tasty food and a fun concept, they couldn't make the business take off.

The company was on the verge of implosion when Sally Smith joined as chief financial officer in 1994.

Back then it was a small chain of 35 restaurants called BW-3 for Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck. A weck is a type of German roll.

The firm had no human resources, no marketing department and no accounting system. It paid bills using Quicken, the personal-finance software.
View full article

MEAT PROCESSING
Hormel's points of differentiation
A focus on innovation and complementary acquisitions sets the company apart
Food Business News
Keith Nunes
April 3, 2007
The meat and poultry industry has undergone a dramatic transformation during the past decade, as the market’s leading companies have transitioned from selling commodity oriented products to branded, value-added items. With its Jennie-O and Spam brands, Hormel Foods Corp., Austin , Minn, has been a leader in the market, but others have horned in on this segment.
View full article

RESTAURANT REPORT
Pound for pounder
McDonald's rolls out premium Angus Third Pounder for test runs in California, Chicago
April 11, 2007
Chicago Sun-Tmes
McDonald's Corp. is testing a large premium cheeseburger in some Chicago area stores. The new third-pound Angus burgers began a tryout at local stores last week. Chicago's is the first market to test the products outside of Southern California, where they were introduced last month.
View full article

RESTAURANT REPORT
Can we be frank?
We help you find a winner of a wiener in the Bay Area
April 11, 2007
San Mateo County Times
HOT DOG! Is there another menu item with a name that doubles as an exclamatory seal of approval? Try yelling out "cheeseburger!" or "pizza!" to show that you're in a good mood. Doesn't quite have the same effect, does it?

The hot dog story - and what a fine one it is - stretches back to the mid-1800s in the motherland of sausages, Germany. They were first known as frankfurters (after the German city of Frankfurt) and wieners (named for Vienna, Austria - called "Wien" in German).
Despite its European origin, the hot dog was certainly perfected in the United States. For it was here that the hot dog was paired with its natural partner - baseball.

To celebrate the start of baseball season, some of our staff writers embarked on a noble quest to find the Bay Area's best hot dogs. The results - pardon the mustard - appear below.
We hope that you enjoy our list and try out a few of the featured restaurants. We also encourage you to post your own picks for the Bay Area's top dogs at www.ibabuzz.com/allyoucaneat.
View full article

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS
Cow sent to U.S. was with infected cow
The Associated Press
April 10, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) A heifer imported into the United States in 2002 was born in the same Canadian herd as a bull diagnosed in February with mad cow disease, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday.

The cow was slaughtered in Nebraska before it was 30 months old and showed no signs of the brain-wasting disease, said Karen Eggert, a spokeswoman for the Animal and Plant Inspection Service
View full article

Daily news for Tuesday, April 10

2007-04-10T16:46:00.000-05:00

RESTAURANT REPORT
Wingstop Achieves 15 Consecutive Quarters of Positive Comp Store Sales
Earthtimes.org
April 9, 2007
James A. Flynn, Wingstop president and CEO, announced today that first quarter comp store sales have increased 17 percent over the first quarter of 2006. The chain has also increased comp store sales over the corresponding period a year prior for 15 consecutive quarters -- starting third quarter 2003 on June 29 and ending first quarter 2007 on April 1, 2007
View full article

RESTAURANT REPORT
Frisch's Reports Third Quarter of Fiscal 2007 Sales and Earnings
April 10. 2007
PRNewswire-FirstCall
Frisch's Restaurants, Inc. (Amex: FRS) reported lower sales for its 12-week fiscal third quarter ended March 6, 2007. Revenues declined 2.7% to $65,451,505 from $67,259,863 for last year's third quarter. Net earnings for the quarter declined 13.2% to $1,914,997 compared to $2,205,698 last year. Diluted earnings per share decreased to $.37 per share, from $.43 per share last year. Last year's third quarter included the benefit of a $394,000 pretax gain from the disposal of property, which added $.05 per share.
View full article

CROP REPORT
Ethanol boom strains livestock farmers
BY ANDREW WALTERS
SaukValley.com
awalters@svnmail.com
While corn growers may be in high cotton these days, all the excitement over ethanol in the last year has cast a cloud over the livestock industry. High prices have equaled headaches for beef and pork producers, who operate on margins as razor thin as anyone else who makes a living on the farm.

"In general the impacts are pretty much what you would guess," said Darrel Good, a University of Illinois agriculture economist. "It has squeezed some producers." (Editor's note: Isn't he just the absolute master of understatement?)
View full article

CROP REPORT
It’s food vs. fuel in the battle for corn
As more of the grain goes toward ethanol, less of it may make its way to the hungry
By SCOTT CANON and JACK CHANG
The Kansas City Star
April 8, 2007
OSBORN, Mo. The world wants more corn — to make snack chips, to sweeten soda, to fatten livestock. And, increasingly, to pump into your gas tank. So Gene Millard and his son Brian are shifting more of their northwest Missouri acreage from soybeans to corn to stoke new, nearby ethanol plants and cash in on the world’s insatiable appetite for energy.

“We’re trying to go where the demand is strongest,” Gene said. “Ethanol’s a big factor.” As farming becomes more about fuel and less about feeding people, prices — for corn, for crops shoved aside to make room for corn, for fertilizer and other farm supplies needed to grow corn on an industrial scale — go up.
View full article

THE BOARD ROOM
McDonald's CEO made $13.4 million in '06
Associated Press
April 10, 2007
CHICAGO (AP) - McDonald's Corp. CEO Jim Skinner received compensation the company valued at $13.4 million in 2006 during one of the strongest years in the fast-food company's history, according to an analysis of a regulatory filing Monday. (Editor’s note: his weekly paycheck was $257,692.30, not bad for a flipper of mediocre burgers.)
View full article

REGULATORY REPORT
Kind announces legislation to expand meat markets
Dunn County News
April 10, 2007
HUDSON — U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) has announced new legislation he introduced to expand the markets for meat processing businesses in western Wisconsin and across the nation.H.R. 1760, The Expanding Markets for Small Meat Processors Act would eliminate the ban on the interstate shipment of state-inspected meat, allowing small meat processors to increase their business and grow local economies. (Editor’s note: The new bill allows David to compete with Goliath, a mixed blessing.)
View full article

PROCESSED MEAT
Kraft not worried about supplies for Oscar Mayer
Chicago Business/Reuters
April 10, 2007
Kraft Foods Inc. sees adequate supplies of raw meat for its Oscar Mayer business despite its suppliers expanding their own processed meat businesses, an executive said on Tuesday.

"We actually have long-term contract arrangements with a number of our suppliers, so we feel very comfortable that we will be able to source the raw material," Nick Meriggioli, group vice-president and president for the convenient meals sector for Kraft, said in an interview. (Editor’s note: My Bologna has a first name…come on, sing along with me!)
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Daily news for Monday, April 9

2007-04-09T14:47:00.000-05:00

EDITORIAL
The horseburger fight
Chicago Tribune
Published April 9, 2007
Pigs, cows and chickens are just pork, beef and poultry, and most Americans are OK with that. But a horse is a horse, of course, of course. We don't eat them; we don't let our dogs eat them; and if the Europeans want to eat them, it looks like they're going to have to eat their own.
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EDITORIAL
The ethanol crunch
Growing mandate putting pressure on prices
Rocky Mountain News
April 9, 2007
Politicians might soon wish they'd been a bit less star-struck by ethanol - or perhaps that they had curbed their initial enthusiasm just a bit. Lawmakers in the Statehouse will have a chance to back off slightly next week, as the Senate Appropriations Committee considers Senate Bill 238. We'd urge them to seize that opportunity, and reject the bill.
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CROP REPORT
Crop Prices Soar, Pushing Up Cost Of Food Globally
By Patrick Barta
Wall Street Journal
April 9, 2007
Soaring prices for farm goods, driven in part by demand for crop-based fuels, are pushing up the price of food world-wide and unleashing a new source of inflationary pressure.The rise in food prices is already causing distress among consumers in some parts of the world -- especially relatively poor nations like India and China. If the trend gathers momentum, it could contribute to slower global growth by forcing consumers to spend less on other items or spurring central banks to fight inflation by raising interest rates.Politicians in markets where food costs are a particularly sensitive matter are moving ...
THE FULL WSJ.com ARTICLE IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.

THE BOARD ROOM
Yum's Top Exec Compensation at $9.1M
Houston Chronicle© 2007 (The Associated Press)
April 6, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — David Novak, chairman and chief executive of fast-food giant Yum Brands Inc., received compensation valued at $9.1 million last year, according to a regulatory filing Friday.
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RESTAURANT REPORT
Smith and Wollensky Same-Store Sales Fall
Associated Press
04.06.07, 7:57 AM ET
Forbes. com
Smith and Wollensky Restaurant Group Inc. said its sales at restaurants open at least 15 months, or same-store sales, fell 2.3 percent in March.
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MEAT MARKETING
Three Cheers for Meat -- and Hillshire Farms' New Spots
A Wonderfully Silly Change From Anti-Meat Lobby Rhetoric
By Bob Garfield
Advertising Age
April 8, 2007

In the interest of full disclosure, be informed that the entire AdReview staff believes deeply in the food chain.

In Hilshire's latest ads, the voices of unseen cheerleaders validate the characters' dining choices. Uninfluenced by religion, cardiovascular health, animal rights, mad-cow disease or sentiment, we will eat almost any part of almost any living thing that cannot spell. We have consumed brains, tongue, duck feet, braised spinal cord, intestines in many forms and, memorably, in Seoul, dog. (No big deal. It tasted just like cat.)
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FINANCIAL REPORT
Swift posts $48.6 million loss
By John Gregerson
4/9/2007
Meatingplace.com

Greeley, Colo.-based beef processor Swift & Co. reported a net loss of $48.6 million in the quarter ended Feb. 25 as a result of weak beef sales.
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RESTAURANT REPORT
Wingstop Achieves 15 Consecutive Quarters of Positive Comp Store Sales
April 9, 2007
Press Release News Earthtimes.org
DALLAS, April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- James A. Flynn, Wingstop president and CEO, announced today that first quarter comp store sales have increased 17 percent over the first quarter of 2006. The chain has also increased comp store sales over the corresponding period a year prior for 15 consecutive quarters -- starting third quarter 2003 on June 29 and ending first quarter 2007 on April 1, 2007.
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Marketing: Hillshire Farm Loves Meat

2007-04-09T09:12:00.000-05:00

New Ad Campaign Gives Consumers a Reason to Celebrate Their Love of Meat
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirty-eight percent said the gym/exercise. Twenty-eight percent said chocolate. Nineteen percent said entertainment media like iPods, magazines and television. Fifteen percent said meat. What's the question? "What item could you live without?" When Hillshire Farm polled 3,000 people during the week of March 26, 2007*, only 15 percent of respondents said they could live without meat. (Editor's note: Don't you find it alarming that about one in six people can live without meat?)

To applaud Americans' love of meat, and reinforce Hillshire Farm as the champion for meat-lovers nationwide, the brand has launched an unconventional new advertising campaign, entitled "GO MEAT!," (http://www.gomeat.com/) that uses various cheers, rallying cries and chants to praise our predisposition for protein.

"There is no escaping the fact that Americans have an unabashed love of meat, and the poll results just reinforce that fact," said Tim Roush, vice president, Hillshire Farm. "We developed our 'GO MEAT!' campaign to celebrate and, in some instances, unleash the meat enthusiast in all of us, as well as remind consumers that Hillshire Farm offers meats that are fresh, versatile and easy-to-use. From traditional offerings such as our sausage links, lunchmeats and hams, to our newly launched Hillshire Farm Entree Salads, we have the meats consumers want to complete their meals. And frankly, we think that's something to cheer about," Roush continued.

The new spots, developed by TBWA\CHIAT\DAY\Los Angeles, depict people enjoying various Hillshire Farm products while onlookers spontaneously begin chanting a rousing version of "GO MEAT!" The campaign will be long-term and incorporate the entire portfolio of Hillshire Farm products, a first for a brand that typically engages in product-specific marketing.

The newest offering, Hillshire Farm Entree Salads, is showcased in a vignette that features two women enjoying lunch while appreciative chants accompany the addition of meat to the salad. The Entree Salads provide consumers with all of the ingredients they need to make a restaurant-style entree salad without the hassle of preparation. Available in four different varieties including: Chicken Caesar, Turkey & Ham Chef, Chicken & Bacon Club and Turkey & Cranberries with Ham Julienne, the packages include the meat, cheese, dressing and toppings, so that salad lovers only need to add lettuce to complete the meal.

"More than 2 billion entree salads have been served in restaurants in the past year, according to a March 2006 report from CREST, and it's not surprising since entree salads are the fourth most frequently ordered meal," added Roush. "With our new Hillshire Farm Entree Salads, consumers can replicate that meal at home easily and conveniently with the same high-quality flavor."

For more meat-loving material, visit http://www.gomeat.com/.

*Survey Methodology -- Greenfield Online fielded the online survey on behalf of Hillshire Farm between March 25 and 30, 2007 among a nationwide sample of 3,016 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age, gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity and propensity to be online. In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of less than +/- 2 percentage points.

About Hillshire Farm
Hillshire Farm has been providing quality meat products since 1934. Our products are versatile, easy to use and are available in convenient stay-fresh packaging in a variety of cuts, sizes and flavors. Hillshire Farm's portfolio of quality meats include: Hillshire Farm Deli Select, sausage products (Hillshire Farm Sausages, Hillshire Farm Summer Sausages, and Hillshire Farm Lit'l Smokies) and Hillshire Farm Hams. Visit http://www.hillshirefarm.com/ for additional information.

First Call Analyst: FCMN Contact:
Source: Hillshire Farm
CONTACT: Sara Matheu of Sara Lee Food & Beverage, +1-630-598-8722, or Amy Podurgiel of Manning Selvage & Lee, + 1-212-468-4028, both for HillshireFarm
Web site: http://www.hillshirefarm.com/ http://www.gomeat.com/

A Conversation with South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds

2007-04-09T08:45:00.000-05:00

Mike Rounds is a hot seat governor, leading a state where agriculture is king and a devastating six year drought is trying hard to dethrone it. Record high temperatures and almost no rain have destroyed corn crops and driven many cattle ranchers out of the business. Still, he’s worked hard to stem the tide of bad news and a failing farm economy. Under his watch, the state has moved away from almost total reliance on commodity crops and toward a more balanced economic base. Investment in further processing facilities have soared almost as high as the thermometer on Don and Lura Kirkpatrick’s porch during last summer's record setting heat wave and drought.

But the woes of South Dakota’s farms and ranches still bedevil him. In the height of last summer's record setting temperatures and accompanied by North Dakota Governor John Hoeven, South Dakota Representative Stephanie Herseth and South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson, he took Ag Secretary Mike Johanns on a tour of some of the more parched regions of the state stopping at the Kirkpatrick farm, unfortunately located at the epicenter of the drought.

Johanns came through for Rounds, who packs some additional political clout as Chairman of the Western Governor’s Association. After touring drought-ravaged South Dakota, he announced a new program for livestock producers. The Livestock Assistance Grant Program will provide a total of $50 million in Section 32 USDA emergency funds as block grants to states that have counties rated as D3 or D4 on the Drought Monitor Map between March 1st and August 31st of this year. Each state will disburse their share of the funds to eligible livestock producers living in the effected counties.

Fifty million is a modest effort, a stop-gap at best for an area that stretches from Texas to North Dakota, according to some regional politicians. It might help tide a few ranchers over for a little while but more will be needed soon, especially if the drought continues. Rounds is already working on a solution, suggesting a novel precipitation-based relief plan at a meeting of the House Agriculture Committee meeting

I took the opportunity to ask a few questions of Governor Rounds shortly after his visit with Secretary Johanns.

Q. Governor Rounds, you’ve put South Dakota on the news map when it comes to agricultural issues. First, let’s talk about the South Dakota Certified Beef® program. You’ve been quoted as calling this a “state of origin labeling” program and comparing it to the often controversial COOL program. Can you tell me how many people are actually participating in the program – ranchers, packers and processors – and how successful it has been so far?

A. We currently have 125 licensed producers, and nine locally owned processors and marketers. While we do not track prices received for cattle enrolled in the program, we have heard anecdotally that there have been significant premiums for the enrolled cattle. But what is most encouraging is that our processors and marketers can’t meet the demand for our branded product.

Q. South Dakota has enjoyed some significant expansion of its meat processing facilities while other nearby states suffered serious losses. Most recently, Northern Beef Packers announced plans for a new facility, John Morrell is considering a multi-million dollar expansion project and Dakota Turkey Growers started up from scratch. What’s behind all that investment?

A. Optimism. This optimism is fueled by SD’s pro-business climate as well as the principles outlined within the 2010 Initiative. The 2010 Initiative is a comprehensive set of goals, objectives and action plans; focused on improving our state by the year 2010. Goal two of the initiative is to increase our Gross State Product (GSP) from $24 billion to $34 billion by the year 2010.

We are moving forward; and value-added agriculture is leading the way. For way too long, South Dakota was considered a commodity state. We shipped our corn, cattle, beans, sunflowers and turkeys to other places for processing. Those entities were the ones who made the greater profits. We have been working diligently to educate our ag community on the value of further processing and then investing with our local communities to make their goals a reality.

Q. South Dakota hasn’t escaped from some of the problems that have crippled agriculture in the Midwest. The drought has hit the southern, central and western parts of the state particularly hard. The New York Times quoted Herried Livestock Market owner Herman Schumacher as saying “It’s a grim situation. There’s absolutely no grass in the pastures, and the water holes are all dried up. So a lot of people have no choice but to sell off their herds and get out of the business.” On Tuesday, you joined USDA Secretary Johanns on a tour of the Don and Lura Kirkpatrick farm and the stricken area around Hayes, SD. Can you give me a first hand account of how bad it looked and what the state and federal governments can do to help?

A. It’s very dry at Don and Lura’s ranch. Like many other South Dakotans, they are experiencing a sixth straight year of drought conditions. It was really good to have Mike Johanns come here and view firsthand the challenges that South Dakota ranchers are experiencing. The secretary announced some short-term relief to the effects of the on-going drought. As Chairman of the Western Governor’s Association, we coordinated a letter which was signed by 17 western U.S. governors; asking the President and the Congress to consider long-term and permanent drought relief plan. Recently, in front of a House Ag Committee Field Hearing in Wall, S.D; I made a proposal for a drought relief plan that is based on deviation from normal precipitation. If it doesn’t rain, crops don’t grow.

Q. Last summer, you requested that 51 of the state's 66 counties be designated a federal agricultural disaster area and even issued a proclamation declaring a week to pray for rain. With over 85% of the state enduring an agricultural disaster, can you talk about the losses in terms of real dollars as well as in human terms?

A. 86% of producers in South Dakota have crop insurance which vary from 50%-85% coverage (most are covered at 65%); until harvest is complete, insurance payments are made and federal payments are allocated, it is difficult to determine the impact for our crop producers. We have already seen the initial impacts to our livestock industry, though, in the early livestock sell offs. These conditions have been further exacerbated by high fuels, feed and crop input costs.

Q. With what can only be euphemistically referred to as “early dispersal” sales skyrocketing at least five-fold over last year, you have asked that federal officials grant a two-year extension to the period for purchasing replacement livestock. Although it would help cattle producers avoid capital gains tax and use the money made from early sales to buy back livestock once the drought breaks, how do you plan to help the smaller or less financially secure ranchers hang on until then?

A. The two-year extension will benefit small and larger producers alike. Plus, with the monies that USDA-FSA has available now through the Emergency Conservation Program and the new Livestock Assistance Grant Program, farmers and ranchers will have the ability to get reimbursed for some of the expenses they have incurred. Items like transportation, feed, running water pipe or drilling wells are eligible. While these programs won’t make people whole, they sure can help keep a family in business for a while longer.

Q. You seem to be willing to trade “COOL” for “SOOL.” What are your thoughts on a National Animal Identification System?

A. South Dakota is the first state to implement a licensed state of origin label. We support the concept of COOL, but producers who voluntarily become a licensed producer of South Dakota Certified Beef® are really supporting SOOL or State of Origin Labeling. We also support a national animal id system for health and safety reasons. Customers around the world like the fact that our processors and marketers provide a product that is source, age, and quality verified.

Q. Talk to me about the state of agriculture in South Dakota.

A. Our state is synonymous with agriculture, and specifically, the cattle industry. At last check, more than 1.5 million cattle are born and raised here. Feeders around the country have realized for years that if they want quality calves, they come to South Dakota. Unfortunately, a lot of those cattle are fed in places other than South Dakota. We are starting to see a small shift in the number of cattle that are finished in right here at home.

South Dakota currently has 17 ethanol plants either operating or planned for construction. At the end of next year, it is estimated that there will be more than 800 million gallons of ethanol produced in our state. With that comes a tremendous feedstuff that the industry calls a by-product: distiller’s grain.

With the cost of transportation at near record highs, it makes sense to capitalize on the inputs close to the source. And that means feeding cattle where they are raised…in South Dakota.

A Conversation with Rick Tolman, CEO, National Corn Growers Association

2007-04-09T08:33:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal published a commodities report on corn on January 16. The title? “Ethanol Could Fuel Rise in Corn.” Imagine that! A graph showed corn futures from the beginning of 2005 through the first month of 2007. It started at just above $2.00 and wandered along randomly between that base price and $2.50 until the 4th quarter of 2006 when it did a credible imitation of an old-fashioned Saturn rocket gone amuck, closing on January 13 at $3.965. It was a price 55% higher than the same day a year ago.

My math says the price of corn almost doubled in 2 years. It climbed more than 60% from its 3rd quarter 2006 average and is expert opinion has it staying above $4.00 throughout 2007. Numbers like that after several years of near record harvest makes one wonder what’s going on. Could it be the ethanol boom has created a conflicting market demand pitting the needs for corn for food vs. corn for fuel?

Asking the folks with a vested interest in corn for an educated but insider’s opinion seemed like a good idea but this is a politically loaded issue. So it was with the music behind that old 1950’s atomic bomb public service announcement “Duck and Cover” playing in the back of my mind that I read this response from the Corn Refiners Association:

Thank you for inviting the Corn Refiners Association to participate in your discussions on ethanol. Some of our members do produce ethanol, but not all of them. Our organization focuses on the other products of the corn wet milling industry: corn starch, corn oil, corn sweeteners, corn gluten feed, etc. I think it would be more appropriate if you contacted the Renewable Fuels Association for information on ethanol.

I sent the note to CRA’s CEO, Audrae Erickson. The reply came from Shannon McNamara on behalf of Ms. Erickson. The Association won’t be sharing an opinion about the food vs. fuel controversy. I guess Audrae won’t even hazard an opinion about what $4.00 corn will do to the price of “corn starch, corn oil . . . etc.”

Rick Tolman, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association, thinks there is no conflict and he boldly defends his position. He was quoted in the WSJ story as saying, “Market forces, not broad assumptions, are driving the ethanol and corn markets. There is no conflict between [corn use for food and fuel], nor any pending crisis.”

But clearly the big money boys are betting on a significant and growing demand for corn and a production curve that falls a little short. Maybe they read the J.P. Morgan report that predicts the ethanol industry will suck up an additional 500 million to 1 billion bushels of corn every year. With an out-take of that magnitude, there is bound to be a conflict. A crisis? Let’s not do one of those “whistling-through-the-graveyard-hoping-nothing-bad-will-happen” strolls through the growing season, praying for good weather and another near record harvest. And no late season repeats of this week’s announcement that the harvest fell a little short of expectations, either.

But Rick has his finger on a pulsating corn industry. He knows most of the newly minted corn barons of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska on a first name, “how’s the wife and kids” basis. Let’s get his side of the story.

Q. Rick, let’s take a look at what the alarmists are saying. A recent news story in Meatingplace.com made some shocking statements. It quoted Gene Gourley, an Iowa pork producer and swine nutritionist, testifying on behalf of the National Pork Producers Council to the Senate Agriculture Committee, that ethanol producers are receiving huge subsidies of $1.53 per bushel of corn purchased and tax credits of $0.51 per gallon of ethanol produced, resulting in runaway growth in ethanol production. “These incentives have the ethanol industry growing at an almost unbelievable pace,” he said in his testimony. “New plants are springing up everywhere, and they’re using a lot of corn.”

The same story said Lester R. Brown, president of Washington think tank Earth Policy Institute, compiled figures concerning ethanol plant construction and planned construction, and suggested that USDA projections of the amount of corn needed to feed the ethanol industry are far short of actual demand. “By 2008,” he said, “automobiles will be eating as much corn as is in the food system, and that will endanger the global food supply. One 25-gallon tank of ethanol consumes an amount of corn that would directly or indirectly feed a person for a year.”

Janet Larsen, director of research at EPI, said corn growers may or may not make up the difference by planting more and more productive corn, but the inevitable result is higher food prices. “Increasing the subsidies for ethanol production, as the Democrats are suggesting, is completely uncalled for,” she told Meatingplace. “Higher food prices could cause a consumer backlash against ethanol.”

EPI suggests instead that fuel efficiency standards be increased to lower dependence on ethanol and that tax credits for ethanol production be reduced or eliminated.

Although it would be hard to refute Gourley’s claim that ethanol plants are springing up everywhere, the other statements might be open to interpretation. What are your responses?

A. First of all, I like your term “alarmists.” They are certainly out in force and the level of rhetoric and misinformation is actually quite amazing. The simple facts are that the ethanol industry is growing quite rapidly. As a result, demand for corn is strong. Prices have responded and the market is telling corn producers to produce more corn and they are. We can expect to see a period of volatility for the next eight months or so until the supply situation sorts itself out.

There is no shortage of corn. In 2006 we had the third-largest crop ever. Supplies are quite adequate to meet all of the projected demand in 2007, given the thing that we count on every year – normal weather.

The farm level price of corn has very little impact on food prices. There has been virtually no correlation between price changes in corn and changes in the price of food at the retail level. The current value of corn in a $2.79 box of corn flakes is less than 7 cents. The cost of packaging, marketing, wages, energy, etc. have a much bigger impact on the price of food than do changes in the price of corn.

Lester Brown has been predicting famine and food shortage for 40 years. He has made a living warning people of shortages. He has yet to be accurate and so deserves very little credibility in this current discussion and debate. Even his statistics and sound bytes are inaccurate and self serving. Let’s take a look at the actual numbers behind his best current quote … filling up a 25 gallon gas tank with ethanol fuel consumes enough corn to feed someone for a year. Accounting for it being E-85 and offsetting the DDG displacement back into the food/feed supply, it takes approximately five bushels of corn equivalent to fill that tank. Even at today’s high corn prices, that is still less than $20. I would like to see Mr. Brown live for a year on either five bushels of corn or $20 worth of food.

Mr. Gourley fails to remember that at today’s corn price level there is virtually no subsidy to corn producers. Neither the countercyclical payment nor the marketing loan is in effect. When corn is below $2 a bushel, as it was in many areas just three months ago, then the figures he quotes may have been close to accurate. But it was that cheap, “subsidized,” $2 corn that made Mr. Gourley’s hog feeding operation so profitable over the last two to four years.

Mr. Gourley’s comment about the $0.51 cent a gallon ethanol subsidy going to corn farmers is just plain factually wrong. The $0.51 is an excise tax exemption that goes to blenders, primarily the oil industry, not to ethanol plants and certainly not to corn producers. It is a “blender’s credit” designed to encourage the blenders to blend and mix ethanol. Your readers will be aware that we do not have a free market in automobile fuels we have a virtual oil monopoly. Congress has chosen to incentivize the blenders (the oil industry) to put in the infrastructure to blend ethanol.

I could go on for many more pages addressing the myths and misinformation, but I think that your readers will get the idea. There is no shortage of corn. Rising corn prices have very little effect on retail food prices. We have produced the three largest corn crops in history the last three years and given anything but an extreme weather disaster, we expect to put the largest crop ever produced anywhere in the world in the bins this fall.

Q. In the Los Angeles Times, Sara Hessenflow Harper, a national security and climate policy analyst with Environmental Defense in Washington, D.C., said that newer forms of “cellostic“ ethanol fuel are being developed from rice stock, cow manure, wood chips and other California agricultural products, and that they could make a big dent in carbon-based fuels. As an example, she cited Brazil, where ethanol from sugarcane is widely used.

“Unfortunately, for too long, the environmental movement has looked at ethanol for all its negatives … instead of looking at what it could be,” Harper said. What can you say about the positives of increased ethanol use as well as production alternatives to corn?

A. Ethanol has a tremendous environmental record. It is an oxygenate it adds oxygen to the air. It comes from a renewable resource. The ethanol process lowers greenhouse gas emissions and puts carbon into the soil. It is a very green and environmentally friendly product.

We support ethanol production from all feedstocks. We are working closely with the cellulose and expanded biomass community to encourage production of ethanol from other feedstocks. The policies NCGA has helped put in place to encourage ethanol production do not distinguish between feedstocks.

The transition to other feedstocks has already started. It is an “evolution” rather than the “revolution” some see. Several current ethanol plants have made adjustments to their process and are already starting to process cellulose from the corn kernel fiber and from corn stover and blending it with the stream coming from the corn starch. We will soon see wheat straw and switchgrass and other biomass products become part of the process. Although we are still a long way from it, there is a limit to the amount of corn that we see going to ethanol production.

Q. The Governors’ Ethanol Coalition claims governors representing about half the states are members and they’re calling for a doubling of production by 2010 – just three short years from now. There are at least half a dozen federal agencies with an interest in ethanol, too, indicating a large political backing for increasing production. If ethanol is indeed the fuel of the future, what will that future look like? Talk to me about the changes that might occur in fuel retailing, automobiles, farm equipment and what the cost-per-gallon might be if the industry grows to the point that it will no longer need federal subsidies to thrive.

A. This is an exciting vision, but I want to emphasize that we see all of this occurring in an evolutionary sense and not “revolutionary.” There are some practical policy and infrastructure constraints that will slow the growth. Ethanol production is not nearly as profitable at today’s oil and corn prices as it was six months ago. There is no clear policy driver that will assure market growth much beyond the level of capacity we will reach by the end of 2007. These are some of the reasons that many of the projections being made by alarmists are virtually impossible.

A first realistic, but challenging hurdle will be to grow ethanol production approaching a level equivalent to 10 percent of our total gasoline usage. Because of the complexity of the fuels marketplace, we will likely get there much more quickly with supply than we will with demand. Our own vision is for a 15 billion gallon ethanol industry by 2015. We anticipate producing 15 billion bushels of corn by that time, with 5 billion of that going to ethanol production and 10 billion bushels available for food, feed and export. We think that this is an ambitious, but doable vision and that it can be done in a rational manner without undue market, supply chain or environmental disruption.

For a longer-term vision, look south to Brazil. Most consumers in Brazil drive flexible fuel vehicles that run on any combination of gas or ethanol blends. All filling stations in Brazil offer traditional gasoline, gasoline with a 20-25 percent blend of ethanol, or 100 percent ethanol. The consumer makes the choice based on relative prices and other preferences. Brazil declared their energy independence recently. The biggest challenge for the U.S. getting to a similar point is our existing gas and oil infrastructure and its resistance to change. Brazil had to mandate that every gas station would carry ethanol. Once that occurred, the market responded with the production of flex fuel vehicles and fuel distribution infrastructure.

Q. With more and more farmer’s coalitions backing the construction of new ethanol facilities come the potential of tremendous economic growth in some economically disadvantaged rural areas. At the same time, the current increase in the price of corn has hurt the cattle, pork and poultry industries. With increased usage of corn for ethanol production, the prospect of steadily rising prices looms and it indicates a major change in the financial structure of U.S. agriculture might be well underway. What are your thoughts on the subject?

A. Livestock feed still accounts for 56% of corn use. The industry is our biggest customer, and a healthy livestock industry is vital for a healthy corn industry. The old maxim that the cure for high prices is high prices still holds true. There is a very real scenario that could put us back to an oversupply of corn and resulting low prices again as soon as a year from now.

What has changed is that we can expect more volatility. The ethanol boom is good for U.S. agriculture. It is the first wave of rural economic development. It is bringing new investment in U.S. agriculture. It is turning the attention of the consumer back to agriculture. All of this can be for the greater good if we take advantage of the opportunity.

I fully expect corn prices to moderate to a plateau higher than they have been, but probably not as high as they are now. I fully expect the livestock industry to adapt and adjust and rationalize the higher price of corn with new and changed feeding methods, incorporation of DDGs, etc. I see some changes in the livestock industry structure to take advantage of some of the synergies with ethanol production. Manure is being used to cogenerate power for example. U.S agriculture is innovative, adaptive and responsive. That is why we are so productive. The ethanol boom can be and should be a catalyst for an industry wide resurgence in U.S. agriculture.

Q. Increased ethanol production isn’t just a North American phenomenon. Brazil is a major player and we can expect any country with a significant farm economy to step in. What other countries will participate and what will happen to world energy usage – what kinds of resources will be consumed and how they will be consumed – as production increases?

A. The change to renewables is an evolution that is occurring worldwide. Europe is in the midst of a major change. They are not only producing ethanol, but have a much greater focus on biodiesel. There they are using oilseeds primarily for biodiesel and potatoes and sugar beets and other forms of biomass for ethanol. China has embarked on a significant campaign for renewables. Much is currently based on corn ethanol plants, but they are also focusing on cellulose. Japan has an ethanol plant and a small allowance for ethanol blends. They will likely import ethanol

Now technologies are coming into play that will allow a country to use the feedstock that the country can best produce: sugar in India grains in Australia and Canada wood pulp in Sweden canola in Europe, etc.

Again, I see this as an evolutionary change – one that should not disrupt food supplies or distribution chains. We will use feedstocks where America has a competitive advantage. Our competitive advantage is corn, and advances in biotechnology and genomics will strengthen that advantage in the future.

Q. Some lawmakers say ethanol will be the major driver behind the new farm bill. Backing that claim, Senator Harkin, the Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman and the Chair when the last farm bill was written in 2002, has set a hearing on renewable fuels as the Committee’s first of 2007. What effect do you see ethanol having on the bill?

A. I think ethanol and renewables will play a significant role in the upcoming farm bill discussion, but I don’t think that it will be a major part of the final legislation. What I mean is that the current boom will color the backdrop for discussions on farm policy and safety nets and for some – how to protect the status quo. Part of the discussion will be how do we build on the experience and energy of the ethanol boom to continue to stimulate more of a resurgence in agriculture and in other sectors and areas. How do we apply the lessons learned?

In addition, there is a jurisdictional issue for Congressional committees that will not allow the farm bill to substitute for an energy bill. Major new legislation that has national energy implications cannot be part of the farm bill. However, as Congress continues to advance U.S. energy policy, we’ll continue to work with our allies and customers in the livestock industry to help reduce our country’s dangerous dependence on foreign petroleum.

A conversation with Bob Dinneen. President, Renewable Fuels Association

2007-04-09T08:17:00.000-05:00

In a story published in the New York Times, Bob Dinneen dismissed the idea that a rapidly increasing investment bubble could burst before cellulosic ethanol has a chance to hit the market and take the pressure off corn prices.

Corn is the current heart of the ethanol industry, much to the chagrin of cattlemen everywhere. Other cellulosic resources, such as switch grass, are much more expensive conversions, often by a factor of two. Research holds the promise of narrowing that gap but success might still be several years away and there’s no guarantee that the plants currently designed to run on corn can be converted to another resource.

“I don’t get all that worried that we are building too fast,” he said. “I am not bright enough or foolish enough to try to control the market.”

Many who were either brighter or more foolish than Dinneen have tried. In the late 1970’s, the Bass Brothers tried to corner the market on silver. They got close, but no cigar. Today, the ethanol industry is awash in piles of silver: volatile investment money lured by the ephemera of renewable fuel’s huge, short-term profit potential.

It certainly has the odor of the great dotcom run-up of the late 1990’s - lots of money rushing in to fill a real or imagined business proposition, followed by an inevitable and painful shakeout as only the strongest survive.

Dinneen looks at it as an opportunity for American agriculture, at least for the corn growing segment. Those folks who raise cattle, hogs or poultry may disagree. One thing is certain: there will be some changes in what those animals are fed in the next few years and the livestock industry will be forced to adjust.

But he sees the ethanol business as requiring federal support through tax incentives to “build” itself into a strong and mature industry. Check here to read his statement before the House of Representatives small business committee in May, 2004. (Editor’s note: When an industry storms across the billion dollar a year mark, shouldn’t it be called big business?)

Let's talk with Mr. Dinneen about corn and ethanol and the future of American agriculture.

Q. First, let’s take a look at what the alarmists are saying. A recent news story in Meatingplace.com made some alarming statements. It quoted Gene Gourley, an Iowa pork producer and swine nutritionist, testifying on behalf of the National Pork Producers Council to the Senate Agriculture Committee that ethanol producers are receiving huge subsidies of $1.53 per bushel of corn purchased and tax credits of $0.51 per gallon of ethanol produced, resulting in runaway growth in ethanol production. “These incentives have the ethanol industry growing at an almost unbelievable pace,“ he said in his testimony. “New plants are springing up everywhere, and they’re using a lot of corn.”

The same story said Lester R. Brown, president of Washington think tank Earth Policy Institute, compiled figures concerning ethanol plant construction and planned construction, and suggested that USDA projections of the amount of corn needed to feed the ethanol industry are far short of actual demand. “By 2008,” he said, “automobiles will be eating as much corn as is in the food system, and that will endanger the global food supply. One 25-gallon tank of ethanol consumes an amount of corn that would directly or indirectly feed a person for a year.”

Janet Larsen, director of research at EPI, said corn growers may or may not make up the difference by planting more and more productive corn, but the inevitable result is higher food prices. “Increasing the subsidies for ethanol production, as the Democrats are suggesting, is completely uncalled for,” she told Meatingplace. “Higher food prices could cause a consumer backlash against ethanol.”

EPI suggests instead that fuel efficiency standards be increased to lower dependence on ethanol and that tax credits for ethanol production be reduced or eliminated.

Although it would be hard to refute Gourley’s claim that ethanol plants are springing up everywhere, the other statements might be open to interpretation. What are your responses?

A. Without question, the growth the U.S. ethanol industry is causing some adjustment in both motor fuel and agricultural markets. But markets have a knack for adjustment and we are seeing that happen today.

In recent months, American farmers have gotten the market signal that more corn will be needed. This added production will come from the ever-increasing yields generated by new hybrids of corn as well as by the planting of additional acres. With a good growing season in the Corn Belt, the preliminary reports of farmers planting intentions could yield a corn crop well in excess of 13 billion bushels. That would more than satisfy the feed, fiber and fuel markets for corn.

While farmers are making the necessary adjustments, the U.S. ethanol industry is improving its efficiency and its technology. Improvements industry wide are yielding far greater volumes of ethanol from the same bushel corn, today averaging 2.8 gallons per bushel. Technological developments are also bringing cellulosic ethanol production from corn stalks and switch grass closer to reality than many people would think.

American farmers are more than capable of feeding the world and fueling our nation. More corn will be produced, new technologies will be developed and agricultural markets will adjust. The U.S. ethanol industry has been a tremendous success story in rural America, providing not just a better return on investment for farmers but real economic opportunity on Main Street.

Critics of ethanol tend to take just a snapshot in time and fail to see the big picture. The industry as it exists today will not be the industry we see just three years from now. Corn and petroleum markets will likely look different in the future as well. But the real result of these changes will be a stronger rural economy and a more secure energy future for all Americans.

Q. In the Los Angeles Times, Sara Hessenflow Harper, a national security and climate policy analyst with Environmental Defense in Washington, D.C., said that newer forms of 'cellostic' ethanol fuel are being developed from rice stock, cow manure, wood chips and other California agricultural products, and that they could make a big dent in carbon-based fuels. As an example, she cited Brazil, where ethanol from sugarcane is widely used.

"Unfortunately, for too long, the environmental movement has looked at ethanol for all its negatives … instead of looking at what it could be," Harper said. What can you say about the positives of increased ethanol use as well as production alternatives to corn?

A. Sarah Hessenflow Harper and the Environmental Defense have indeed recognized that cellulosic ethanol technology will be built upon the foundation of grain processing, and that both forms of ethanol production are significantly better than gasoline. The benefits of ethanol production and use run the spectrum from environmental to national security to economic.

Ethanol production in 2006 alone helped create 160,000 new jobs and raise household incomes by some $6 billion. The production and use of nearly five billion gallons of domestic ethanol also reduced our dependence on foreign oil by some 170 million barrels. That meant more than $11 billion stayed here at home as opposed to being sent to place like Venezuela.

Last years ethanol use also reduced greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking more than one million cars off American roads.

The benefits ethanol offers will only continue to grow as ethanol production and use expand. As new areas begin producing ethanol and new feedstocks are developed, the ethanol industry is poised for exponential growth. The result will be economic opportunity spreading beyond the small communities of the Midwest, a tremendous reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and a bold statement about America’s commitment to energy independence.

Q. The Governors’ Ethanol Coalition claims governors representing about half the states are members and they’re calling for a doubling of production by 2010 – just three short years from now. There are at least half a dozen federal agencies with an interest in ethanol, too, indicating a large political backing for increasing production. If ethanol is indeed the fuel of the future, what will that future look like? Talk to me about the changes that might occur in fuel retailing, automobiles, farm equipment and what the cost-per-gallon might be if the industry grows to the point that it will no longer need federal subsidies to thrive.

A. There is tremendous bipartisan support for expanding the production and use of renewable fuels all across the country. More than four out of five voters believe the government needs to be investing far more aggressively in renewable fuels to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The most important factor assuring the continued growth in domestic renewable energy is consistent federal tax, trade and fuel standard policy. If we are to reach the goals many Americans hope for with respect to energy independence, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past and allow our support for renewable fuels to waver.

But, as our industry expands and the use of ethanol spreads, changes in our fueling infrastructure will be needed: new blending facilities capable of handling larger volumes of ethanol will be required, more stations will need to be equipped to dispense E85 (85% ethanol), and greater production of vehicle capable of maximizing the benefits of higher ethanol blends will have to come.

Fortunately, all of these are happening. Today, more than 1,000 E85 retail stations exist across the country. During a meeting at the White House, America’s major automakers pledge to produce half of their new vehicles as flexible fuel by 2012.

Likewise, as you see new feedstocks, such as corn stalks and switch grass, turned into ethanol, it will require machinery to not only harvest the grain but gather and deliver the cellulosic material that remains.

The opportunities that the increased production of renewable fuels offer American agriculture are exciting and at the same time challenging. I, for one, would prefer to put the energy future of our country in farmers’ hands than trust hostile dictatorships across the globe.

Q. With more and more farmer’s coalitions backing the construction of new ethanol facilities come the potential of tremendous economic growth in some economically disadvantaged rural areas. At the same time, the current increase in the price of corn has hurt the cattle, pork and poultry industries. With increased usage of corn for ethanol production, the prospect of steadily rising prices looms and it indicates a major change in the financial structure of U.S. agriculture might be well underway. What are your thoughts on the subject?

A. Change in coming to American agriculture. There is no doubt about it. But opportunities abound.

Ethanol is the most effective value-added industry for American agriculture. It is allowing farmers to not only receive a more reasonable price for their crop but to invest in an industry adding value to their bushels.

Opportunities for synergistic relationships between ethanol production and the livestock industry are just now being discovered. Ethanol facilities in Nebraska and Texas are turning billions of pounds of cattle manure into the power source for ethanol production. At the same time, they are able to feed wet distillers grains, the high nutrient co product of ethanol production, right back to the herds literally using both ends of the cows. Similar relationships could be established with poultry producers as well.

As USDA Secretary Johanns has stated, it will take some time for the market to sort its way out. It is important that all of American agriculture keep the big picture in mind. I believe what comes of the rise of rural America will be a benefit to all of agriculture.

Q. Increased ethanol production isn’t just a North American phenomenon. Brazil is a major player and we can expect any country with a significant farm economy to step in. What other countries will participate and what will happen to world energy usage – what kinds of resources will be consumed and how they will be consumed – as production increases?

A. There isn’t a corner of the globe today that isn’t looking at renewable fuel production and use for many of the same reasons as the U.S. Beyond Brazil, nations like China, India and those in the European Union have all taken aggressive steps to foster their own domestic renewable fuels industries utilizing the feedstocks available to them.

In the not too distant future, a world market for ethanol will truly develop and may even present opportunities for U.S. companies to export ethanol. The co product of ethanol production, distiller’s grains, is already establishing a world market as the European Union and Japan continue to increase their use of this high value livestock feed.

As the industry moves to grain and cellulose production, technology around the globe will evolve to take advantage of the many energy crops available. It may be palm oil for biodiesel, sugarcane for ethanol or other feedstocks for biobutanol and other renewable fuels.

Q. Some lawmakers say ethanol will be the major driver behind the new farm bill. Backing that claim, Senator Harkin, the Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman and the Chair when the last farm bill was written in 2002, has set a hearing on renewable fuels as the Committee’s first of 2007. What effect do you see ethanol having on the bill?

Ethanol and renewable fuels will no doubt play a significant role in the development and passage of the next farm bill. Renewable fuel production is leading a rural renaissance across the country that can’t be ignored. Senator Harkin, Congressman Peterson and every other lawmaker on Capitol Hill understand the importance of ethanol not only to rural Americans, but to our nation’s energy and national security as well.