Are today’s farmers feeding and taking care of their animals properly?
It seems to come down to who you trust.
Marcia Gorrell, agriculture reporter for The Marshall Democrat-News in Marshall ,Missouri, is today’s guest blogger, and offers the following commentary on the confusing and contrary information bombarding consumers regarding our foods origin and safety.
Do you believe the family farmers who have spent their whole lives producing food? The farmers who have built modern farming techniques, step by step, generation by generation — building on the lessons, failures and successes of those who farmed before them?
Do you believe the scientists or researchers who have spent their entire careers studying animals, nutrition and food safety? Do you believe the USDA or the FDA who are tasked with making our food supply safe?
I have as much suspicion as anyone when it comes to the government, but in the case of food safety, I can’t argue with the results.
While the rest of the world’s agriculture has been ravaged by outbreaks of Mad Cow Disease and Bird Flu, we in the United States have not. Somebody is looking out for us and doing a good job. (more…)
I want to see Oprah wax poetic about the nobility of science and the implications of the full exposure of the corn genome. Instead of Martha Stewart prattling on about the merits of a vegetarian Thanksgiving, and what is wrong with the family farms producing our food, I am waiting for a provocative look at what this understanding of our largest crop means for mankind.
The announcement today that a team of scientists led by The Genome Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has completed the corn genome is nothing short of monumental. But in this man bites dog world we live in the story will likely miss the evening news and the front page of your local paper.
While the glass half full crowd runs about blathering about how we can’t grow enough corn for all uses we are already doing it and the record crops grown in recent years is just a hint of things to come. (Anybody have any more clichés I can stick in this blog?)
The corn genome is a hodgepodge of some 32,000 genes crammed into just 10 chromosomes. In comparison, humans have 20,000 genes dispersed among 23 chromosomes. That officially makes a corn plant more complex than some people I know, but I digress.
This $29.5 million maize sequencing project utilized the collective expertise of 150 scientists and resulted in a road map scientists will explore for many more years to come. In these waning days of petroleum predominance this is welcome news.
Virtually anything made from oil can be made from corn today. Understanding the intricacies of the genome will allow us to make these emerging corn based products more efficiently and economically. Oh, and there is also that feeding the whole world thing. That’s a good idea too.
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service bumped the 2009 corn crop forecast up to an even 13 billion bushels in today’s report.
Based on conditions as of October 1, yields are expected to average 164.2 bushels per acre, up 2.3 bushels from September and 10.3 bushels above last year. If realized, this yield will be the highest on record and total production will be second only to the record set in 2007. Yield forecasts remained unchanged or increased from last month across the Corn Belt, Great Plains, and Ohio Valley where warm, dry weather during much of September helped push the late-developing corn crop towards maturity. Light frost was reported in parts of the northern tier of the Great Plains and Corn Belt in late September. However, temperatures were not considered low enough to terminate crop growth.
However, the forecast looks pretty ugly for this weekend in the upper states, with freezing temps and possible snow expected in some areas. Meanwhile, heavy rain in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana this week put a halt to harvest activities. So, the weather as always will dictate the final outcome of the crop.
There’s a good chance that quite a bit of the corn about to be harvested in the Midwest this fall got its start in Hawaii.
According to the latest report from the the Hawaii Field Office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) the value of Hawaii’s seed industry for the 2008/2009 season was a “record high” of $176.6 million. Seed corn accounts for $169.3 million, or 96 percent, of the total value. According to NASS, acreage devoted to seed crops will increase 12 percent from the previous growing season to a record of 5,930 acres.
In fact, a recent Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation study shows that seed crops have become the largest agricultural commodity in the state, exceeding the value of both sugar and pineapple by 180 percent and 90 percent, respectively.
All the major seed companies have operations in Hawaii on a total of about 6,000 acres. Syngenta Seeds Corn Product Development Lead Ben Hable says it allows them to get new products to market faster. “In Hawaii we can actually turn a crop every 3 and a half months so we can increase the seeds that we need to get back here to the mainland for seed production,” Ben told me during an interview at the grand opening of Syngenta Seeds new headquarters in Minnetonka, MN this week. “Syngenta now has over 300 full time staff in the state of Hawaii working on corn and soybean seed production.”
The big guessing game of how much corn and soybeans will be grown this year continues. Weather has been out of the ordinary in some regions and it’s interesting to note that some midwest areas have been having one of the coolest summers on record. So what should people know about where we’re at and why should they care?
Last year we heard all kinds of hysteria over turning corn into ethanol and that somehow that was like taking food out of the mouths of people. Pure emotional tripe but fueled by fear mongers with an agenda. Facts weren’t important to them but time and the truth does tend to show how false a lot of those claims were. So it is important for consumers to get good information to not only educate them but alleviate fears they may have.
So, how are things looking this year? USDA releases “official” production estimates but a lot of analysts produce their own. This post started when I read the latest outlook from Farm Futures.
Bumper corn and soybean crops are still possible in 2009, despite a very unusual growing season, according to the latest Farm Futures survey of U.S. farmers.
Corn production could reach 12.545 billion, the second biggest crop in history, with soybeans setting an all-time high at 3.275 billion.
USDA reports 2009 production Aug. 12, in a widely anticipated release that features the agency’s first estimates based on in-field surveys, not statistical guesses. The government also will update acreage for corn in seven states where planting delays made its June 30 estimates uncertain.
Farm Futures found a 2 million acre drop in corn plantings from USDA’s June survey, with the total falling to 85.04 million. But farmers also reported above average yields of 160.3 bpa, compared to the current USDA statistical guess of 153.4. Farm Futures production estimate is 255 million above the July government forecast.
Farm Futures put the average U.S. soybean yield at 42.8 bpa, slightly higher than USDA’s trend forecast.
Sounds to me like we’re going to have enough corn and soybeans to meet food, fuel and export demand. Hopefully that will relieve your worries.
Is our food safe or not?
I want to see Oprah wax poetic about the nobility of science and the implications of the full exposure of the corn genome. Instead of Martha Stewart prattling on about the merits of a vegetarian Thanksgiving, and what is wrong with the family farms producing our food, I am waiting for a provocative look at what this understanding of our largest crop means for mankind.
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service bumped the 2009 corn crop forecast up to an even 13 billion bushels in 
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