Recycle This! July 3, 2008
By Lynne Finnerty, American Farm Bureau Federation
People who don’t have much money to waste are the ultimate recyclers—unwitting pioneers of green living.
A lot of folks who grew up when mayonnaise only came in glass jars saw their moms or aunts or grandmothers remove the labels and reuse the jars for canning vegetables. The Mason lid fit, so why throw away a perfectly good jar?
Some of these same folks would maybe get accused of being rednecks for having junk lying around. But they would be the first to fish out the part that would fix your car or tractor right …
Got Organic Milk? To Fill DEmand, Wisconsin-based Organic Valley Dips into NonOrganic Farming July 2, 2008
An industry watchdog group recently discovered Organic Valley quietly has been getting some of its milk from a giant Texas dairying operation with more than 5,000 cows. Headquartered in La Farge, WI Organic Valley sells organic dairy and other food products in all 50 states under various labels. It now represents more than 1,200 organic farmers in 34 states, with sales rising to $432 million last year, a three-fold jump since 2003. When two small organic dairy operations in Texas went out of business last year, the cooperative was faced with a tough decision: either ship organic milk from the …
rBST Reduces Carbon Footprint of Dairies
Modern dairy practices can dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of farms, according to a new study featured in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study, “The Environmental Impact of Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rbST) use in Dairy Production,” demonstrates that use of rbST reduces the carbon footprint of milk production, said its authors.
Increasing milk production efficiency reduces the feed required per unit of milk by diluting the fixed maintenance feed requirements over more units of milk. This means less manure is produced per unit of milk, and the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that …
ConocoPhillips Announces Collaboration with Colorado Center for Biorefining and BioFuels
ConocoPhillips announced yesterday that it has signed a $5 million, multi-year sponsored research agreement with the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2), a research center of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, to develop new ways to convert biomass into low-carbon transportation fuels.
The Collaboratory, a joint venture of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) formed C2B2 in March 2007, to conduct research at all four institutions. The new collaboration will build on a variety of active research projects being conducted by Colorado scientists and …
So has your ceral box shrunk? July 1, 2008
Manufacturers, faced with a choice between raising prices (which consumers would surely notice) or quietly putting fewer ounces in the bag, carton or cup (which they generally don’t) manufacturers are choosing the latter. This month, Kellogg’s started shipping Apple Jacks, Cocoa Krispies, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks containing an average of 2.4 fewer ounces per box. Story
Global Warming Isn’t Science; It’s Belief
An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal effectively highlights the junk science of global warming. Editorialist Bret Stephens calls it “mass hysteria.”
I like that. True too.
USDA Acreage Report Released - June 30, 2008
According to USDA’s Acreage report released early Monday, U.S. corn acreage totaled 87.33 million acres, up from 86.01 million acres indicated in the March 31 Planting Intentions report, below last year’s 93.6 million acres but near the high end of pre-report estimates. For soybeans, USDA said farmers planted 74.53 million acres, less than the 74.79 million acres in the March intentions report but 17 percent more than the 63.60 million acres in 2007. Ahead of the report, analysts’ estimates averaged 74.20 million acres.
USDA conducted the main survey for this report during the first two weeks of June and then last …
Barley Growers Ponders Potential A-Busch Beer Deal June 27, 2008
The prospect of Anheuser-Busch being taken over by a brewing company with roots in Belgium and Brazil has made some Northern Plains barley growers uneasy.Budweiser is king in Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, where nearly three-fourths of the nation’s barley is grown. Fairfield, in north-central Montana, even touts itself as the “Barley Capital of the World.” Malt barley from the region also finds its way into beers brewed by Coors, Miller and international companies that include Grupo Modelo SA, a Mexican producer that recently built an Idaho Falls, Idaho, plant to process barley into malt. Full Story
Rolling Stones Rocker Calls for More Agriculture and Nature Education June 26, 2008
Today’s children are increasingly disconnected from the natural world and schools can play a big role in fixing this. That’s the message Chuck Leavell, Rolling Stones keyboardist, shared during his keynote address at the Ag in the Classroom conference in Costa Mesa, Calif., this week. Leavell addressed the teachers present not as a musician but as a Georgia tree farmer and the author of the 2007 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Book of the Year The Tree Farmer.
Leavell told the group of more than 500 attendees he wrote his book in response to what he calls “nature-deficit …
Prepare. Your Meat Prices May Rise Over the Next Few Years June 25, 2008
When it comes to food, you’ve seen everything rise, except meat. But meat’s rise may be dawning. At the Arizona Farm Bureau, we come out with a quarterly market basket modeled after the 16 food items of American Farm Bureau. Watch for it come come out the second week in July. I’ll link to my blog at that time.
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