Agriculture News
Keeping cattle grass-fed is not a climate panacea: report
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on October 5, 2017Grass-fed beef fans sometimes claim that finishing cattle on forage, rather than on grain or soy, is better for the environment. But a new study from U.K.-based Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) indicates these assertions are not true.In a report dubbed “Grazed and confused?” researchers said their analysis of grass- and grain-finished animals’ net contributions to GHG emissions shows that even grass-fed animals are a net contributor to the problem. Their diet of only grasses does not offset their own emissions, let alone that of other animals, summarized Tara Garnett, an FCRN lead researcher on the study, in a blog for UK-based news analysis site The Conversation.“We asked one question: what is the net climate impact of grass-fed ruminants, taking into account all greenhouse gas emissions and removals? “We found that well-managed grazing in some contexts … can cause some carbon to be sequestered in soils. But, the maximum global potential (using generous assumptions) would offset only 20 percent to 60 percent of emissions from grazing cattle, 4 percent to 11 percent of total livestock emissions, and 0.6 percent to 1.6 percent of total annual greenhouse gas emissions,” Garnett wrote.
Groups on both ends of the political spectrum are plotting how to attack the farm bill
Agri-Pulse | Posted on October 5, 2017Groups on both ends of the political spectrum are plotting how to attack the farm bill when it begins to move in Congress. Representatives from about two dozen groups met yesterday near Capitol Hill to hear from an economist and then to brainstorm messages that they can agree to take to Congress. The plan is for the coalition to come up with a joint statement that most of the groups can sign. The organizations could not be more different on most issues. They range from the Heritage Foundation and Citizens Against Government Waste on the right to the Organic Consumers Association and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group on the left. The most significant proposal they are likely to get behind is the AFFIRM Act proposed by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis. The bill would make deep cuts in crop insurance and require disclosure of the amount of premium subsidies that individual farmers receive.
Could restoring swampland fix Lake Erie algae crisis?
Columbus Dispatch | Posted on October 4, 2017The neon cyanobacteria swirling across Lake Erie for the past three months or so signals to scientists and farmers alike: The annual plague of toxic algae is far from cured. “It looks like someone dumped green paint in the water,” said Tim Davis, an aquatic biologist at Bowling Green State University. “We’re still in the middle of the bloom. It’s setting up to be the third- or fourth-biggest one in recent history.”Bill Mitsch, a world-renowned wetlands expert and Ohio State environmental-science professor emeritus, believes he has a remedy.In a scientific paper published recently, Mitsch proposed restoring 10 percent of the swamps that once coated northwestern Ohio before pioneers drained the land for agriculture. He said that 100,000 acres of the former Great Black Swamp could be recruited to act as nature’s kidneys and sponge up agricultural runoff that feeds cyclical cyanobacteria blooms.But the revival of even a fraction of the western Lake Erie basin’s marshes could be a tough sell in a region where 15,000 farmers produce hundreds of millions of dollars worth of soybeans, corn, wheat and livestock.
John Deere takes on Silicon Valley
Star Tribune | Posted on October 4, 2017John Deere, the Moline, Ill. farm-machine company, may seem like a surprising presence near the office towers of software giants like Salesforce and LinkedIn. And even though its new lab in the startup-heavy South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco is focused on technologies like artificial intelligence and automation, some devoted customers can’t stay away. “We have had people knocking on the glass trying to buy tractors,” said Alex Purdy, head of John Deere Labs. “I actually had someone the other day who tried to come in to replace something on his mower. People don’t necessarily think about Deere as the software development shop for agriculture.”Deere’s San Francisco outpost opened in May, and in September the company made its first big move to beef it up, agreeing to pay $305 million to buy Blue River Technology, a Sunnyvale, Calif., startup developing farm equipment using computers and robotics to automatically detect every single plant on a farm. Some of Blue River’s employees will join the San Francisco lab. The move by 180-year-old Deere is the latest sign of agricultural giants’ focus on automation and robotics. For example, in August, DuPont bought Granular Inc., a San Francisco agriculture analytics software firm, for $300 million. Meanwhile, Deere competitor Kubota Tractor Corp. opened a new research and development facility earlier this year in its Grapevine, Texas, headquarters.
Federal push to deport undocumented workers could bring pain, problems on many fronts, observers say
Times Union | Posted on October 4, 2017Farmers rely on foreign workers, many of whom are undocumented, to keep their operations running. But as the Trump administration cracks down on illegal immigration and fewer Americans want to work in the fields, some fear they'll lack the workers to plant and harvest the crops that feed the nation. "Americans can't do these kinds of jobs," Cordona said.The loss of foreign workers could cut harvests and push supermarket prices higher.Produce imports could increase even as fruits and vegetables rot in American fields. Farms could fail, costing jobs and damaging the economy."Migrant labor is very important to agriculture," said Steve Ammerman, a spokesman for the New York Farm Bureau, a non-governmental organization with more than 200,000 members. "The average consumer would feel (the loss of workers) in many ways."
We All Need to Stand Up For the Medical Science that Yields the Miracles
Huffington Post | Posted on October 4, 2017Investment in medical research, I would argue, is also a moral issue, a matter of political will and, ultimately, political accountability. The good news is that there is increasing bipartisan support for U.S. investment in medical research. The benefits of new therapies accrue to everyone regardless of political party or ideology.Support for increased research funding and the use of science in policymaking cannot be the purview of the scientific community or political leaders alone — it must come from all of us who benefit personally, and whose loved ones benefit, from the advances achieved through medical research. Nothing is more valuable than good health. We all have a powerful opportunity to improve our futures and those of our family. To do so, we must stand up for the science that yields the miracles of health. We must find effective ways to make our voices heard. Most of us have a medical miracle of one kind or another for which we’re profoundly grateful. I recently shared my story about successfully coming back from kidney cancer thanks to medical research including the discoveries of Lasker Laureates. I urge you to share your story too, using the hashtag: #ResearchSavedMe. By joining together, by telling our stories of how research saved our lives or improved the lives of those we love, we will make our voices heard all the way to Washington.
Nonviral CRISPR Delivery a Success
The Scientist | Posted on October 4, 2017hile promising, applications of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing have so far been limited by the challenges of delivery—namely, how to get all the CRISPR parts to every cell that needs them. In a study published today (October 2) in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers have successfully repaired a mutation in the gene for dystrophin in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy by injecting a vehicle they call CRISPR-Gold, which contains the Cas9 protein, guide RNA, and donor DNA, all wrapped around a tiny gold ball. The authors have made “great progress in the gene editing area,” says Tufts University biomedical engineer Qiaobing Xu, who did not participate in the work but penned an accompanying commentary. Because their approach is nonviral, Xu explains, it will minimize the potential off-target effects that result from constant Cas9 activity, which occurs when users deliver the Cas9 template with a viral vector.Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a degenerative disease of the muscles caused by a lack of the protein dystrophin. In about a third of patients, the gene for dystrophin has small deletions or single base mutations that render it nonfunctional, which makes this gene an excellent candidate for gene editing. Researchers have previously used viral delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 components to delete the mutated exon and achieve clinical improvements in mouse models of the disease.
Deadly West Nile virus cases are spiking in LA. The first line of defense: chickens
Stat News | Posted on October 4, 2017The chickens are used to the needles. They don’t fuss when vector ecologist Tanya Posey pulls opens the door of a coop in a community garden here, firmly grasps a Leghorn, and pulls a blood sample out of its wing vein. She’s so good, she can bleed a chicken in about 30 seconds.That’s helpful, because she has a lot of chickens to test.More than six dozen sentinel chickens, living in coops dotted around Los Angeles, make up one of the first lines of defense in this sprawling county’s fight against West Nile virus. The disease has been a background threat for years here, but cases have spiked this fall to worrisome levels. Six deaths have been reported by Los Angeles County this year — including three just last week.And the cases are alarmingly severe: Of 98 reported infections here this year, 79 have led to serious neurological side effects, and 87 have required hospitalization. Because it’s still peak mosquito season, more deaths are expected.So local public health officials this week launched an all-out attack. They’re sending teams of green-shirted vector control agents door to door to tell residents to wear bug spray, install window screens, and dump the stagnant water where the insects breed.
Scientists join forces to save Puerto Rico’s ‘Monkey Island’
The Conversation | Posted on October 4, 2017The Cayo Santiago Field Station is the longest-running primate field site in the world. Since it was founded in 1938, generations of monkeys have lived out their life with humans watching. Only monkeys live on the island; people take a 15-minute boat trip every day from Punta Santiago on Puerto Rico’s east coast. The huge amount of data on each individual monkey’s life, death and contributions to the next generation allow scientists to ask questions in biology, anthropology and psychology that can’t be answered anywhere else. This microcosm of monkey society opens the door onto these highly intelligent and social primates’ lives – thereby allowing us to better understand our own. After Hurricane Maria made landfall 30 minutes south of Cayo Santiago, scientists in the United States scrambled to make contact with students, staff and friends in Puerto Rico. Several days later we finally managed to reach Angelina Ruiz Lambides, the director of the research station. Scientists arranged a helicopter so that she could survey Punta Santiago and Cayo Santiago. The photos and videos she sent back were devastating. Punta Santiago, where many of the staff live, was destroyed. A phototaken from the helicopter showed a large chalk message: “S.O.S. Necesitamos Agua/Comida” – We need water and food. Cayo Santiago, formerly two lush islands connected by an isthmus, was unrecognizable. The forests were brown, the mangroves were flooded and the isthmus was submerged. Research labs and other infrastructure were in pieces. Yet the monkeys were spotted! Somehow, defying our expectations, many of the Cayo monkeys had weathered the storm. Over the next few days other staff traveled to Cayo in small boats and started searching for each individual monkey, like 00O – a process that will take weeks. Some observers might question our focus on saving animals when people across Puerto Rico are suffering, but this is not an either/or choice. The Cayo Santiago Field Station is the livelihood of many dedicated staffers who live in Punta Santiago. We cannot aid the monkeys without helping to rebuild the town, and we aim to do both.The staff and researchers who work at Cayo Santiago are stewards of these animals, who cannot survive without our help. Many of the Puerto Rican staffers on site have spent years caring for monkeys like 00O. Now they are spending their mornings rebuilding Cayo Santiago, and then working on their own homes in the afternoon.
Trump Administration Files Additional WTO Request over BC Wine
NASDA | Posted on October 4, 2017The Trump Administration has filed an additional formal request on September 28 for consultations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over British Columbia (BC) regulations that favor BC wines over imported US wines. Notably, the BC regulations allow BC wine to be sold on grocery store shelves while US wines must be sold in a separate “store within a store.” The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative filed an original request at the WTO for consultations over the British Columbia regulations on January 18, 2017. This new request updates the previous request.