Bird Flu Back in Britain
The Chief Veterinary Officer, Nigel Gibbens, has today confirmed Avian Influenza in chickens on premises near Banbury in Oxfordshire after preliminary tests were positive for the H7 strain. All birds on the premises will be slaughtered as a precautionary measure.
Laboratory testing continues and results which will allow confirmation of whether the strain is high or low pathogenicity will follow. A detailed epidemiological investigation to better understand the origin and development of the disease is underway.
A Temporary Control Zone with a 3km inner zone and a 10km outer zone is being established around the Infected Premises. A number of measures apply. All birds must be housed or otherwise isolated from contact with wild birds in the inner zone. Bird gatherings are banned and all other movements of birds and some products are banned in the whole of the Temporary Control Zone. Defra is urgently considering whether any wider measures may be needed.
Poultry keepers are urged to be extremely vigilant, practice the highest levels of biosecurity and report any suspicions of disease to their local Animal Health Office immediately.
Iran Pres: Unnamed Powers Profiteering From Food Via Subsidies
ROME (AP)--Iran's president has accused unnamed "powers" of profiteering from high food prices through subsidies and market manipulations.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was speaking at a U.N. summit in Rome where aimed at finding solutions to high food prices and global hunger.
Ahmadinejad gave the speech at a podium flanked by armed guards Tuesday.
Who could he mean?
Lloyd Maunder are hiring
UK poultry processing company Lloyd Maunder plans to create 100 jobs this summer, just months after the company announced redundancies, local media report.
Lloyd Maunder recently cut 32 jobs, mainly in administrative and engineering areas, in a bid to avoid duplication following the company’s acquisition by the 2 Sisters food group in January.
The new production and supervisory positions are necessary if Lloyd Maunder’s plans to increase production from 530,000 chicken per week to more than 710,000 by the end of the year are to be fulfilled. The chickens are processed at Lloyd Maunder's Willand plant, which employs 600 staff.
Lloyd Maunder’s sales of Freedom Food-labeled chicken were boosted by a campaign for higher welfare standards led by two UK celebrity chefs earlier this year. Production of chicken under Freedom Food is expected to account for 39% of the company's total output by August this year, up 330% on January 2008, Lloyd Maunder said in a statement.
UK food rationing is back
The first apparent case of rice rationing has hit the UK this week after supermarket chain Netto imposed a “restriction” on the amount of rice customers can buy after its suppliers said they were experiencing shortages.
The Danish-owned low-cost chain said its customers were now only allowed to buy one 10kg bag of basmati rice per person in each of its 184 stores across the UK. A Netto spokesman said: “The 10-kilogram bags are a very good price and people are perhaps selling them on. Rationing is a strong term - we prefer to use the term restricting. Our suppliers are experiencing some difficulty at the moment."
I reckon this a cunning ploy by Gordon Frown to get us all to pull together in a bit of wartime type camaraderie to deflect away from his leadership inadequacies.
Shall I do the Tears on my Pilau joke again? Brothers in Naans? Dansak on the Ceiling? Poppadum Preach? Bhuna Round The World But I Can't Find My Bhaji? She Drives Me Jalfreizi?
Early call on chicago
Corn futures are expected to open 3 to 5 lower; soybeans unchanged to 2 higher; wheat 2 to 5 lower. Trading activity was slow in the overnight trade. The corn-crop rating was better than expected; wheat too. Rainy weather will support prices somewhat.
Midwest weather outlook
Freese Notis -- Significant rains over the weekend were confined to areas east of the Mississippi River where some spots picked up more than 2 inches. It was mostly in the 80s for highs (70s far north) on Saturday while Sunday's highs ranged from the 70s in MI to generally the 80s elsewhere.
The warmer temperatures are aiding the newly planted corn. The one thing that is certain over the next 10-15 days is that temperatures will remain on the warm side of normal for the majority of the Cornbelt. The only exception may be in the far northwest where temperatures will probably be close to normal on most days.
The warm temperatures will be helping the corn to catch up in its early growing cycle after the slow planting progress and the unseasonably cool weather. There will be plenty of rain the next several days across especially the northern half of the Cornbelt.
Later in the week and during the 6-10 day period, the emphasis of the big rains will be over the western Cornbelt. The reason for this is that a dome of high pressure aloft will be building over the southern and southeastern U.S. Therefore, the battle of air masses will be over the western Cornbelt and northern Plains. The southern Plains will see a lot of heat and drier than normal weather with this scenario. However, after the great rains in recent weeks, this warm weather will, if anything, be of benefit to the crop. It will help to mature it more rapidly. The soft-red winter wheat crop is also in excellent shape at this time.
Getting back to the Cornbelt, there will be some heat evolving for especially the southern and southwestern Cornbelt for the 6-10. Highs will likely reach to well up into the 90s on at least a few days. However, this is of no concern at this time after a very wet and cool spring. Besides, indications point to this heat abating during the 11-15 day period.
EU food chief: Lift BSE ban to cut grain prices
Times Online -- The EU ban on the use of animal remains to feed pigs and chickens should be lifted so that grain can be diverted to millions of starving people, one of Europe’s top food safety advisers has told The Times.
Patrick Wall, chairman of the European Food Safety Authority, questioned whether it was “morally or ethically correct” to feed grain to animals in the midst of a global food crisis.
He said that there was no scientific reason to maintain the ban.
More than 40 heads of state meet at an emergency UN food summit today to draw up an action plan over soaring food prices, which have led to riots in Haiti, Egypt, Mexico, Tanzania and Morocco. Prices for staples such as rice, soya and wheat have risen 83 per cent in three years, making them unaffordable in the poorest countries.
Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, said that governments were paying the price for failing to invest in agriculture. This had led to an “alarming juncture” that could trigger economic and political crises, he said.
The EU ban was imposed after the BSE crisis in Britain in 1996, when the disease was linked to livestock eating animal products. Professor Wall said that it was now safe to lift the ban.
The European Commission is considering a plan to allow pigs to be fed poultry trimmings and chickens to be given pig meat to save farmers from buying expensive grain and have asked for Professor Wall’s advice. He told The Times: “Soya meal and other grain prices are going through the roof. Is it morally and ethically correct to be destroying this food when people are starving? No one I know is worried about the science. There is only concern about consumer reaction.”
A spokesman for Defra said that it was awaiting formal advice from the European Food Standards Agency. “We would only support the proposal if we were satisfied that there was no risk to human health and that appropriate and effective testing had taken place to control the use of such proteins in pig and poultry feed,” it said.
We can't go on eating like this
It is all very awkward. China and India are getting richer. And it appears their new middle classes want all the things we want: cars, washing machines, even meat. Here in the west, we have to restrain ourselves from saying: “Stop. You can’t live like us. The planet can’t stand it. And our wallets can’t stand it. Have you seen the price of petrol?”
Global equity is the awkward issue lying behind the world food crisis. In the long run, it will also prove fundamental to discussions on energy and global warming.
World leaders will be urged today to cut EU and US biofuel targets immediately and divert more grain to tackle the global food crisis.
As more than 40 heads of state meet at the emergency food summit in Rome, aid organisations stepped up their demand for action on biofuels, which have contributed to an 83 per cent rise in food prices in the past three years.
Gordon Brown indicated yesterday that he would support a review of EU biofuel targets as he called for the food crisis to be placed at the top of the agenda at the G8 summit next month in Japan.
Speaking after a meeting with Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Brown said that he backed the need to expand aid and help for agricultural production. “We need to look at whether we have made the right decisions over time about the production of biofuels at the expense of food.”
Britain is now reviewing its own target, which is to ensure that 5 per cent of transport fuel is made up of biofuels by 2010. The European Commission is drawing up a compulsory target for all members of a 10 per cent minimum of biofuels by 2020.
Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, who is representing Britain at the summit, is also expected to argue for urgent aid in the form of fertilisers and seeds. He will call on the US and Europe to reduce farm subsidies, but will face opposition from the Americans and some EU member states.
Both developing and developed countries will also be urged to review trade agreements and increase cash aid to the poorest nations. Yesterday Jacques Diouf, the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that rich countries should increase aid tenfold to £15 billion to help to solve the crisis.
Oxfam has also estimated that an extra £8 billion is needed to scale up immediate assistance to at least 290 million people threatened by rising food prices. Longer-term changes included “the urgent review of compulsory biofuels targets in rich countries to stop their inflationary impact”, an Oxfam report out today says.
Recent estimates suggest that increased demand for biofuels accounts for 30 per cent of recent food price rises while mounting scientific evidence shows biofuels are having an overall negative impact on climate change, it said.
