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Nebraska Department of Agriculture
Ag Update – February 16, 2012

 
National News
 
'US and EU reach organic trade agreement'
 
(Brownfield) An agreement has been reached between the U.S. and the European Union that would recognize their organic programs as essentially equivalent. The partnership will allow access to each other’s markets and simplify paperwork for organic producers.
 
The agreement goes into effect June 1st of this year. Currently, organic growers and companies that wanted to trade products in both the US and Europe were required to obtain separate certifications to the two standards – which doubled fees, inspections and paperwork.
 
The agreement is equivalent with the exception of prohibiting the use of antibiotics. The USDA bans the use of antibiotics except for controlling invasive bacterial infections (fire blight) in organic apple and pear orchards. EU organic rules only allow antibiotics to treat infected animals.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://brownfieldagnews.com/2012/02/15/us-and-eu-reach-organic-trade-agreement/
 

 
'Concerns about proposed ’13 ag budget'
 
(Brownfield) Agriculture is responding to the proposed cut in the Obama Administration’s proposed 2013 budget. For one, it would deeply cut crop insurance premiums. Senate Ag Committee member Charles Grassley of Iowa says there is agreement in Congress and among farmers that a strong crop insurance program is a necessity. He says, over the years, crop insurance has effectively taken pressure off other federal farm payments.
 
“There has been billions and billions in savings coming from crop insurance already,” Grassley tells reporters, “And don’t shred that safety net any more is what I think a lot of senators would say.”
 
The president of the National Farmers Union says agriculture has already given its fair share of cuts. Roger Johnson says the president’s budget would cut agriculture programs by $32 Billion over 10 years – which is $9 Billion more than the agreement between the House and Senate Ag Committees reached late last year, Johnson says.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://brownfieldagnews.com/2012/02/15/concerns-expressed-over-proposed-13-ag-budget/
 

 
'Farm Bill hearing held'
 
(KNEB) The Senate Ag Committee Wednesday held the first in a series of meetings focused on the next Farm Bill. Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow told the gathering - the Farm Bill will continue to play a major role in helping businesses create jobs in rural America. This first hearing of 2012 focused on rural development, bio-based manufacturing and Farm Bill energy initiatives.  
 
Stabenow noted that - bio-based manufacturing is a great example of new opportunities in rural America that create good jobs. The Senator also highlighted energy as an area where growth potential exists in rural America. She said - Farm Bill energy programs are spurring new, homegrown energy markets as well as keeping costs for farmers and other small businesses low.  
 
During the hearing Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack told the panel - the U.S. has the potential to produce more than a billion dry tons of biomass each year for the energy industry by mid-century, without impacting other farm and forestry products. He said - that would be enough to displace approximately 30 percent of our country's present petroleum consumption.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://kneb.com/news/agricultural/index.php?more=ybxf8pyw
 

 
'Definitive BSE rules needed'
 
(Brownfield) Senator Charles Grassley wants the Obama Administration to adopt definitive rules addressing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the cattle neurological disorder. Senator Grassley, a GOP lawmaker from Iowa, says that to not have a rule in place justifies the non-science-based barriers to U.S. beef that some countries have maintained since late 2003.
 
“Can you imagine our negotiators over there negotiating to get our beef into another country, and they’re saying, ‘after all these years you’re going to adopt a BSE rule, how come you haven’t done it yet,’” said Grassley, during a conference call with reporters this week. “It puts our people in a very embarrassing position.”
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://brownfieldagnews.com/2012/02/15/definitive-bse-rules-needed/
 

 
'FCC derails LightSquared’s plan'
 
(Brownfield) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to block the planned development of a nationwide wireless network by communications company LightSquared over concerns that it cannot be fixed to coexist with global positioning systems (GPS).
 
The FCC move is subject to public comment and agency commissioners could overturn the decision.  But observers say that, given the line-up of federal agencies expressing concern over the land-based tower network, chances aren’t good for LightSquared.
 
In a statement, LightSquared expressed disappointment with the decision which it contends is based on “a severely flawed testing process that relied on obsolete and niche devices.” The company goes on to state it is committed to finding a resolution with the federal government and the GPS industry and fully expects to build its 14 billion dollar network.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://brownfieldagnews.com/2012/02/15/fcc-derails-lightsquareds-plan/
 

 
'Strong starting salaries in ag related fields'
 
(Brownfield) A survey of fourteen land-grand universities showed a strong starting salary for students pursuing careers in the agriculture industry.  The average salary among undergraduates in agriculture and related professions was $38,104.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://brownfieldagnews.com/2012/02/14/strong-starting-salaries-in-ag-related-fields/
 

 
'Good year for agriculture decreases number of mediated farm debts'
 
(Pork Network) The effect of a good year for Minnesota agriculture is evident in the University of Minnesota Extension Farmer-Lender Mediation Program's annual report. The number of lenders sending notices requesting mediation of troubled Minnesota farm debts dropped by 24 percent during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2011.
 
This is the first time in four years the activity in the program decreased, according to Dick Senese, Extension senior associate dean. "In recent years, farmer-lender mediation has given farm operations the chance to stay in business until better times," Senese said. "These are better times for agriculture, but there are still situations where farmers and their lenders rely on this program to help them work together to renegotiate, restructure or resolve their debts.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://www.porknetwork.com/pork-news/latest/Good-year-for-agriculture-decreases-number-of-mediated-farm-debts-139387008.html
 

 
'White House cuts Kansas biosecurity lab funding'
 
(KNEB) Kansas officials were stunned and upset Monday to learn that President Barack Obama recommended no additional funding for construction of a new biosecurity lab, jeopardizing a high-visibility project that the state had seen as a powerful engine of economic growth. The spending plan from Obama also said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will reassess the viability of the National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility planned for Manhattan, near Kansas State University. The project would cost an estimated $650 million and would replace an aging facility at Plum Island, N.Y. Workers have already cleared the Kansas site, and the state has committed itself to authorizing up to $105 million in bonds to help with the project. State officials envisioned the lab, which would research foot-and-mouth and other dangerous animal diseases, as a key part of an emerging biosciences industry.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://kneb.com/news/agricultural/index.php?more=6imf5pfx
 

 
'Talc Killing Bees'
 
(KNEB) Research has confirmed a correlation between talc and seed treatment used in planters and honeybee deaths. The problem is neonicotinoids which are used in popular insecticidal seed treatments such as Gaucho, Cruiser or Poncho on corn and soybean seed. Analysis of bees found dead in and around Indiana hives showed a presence of neonicotinoids. Researchers at Purdue University also found clothianidin (Poncho) and thiamethoxam (Cruiser) at low levels in the soil -- up to two years after treated seed was planted.
 
According to Purdue Entomologist Christian Krupke, - we hypothesize that planter box talc is responsible for a lot of the acute exposure, but we found insecticides virtually every place we looked, including pollen, dandelions and topsoil from unplanted fields. Krupke believes - talc is a logical first target for remedial action since those concentrations were by far the highest found.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://kneb.com/news/agricultural/index.php?more=ch7tuexn
 

 
State News
 
'Governor's Agriculture Conference preview'
 
(NTV) It's Nebraska's #1 industry and people from all over the state came to Kearney for the Governor's Agriculture Conference. It's a two day event with emphasis on future goals in the agriculture world. This is the 24th annual conference and this year's theme is "Today's Challenges, Tomorrow's Opportunities."
 
"The success of the industry over the past year, I think is a great opportunity for folks to come to hear about the industry and what's going on with our role in the world," said assistant director Bobbie Kriz-Wickham.
 
For more on this story, please visit:  http://www.nebraska.tv/story/16947441/governors-agriculture-conference-preview
 

 
'Overcrowded UNL vet center seeks new building'
 
(Lincoln Journal Star)The stack of boxes looks innocuous. Resting on a desk at the Veterinary Diagnostic Center's entrance, only words like "refrigerate upon arrival" hint at their contents. Dave Hardin knows any of the boxes could contain a silent killer.
 
"You just don't know what's in that box," said the director of the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. With no back entrance for delivery, people dropping off boxes filled with samples from diseased animals must leave them at the center's front desk. That's something Hardin would like to change.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://journalstar.com/news/local/education/overcrowded-unl-vet-center-seeks-new-building/article_35b93f6c-6622-5324-b0be-2addd5941dc4.html#ixzz1mYiqB1g2
 

 
'Nebraska agriculture group disagrees with Chipotle ad'
 
(WOWT) An ad from burrito chain Chipotle has been a topic of discussion in many social media forums this week after it debuted on national television. The ad also has some Nebraska ag groups buzzing because they say it distorts the way farms and ranches produce food.
 
Chipotle says the two-minute short film commissioned by the company features the "life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future."
The Nebraska Farm Bureau says ads like "Back to the Start" promote an anti-modern day farm agenda and distort the reality of agriculture.
 
"Moving backwards to an organic type setting in agriculture is a prescription for hunger because we have to feed the world," said Nebraska Farm Bureau Chief Administrator Rob Robertson. "We're going to have two billion more people in the next 30-40 years to feed and you can't go backwards with productivity, you have to go forward on the farm." The Farm Bureau feels that the ad is misleading in its depiction of animal treatment.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/Nebraska_Ag_Group_Disagrees_With_Chipotle_Ad_139410563.html
 

 
'A salute to the state’s future farmers in those blue jackets'
 
(Nebraska Radio Network) The vocational agriculture program known as FFA is marking an anniversary next week, 84 years of teaching the importance of farming. FFA advisor Kurt Veldhuizen says Nebraska has 6,600 members in schools across the state and he says it’s a privilege to bring more into the fold every year.
 
“Even in today’s economy, we’re struggling as a country but one really good bright spot is agriculture,” Veldhuizen says. “It really is holding strong. That’s not just the production agriculture, that’s everything involved. My freshmen, that’s one of the first things that I teach them.”
 
The group changed its name from Future Farmers of America to FFA in 1998 to reflect the diverse scope of the agriculture industry. Veldhuizen says he’s confident agriculture will remain one of the top industries for the state and nation, currently employing more than 24-million people.
 
For more on this story, please visit:http://nebraskaradionetwork.com/2012/02/16/a-salute-to-the-states-future-farmers-in-those-blue-jackets/
 

 
'After a decade, whooping cranes return to Jeffrey Island'
 
(Lincoln Journal Star) Three endangered whooping cranes landed on Jeffrey Island in the Platte River earlier this month. An insignificant event for most of us but not for the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, which so far has spent nearly $9 million to lease the 4,000-acre, 7 mile-long island and transform it into a place that could attract whooping cranes.
 
The Feb. 2 landing was the first confirmed sighting of whooping cranes on Jeffrey Island since the Holdrege-based district began managing the area for wildlife habitat purposes more than a decade ago.
 
"We're certainly not excited to have spent nearly $9 million, but it is a milestone that those expenditures have resulted in the use of the island by the cranes as intended," said Mike Drain, the district's natural resources manager.
 
For more on this story, please visit: http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/after-a-decade-whooping-cranes-return-to-jeffrey-island/article_168b8d7a-fe16-5173-98a3-42989f2853ad.html#ixzz1mYjRRbfU
 
 
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