Sox-Agro

Monday, 8 May 2017

THE HIDDEN RADICALISM OF SOUTHERN FOOD.

Oxford, Miss. — AMERICA reacts with vigor to the South, for the nation has long recognized its deepest problems here. H. L. Mencken parodied a poverty-wrecked and racism-ruined South as “The Sahara of the Bozart.” Modern debates about malnutrition have shifted from hunger to obesity. Different Southern deserts have come into focus.

During the Obama administration, agricultural activists trekked south to map food deserts, where access to fresh vegetables and meats is restricted and fast-food chains deliver high-calorie payloads and low-nutrient payoffs. Policy makers funded community gardens and redrew school-lunch nutrition standards.

On Monday, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that schools receiving federal funds for lunches may opt out of federal whole-grain requirements and delay low-sodium mandates. When Secretary Perdue, a former Georgia governor, delivered this news from a Virginia school cafeteria, he applied a states’ rights argument, honed in the South, to American food-system policy.

“A perfect example” of why there should be local control, Mr. Perdue claimed, lies “in the South, where the schools want to serve grits. But the whole-grain variety has little black flakes in it, and the kids won’t eat it. The school is compliant with the whole-grain requirements, but no one is eating the grits. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Continue reading the main story

The South is more than a locus for food-system problems and a battleground for policy arguments. Throughout its history, the region has incubated bold American solutions to hunger and food access. Radical Southerners, especially black women, who long provided the expertise and labor on farms and in kitchens, have challenged American agricultural practices and driven our changing relationship to food.

Fannie Lou Hamer, a woman of great emotional and intellectual ferocity, made her name as a voting rights activist. In June 1963 in a jail in Winona, Miss., a highway patrol officer ordered two of her fellow prisoners to beat her with blackjacks before joining in himself and nearly blinding her. Mrs. Hamer rose to national prominence as the leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which attempted to unseat the segregationist Mississippi delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

After recounting that beating in testimony before the credentials committee, she declared: “If the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?”

In the late 1960s, as the civil rights movement shifted to address economic injustice, Ms. Hamer conceived agricultural solutions to the plight of her fellow Americans, including a communal farm and livestock share program in Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta. That work set the stage for the progressive agricultural policies and practices of today, with their focus on food sovereignty and their reliance on community farms.

Near the end of his life, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. cautioned that not all of America flowed with the “milk of prosperity and the honey of equality.” He focused his energies on the “total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.” To do that, Dr. King conceived the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, in which poor Americans, many from the South, agitated for jobs and justice.

Mrs. Hamer worked a more pragmatic tack. She argued that black Southerners would achieve full citizenship only when they controlled their own diet and in particular where their food came from. Raising your own crops was key. Mrs. Hamer said that food “allows the sick one a chance for healing, the silent ones a chance to speak, the unlearned ones a chance to learn, and the dying ones a chance to live.”

From a region where slavery and sharecropping had made mono-crop agriculture possible — and a state where Senator James Eastland once said that the best fertilizer was the plantation owner’s foot — Mrs. Hamer argued that stewardship of the soil was man’s highest calling. With the help of the singer Harry Belafonte and a charitable group based in Madison, Wis., Measure for Measure, she founded Freedom Farm Corporation in 1969 on 40 to 60 acres of Delta land. The need was urgent, she told Northern supporters: “We must buy land immediately, or our people will die forgotten.”

Freedom Farm aimed to give farmers land to work and poor families food to eat. This bold promise threatened plantation agriculture and its scions. Conservative whites saw cooperative agriculture as a threat to their political and economic power. Across the region, white banks called in loans, white families fired cooks and night riders torched crosses.

Mrs. Hamer was unbowed. “If we have that land,” as she once put it, “can’t anybody starve us out.” By 1971, she had acquired 620 more acres of Delta farmland. She and her colleagues planted snap beans, squash, butter beans, peas and cucumbers. BY JOHN T EDGE.

FARMERS MARKET SHOPPING WITH THE CHEF COLICCHIO.

Before the celebrity chef Tom Colicchio set me straight, I didn’t know that ramps grow only in the wild. These garlicky leeks can’t be raised in captivity, but must be foraged in rich, moist forests.

“They’re impossible to actually just cultivate,” he said. “People have tried. This is one of those true wild products.”

And right now, in early spring, is the only time to get them. I would have walked right past them had I not been trailing Mr. Colicchio through Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Greenmarket near the United Nations in Manhattan.

I joined Mr. Colicchio, known for his restaurants, including Fowler & Wells, and the Bravo show “Top Chef,” for a lunchtime excursion earlier this week to scope out this season’s offerings with his trained eye — all captured on Facebook Live.

A stand for Lani’s farm from Burlington County, N.J., quite literally had a field of greens, including chrysanthemum greens (a staple of Chinese hot pots), komatsuna (Japanese mustard greens), and so-called Chinese broccoli (which had flat leaves that look more like smooth kale).

I sensed a theme. “It’s a season for greens, not just greens for a salad, but greens to cook,” he explained, pointing out a stack of wild dandelions. Mr. Colicchio would sauté them in butter or olive oil with garlic and then toss it all with pasta for a weeknight dinner.

As he kept an eye out, he seized on a container of broccoli rabe flowers, which have yellow petals that are not only edible but delicious. He nibbled as he went, beheading a kale flower while explaining that they taste sweeter than their namesake.

Later, he found one of his favorites: fresh chamomile. “Typically, you think chamomile, and you think tea,” he said. “This is kind of sweet, not really sweet like sugar, but really floral.”

They look like miniature daisies. After he’s braised a fish, Mr. Colicchio said he likes to break up chamomile flowers over it, yellow centers, white petals and all. “You get this beautiful floral flavor,” he said. Or alternatively, put them in vinaigrette.

“You’ll only find this stuff at a farmer’s market,” he said.

There are certain things Mr. Colicchio can’t get enough of: Beets, Swiss chard and mushrooms. “They all taste like one thing,” he said, a smile crossing his face. “They taste like dirt. They taste really earthy.” It reminds him of making mudpies as a kid and sneaking a little taste. “It just kind of sticks with you,” he said. “For me, I love those earthy flavors.”

He also had strategic advice for home cooks who want to get the most out a farmer’s market. First, do a walk-through to see what’s on offer to avoid getting overloaded. Mr. Colicchio, who has campaigned against food waste in recent years, is a firm believer in buying to cook for that night’s dinner, instead of purchasing a couple days’ worth of produce.

For those lucky enough to live in areas with several regular markets, that’s an option. “Put it into your routine, on the way home from work, hit the farmer’s market and get what you need for the night and then you don’t have to worry about storage.”

And on the weekend, bring the kids. “Bring them to a farmer’s market with you and show them what a ramp is — then it almost becomes their idea.”

It’s something my parents neglected to do (Are you reading this, Mom?), but it’s not too late for the generation coming up.

“I have a 6-year-old and a 7-year-old,” Mr. Colicchio said, explaining that the youngest “will not eat unless it’s his idea.” But he said, “If I bring him shopping and he chooses everything, then he’ll eat it.” BY CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS

MICHIGAN FARMERS HAVE A LONG WISH LIST FOR 2018 FARM BILL.

The leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee came to central Michigan Saturday for a listening session on what different segments of the farm community are looking for in the 2018 farm bill.
And the lawmakers – Committee Chair Pat Roberts and the panel’s top Democrat, Debbie Stabenow, on a trip to her home state of Michigan – heard plenty.

In all, 16 witnesses testified, calling for support for everything from crop insurance, conservation, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to more funding for research and for programs to advance organic and urban farming and to help veterans. Many of the witnesses described a web of red tape that was strangling their operations and said a regulatory rollback was needed.

Roberts, who hosted a similar listening session in his home state of Kansas in February, opened the hearing by recognizing that these are tough times for agriculture, yet with the national debt exceeding $19 trillion, he said the sector must realize it has to “do more with less.”

“We must be judicious with the scarce resources we have, “Roberts said. “We must ensure programs accomplish their fundamental purposes. We must ask tough questions and reexamine programs to determine their effectiveness.”

Stabenow, in her opening statement, argued that the 2014 farm bill is expected to end up saving the government $80 billion more than had been expected.

“We know that the farm bill has done more than its fair share to reduce the deficit,” she told a crowd of about 150 farmers and ag leaders who filled a Michigan State University Extension center outside the town of Frankenmuth. “Any further cuts would be detrimental to farmers and families.”

The day’s first witness, Janna Fritz, a farmer from Bad Axe, Michigan, spoke for the Michigan Corn Growers Association. She stressed that with the multiyear decline in farm income, a strong farm safety net along with a robust crop insurance program was critical to growers. She also said the Agriculture Risk Coverage-County (ARC) program was working well and its continuation is a “high priority” for her members, along with a strong Renewable Fuel Program, which turns billions of bushels of corn each year into ethanol.

Representing the American Soybean Association, David Williams, from W Farms in Elsie, Michigan, made a case for more support for biobased products in the farm bill. He surprised Roberts and many in the room by pointing out that “every fourth car made in North America now contains soy in its seat cushions.”

Several witnesses, including Chris Alpers, a tree-fruit grower from Lake Leelanau, Michigan, said one of the biggest problems facing agriculture is a shortage of workers to harvest crops.

“Labor is the number-one issue on farms,” Alpers said, adding that he has “personally witnessed crops wasting away on trees” because of delays in the H-2A visa program.

Alpers also provided the hearing with some humor, describing a USDA regulation that he said required farmers to document the wildlife that crossed their fields.
“Utterly ridiculous,” Roberts exclaimed.

Andy Snider, who runs a turkey farm in Hart, Michigan, was representing the Michigan Turkey Producers Co-op. He called for another look at a new rule that mandates organically raised poultry be provided with outdoor “porches” to move around in. He said this could put many producers out of business.

Roberts said he would be “delighted” to ask Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to delay the implementation of the rule. He concluded the hearing by promising to share the testimony from today’s hearing with the other members of his committee. He predicted that getting a farm bill done will be a “difficult task.” But he added, “I have no doubt we can do it – and in a timely manner.”
In a press conference following the hearing, Roberts also promised that during the farm bill negotiations he would protect crop insurance, which in the past has been the target of budget hawks.
“We are not going to see dramatic cuts in crop insurance,” Roberts said. “We’re just not.” BY AGRI-PULSE COMMUNICATIONS.

4 FRONT-BURNER ANIMAL AG ISSUES

The Animal Agriculture Alliance met recently at its 2017 Summit to share trends, tips, and tactics for defending animal agriculture in the face of anti-agriculture activism.

The Alliance has members from all segments of animal agriculture, including the National Pork Board, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, the American Feed Industry Association, and many private companies.
Here are four interesting highlights from the meeting.

1. Chickens on the hot seat

Over the years, nearly every segment of animal agriculture has been at the forefront of anti-animal activist groups such as the Humane Society of the U.S., Animal Equality, and The Humane League. First it was the veal industry, then sow crates, then caged laying hens. Now, the spotlight is on the chicken broiler industry.

The three things they most commonly demand of the industry are more space per chicken in grower houses, more and better natural light from windows, and slower-growing chickens.

Yes, you read that right: slower-growing chickens. The theory behind this is that the fastest-growing chickens outgrow their ability to support that weight with their bone structure and cardiovascular system, resulting in broken leg bones and high mortality. The animal activists would have the industry move to breeding lines that actually grow slower – 55 or 60 grams of gain per chicken per day rather than 65 or 70 grams.

The problem with this, says Ken Opengart of chicken processor Keystone Foods, is that slower-growing chickens require more days to market, have poorer feed conversion, yield less meat, require more acres for feed, more water per bird, produce more manure, and it takes more total birds to meet demand.

“If we go to slower-growing breeds of chickens, we’ll decrease feed conversion by 25% to 30%, and drive up the cost of chicken at all markets,” says Opengart. This actually has happened in some countries in Europe, he says, and the cost of chicken has gone up by as much as 30%, which impacts food availability.

Plus, he adds, scientific breeding programs are already making stronger-boned chickens – the survival rate in grower houses is about 99.7%.

Opengart wonders if the next animal industry to face the ire of food activists might be the dairy industry. It has some parallels to chickens: very high-producing cows that are constantly being pushed to give more. “The fact is, if you produce food, you’re a potential target of the activists,” he says.

2. An Animal-based diet is good for you!

Yes, you heard that right, too. Nina Teicholz, an investigative reporter, wrote a book in 2014 called The Big Fat Surprise. She poured through decades of research going back to the 1950s looking at the connection between diet and illness like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Her bottom line is that many of the experts, and our own government’s dietary guidelines, got it wrong: Saturated fats such as those in meat and dairy are not the culprit.

Teicholz, who admits she has many detractors in both the health and nutrition fields, says the science backs her up. “The low-fat diet doesn’t work,” she says after recounting a study of 65,000 people that went unreported for 16 years, and even then was not widely disseminated. It said a low-fat diet did not reduce obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or cancer.

There are surprising benefits of more saturated fats from animal-based foods, she continues. They are stable fats that do not oxidize when heated; they are natural and come from whole foods; and they tend to make you feel full so you don’t overeat. “Plus, they raise your good cholesterol. Eating cholesterol in meat and dairy does not worsen your cholesterol. Your body produces cholesterol. If you eat more, your body produces less, and vice versa.”

So what does cause obesity and heart disease and other related illnesses? Teicholz points to carbohydrate-based foods that come primarily from plants. In the 1980s dietary guidelines began pushing more fruits and vegetables and less fat and meat, and that is exactly when obesity began to take off. “Bringing carbohydrates down is the best way to prevent obesity,” she counters.

“The dietary guidelines are out of step with science. You can eat these foods [meat and dairy] without guilt, and they’re delicious foods. I feel so badly for livestock farmers who have been made to somehow feel guilt and shame for what they do. That shouldn’t be. These foods are good and wholesome.”

3. Avoid the trolls

Amber Pankonin, a registered dietician who is also a communications instructor at the University of Nebraska, says it’s easy for farmers and others in the food industry to be lured into a trap when you engage food activists. This is especially true in online social media, such as Facebook. She says some of those people are internet trolls who are looking for a fight. “Don’t feed them,” she says. “And remember, anything you post online can be easily taken out of context.”

She encourages farmers to get out of their bubble of only talking to other farmers, and find places to engage, educate, and enlighten nonfarm people about farm facts. “There’s a moveable middle 80% of people who will be responsive to your message, and they are the ones to engage. There’s a certain small percentage that just isn’t interested. Don’t waste your time there.”

When you do engage consumers, Pankonin says you should follow a four-step process: Listen for an opportunity; find a shared value; ask permission to share; then share your story and the science behind it.

She gives an example: “A consumer says they’ve heard about all the hormones they give to chickens. You start by telling them that you care about your kids, too. Then, you tell them you’re a farmer and ask if you can tell them about your farm and your experience. Then you can also share the science of farming, and that chickens don’t get any hormones.

“And smile!” she adds. “Being likeable can go a long ways in such a discussion.”

4. The Humane business on your side

Jack Hubbard works for American Humane Association (not to be confused with HSUS). It is an old organization that has three programs: A rescue program for abused pets; a U.S. military program for service dogs to veterans; and a verification program for farms that need certification that animals are treated in a caring and humane way.

“We’re growing in this last program and now certify about 1 billion animals every year,” Hubbard says. “Certification from American Humane says to retailers and consumers that this farm is doing things in a humane way.”

Their certification is science-based, he adds, and led by a veterinarian. “Farms look at us as insurance, or risk management,” he says. “There are other certifiers, but some of them are led and funded by vegans. We think we are your best partner because we have no agenda, and we don’t want to put you out of business. We don’t believe big is bad. We have to feed the world, and we don’t think we will do that by raising chickens in our backyards.”

The AHA program says that farm animals have a right to be healthy, comfortable, well-nourished, safe, able to express normal behavior, and free from pain and distress. BY GENE JOHNSTON

Saturday, 6 May 2017

ALL EYES ON U.S PLANTING PACE

Corn bounced off of the chart support area Friday helped out by early bean strength and noon weather maps, which were not quite as clear as seen yesterday. Morning weather maps did not offer a large amount of rain, but the noon run did add some rains for Missouri, Kansas, and parts of Nebraska again. Trade will once again react much more to the Monday map updates than to anything seen today. While there seemed to be limited concern this week about the planting pace we could see support on Monday as trade gets a bit more concerned right before seeing the actual number Monday afternoon.

Let's remember that this week was supposed to be one of the two most active planting weeks for spring. To keep pace with the 5-year average we would need to see 18% more of the corn planted on Monday. While trade may not seem very concerned about meeting that pace on a Friday, we could see a change of opinion to start next week.

By the end of the day July picked a very middle of the road price, which seems fitting given that trade is likely just not sure what to expect from planting pace this week. Short-term let's expect trade to react to Monday's weather maps as well as pre-trade what they will expect for planting pace. We also can expect some pre-trading of Wednesday's Supply/Demand report. Analysts are not expecting a shocking report but given that it will offer the first new crop estimates there could be a reaction if that number is off from the expected 2.120 number.

Bulls

There is reason to be concerned about this week's planting pace number on Monday given that meeting the 18% normal pace could be difficult.
Bulls can continue to expect support in the mid 360's unless Wednesday's report offers a shocking large carryout number.
There is a possibility that USDA could raise their ethanol demand number on Wednesday given the continued strong weekly reports.

Bears

Bears will be looking for a highly productive weekend of planting in order to keep planting pace at the 5-year average.
Wednesday's new crop carryout number has the ability to truly surprise trade, bears will obviously be looking for a high starting yield number.
Bears should look to sell any bounce into the 370's again looking for the active resistance to be seen at the same levels again.

Rich Nelson | Allendale Inc. | 815-578-6161
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WHEAT, CORN FUTURES CLOSE HIGHER ON INCLEMENT U.S WEATHER.

Wheat futures closed higher on Friday amid concerns about the health of the hard-red winter wheat crop.

As much as 2 feet of snow fell in parts of Kansas last weekend, burying fields and causing lodging or frost damage in many western counties. The Kansas Wheat Tour, which recently wrapped, pegged yields at about 46 bushels an acre, but participants said they expect the final count will be closer to 40 bushels an acre due to the adverse weather.

The snow was extremely wet and heavy, which may have caused plant stems to bend or snap, said Dave Green, the executive vice president of the Wheat Quality Council, the organization that hosted the event.

Corn futures finished higher as a wide swath of land stretching from Oklahoma to Ohio is under flood and flash-flood watches or warnings, and more rain is expected in some parts of Indiana on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

"The weather continues to be a concern for the trade especially with a weekend coming up," said Tomm Pfitzenmaier, the president of Summit Commodity Brokerage in Des Moines. "The fear is that if there is any change in the forecast it won’t take much rain to chase farmers right back out of the fields. With the risk of summer weather still being an unknown, it seems unlikely that the trade will want to press the short side too hard for a while."

Wheat futures for July delivery rose 5 cents to $4.42 3/4 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Kansas City wheat added 5 3/4 cents to $4.50 1/4 a bushel.
Corn futures gained a nickel to $3.71 1/2 a bushel in Chicago.

Soybean futures for July delivery finished down 1/2 cent to $9.73 3/4 a bushel. Soymeal lost $1.50 to $317.10 a short ton, and soy oil added 0.47 cent to 32.97 cents a pound. BY SUCCESSFUL FARMING STAFF.

''WE'RE NOT MESSING WITH THE RFS''USDA PERDUE TELLS IOWA FARMERS.

NEVADA, Iowa — Iowa farmers got their chance to hear first-hand from USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue about his intent to preserve the U.S. ethanol industry and promote trade.
In an appearance at a cattle farm today in Iowa, Secretary Perdue told a crowd of farmers, lawmakers, and members of the agricultural industry, that the Trump Administration will not mess with the Renewable Fuels Administration.

Aside from visiting the state to hunt and take part in the outdoors, the Georgia-native made his first visit to Iowa, following an order from his new boss.

“President Trump wanted me out here to let you all know that he understands American agriculture and that it is vital to the U.S. economy. And he understands that Iowa is vital to U.S. agriculture,” Perdue says.

Perdue adds, “As farmers, we need to be better communicators, but farmers are definitely part of our national security.”

The new USDA leader stressed that no longer can farmers just be good producers; they have to tell the nation that the food is safe and their animals are treated well.
“We’re going to make sound science, fact-based, data-driven decisions. Because that is what works in agriculture,” says Perdue. "At the same time, we should be unapologetic in agriculture.”

Ethanol

Iowa farmers were waiting to hear what the Trump Administration is going to do with the ethanol industry and the renewable fuels standard. Secretary Perdue wasted no time putting the farmers' minds at ease.

“I work for a guy named Donald J. Trump. Did you hear what he said during the (Presidential) campaign. He said that renewable energy and ethanol is here to stay. And we’re going to look for more technology to make it more efficiently. Many people think there is still a subsidy involved today. This is a mature industry and continues to grow and thrive. I look forward to giving the President new ideas from the renewable fuel standards and other things that can help the industry do better,” Perdue says.

Trade

When addressing the topic of trade, Perdue reminded Iowa farmers that the state’s efforts to reach out to China in 1984 are still paying off in 2017.
“Hosting China’s delegation back then made a great impression on the now leader of the second largest economy in the world. It’s relationship building like this that makes it easier for us to go tell people around the world about U.S. products.”
The Chinese want Iowa beef and the U.S. is going to sell it to them, Secretary Perdue pledged.
"He (President Trump) instructed me to send him a letter about getting beef into China and Japan. He will put a personal note on these letters and get them to the leaders of those countries. He has my back,” Perdue says.
“We have built trust and we’re going to convince people around the world about the quality of our beef. So, you grow it (beef) and we’ll sell it,” Perdue adds.

Conservation Red Tape

Iowa farmers also asked Secretary Perdue if he plans to make it easier for farmers to participate in conservation programs.
“I’m on it,” Perdue says. "When you go in to meet with the Farm Service Agency office, NRCS office, crop insurance folks, we shouldn’t put you under an interrogation at every point. It ought to be a stop-shop so you can go home and put that seed in the ground."

Solving NAFTA

When asked how long it will take to settle the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) disputes with Mexico and Canada, Secretary Perdue reiterated that President Trump has a plan and that he’s working it.
“Like President Trump said last week, we are going to give these countries involved in NAFTA time to figure out a way to make this trade agreement more fair and balanced for all countries involved,” says Perdue.

Perdue’s Priorities

Between NAFTA, expected USDA budget cuts, the construction of a new farm bill, and naming new subcabinet members, Secretary Perdue told reporters that he is focused on the building blocks of a better USDA.
“We want facts-based, data-driven, customer-focused, ethics, transparency, and integrity in this agency. I’m focused on making the USDA the best managed and most effective agency for the American taxpayer in all of the United States government,” Perdue says. BY MIKE MCGINNIS.

SYMBIOTIC BACTERIA: FROM HITCHHIKER TO BEETLE BODYGUARD.

An international team of researchers have discovered a remarkable microbe with a Jekyll and Hyde character. The bacterium Burkholderia gladioli lives in specific organs of a plant-feeding beetle and defends the insect's eggs from detrimental fungi by producing antibiotics. However, when transferred to a plant, the bacterium can spread throughout the tissues and negatively affect the plant.

Microbes are not always hostile players when interacting with animals and plants, they can also be powerful allies. In fact, transitions between antagonistic and cooperative lifestyles in microbes are likely not an exception, although such shifts have rarely been observed directly. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology -- Hans Knöll Institute (HKI) -- in Jena, and the Universidad Estadual Paulista in Rio Claro, Brazil, gathered evidence for such a transition.

Beetles outsource offspring protection to a bacterium
Like many other insects, a group of herbivorous beetles, the Lagriinae, is in great need of an efficient defense. They lay their eggs on humid soil under leaf litter, where encounters with mold fungi are guaranteed. Researchers lead by Professor Martin Kaltenpoth from Mainz University have now discovered that the presence of a special bacterium, Burkholderia gladioli, on the eggs of the beetle Lagria villosa strongly reduces the risk of fungal infection and helps them survive. "Even when we applied mold fungi to the beetle's eggs, those with their symbiotic microbe present remained clean, whereas those without were often overgrown by a lawn of fungi," said first author Dr. Laura Flórez, who performed the experiments for her PhD project at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, describing one of the key findings. Although some other insects also rely on microbes for protection against natural enemies, a microbial defense of the vulnerable egg stage was unknown.

Newly discovered antibiotic agent resembles a plant defense compound
How is the protection of the nutrient-rich beetle eggs achieved? Chemical analyses revealed four different antibiotics produced by the beetle's microbial bodyguards. While two of these were already known, the other two molecules had not been described before. "We were particularly surprised to find a new chemical that looks much more like a plant defense compound than a bacterial antibiotic," said Professor Christian Hertweck from the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology, who guided the chemical analyses. All four compounds inhibited the growth of other microbes; some were active against fungi, others against bacteria. This chemical armory likely shields the beetle's eggs from a broad spectrum of detrimental microbes.

The insect's friend, the plant's foe
Surprisingly, the beetle's allies are very closely related to plant pathogens. And indeed, when the scientists applied the bacteria to soybean plants, a common food source of L. villosa beetles in nature, the microbes spread throughout the plants. There they had a negative impact as the infection resulted in the production of fewer beans as compared to control plants. But do the bacteria actually have a chance to leave the beetle and infect the plant in nature? An additional experiment demonstrated that they do. After beetles were confined to soybean leaves for three days, the bacteria genetic material could be detected in the leaves. That this is likely relevant in nature is shown by an analysis of five related beetle species: all contained Burkholderia gladioli strains, but these were more closely related to other environmental or plant-associated Burkholderia gladioli strains than to each other. Thus, the bacteria likely hitch a ride on the beetles to jump from plant to plant.

Insect symbiosis as a treasure trove of antibiotics
There are many described cases of insects that carry microorganisms between plants. "What is interesting in the Lagria beetles is that their bacterial hitchhikers have turned into chemically-armed bodyguards," explained Professor Martin Kaltenpoth. In addition, the ability of this bacterium to produce previously unknown bioactive compounds highlights partnerships between insects and microbes as promising sources of novel antibiotics that may help to fight increasingly resistant human pathogens. SOURCE: UNIVERSITY OF MAINZ.

WEATHER EXTREMES AND TRADE POLICIES WERE MAIN DRIVERS OF WHEAT PRICE PEAKS.

Price peaks of wheat on the world market are mainly caused by production shocks such as induced for example by droughts, researchers found. These shocks get exacerbated by low storage levels as well as protective trade policies, the analysis of global data deriving from the US Department of Agriculture shows. In contrast to widespread assumptions, neither speculation across stock or commodity markets nor land-use for biofuel production were decisive for annual wheat price changes in the past four decades. This finding allows for better risk assessment. Soaring global crop prices in some years can contribute to local food crises, and climate change from burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases is increasing weather variability.

"Food security to a large extent is a matter of prices, hence our interest in understanding what drives variations from one year to another," says lead-author Jacob Schewe from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

When global wheat prices, along with those of other staple crops, skyrocketed in 2007/08 and again in 2010/11, poor people in many developing countries suffered from that -- these temporary price rises have even been linked to food riots in several countries. "These recent peaks, as others, have been preceded by severe droughts that reduced crop production. Now we can show that such weather-induced shocks have the potential to induce strong price increases," says Schewe "Moreover, they can trigger protective trade policy responses, including hoarding or export bans, which further exacerbate the global effects of production shortfalls even though they may seem rational from a country's point of view. This happened during the recent price peaks."

Commodity speculation turns out to be just a minor factor for annual prices
"While cross-market speculation might further exacerbate the problem on monthly or shorter time-scales, the data indicate that in the end it was a minor factor for annual prices," adds co-author Christian Otto. This is despite the fact that the sudden price increase in 2007/08 coincides with speculation by index funds driven out of the collapsing US housing and stock markets.

The researchers developed and applied a rather simple computer simulation of wheat markets. By comparing the results to observation data from past years, the scientists checked that the computer simulations fit reality. Importantly, the factor of supply and demand from storage -- also based on existing data from markets -- is integrated in these calculations. The simulation model could be applied for assessments of future wheat price fluctuations under climate and land use changes.

"This informs us what can be done to limit food price peaks in the future"
"The good news: Our study helps to understand what can be done if we want to limit food price peaks in the future," says Katja Frieler, co-author of the study and vice-chair of PIK's research domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities. "First, besides improving productivity experts can seek to carefully adjust trade policies as well as storage capacities. Second, stabilizing the climate by reducing greenhouse gas emissions is key if we want to limit the risks of weather extremes across the globe."BY POTSDAM INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH.

Friday, 5 May 2017

FRUIT MAY HAVE BENEFITS FOR DIABETES.

A large study has found that eating fresh fruit may reduce the risk for developing diabetes, and the risk for its complications.

Fresh fruit has well-known health benefits. But some experts, and some people with diabetes, question whether its high sugar content could pose risks.

The study, in PLoS Medicine, tracked diet and health in 512,891 Chinese men and women ages 30 to 79 for an average of seven years, controlling for smoking, alcohol intake, blood pressure and other factors.

Among those without diabetes at the start, eating fresh fruit daily was associated with a 12 percent lower risk of developing the disease compared with those who ate none. The more frequently they ate fruit, the lower their risk.

In people who were already diabetic, those who ate fruit three times a week had a 17 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality, and a lower risk for diabetic complications like heart and kidney disease, than those who didn’t eat fruit.

The study was observational and the reason for the effect remains unclear. But the lead author, Dr. Huaidong Du, a research fellow at the University of Oxford, said “the sugar in fruit is not the same as the sugar in manufactured foods and may be metabolized differently. And there are other nutrients in fruit that may benefit in other ways.” BY NICHOLAS BAKALA.