News
Canadian Cows Join Twitter
May 4, 2010 4:36 am | CommentsTORONTO (CP) — Twitter has been put out to pasture with the addition of 12 Ontario cows to the long list of people who are sharing their thoughts with the world. What does a cow have to say, you might ask? "I just squirted 20.4 kgs of milk out of my teats in 10:28 seconds. What did you do today?" offers Charge Gina, one of the bovine additions to the 140-character universe.
College To Hold Nobel Food Conference
May 3, 2010 5:14 am | CommentsST. PETER, Minn. (PRNewswire) — From Food and Health to Food Security to Public Policy; from Taste to Activism to Agriculture, the 46th Annual Nobel Conference will explore "Making Food Good," Oct. 5-6 on the Gustavus Adolphus College campus in St. Peter, an hour outside of Minneapolis. For more than four decades, Gustavus has organized and hosted the two-day Nobel Conference that links a general audience with the world's foremost scholars and researchers.
Farmers Being Pushed To Do More With Less
May 3, 2010 5:05 am | CommentsCRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. (AP) — Ken Bauman is a fourth-generation dairy farmer and his 13-year-old daughter, Renee, thinks she might be the fifth. Bauman's 10-year-old son, Randy, leans more toward crop production. Bauman Farms and the dairy arm, called Marwood-Ridge Registered Holsteins, milk about 60 cows, have a small beef operation and farm about 1,800 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat and hay.
Idaho Farmers Want More Research Money
May 3, 2010 5:04 am | CommentsNAMPA, Idaho (AP) — Idaho producers told members of the House Agriculture Committee during a hearing on the new federal farm bill that they need less government regulation and more money spent on agriculture research. The current $284 billion bill, approved in 2008, expires in September 2012, and members of the committee are holding a series of meetings around the country.
Oil Slick's Impcat On Louisiana Seafood Industry Unknown
May 3, 2010 5:01 am | CommentsNEW ORLEANS (AP) — As a giant oil slick lapped at southeastern Louisiana's ecologically sensitive coast, chefs, restaurant owners and seafood dealers were certain it would squeeze the state's $2.4 billion seafood industry. They just weren't sure how badly or for how long. Federal officials shut down fishing for at least 10 days from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle on Sunday because of the uncontrolled gusher spewing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
India's Food Prices Soar
May 3, 2010 4:59 am | CommentsMUMBAI, India (AP) — In India, even the gods are doing without. Food inflation that has been stuck in the double digits for a year has had a deep impact on school lunches, family meals and holy offerings. Anger with high prices erupted into protests this week that disrupted flights, trains and traffic.
Vermont House Moves To Ban BPA
May 3, 2010 4:58 am | CommentsMONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont House has approved legislation that would restrict the use in the state of bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastic water bottles and other food containers. The bill phases out BPA in reusable food and beverage containers and in jars and cans that contain baby food and infant formula.
Feds To Investigate Meatpackers
May 3, 2010 4:52 am | CommentsLINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The federal government is conducting its first investigation into whether the handful of large meatpackers that slaughter most of the nation's cattle are illegally or unfairly driving down cattle prices, according to an official representing independent beef producers nationwide.
Gulf Oil Spill Could Be Worse Than Exxon Valdez
April 30, 2010 5:22 am | CommentsMOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER (AP) — Migrating birds and those along the shoreline, nesting pelicans and even river otters and mink along Louisiana's fragile islands and barrier marshes are the first in the path of a massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill that was starting to ooze ashore. The leak from a blown-out well a mile underwater is five times bigger than first believed.
AriZona Beverage Co. May Face Boycott
April 30, 2010 5:14 am | CommentsGARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York-based beverage company finds itself in the middle of the controversy over an Arizona immigration law simply because it shares its name with the state. An initiative apparently started on the Internet asks people to boycott the AriZona Beverage Co. because of claims the law will unfairly target Hispanics.
California Exec Accused Of Tomato Price-Fixing
April 30, 2010 5:08 am | CommentsSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal authorities investigating an alleged tomato price-fixing plot involving some of the nation's biggest food chains broadened their case against the former owner of a California company Thursday with five more felony counts. The new charges, which add to seven counts pending from an earlier indictment, allege that Frederick Scott Salyer violated antitrust laws by fixing prices or rigging bids for the sale of tomato products to McCain Foods USA Inc.
Kansas Senate Likely Won't Consider Soda Tax
April 30, 2010 5:06 am | CommentsTOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — New proposals to raise taxes on Kansas businesses have surfaced, but a Senate committee wrestling with the state's budget problems doesn't appear likely to consider imposing a special tax on soda and sugary drinks. Members of the Ways and Means Committee already were mulling proposals to raise sales, tobacco, liquor and even individual income taxes for wealthy families.
Prosecutors Seek 25 Years In Slaughterhouse Case
April 30, 2010 5:03 am | CommentsCEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors asked a federal judge on Thursday to sentence a former kosher slaughterhouse executive to 25 years in prison, less than the life sentence they have said they were entitled to request. Former Agriprocessors Inc. manager Sholom Rubashkin, who was convicted of 86 counts of financial fraud in November, gave a tearful, halting speech at the end of his sentencing hearing in U.
Ireland's C&C Sells Whiskey Unit
April 30, 2010 5:02 am | CommentsDUBLIN (AP) — Irish drinks maker C&C has sold its whiskey and other liquor brands to the family-owned Scottish distillers William Grant & Sons in a euro300 million ($399.75 million) deal, the two companies announced Friday. The sale, to be concluded by June 30, would give William Grant a stable of niche Irish brands including Tullamore Dew whiskey, Irish cream liqueur Carolan's and herb-and-honey liqueur Irish Mist.
Supreme Court Reviews Biotech Alfalfa Ban
April 28, 2010 5:02 am | CommentsWASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday sharply questioned a lower court's decision that has prohibited biotech giant Monsanto Co. from selling genetically engineered alfalfa seeds, possibly paving the way for the company to distribute the seeds for the first time since 2007.
Wisconsin Milk Output Surges
April 28, 2010 5:01 am | CommentsMADISON, Wis. (AP) — Dairy farmers in Wisconsin and Minnesota continue to increase their milk output at rates that lead the nation. Milk production in Wisconsin rose to 2.24 billion pounds for March. That's a 6 percent increase over the volume it produced in March of last year. It was also the largest rate of increase in the U.
USDA Working With Crop Insurers
April 28, 2010 4:56 am | CommentsMINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The federal government wants to save taxpayers billions of dollars by reducing spending on crop insurance after years of big profits by insurers, but the industry claims the reductions could hurt rural areas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is negotiating a new deal with crop insurance companies, which posted profits of 26.
Chavez To Take Food Company's Land
April 28, 2010 4:54 am | CommentsCARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered a state takeover of property where Empresas Polar, the country's largest food producer, has warehouses and offices. A decree ordering the forced acquisition of the land was signed by Chavez on Tuesday, and is the final step before expropriating the property in the city of Barquisimeto.
Skyy Vodka Developers Buy Brewery
April 28, 2010 4:52 am | CommentsSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Anchor Brewing Co., the San Francisco beer company that helped spark the modern microbrewery movement, has been sold to two Bay Area entrepreneurs who are in the artisan beer and spirits business. Keith Greggor, 55, and Tony Foglio, 64, of the investment and consulting company The Griffin Group, announced their purchase Tuesday.
French Farmers Protest In Paris
April 28, 2010 4:46 am | CommentsPARIS (AP) — More than 1,000 tractors descended on the French capital Tuesday as farmers protested falling grain incomes and demanded government help — even appealing to the not-very-rural French first lady to intervene. "Carla, help us, we can't live on love and water," read a slogan printed on one of the vehicles, in a message for Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a former top model who went on to a singing career.
