We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.Agriculture in the national news - September 8
A DAILY look at how agriculture has hit the headlines across the country (Wednesday, September 8).
UN slams grain export curbs, as Ukraine ships wait
The United Nations condemned grain export bans, even as Ukraine was said to be holding up vessels carrying a months’ worth of shipments, while Russia, which has imposed curbs, said it had enough grain to feed itself.
Hafez Ghanem, an assistant director-general at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, declined to criticise Russia directly for the export curbs imposed in August, following a drought in what was the world’s third-ranked wheat shipper in 2009-10.
Agrimoney
http://www.agrimoney.com/news/un-slams-grain-export-curbs-as-ukraine-ships-wait—2201.html
Wheat prices push food costs to 13-month high
Food inflation rose to the highest level in more than a year in August as the effects of sharp price rises in some global commodities including wheat and sugar filtered through.
The latest British Retail Consortium/Nielsen shop price index showed a rise in annual food inflation to 3.8pc last month, from 2.5pc in July, which was the highest level since July 2009.
Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7987784/Wheat-prices-push-food-costs-to-13-month-high.html
Horse imported to Northumberland has rare swamp fever
A horse imported into Northumberland from the Netherlands has tested positive for swamp fever - only the second case in the UK in 30 years.
The horse is to be destroyed, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced.
BBC Online
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-11221548
Man killed in Herefordshire tractor crash named
A man who died in a collision between two cars and a tractor has been named.
Jack Slater Mackenzie, 18, of Herefordshire, died at the scene of the accident, on the B4348, near Kingstone on Friday evening.
BBC Online
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-11219245
Let’s counter the damage of subsidies
Sir, Global food security in the coming decades will require us to get more food from less water, soil, air, and chemical inputs. As the FT observed (“The importance of global food security”, Editorial, September 6), this will require investment.
The financial crisis has squeezed aid budgets in wealthy nations. It has not managed to squeeze lavish farm subsidies. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found that rich governments increased payments to agricultural producers in 2009.
Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0f2a6420-bad8-11df-9e1d-00144feab49a.html
Food price laws
The European Commission has been urged to do more to protect farmers from the effects of unfair competition and abuses by supermarket chains.
Opening a debate on 6 September, French green MEP José Bové, a farmer, called on new laws to regulate the food distribution and retail industry.
BBC Online
http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/europe/newsid_8973000/8973657.stm
Flood-hit Pakistan struggles to rebuild its food system from scratch
What happens when, over the course of a few short weeks, a country utterly loses the ability to feed itself?
The monsoons that began flooding Pakistan’s bread basket in late July – a geography roughly comparable to the spread from Paris to southern Italy – have caused the most colossal wipeout of a national food system in recent history.
The Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/flood-hit-pakistan-struggles-to-rebuild-its-food-system-from-scratch/article1699020/
Perry Wants to Buy a Farm
Katy Perry is eyeing retirement in the English countryside, insisting it’s the perfect place to raise a family with her British fiance Russell Brand.
The American pop star recently announced plans to obtain dual citizenship in the U.K. and she admits she’s already dreaming of buying a farm in England that she can share with the funnyman.
Female First
http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/musicnews/Katy+Perry-84576.html
