EU agricultural leaders have discussed the future of organic farming, and how to solve problems in the industry. At an informal meeting of the Council of Ministers for Agriculture held on 1-2 June in Riga, the Latvian side, representing the Presidency of the EU Council, initiated the discussions on the situation regarding organic agriculture and its development in the European Union. The area of European land involved in organic farming has more than doubled since 2002, representing some six per cent of agricultural land in the region, which is six times the world average. The topic of the informal meeting was Sustainability, growth and consumers’ needs. Read more...
Ahead of the World Pork Expo, ThePigSite asked the President of the US National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), Dr Ron Prestage, for his views on the current state of the US pork sector. ThePigSite: Dr Prestage: What do you see as the main challenges facing the US sector right now? Dr Prestage: "NPPC’s top issues are trade, specifically, getting Trade Promotion Authority approved in Congress and finalizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations; the 2015 dietary guidelines, which recommend what Americans should eat; an Environmental Protection Agency proposed rule on water that could have a significant negative impact on farmers; and the Country. Read more...
Major food commodity prices declined again in May, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), hitting an almost six-year low as cereal prices fell substantially. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 166.8 points in May, down 1.4 per cent from April and as much as 20.7 per cent from a year earlier. There is a favourable outlook for this year's harvests, as the FAO has upgraded its May 2015 forecast for global production of wheat, coarse grains and rice. The Organisation anticipates bigger maize harvests in China and Mexico as well as more abundant wheat harvests in Africa and North America. The Organisation's latest Cereal Supply and. Read more...
Dr. Howard Hill, past president of the National Pork Producers Council, provides a US industry update on Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv), reports Sarah Mikesell live from the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. US producers have seen a bit of a reprieve from PEDv and aren't seeing the significant losses like the industry experienced in 2014. "We do have outbreaks this year, but most of the outbreaks have occurred in finishers rather than sow farms like they were last year," said Dr. Hill. "Most of those are occurring after the first cut - after we take the first pigs to market - and we believe that the trucks are being contaminated. Read more...
Steve Meyer, vice president of pork analysis with Express Markets Inc. Analytics, shared an outlook for the US pork industry on the opening day of World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Meyer first addressed the weakening of prices, noting that West Coast port issues were the "first domino that fell" which backed product up and put domestic buyers of pork in an advantageous position. "As prices began to fall at the wholesale level and the producer level there was a very strong incentive to speed up marketings - if you know they are going to be worth less next week then you want to ship them this week. So that pushed hog numbers higher during the first. Read more...
During the first three months of 2015, Russia imported less than half as much pork as in the same period last year. This was largely attributed to the ban on imports from the EU, Canada and the US, among others. Volumes were less than 30 per cent of their level in the first quarter of 2013, before the initial ban on EU pork was imposed. Brazil was the major supplier, accounting for over three-quarters of the total, but even it shipped 22 per cent less pork to Russia. Ukraine and Chile were the only other countries supplying over 1,000 tonnes; last year 12 countries provided at least this amount and the year before the number was 14. Despite further. Read more...
World Pork Expo opens its gates on Wednesday to an expected 20,000 attendees during the three day show from more than 20 countries. On the eve of the show, ThePigSite spoke to Dr. Howard Hill, past president of the National pork Producers Council and current chair of the trade committee, about global trade issues that the pork industry is facing. Dr. Hill offers an explanation of the current status of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Trade Promotion Authority and Country of Origin Labeling. Watch the interview here. Dr. Hill also said producers attending the World Pork Expo will have the opportunity to learn more about pork trade issues at the. Read more...
China is America’s biggest customer for agricultural products, with almost a fifth of imported goods coming from the US.Today, this is worth $25 billion in annual sales. This was not always the case, however, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS), which has seen growth in Chinese buying develop from around 2-3 per cent in the mid-1990s. Economic reforms, urbanisation and a rapidly developing livestock sector have played a part in a major shift in Chinese demands over the last 20 years. This began to take hold relatively recently, when US agricultural exports to China doubled between 2008 and 2012. China. Read more...
Avian influenza has been ravaging the US poultry industry, but what are poultry researchers doing to decrease the impact of the disease in future? The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Southeast Poultry Research Lab (SEPRL) is working to evaluate and develop avian influenza vaccines. As part of the SEPRL mission, the lab routinely evaluates existing vaccines against new and emerging avian influenza viruses as well as developing vaccine seed strains that offer the best protection for poultry against avian influenza. There are many steps that need to be taken when SEPRL scientists evaluate or develop an avian influenza vaccine, and because the next steps are. Read more...
Armenia has banned the import of poultry products from a number of US states over bird flu concerns, the press service of the Armenian Agriculture Ministry’s service on food safety has said. The country imposed the ban on import of all kinds of poultry products, including raw materials from 17 US states, reportedSputnik International. The ban list includes Arkansas, California, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Since December 2014, commercial poultry farms in multiple US states have been hit by avian influenza, affecting over 40 million birds. The virus. Read more...
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