September 2011

Gillibrand says farm labor a national security issue
By Tom Rivers, Thedailynewsonline.com (NY), September 1, 2011
Gillibrand backs legislation that would allow guest workers for agriculture. They would be preapproved by the Department of Labor. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, lacks Republican support. “We need a Republican who will sponsor this legislation, who will put their name on it, and who will go  to their caucus and say, ‘Our farms will die, our economy will be disrupted, our perishable, wholesome food will be destroyed,’” Gillibrand said. Read more...

9.) Rural broadband is essential to economic development
Obama Administration Is Sending Mixed Signals on Rural Economic Development
By Shirley Bloomfield, Huffingtonpost.com, August 20, 2011
On one hand our country has the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), which has been playing a critical role in rural economic development by providing loans to help build and maintain rural utilities, such as electric, telephone, water and waste. Most recently, and perhaps most importantly, RUS has begun providing loans specifically for broadband deployment to small rural broadband companies who are often the only source of telecommunications services in their area.

On the other hand, a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced earlier this year threatens to bring higher rates and declining levels of telecom service to much of rural America. This would be devastating to many rural communities who rely on these companies. If the FCC is successful in changing the rules as they propose for how these small providers are compensated, there would be significant consequences. At a minimum, prices could quickly double or triple. At a time when families are struggling to make ends meet, the size of this increase would make broadband unaffordable. Read more...

Learn more at SaveRuralBroadband.org

10.) Study shows rootworms build resistance to Monsanto GE corn
From RFDtv.com, August 19, 2011
A recent published paper, by Iowa State University entomologist Aaron Gassmann, has documented the first field-evolved western corn rootworm resistance to the Monsanto single protein trait event (Cry3Bb1). And that announcement came as no real surprise to Corn Belt insect experts. The back-story to this Gassmann paper begins in 2009 when his entomology team traveled the back roads of northeast Iowa. They prowled several fields at farmer requests to examine plants and collect rootworms to test in the lab. They confirmed abnormally heavy feeding by western corn rootworms, which, in each case, proved their ability to eat roots supposedly protected by the Cry3Bb1 trait. Read more...

11.) Making plastic from non-edible parts of beef carcasses
Creating plastic from beef
By Bev Betkowski, University of Alberta Research, August 12, 2011
Using the throwaway parts of beef carcasses that were sidelined from the value-added production process after bovine spongiform encephalopathy devastated the industry in 2003, Bressler, an associate professor in the U of A’s Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science has collaborated with industry, government and other researchers to forge cattle proteins into heavy-duty plastics that could soon be used in everything from car parts to CD cases. Read more...

12.) FoodWorks agenda to improve New York City food system
August 17, 2011, Mayor Bloomberg signed legislation encouraging production and procurement of locally grown food and the reduction of wasteful packaging. The bills signed into law are as follows:

— A local law to require an annual report on food system metrics. These include items such as the state and country of origin for certain food products purchased by the city Dept. of Education, location and size of community gardens, truck and rail trips through the Hunts Point wholesale food market, amount spent by the city on bottled water, among other things.  Read more...

— A local law to require certain city agencies to establish guidelines for procuring New York State food and to track all of their food purchases. Read more...

— A local law to encourage greenhouse development in the city by excluding them from consideration in building height restrictions. Read more... 

— A local law to encourage reduction of packaging on items procured by the city, including food packaging. The law requires the city to post preferred packaging guidelines and highlights the vendors who do well to follow these guidelines. Read more...

— A local law to require the city to create a searchable database of all city-owned and leased property and its features, including whether it is suitable for urban agriculture.  This database could be used by aspiring community gardeners, urban farmers, food processors, and others to find suitable, available space or by others to conduct analyses of the utilization of city-owned and leased property. 


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