Terry Etherton Blog on Biotechnology

Terry D. Etherton

The United Nations (UN) Food Summit (High-Level Conference on World Food Security), held in Rome in early June, 2008, was designed to address food security issues in the face of soaring food prices (see Figure below), and the growing challenges associated with rising energy costs, and how this has impacted food prices and food security.

The increase in food prices is astounding! For example, during the early part of 2008, nominal prices of all major food commodities reached their highest levels in the past 50 years. For the first time, the annual global food import bill will surpass $1trillion (FAO, Food Outlook, June 2008)! Read the rest of this entry »

Dave Natzke
Published in Midwest Dairy Business (April 2008)

More vertical integration, what many consider the “evil empire” afflicting segments of food production, is headed toward dairy. As in other industries, most vertical integration pressure will come from the top down, in an effort to squeeze as much money out of incremental margins as possible. But in an evolving business climate, I think more dairy pressure will ultimately come from the bottom up. Read the rest of this entry »

Dave Natzke
Published in Midwest Dairy Business (February 2008)

The buzzword at the International Dairy Foods Association’s Dairy Forum ’08 was “sustainability.” While the word gives everyone a warm and fuzzy feeling they’re doing something – anything – to make the world a better place to live, the definition of “sustainability” can be elusive and confusing. Many Dairy Forum speakers used the term to cover environmental and social aspects of milk and dairy product production, packaging and transportation. Read the rest of this entry »

Terry D. Etherton

Two outstanding podcasts are posted on DairyCast.com. Enjoy listening to these thought provoking presentations on:

• Cloning: where have we been and where are we today? Gary Crawford, USDA, summarizes recent developments from USDA and FDA
• Bruce Vincent, Multiple Generation Environmental Steward and Logger from Libby, MT, shares an empowering presentation on activists, grizzly bears and the logging industry. There are interesting parallels to today’s dairy industry

Listen | subscribe

SHERRY BUNTING
Published in Farmshine (March 28, 2008 Issue)

Dairymen respond to Wal-Mart’s “Great Value”

Wal-Mart announced this week that its Great Value milk brand now sources milk exclusively from cows not treated with rbST. Milk selections at Sam’s Club are also offered from suppliers sourcing milk from non-supplemented cows.

With this announcement came a report on Wal-Mart’s blogging website, where Rand Waddoups, “author for sustainability” writes about several new “sustainability-related” initiatives at Wal-Mart, including this recent change for Great Value milk. Read the rest of this entry »

Terry Etherton

Retail food prices at the supermarket increased in the first quarter of 2008, according to the latest American Farm Bureau Federation Marketbasket Survey. The informal survey shows the total cost of 16 basic grocery items in the first quarter of 2008 was $45.03, up about 8 percent or $3.42 from the fourth quarter of 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

Socio-Economic Benefits Becoming Evident Among Resource-Poor Farmers

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (Feb. 13, 2008) – After a dozen years of commercialization, biotech crops are still gaining ground with another year of double-digit growth, and new countries joining the list of supporters, according to a report released today by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). In 2007, biotech crop area grew 12 percent or 12.3 million hectares to reach 114.3 million hectares, the second highest area increase in the past five years.In addition to planting more biotech hectares, farmers are quickly adopting varieties with more than one biotech trait. These “trait hectares” grew at a swift 22 percent, or 26 million hectares, to reach 143.7 million hectares – more than double the area increase of 12.3 million hectares. New crops were also added to the list as China reported 250,000 biotech poplar trees planted. The insect-resistant trees can contribute to reforestation efforts. Read the rest of this entry »

William Henning, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Meat Science
The Pennsylvania State University

Consumer concerns have once again been raised after 143 million pounds of ground beef was recalled this week from a California firm that manufactures and distributes ground beef to retailers and schools. The problems initially surfaced when a member of a special interest group (The Humane Society of the United States; HSUS) filmed a case of brutal animal handling of a cow that was unable to get up and posted it on YouTube. Normally, this would have been a case of animal cruelty that would have been dealt with by the USDA and the plant in question. Since the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service is responsible for animal welfare in packing plants, this should have been all handled within the regulatory system for animal handling. However, it was apparently revealed later that this non-ambulatory cow was, in fact, harvested and entered the food supply that raised the food safety questions. Since non-ambulatory animals are not considered fit for processing due to the possible relationship with BSE (mad cow disease), it should been prevented from entering the food supply. Read the rest of this entry »

The following podcast is of an interview with Dr. Terry Etherton on WHYY Radio in Philadelphia. This interview took place on January 15, 2008.

Summary from WHYY: The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture recently ruled that dairies that do not inject their cattle with synthetic growth hormone can no longer label their milk as hormone-free. The decision, which has been put on hold until the beginning of February, raises serious questions for consumers, dairy farmers, and retailers. We talk to TERRY ETHERTON of Penn State University.

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From The Economist print edition (December 6, 2007 issue)

Rising food prices are a threat to many; they also present the world with an enormous opportunity.

For as long as most people can remember, food has been getting cheaper and farming has been in decline. In 1974-2005 food prices on world markets fell by three-quarters in real terms. Food today is so cheap that the West is battling gluttony even as it scrapes piles of half-eaten leftovers into the bin. Read the rest of this entry »