KUNC

         

May. 24, 2013

Field Notes: Looking inside plants for answers to a changing climate

By: 
Grant Gerlock
The 2013 Water for Food Conference featured speakers from around the globe discussing the impact of climate change on agriculture. Photo by Grant Gerlock/Harvest Public Media

This is the latest installment of Harvest Public Media’s Field Notes, in which reporters talk to newsmakers and experts about important issues related to food production.

One prediction about climate change that seems undeniable is that the weather will become more unpredictable. Farmers have felt this firsthand in recent years watching massive floods wash away farmland and devastating drought dry up crops.

How to deal with climate extremes was the focus of the recent Water for Food Conference hosted by the University of Nebraska Lincoln. The keyword among the different panels and speakers was “resilience.” Heidi Cullen, a climatologist at research website Climate Central, seemed to sum it up when she described resilience as managing what you can’t avoid while avoiding what you can’t manage.

At the conference I interviewed Sally Mackenzie, a plant geneticist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who is researching a totally new way to breed crops that may be able to withstand new weather extremes. It’s called epigenetics. Rather than introduce new genes into a plant, epigenetics has to do with altering the genes a plant already possesses. Mackenzie told me it mimics a form of plant memory that occurs naturally.

Read more
May. 23, 2013

USDA releases labeling rule for meat

By: 
Abbie Fentress Swanson
Under new USDA rules, products like this will need to carry a label that will notify consumers where the animals from which their meat was derived were born, raised and slaughtered. (Peggy Lowe/Harvest Public Media)
Under new USDA rules, products like this will need to carry a label that will notify consumers where the animals from which their meat was derived were born, raised and slaughtered. (Peggy Lowe/Harvest Public Media)

Consumers may soon know more about where their meat comes from because of a long-debated change made by the US Department of Agriculture on Thursday.

The USDA released its final rule modifying what’s called “Country of Origin Labeling,” or  COOL, provisions for muscle-cut meats. The amended COOL rule will require processors, packers and retailers to include more information on labels of beef, pork, lamb, chicken and goat meat, specifically where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered. Currently labels only require companies to include where the animal was born.

For example, a label will now read “Born, Raised, and Slaughtered in the United States,” “Born in Mexico, Raised and Slaughtered in the United States” or “Born and Raised in Canada, Slaughtered in the United States.” Labels for imported meat which already read, for instance, “Product of Argentina,” will not be changed by this rule.

Read more
May. 22, 2013

Colorado tells farmers to wait on hemp

By: 
Luke Runyon
Nine states have already removed barriers to growing industrial hemp and others may follow. (Creative Commons)
Nine states have already removed barriers to growing industrial hemp and others may follow. (Creative Commons)

Aspiring hemp growers are stuck in a tricky gray area these days. While some states have given the go-ahead to growing and processing the plant, a blanket ban still exists at the federal level.

Proponents say industrial hemp could be the country’s next cash crop. But farmers are unable to plant without fear of retribution, given hemp’s listing as a controlled substance. Not to mention the frequent opposition from law enforcement.

Local police departments and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency have said industrial hemp could thwart large-scale drug busts. They’re worried that scofflaw farmers will plant a field of hemp while hiding marijuana within the rows.

Marijuana and hemp look the same, but differ in chemical make up. The hemp plant is mostly used for its fiber, in products like clothing and lotions. Hemp only has trace amounts of THC, the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana.

In Colorado, a state set to be the first in the country to tax and regulate marijuana for recreational use, agriculture officials are asking anxious farmers to be patient. There’s still work to be done before hemp growers can register with the state’s agriculture department.

Read more

Pages