Greetings on July 2,

The Ag Insider contains original reporting as well as a survey of top news on food, agriculture and the environment. Emails are welcome at chuck@thefern.org. I am on Twitter @chuckabbott1. If you received this briefing from a friend and wish to receive it directly, you can subscribe for free by clicking this link.

Ag Insider wishes readers a happy Independence Day holiday and, like Congress, will return on Tuesday. First up on Tuesday is the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on the avian influenza epidemic, re-scheduled for 3 p.m.

The worst epidemic of avian influenza ever to hit U.S. poultry farms resulted in the death or culling of 48.1 million fowl, most of them turkeys and egg-laying hens. Iowa, the No. 1 egg state, could see "total economic damage" of  $957 million, says Fortune. U.S. egg production, estimated down by 5 percent this year, is not expected to recover until 2016.

"But perhaps the most troubling aspect of the crisis is its implications for the viability of industrial-scale farming," says Fortune. The huge poultry farms, with millions of birds, follow operating rules intended to prevent contamination. "But when a virus pierces such defenses, or when defenses lapse, having all of one’s eggs in one basket (so to speak) can make the impact more devastating." Disease can quickly spread through thousands or tens of thousands of birds.

In Iowa, the single largest outbreak claimed 5.7 million laying hens on an egg farm in Buena Vista County in the northwestern corner of the state. In all, 22 egg farms lost 24.7 million hens, according to the Iowa Agriculture Department. Total losses in the state, counting turkeys, young chickens and laying hens, were 31.5 million birds.

Experts say migratory birds spread the disease through their droppings. "But it seems to have spread among farms in the Midwest in novel, unforeseen ways. The role of wind and even ventilation systems—transmission routes that current biosecurity strategies don’t address—are now the subject of intense study and anxiety," says Fortune.

In an initial report on June 15, the USDA said lapses in biosecurity and environmental factors had a role in the epidemic. The department said it observed lapses such as the "sharing of equipment between an infected and noninfected farm; employees moving between infected and noninfected farms; lack of cleaning and disinfection of vehicles moving between farms; and reports of rodents or small wild birds inside the poultry houses." It said there also were indications the virus was spread by gusty spring winds.

USDA chief scientist John Clifford and the head of the department's poultry research laboratory will be lead-off witnesses at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Tuesday on the impact of bird flu.

There have been no confirmed cases of bird flu in two weeks, says the USDA.
    --Reporting by Chuck Abbott

The giant Brazilian meatpacker JBS, a relative newcomer to North America, will buy the pork operations of agribusiness rival Cargill for $1.45 billion, the companies announced. The deal is subject to antitrust review. In the transaction, JBS USA would acquire Cargill processing plants in Ottumwa, Iowa, and Beardstown, Illinois; five feed mills in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa and Texas; and four hog farms, two in Arkansas, one in Oklahoma and one in Texas. JBS said the purchase "will strengthen our position as a producer and supplier of all major proteins around the world."

JBS entered the U.S. market in 2007 with the purchase of Swift and Co. It has three pork plants, in Iowa, Minnesota and Kentucky, with a daily capacity of 50,000 hogs. It is the second-largest meat processor in the nation and Cargill is No. 3, said Food Business News.

In a recent story, Harvest Public Media said JBS is the second-largest food company in the world and was "the largest global producer of beef, chicken and lamb, and number three in pork." JBS owns poultry processor Pilgrim's Pride and unsuccessfully tried to buy Hillshire Brands last year.

The founder of a rural development organization active in 11 countries, Fazle Hasan Abed of Bangladesh, is the winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize. Abed's organization, originally known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, "has been hailed as the world's most effective anti-poverty organization in the world," said the foundation that awards the annual prize. It said BRAC gave "nearly 150 million people the opportunity for enhanced food security and a pathway out of poverty."

"Its agricultural and development innovations have improved food security for millions and contributed to a significant decline in poverty levels through direct impacts to farmers and small communities across the globe," said the World Food Prize Foundation. "Today BRAC operates 18 financially and socially profitable enterprises, across health, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, education, green energy, printing and retail sectors, and has been responsible for extraordinary advancements in the poultry, seed, and dairy industries in Bangladesh and other countries in which it operates in Africa.

Abed said "the real heroes in our story are the poor themselves and, in particular, women struggling in poverty. In situations of extreme poverty, it is usually the women in the family who have to make do with scarce resources. When we saw this at BRAC, we realised that women needed to be the agents of change in our development effort."

BRAC lists its priorities as "focus on women, grassroots empowerment, health and education, empowering farmers, inclusive financial services, and self-sustaining solutions." Besides Bangladesh, BRAC operates in Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The group describes itself as "the world's largest NGO."

Chef and food activist Tom Colicchio achieved celebrity on the TV show "Top Chef" and now is food correspondent for MSNBC. In an interview with Edible DC in partnership with FERN, he said the MSNBC program will discuss issues such as hunger, food sourcing, labor and environment. "So I want to take some of these issues around food and tell the stories about them, not so much the policies and politics around them. If you lead with the story, there could be some policy fixes, but I think people are more interested in stories. And there’s a million stories out there. Food stories are everywhere."

A program that stuck only to policy and politics would "bore the hell out of people and it's too polarizing," said Colicchio. During the interview, he lamented the huge amount of food that is discarded uneaten. "We don’t value food because from the 1960s onward, it became about processed food, cheap food and fast food. There’s no value on it, so you just toss it. It’s one of those food topics that people can really relate to."

Besides working as a food correspondent and operating restaurants, Colicchio is head of Food Policy Action, an advocacy group.

A voter-approved ban on crops containing genetically modified organisms in Maui County, Hawaii, was invalidated by a federal judge, says the Associated Press. U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway said control of GMO crops was a matter of state and federal law, which pre-empt the county. Maui County is a major center for GMO crop research. The ordinance, adopted in a referendum last November, called for a moratorium on cultivation of GMO crops until there was a study of their safety and benefits.  A sponsor of the referendum said he would appeal on grounds the county was addressing matters not covered by state or U.S. law.

Kauai and Hawaii counties adopted measures last year to regulate GMO crops and they were quickly struck down in court. Both counties decided to appeal.

In Oregon, voters in Jackson County approved an ordinance banning GMO crops more than a year ago. The ban took effect in early June but county officials are not enforcing it until a court challenge is resolved, says the Portland Oregonian. A federal judge has ruled the ban does not violate the state's right-to-farm law and has yet to rule on arguments by farmers that they should get $4.2 million in compensation if they have to uproot their GMO alfalfa.

A state survey shows a 30-percent drop in the population of breeding waterfowl in California in one year due to drought and poor habitat, says the Sacramento Bee. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife used airplanes to take the waterfowl census in the Central Valley and northeastern California. The steepest declines, 40 percent, were in the northeast; losses ran at 19 percent in the Sacramento Valley. About 4 million birds fly into the Central Valley in the fall and winter during their annual migrations.

"Rice fields represent one key type of shrinking wetland," said the Bee. Growers often flood their fields during the winter, providing habitat for waterfowl. "The drought has curtailed rice cultivation, especially in the Sacramento Valley, where almost all of the rice is grown in California." Growers planted 434,000 acres of rice last year, compared to 567,000 acres in 2013, according to the California Rice Commission.

California "continues to experience a severe drought," said the USDA in estimating rice plantings at 385,000 acres this year, down 9 percent from last year and by one-third over the last two years. Nationwide, rice plantings are down by 6 percent from 2014 due to low prices. California is the U.S. leader in short- and medium-grain rice. Short-grain rice is used in sushi and other dishes needing a sticky and clumpy rice. Medium-grain rice also is sticky and is used in risotto and paella.

A U.S. agricultural coalition said it hoped for an end to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba now that the nations agreed to re-open embassies in each other's capital. President Obama announced the step as part of re-establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, a process that began last December. "Americans and Cubans alike are ready to move forward," Obama said. I’ve called on Congress to take steps to lift the embargo that prevents Americans from traveling or doing business in Cuba."

The U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba, an umbrella group of farm and agribusinesses, said it was "hopeful today’s announcement will ultimately lead to an end to the embargo and increased economic opportunity for agriculture in both our nations." The coalition said it was working with lawmakers to end the embargo. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she has 17 cosponsors on her bill, S 491, to lift the trade embargo. The White House has eased two restrictions on food and agriculture trade with Cuba but other restrictions are set by law.

Cuba said the embassies could open as early as July 20. Reuters reports that Havana said normal relations much include an end of economic sanctions and return of the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, said Reuters.

China, the world's largest buyer and consumer of cotton, also owns a huge stockpile of the fiber and is the central figure in determining if market prices will remain stable in the coming year, although at low levels, says the International Cotton Advisory Committee. Last month, China said it would begin liquidating its inventory, estimated at 11.3 million tonnes - large enough to supply the world's needs for more than five months - at current market prices. "However, no further details have been announced so far and it's uncertain how successfully China will be able to sell off its excess cotton stock without destabilizing the market," said ICAC, an intergovernmental body.

For five years, cotton production has out-run consumption with the resulting surplus forecast by ICAC to reach 21.9 million tonnes this year, an 11-month supply. With market prices down by 22 percent, growers around the world are planting less cotton. At the same time, cotton demand is rising. ICAC says the world surplus may be cut by 5 percent in the coming year, reducing it to a 10-month supply and keeping prices stable.

Did you enjoy FERN's Ag Insider by Chuck Abbott? Please consider donating to FERN to help produce more in-depth reporting on food, agriculture and environmental health.