UK food system emissions higher than thought

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Author: Matt Cawood Via: farm Weekly THE business of growing, supply and consuming food in the United Kingdom creates about 30 per cent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report. Joint contributors to the study, "How Low Can We Go", the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) and WWF, say that driving down this emissions profile will need to go further than just technological solutions, but also address how and what the UK population eats. Two-thirds of UK emissions are related to the food supply chain, the study found, with the remaining third due to land-use changes like deforestation.  The authors considered all food-related emissions sources, including those generated from food imports into the UK. About three-quarters of land-use change emissions were considered to come from the production of beef and sheepmeat, mostly overseas. For the UK food industry to play a meaningful role in the UK's desire to cut total emissons by 80 per cent by 2050, the report's authors argue that...
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Peak phosphorous: mankind’s latest threat

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Author: MATT CAWOOD Source: http://fw.farmonline.com.au SOME believe that dwindling supplies of potable water is humanity's great resource challenge; others think it is the imminent prospect of "peak oil". But an equally important milestone in modern history will be an inevitable tightening of global supplies of phosphorus. Phosphorus has underpinned the leaps made in agricultural productivity since World War II, and the world's economies and population levels have become dependent on a continous supply of the element. Unlike nitrogen, which can by synthesised from the air, or the use of renewable energy to substitute for fossil fuels, there is no substitute for phosphorus. All the world's phosphate fertilisers come from mined phosphate rock, making it a finite resource. Various analyses suggest "peak phosphorus" - the point at which supply falls behind demand - will occur around 2040, with all currently known reserves potentially exhausted within 50 to 100 years. However, University of Technology Sydney researchers Dana Cordell and Stuart White warn that for most countries, a phosphorus squeeze...
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Live export demand defies rising prices – Australia

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Author: TRAVIS KING DESPITE the sharp rise in sheep export prices over the past eight months, demand for Australian sheep in the Middle East is holding strong. And this demand is not expected to drop off according to Livecorp livestock services manager Peter Dundon. Mr Dundon, who is based in Bahrain, said if Australian producers were debating whether they should be sticking with sheep or not, he would strongly suggest they do. "While there is some resistance to the higher prices, importers are still keen to source Australian sheep simply because of the food security issue," Mr Dundon said. "While the fact that there are higher prices has seen some importers look to northern Africa to source sheep, no one can guarantee supply like Australia can. "Bahrain demands 2500 sheep per day and Australia supplies 95 per cent of that market. "If the trade to Bahrain stopped tomorrow, a whole lot of people would not have access to fresh meat. "Somalia is probably our biggest competitor and are...
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Just how fast is the climate changing?

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Author: MATTHEW CAWOOD Source: Farmonline CLIMATE change has a speed: about 420 metres per year. That's the average rate at which temperature zones will shift across global landscapes during this century, according to research led by the Carnegie Institute in the United States. It is also an estimate of how quickly plants and animals will need to move to stay within current climatic zones, and an indication of the pressure on agriculture to adapt as seasonal conditions shift. Recently published in the scientific journal Nature, the research attempts to predict "temperature velocities" as a way of expressing how climate change will influence plants and animals adapted to certain climatic zones. Such work is not entirely new, according to Professor Barry Brook, who occupies the Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change at Adelaide University, but it does provide a useful picture of how climate change may advance across landscapes - including farmland. Unlike plants and animals, which must move or evolve to survive climate shifts, agriculture...
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Information the key to grains success in 2010

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Author: Gregor Heard Source: http://fw.farmonline.com.au WITH a deregulated grains market, farmers are increasingly realising the vital importance of sound market intelligence when making marketing decisions. If the first year of deregulation was the year of on-farm storage, the 2009 season saw a huge increase in the number of brokers and analysts providing that crucial information to growers. The trend is only likely to increase, as farmers seek to find a marketing edge by assessing the micro and macro trends emerging within the market. From supply and demand balance sheets within key domestic use regions of Australia, to a snapshot of the international situation, many farmers have decided it is worth the price of hiring an expert in these areas. Contacts are also crucial, and middlemen, linking up producers with reliable domestic end-use customers, are also regarded as being worth their cut. The other major growth area in 2009 was specialised marketing products, from Elders Toepfer’s on-farm storage accreditation program, to GrainCorp’s initiative to link warehoused grain with...
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December 2009 Romania – Thank you to all of you

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
My dear readers Thank you for joining me this year. 2010 is a critical year for the future of Romanian agribusiness but the European one as well. The foreign investments built up on a strong and unitary foundation of laws and regulation - encouraging the agribusiness initiatives - may be the milestone for the good of our country and for the regional market. In 2010 I shall organise a few original events therefore I would like to keep in touch with all of you and as far as possible to comply with my invitations. I wish you a serene year-end and for the New Year all your aspirations to become true. Splendid Winter Holidays and Merry Christmas! To all of you all the best! Warmly Dana Bucur Business expert - agriculture and green fields...
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Time to address food security issue

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Author: COLIN BETTLES, Farmonline.com FOR the first time in the history of our planet, one billion people are starving and another two million are undernourished. The starvation and malnourishment is occurring at horrific levels in third world Africa, while Asia is also suffering greatly from the lack of basic life elements. The advancement and enrichment of modern agricultural production techniques offers sustainable solutions to these problems. The practical knowledge and know-how needed to stimulate agricultural output in the areas at greatest risk, is immediately ascertainable from a number of willing sources. The World Bank estimates it will cost about $10 billion per year to make a significant dent in the problem. Governments around the world, including ours in Australia, have made repeated public commitments to increase foreign aid and assistance programs to help achieve these critical goals. Between them, these Governments can afford to kick in the $10b now. However, for reasons known only to those in charge, political inertia continues to entangle the solution, while the starvation...
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Fifth hottest year for planet Earth

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
AUSTRALIA will record its third warmest year on record in 2009, and the planet its fifth, according to data collected by the World Meteorological Organisation. The annual analysis found the 2000s were warmer than the 1990s, which were warmer than the 1980s, challenging claims that the globe has cooled in recent years. Only North America had a cooler-than-average year in 2009. Large parts of southern Asia and central Africa are expected to have their hottest year ever. Arctic sea ice - often at the centre of the debate about global warming - is at its third lowest level since detailed measurement began 30 years ago. The lowest level was in 2007. ''Every summer the amount of Arctic ice is getting very low,'' World Meteorological Organisation secretary-general Michel Jarraud said in Copenhagen. In Australia, the year was marked by three ''exceptional heatwaves'', including the wilting south-eastern summer that culminated in the Black Saturday bushfires that killed 173 people. Victoria recorded its highest ever temperature - 48.8 degrees. Heatwaves...
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