Providence Acres Farm Recommends.....

Providence Acres Farm recommends the following farm blogs:

Ottawa Hortiphilia (Canada)
An enabling site for the horticulturally obsessed. Life around my urban plot is green! (except in the middle of winter in Canadian zone 5a then it's mostly sludgy brown and white.)

Chickens in the Road (West Virginia, USA)
Life in Ordinary Splendor
It was a cold wintry day when I brought my children to live in rural West Virginia. The farmhouse was one hundred years old, there was already snow on the ground, and the heat was sparse-—as was the insulation. The floors weren’t even, either. My then-twelve-year-old son walked in the door and said, “You’ve brought us to this slanted little house to die."


Homestead.org
Rural Living Principle and Practice


Mary Janes Farm
Simple Solutions for Everyday Organic
Here is where I'll share my ideas, gardening tips, crafting, sewing, carpentry, home decorating, entertaining ideas and simple solutions for everyday organic. The inspiration for this section was born when a woman told me, "I wish I could have your life!" I thought, "Why not?"

The New Agrarian

When I was in my twenties I got it into my head that I wanted to be a part-time farmer — farm part time and write part time, a “career” I might still find ideal, if far less practical than I once thought. I don’t have a lot of interest in going “back to the land.” I like living within easy reach of libraries, art museums, Thai food, interesting music and a good tattoo shop. I also like producing some of my own food and being able to walk out of my door into the woods. This website is mostly about my efforts to have it both ways. Read on »

Keepin' It Rural
"I'm gonna visit those foreclosin' sonofaguns down at the Indianola Savings and Loan and slap that cash down on the barrelhead and buy back the family farm. Hell, you ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land." -Delmar from "O Brother Where Art Thou?"


Dry Creek Chronicles
Letters to scattered family and friends

An Emergent Agrarian

One man's journey from the Corporate to the Agrarian for the sake of Faith and Family.

Sugar Mountain Farm (Vermont, USA)

Stories from a small farm in Vermont's mountains raising pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, dogs and kids naturally on pasture.

This Garden is Illegal (Ohio, USA)

Gardening isn't a hobby, it's an obsession.

A gardener in the suburbs Cleveland, Ohio waxes on and off about her garden, the flowers, what she wants to do in her yard and how it all fits into her everyday life.

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A Place in the Auvergne Recommends...Providence Acres Farm

Providence Acres Farm
Located just outside of Barrie, Ontario in Innisfil. We sell fresh chemical-free produce and farm fresh, cage-free, brown eggs. We also sell handmade soap, herbs and nature craft. We cater to those who want the unusual in their gardens and kitchens, such as shaggy mane mushroom starter in the autumn and fresh fiddleheads in the spring

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The Future of this Blog (and some new recommended farm blogs)

As you can see, I haven't been able to keep this blog up to date, despite receiving a number of requests to be listed, and recommendations.

The reason for this is, and no surprise here.....time!

As an author I am working hard on a new novel and this blog has, as a result fallen by the wayside.

What I am wondering is this:

Is there somebody out there who would be interested in helping me run this blog as an editor? I hope to return to it myself when I have more time, or share the editing process.

The process is very simple.

If a blog is recommended to me by a blogger already listed on the Blog Roll, I add them to the blog roll, under the relevant country.

I then write to the blogger, tell them I have linked to them, explain the thinking behind Farm Blogs from Around the World, and ask that they send me the following:

• Five pictures, or permission to use five pictures from their blog
• Some text explaining their farm and blog - not much, just a brief intro
• Their top five recommendations of farm blogs that they like.

When I receive this information, I make two posts:

1. A post about the new blog on the blog roll
2. A posting about their recommendations.
3. Add them and their recommendations to the blog roll.

Having added the new blog and their recommendations to the Blog Roll, I then write to the five bloggers they have recommended and repeat the above process.

And so, organically, it grows. The thinking is that good blogs will recommend even better ones, and so the quality and range will always be growing.

The key to growth is that bloggers who want to be listed really make an effort to let me know about five other good blogs that are not already listed.

Geographical diversity is also important. Is there really only one farm blogger in Africa for example? What about Asia and South America?



If a blogger hasn't been recommended to me, but would like to be listed, I would normally do the following:

1. I check out the blog;
2. If I think it's up to standard I then ask them for the pictures, text and their recommendations and contact their recommended bloggers, just as I would do with a blog recommended by someone already on Farm Blogs from Around the World.

If you would be interested in being an editor, then it's a straightforward matter of me setting you up as an editor, giving you permission to follow this process.

If you'd like to discuss more being a volunteer blogger for Farm Blogs (it's a non-profit making blog - I don't even take advertising, despite requests) then please write to me at info AT ianwalthew.com

I hope to hear from you.

In the meantime, here are some blogs that have been recently been brought to my attention, which I haven't had the time to check out or contact in the way described above, make posts about or add to my blog roll.

If you are one of them please do send me (and I will try to find the time to do the process as described above):

a) five pictures or permission to use pictures taken from your blog
b) some text about your blog
c) your top five recommendations of farm blogs not already listed.

PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES FOR HANDLING YOUR CORRESPONDENCE IN THIS MANNER - AND NOT AS I USED TO DO AS ABOVE - BUT BLOGGING KINDA OVERWHELMED ME IN 2008.

(My definition of farming is anyone producing food or fibre on any scale in any situation in any place in the world.)


From Jojo:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/ Sugarmountain farm. Vermont.awesome blog. Walter is so well read and i like going there for tips and what his family is up to. Plus, a huge fighter of our NAIS program that the USDA are trying to pass. His other site is Nonais.org. He is a hog farmer and always questions the status quo I really like that. Always thinking how to do it better. Extremely knowledgeable hog farmer.

http://www.agriwoman.com/blog.html Adventures of the Farmers wife. (not sure location)This is a new blog I’m following. I think she is onto something and I really enjoy following both my passions at once. She is starting up a magazine for “rural women” and also is a farmer/farmer’s wife. I think she mentions 5th generation on the same land. Unheard of nowadays. So, I’m looking forward to her blogs in the future.

http://www.alpacafarmgirl.com/ Alpaca farmgirl. First blog I’ve found that raise alpacas. And I just started to watch her blog. Like it a lot. Goats and Alpacas are a lot alike so I plan to learn a lot from her.

http://omelays.blogspot.com/ Pile of O’Melays. Just plain ole down home country fun. And their antics with children and raising them around farm animals.You can tell by his writings he’s just a really smart guy. And his posts are interesting.

http://apiferafarm.blogspot.com/ Apifera Farm. Oregon. Her moniker is “where animals, art and lavender collide”. How could I not follow this blog. ;) art and animals. My two favorite things. She is a wonderful artist. And she writes books and stories about her donkeys. And they are precious. If I could afford her paintings I would decorate the whole house in them. It’s her fault I have a miniature horse. And thinking of getting a miniature donkey.

http://www.prairielandherbs.blogspot.com/ Prairieland Herbs. Iowa. I first found them looking for all organic soaps and oils and lotions. Became a customer. Then realized they had a blog too> :) And became a fan and follow regularly. I now make my own soaps and I like to visit for inspiration and to see what they are doing on their farm and store.


From Martyn Noakes at http://bredbovalleyviewfarm.blogspot.com/ in Australia

http://theduckherder.blogspot.com These guys are close to wher I live, not really a farm but they are having a go. The Blog is entertaining and mirrors alot of our life adventures, just on a smaller scale.

http://madbushfarm.blogspot.com I would love to visit this part of New Zealand. The commentary of their daily life is absorbing and humorous - In that Kiwi sort of way.

http://drywell119.blogspot.com/ Australia. Ours is a country of contrasts, except for drought. I like this Blog for it's family focus

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/ This one is about living the simple life - not big time farming, but you can still learn a lot from the tiny/micro farmers

From Melissa: East Tennessee, U.S.A.


I blog from my small co-op farm in East Tennessee. The name of the Farm is ThistleDew. You can find us at http://thistledewfarm.blogspot.com/

We have a few horses, some free range chickens, herbs and vegetables…lots of flowers and tons of giggles.

My husband and I are building a house and developing the farm along with his brother and family next door. Our long term goal is to raise enough products to get close to organic self-sufficiency. We are mostly organic now but must be constantly vigilant to ensure chemicals don’t invade our property through introduction by outside means. My mother has some sheep I would like to introduce next year – just have to practice good farm management to ensure the land can support the different critters and gardens.


From Robin: New York, U.S.A.

My blogs address is www.mommymommyland.com and we do sustainable organic farming the old fashioned way on 60 acres in upstate New York. We have a variety of chickens, turkeys, Dexter cattle, and Jacob sheep along with 4 human kids!! We grow vegetables to sell via CSA, farm stand and area farmers markets as well.

Many of the other farm blogs I read ( and would recommend) are already listed on your site, Northview dairy, Natures harmony, pile o'maleys, raising country kids, and sugar creek farm just to name a few.


From Walter: U.S.A.

I am the author of two books and a well-know writer on local agriculture and vineyards. My farm blog is about my goat and wine grape farm.

Rosewood Hill Farm
http://www.rosewoodhillfarm.com

Another blog I can recommend is http://boergoatblog.com/



From Annie: Canada

My husband and I live in Canada and we started a blog about our first try at homesteading (after living in the city) in March 08.

http://countrylivinginacariboovalley.blogspot.com/


From Sheryl: Ontario, Canada

My blog is at
www.providence-acres.blogspot.com

We are a new farm, located in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, just started up last fall. We love it and have big plans!
You already know my favourite blog. It's the Deliberate Agrarian.

Thank you,
Lloyd and Sheryl Gallant
www.artbysheryl.com
www.providence-acres.blogspot.com


From Lisa:

Thanks for your help with my "How to Start a Farm Blog" article for Hobby Farm Home. Here's the link to the on-line piece:
http://www.hobbyfarms.com/marketing-and-management/farm-blog-tips.aspx


From Emily:

I have just starting officially blogging after keeping a farm website for years. I'd appreciate you considering adding me to your list and I'm linking to your fine blog.
http://briarcroft.wordpress.com


From Bernadette: (Slovakia)

I've just started my Farm Blog - since we just moved to our own small Farmstead in central Slovakia. At present our blog is mainly a photo blog since setting up farm activities will have to wait till spring (it is cold out here!). I would really appreciate it if you can add our blog to yours. I have posted a link to yours on ours. this is the URL:
http://farm-in-slovakia.blogspot.com/

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Farm Blogs from Around the World on hold until January 2008.

Have you written to Farm Blogs From Around the World recently?

I have been swamped with writing commitments for some time now, which don't look like they are going to go away between now and the end of this year.

I'm afraid that I am putting my regular news posts on hold at Farm Blogs from Around the World until January 1st, 2008.

In the New Year I will be able to get back to the basics of this blog, which is identifying good blogs, posting your recommendations and contacting those blogs you recommend.

Please don't think I am closing this blog; I fully intend to resume full service in the New Year.

In the meantime, if you have written to me recently, please read the above link and I look forward to being in touch with you all as of the first week of January, 2009.

And please, do send me your recommendations even if it won't be until January that I am able to get back to you and get them up on this blog. You can write to me at info AT ianwalthew.com

Happy Christmas to one and all.

Ian

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New on Gulf's shopping list: Foreigners' farmland (IHT)

Have you written to Farm Blogs From Around the World recently?

New on Gulf's shopping list: Foreigners' farmland
The Associated Press
Monday, November 17, 2008
NAHEL, United Arab Emirates: In the dunes around this sun-scorched desert village, where camels still plod along dusty roads an hour south of Dubai's skyscrapers, farmers are making the wasteland bloom.
Row upon row of bell peppers grow plump in a temperature-controlled greenhouse. Lilies and roses bud nearby, and strawberries are on their way, all thanks to sophisticated water-saving irrigation.
Yet even high-tech establishments like the Mirak Agricultural Services farms here and elsewhere in this riverless country will never feed the region's rapidly growing population. It is that realization that is persuading wealthy Gulf Arabs to look far beyond their shores for more fertile acreage - tens of thousands of hectares, in some cases.
There are simply too many mouths to feed and not enough water. Lush urban landscaping and ambitious agricultural projects here and in Saudi Arabia, which once spent so much on farm subsidies that it exported surplus wheat, are quickly draining aquifers, including some that are millennia old and cannot be refilled.
That stark reality, and rising food prices, is sending the region's leaders scrambling to lock up even more long-term food supplies abroad. And where once the region was content to spend its petrodollars on food sold on the open market, Gulf nations now are quietly scouring the globe for rich farmland to rent or buy outright.
The prime ministers of Qatar and Kuwait traveled separately to Cambodia this year to discuss securing paddy land for rice-growing. Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, visited Kazakhstan in central Asia, where agricultural investments were on the agenda.
Dubai World, a sprawling conglomerate controlled by that emirate's government, last month said it was creating a new subsidiary targeting global investments in a wide range of commodities, including food.
Plans are also accelerating in the private sector.
The Saudi Binladin Group, for example, is considering investing more than $4 billion to grow food in Indonesia, said Salim Segaf al-Jufri, the Indonesian ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Under the proposed project, the company would produce basmati rice in Sulawesi, Papua and western Java.
Most such talks are continuing in private. Of those companies that could be reached for comment, none made officials available to discuss their investments in detail. That may be because many of the deals are being hatched in volatile countries, such as Pakistan and Sudan, that have serious domestic food concerns of their own. The idea of shipping off homegrown crops to feed rich foreigners could stir dissent.
"These are countries that come with a lot of political baggage," said Eckart Woertz, program manager for economics at the Gulf Research Center, which estimates the Gulf's conventional water resources will be gone within three decades. "People riot when they don't get food."
Experts say the agriculture investments could be a win-win situation. The Gulf gains food security, while poorer developing countries benefit from added jobs and improved technology.
But there are concerns, too.
The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, has warned that foreign land acquisition and long-term leasing schemes, if done poorly, risk "creating a neocolonial pact" and "unacceptable work conditions for agricultural workers."
Even so, some countries are seeking out investment.
Pakistan, already a key source of labor for the Gulf, has been among the most active. This spring, Islamabad helped organize a show in Dubai aimed at increasing investment in the country's agricultural and dairy industries.
Huma Fakhar, managing partner at MAP Services Group, a market research and trade consultant which sponsored the event, said Pakistan was a logical choice for Gulf investment.
Fakhar said an investor from Abu Dhabi, whom she declined to name, last year bought about 16,000 hectares, or 40,000 acres, of farmland in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. Two UAE firms, Emirates Investments Group and Abraaj Capital, have also expressed interest in investing directly in Pakistani agriculture, she said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/17/asia/gulf.php



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China, America and melamine (IHT)

Have you written to Farm Blogs From Around the World recently?

China, America and melamine
By James E. McWilliams
Sunday, November 16, 2008
AUSTIN, Texas:
China's food supply appears to be awash in the industrial chemical melamine. Dangerous levels have been detected not only in milk and eggs, but also in chicken feed and wheat gluten, meaning that melamine is almost impossible to avoid in processed foods. Melamine in baby formula has killed at least four infants in China and sickened tens of thousands more.
In response, the United States has blasted lax Chinese regulations, while the Food and Drug Administration, in a rare move, announced last week that Chinese food products containing milk would be detained at the border until they were proved safe.
For all the outrage about Chinese melamine, what American consumers and government agencies have studiously failed to scrutinize is the place of melamine in America's own food system. In casting stones, we've forgotten that our house has its own exposed glass.
To be sure, in China some food manufacturers deliberately added melamine to products to increase profits. Makers of baby formula, for example, watered down their product, lowering the amount of protein and nutrients, then added melamine, which is cheap and fools tests measuring protein levels.
But melamine is also integral to the material life of any industrialized society. It's a common ingredient in cleaning products, waterproof plywood, plastic compounds, cement, ink and fire-retardant paint. Chemical plants throughout the United States produce millions of pounds of melamine a year.
Given the pervasiveness of melamine, it's always possible that trace elements will end up in food. The FDA thus sets the legal limit for melamine in food at 2.5 parts per million. This amount is indeed minuscule, a couple of sand grains in an expanse of desert that pose no real threat to public health. Moreover, the 2.5 parts per million figure is calculated for a person weighing 132 pounds - a cautious benchmark given that the average adult weighs 150 to 180 pounds.
But these figures obscure more than they reveal. First, while adults eat about one-fortieth of their weight every day, toddlers consume closer to one-tenth. Although scientists haven't measured the differential impact of melamine on infants versus adults, it's likely that this intensified ratio would at least double (if not quadruple) the impact of legal levels of melamine on toddlers.
This doubled exposure might not land a child in the hospital, but it could certainly contribute to the long-term kidney and liver problems that we know are caused by chronic exposure to melamine.
On a more concrete note, melamine not only has widespread industrial applications, but is also used to buttress the foundation of American agriculture.
Fertilizer companies commonly add melamine to their products because it helps control the rate at which nitrogen seeps into soil, thereby allowing the farmer to get more nutrient bang for the fertilizer buck. But the government doesn't regulate how much melamine is applied to the soil. This melamine accumulates as salt crystals in the ground, tainting the soil.
A related area of agricultural concern is animal feed. Chinese eggs seized last month in Hong Kong, for instance, contained elevated levels of melamine because of the melamine-laden wheat gluten used in the feed for the chickens that produced the eggs.
To think American consumers are immune to this unscrupulous behavior is to ignore the Byzantine reality of the global gluten trade. Tracking the flow of wheat gluten around the world is like trying to contain a drop of dye in a churning whirlpool.
More ominous, the United States imports most of its wheat gluten. Last year, for instance, the FDA reported that millions of Americans had eaten chicken fattened on feed with melamine-tainted gluten imported from China. Around the same time, Tyson Foods slaughtered and processed hogs that had eaten melamine-contaminated feed. The government decided not to recall the meat.
Only a week earlier, however, the FDA had announced that thousands of cats and dogs had died from melamine-laden pet food. This high-profile pet scandal did not prove to be a spur to reform so much as a red herring. Our attention was diverted to Fido and away from the animals we happen to kill and eat rather than spoil.
Frightening as this all sounds, the concerned consumer is not completely helpless. We can seek out organic foods, which are grown with fertilizer without melamine - unless that fertilizer was composted with manure from animals fed melamine-laden feed (always possible, as the Tyson example suggests).
We could further protect ourselves by choosing meat from grass-fed or truly free-range animals, assuming the grass was not fertilized with a conventional product (something that's also very hard to know).
But as all the caveats above indicate, these precautions will only go so far. Melamine, after all, points to the much larger relationship between industrial waste and American food production. Regulations might be lax when it comes to animal feed and fertilizer in China, but take a closer look at similar regulations in the United States and it becomes clear that they're vague enough to allow industries to "recycle" much of their waste into fertilizer and other products that form the basis of our domestic food supply.
As a result, toxic chemicals routinely enter our agricultural system through the back channels of this under-explored but insidious relationship.
So, sure, let's keep the heat on China. And, yes, let's take with a big dose of skepticism the Chinese government's assurances that they're improving the food supply.
At the same time, though, instead of delivering righteous condemnation, the United States should seize upon the melamine scandal as an opportunity to pass federal fertilizer standards backed by consistent testing for this compound, which could very well be hidden in plain sight.
James E. McWilliams, a history professor at Texas State University at San Marcos, is the author of "American Pests: The Losing War on Insects From Colonial Times to DDT."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/16/opinion/edmcwilliams.php




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Help support a goat farmer in France

Have you written to Farm Blogs From Around the World recently?

I received this email yesterday from a friend in my village here in France about a goat farmer who is farming in the area of France where we live and who is having the most terrible time.

I've done a translation and posted it below in English.

What this man needs is our help and there is an Association (with a blog http://www.cda-blog-asso.com/jeanhugueslechevrier) set up to help him.

If you are not in France and want to make a donation, you can send me an email at info AT ianwalthew.com

I am going to find out how people can make a donation from abroad and when I do, I will post here at Farm Blogs From Around the World.



EMAIL
From: A.
Date: 15 November 2008 11:44
To: Ian Walthew
Subject: Support for Jean Hugues the goat farmer.
__________________________________

Following numerous violent acts against Jean-Hugues Bourgeois since his setting up as a farmer in the commune of Teilhet in the Puy-de-Dôme, an Association to support him has been set up.

It has been set up by 20 inhabitants of the village (the others did not want to join it for "fear of acts of reprisal," according to the president of the Association, Christine Albert-Gauthier).

This Association is calling on everyone who has already supported Jean-Hugues or those that wish to join the movement, by becoming a member of the association.

Objective: act together to mobilize as citizens, something already begun by the bio associations in the region and the Confédération of Farmers of the Puy-de-Dôme, helping people, farmers or non farmers to join the movement.

Background to this story (which you can find on the blog of the Association Jean-Hugues le Chevrier, http://www.cda-blog-asso.com/jeanhugueslechevrier).

Since Jean-Hugues Bourgeois accepted to take on about 50 hectares of land belonging to Georges Message, a farmer nearing his retirement, Jean-Hughes' daily life has become a nightmare

During the night of 31 March/ 1 April 2008, a dozen of his goats were killed. On the wall there was graffiti: " La Boge ( the name of the farm) for farmers! Get out of here!"

Thanks to the solidarity and support of friends, Jean-Hughes succeeded in starting again. But the harassment didn't stop.

What followed were rumours (that he grew cannabis) and spiteful acts: a dead rat in his glove compartment, destruction of his electric fences, reinforced concrete metal rods placed in his field to puncture the tires on his tractor....

In August 2008, these acts of intimidation continued :
- during the night of 8/9 August a building was burnt down: his hay stock went up in smoke and his tractor was badly damaged;
- 22 August, Jean-Hugues Bougeois found a letter, left in his tractor, threatening the rape of his daughter, threats against his partner and death threats against Mr. Message.

After a calmer September, October saw a number of unexplainable acts:
- The night of 3/4 October, his barn was burnt. His remaining supply of hay and his grain harvest was completely destroyed, along with the building. Jean-Hugues Bourgeois received death threats in the post.
- At the beginning of December, we found out that one of his ewes had been killed by poison and others had aborted.

You'll understand that Mr. Bourgeois is completely crushed. He has had the courage to stay but not the money. We're going to let the authorities take care of the enquiry and and bring to justice the authors of these innumerable acts, but we're doing all we can to help Jean-Hugues.

If you're touched or disgusted by what has happened to Jean Hughes you can help him by one of two ways:

- make a donation: write a cheque to the Association Jean-Hugues Le Chevrier and send it to Association Jean-Hugues Le Chevrier La Boge, 63560 TEILHET, France
- become a member of the Association: membership costs €5 (cheques made out to the same name, sent to the same address).

Our telephone number is, if you are calling from outside France, ++33.6.79.09.54.80

This has been a comunique of the Association Jean Hugues le chevrier.

Please spread this message as widely as you can amongst your network.






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U.S. food agency detains Chinese imports for testing (IHT)

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U.S. food agency detains Chinese imports for testing
By Andrew Martin and Gardiner Harris
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Candy, snacks, cereal and any other products from China that contain milk will be detained at the border until tests prove that they are not contaminated, the U.S. government announced Thursday.
The Food and Drug Administration said that it had issued the alert because of concerns about Chinese products being contaminated with the toxic chemical melamine. Since September, more than 50,000 infants in China have become ill and at least four have died because they tainted infant formula.
Since then, melamine has been found in a range of products, including milk, eggs and fish feed. Companies in the United States have recalled several products, including non-dairy creamer and a type of candy, which are primarily sold in Asian markets, because of melamine concerns but to date the contamination here was not thought to be widespread.
"We're taking this action because it's the right thing to do for the public health," said Dr. Steven Solomon, an FDA deputy associate commissioner.
As a result, Chinese products that contain milk or milk powder will be detained until the manufacturer or its customer has the product tested and found to be free of contamination, or they show documentation indicating that the product does not contain milk or milk-derived ingredients.
"The burden shifts to the importer," Dr. Solomon said.
FDA analyses have detected melamine and cyanuric acid, another toxic chemical, in "a number of products that contain milk or milk-derived ingredients, including candy and beverages," according to an alert that the agency sent to field personnel. The alert also noted that inspectors in 13 other countries had discovered melamine in Chinese products including milk, yogurt, frozen desserts, biscuits, chocolates and cookies.
The FDA routinely blocks imports of individual food products, but it is rare for the agency to block an entire category of foods from a particular country. Last year, the FDA blocked five types of farm-raised seafood as well as vegetable protein from China because of repeated instances of contamination from unapproved animal drugs and food additives.
Unscrupulous food and feed dealers in China add melamine to their products because it fools tests that measure protein levels. Because it dissolves poorly, melamine can block the body's filtering system, potentially leading to kidney failure and death.
Dr. Solomon said that the alert would probably apply mostly to specialty products sold in Asian markets. But Benjamin England, a former lawyer at the FDA, described the latest alert as "massive" and said it could affect "a tremendous amount of goods."
"It's going to jam the ports up all the up the supply chain," said England, who represents food supply companies.
As a result of the earlier alerts on seafood and vegetable protein, most private laboratories that perform product tests for melamine already have long waiting lists, England said. And the FDA takes three to four weeks to review submitted tests, England said.
Chinese producers of shrimp, for instance, recently started breading their product to avoid a controversy over an anti-dumping lawsuit, England said. But breading often contains dairy, and that product could be detained at ports.
The effect of the alert will probably be long-lasting, England said, because importers must prove that each and every shipment is free of contamination.
"It's impossible to get off the alert list," England said.

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EU relents and lets a banana be a banana (IHT)

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EU relents and lets a banana be a banana (IHT)
By Stephen Castle
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
BRUSSELS: In the European Union, carrots must be firm but not woody, cucumbers must not be too curved and celery has to be free of any type of cavity. This was the law, one that banned overly curved, extra-knobbly or oddly shaped produce from supermarket shelves.
But in a victory for opponents of European regulation, 100 pages of legislation determining the size, shape and texture of fruit and vegetables have been torn up. On Wednesday, EU officials agreed to axe rules laying down standards for 26 products, from peas to plums.
In doing so, the authorities hope they have killed off regulations routinely used by critics - most notably in the British media - to ridicule the meddling tendencies of the EU.
After years of news stories about the permitted angle or curvature of fruit and vegetables, the decision Wednesday also coincided with the rising price of commodities. With the cost of the weekly supermarket visit on the rise, it has become increasingly hard to defend the act of throwing away food just because it looks strange.
Beginning in July next year, when the changes go into force, standards on the 26 products will disappear altogether. Shoppers will the be able to chose their produce whatever its appearance.
Under a compromise reached with national governments, many of which opposed the changes, standards will remain for 10 types of fruit and vegetables, including apples, citrus fruit, peaches, pears, strawberries and tomatoes.
But those in this category that do not meet European norms will still be allowed onto the market, providing they are marked as being substandard or intended for cooking or processing.
"This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot," said Mariann Fischer Boel, European commissioner for agriculture, who argued that regulations were better left to market operators.
"In these days of high food prices and general economic difficulties," Fischer Boel added, "consumers should be able to choose from the widest range of products possible. It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' shape."
That sentiment was not shared by 16 of the EU's 27 nations - including Greece, France, the Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and Poland - which tried to block the changes at a meeting of the Agricultural Management Committee.
Several worried that the abolition of standards would lead to the creation of national ones, said one official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
Copa-Cogeca, which represents European agricultural trade unions and cooperatives, also criticized the changes. "We fear that the absence of EU standards will lead member states to establish national standards and that private standards will proliferate," said its secretary general, Pekka Pesonen.
But the decision to scale back on standards will be welcomed by euro-skeptics who have long pilloried the EU executive's interest in intrusive regulation.
One such controversy revolved around the correct degree of bend in bananas - a type of fruit not covered by the Wednesday ruling.
In fact, there is no practical regulation on the issue. Commission Regulation (EC) 2257/94 says that bananas must be "free from malformation or abnormal curvature," though Class 1 bananas can have "slight defects of shape" and Class 2 bananas can have full "defects of shape."
By contrast, the curvature of cucumbers has been a preoccupation of European officials. Commission Regulation (EEC) No 1677/88 states that Class I and "Extra class" cucumbers are allowed a bend of 10 millimeters per 10 centimeters of length. Class II cucumbers can bend twice as much.
It also says cucumbers must be fresh in appearance, firm, clean and practically free of any visible foreign matter or pests, free of bitter taste and of any foreign smell.
Such restrictions will disappear next year, and about 100 pages of rules and regulations will go as well, a move welcomed by Neil Parish, chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee.
"Food is food, no matter what it looks like," Parish said. "To stop stores selling perfectly decent food during a food crisis is morally unjustifiable. Credit should be given to the EU agriculture commissioner for pushing through these proposals. Consumers care about the taste and quality of food, not how it looks."

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Export woes may send Afghan farmers back to drugs (IHT)

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Export woes may send Afghan farmers back to drugs (IHT)
Reuters
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
By Jonathon Burch
A bumper fruit harvest in Afghanistan this year has led to a surplus for domestic markets and with difficulties in exporting the goods, growers could return to harvesting opium, experts and farmers say.
Afghanistan used to produce some of the region's best fruits and nuts but insecurity led farmers to switch to opium, a crop that funds the Taliban insurgency, adding to insecurity and further boosting drug production.
While cultivation of opium, the raw ingredient for heroin, decreased this year, Afghanistan still produces some 90 percent of the world's supply of the drug.
Encouraged by international aid groups, some farmers have switched from growing opium to fruit and other products in recent years, but with little financial benefit and export problems, many could revert to more lucrative illicit crops.
"Farmers will always go for products with the highest benefit, especially with all the post-harvest problems," Mohammad Aqa, assistant representative for the U.N.'s food and agriculture organisation in Afghanistan (FAO), told Reuters.
But problems with processing, packaging and storing produce, along with poor access to international markets, means many farmers are not even able to cover their costs, said Aqa.
A fruit surplus is unlikely to meet the needs of millions of Afghans facing severe food shortages this winter as droughts in many areas of the country have hurt the staple wheat harvest.
"GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBLE"
Many farmers around the capital are feeling the strain and calling on the government to do more.
"If the government doesn't find us an export market and we don't benefit from our agricultural products and suffer financial harm like past years ... then we will have to return to poppy farming," said Safatullah Khan, a farmer on the outskirts of Kabul.
Due to the problems with exporting goods and the unregulated import of products already grown in Afghanistan, such as apples and grapes from China and Pakistan, farmers are forced to sell at very low prices, said Aqa.
A 7 kg (15 lb) bag of apples costs just $3 (1.93 pounds) in any of the capital's fruit markets.
"I agree with the farmers, they need more support. The government needs to at least limit these kind of imports ... in order to make them (farmers) competitive in the international market," said Aqa. "It's not a good time to introduce a free market in Afghanistan at the moment."
The government's export agency (EPAA) says it is aware of the problem and is working on finding a solution.
"We know that Afghan fruit production reached high levels this year, especially apples. These high levels of production have created problems and worries in society," said Rohullah Ahmadzai, spokesman for EPAA.
"I know the sharp increase in production within the market is worrying the farmers, but we will solve this issue soon," he said. He added that despite problems in exporting, $21 million worth of fruit was exported from Kandahar province alone.
(Editing by Valerie Lee)





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Little fish, big fish and the protein pyramid (IHT)

NYT EDITORIAL

Monday, November 10, 2008
Per capita meat consumption more than doubled over the past half-century as the global economy expanded. It is expected to double again by 2050. Which raises the question, what does all that meat eat before it becomes meat?
Increasingly the answer is very small fish harvested from the ocean and ground into meal and pressed into oil. According to a new report by scientists from the University of British Columbia and financed by the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, 37 percent by weight of all the fish taken from the ocean is forage fish: small fish like sardines and menhaden. Nearly half of that is fed to farmed fish; most of the rest is fed to pigs and poultry.
The problem is that forage fish are the feedstock of marine mammals and birds and larger species of fish. In other words, farmed fish, pigs and poultry - and the humans who eat them - are competing for food directly with aquatic species that depend on those forage fish for their existence. It's as if humans were swimming in schools in the ocean out-eating every other species.
The case is worse than that. When it comes to farmed fish, there is a net protein loss: It takes three pounds of fish feed to produce one pound of farmed salmon. This protein pyramid - small fish fed to farmed fish, pigs and poultry that are then fed to humans - is unsustainable. It threatens the foundation of oceanic life.
The report's authors suggest that it would be better if humans ate these small fish, as many cultures once did, instead of using them as feed. That is one way of addressing the problem of net protein loss.
The real answers are support for sustainable agriculture in the developing world and encouraging healthy, less meat-based eating habits as a true sign of affluence everywhere.

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Have you written to Farm Blogs From Around the World Recently?

If you have written to Farm Blogs recently, recommending other blogs or your own and are yet to receive a reply from me, my apologies.

The truth is I am drowning in writing work for a deadline at the end of this year and my wife has been away for 3 weeks in Australia with our daughter visiting her family. Leaving me with our two young rascals, the boys aged 4.5 and 2.5 to look after. (Family trips of 5 to Australia these days don't come cheap!)

I haven't forgotten about you, but it may be some time before I get around to contacting you and your blog recommendations. Indeed, when my wife returns this Saturday, I am going into hospital next week for a knee operation on Wednesday 19th November, will be there for 5 days, and then laid up in bed for 2 weeks. And then it's Christmas...!

So please bear with me. I aim to be putting much more time into Farm Blogs from Around the World from the New Year, so don't think, if I've gone all quiet on my email or postings, that this project is over.

It's still very much alive, I enjoy it greatly and aim to grow it as much as I can in 2009.

Your patience please!!

Thanks,
Ian


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BRAZIL: Agribusiness faces multiple anxieties (IHT)

Oxford Analytica
Monday, November 10, 2008
The financial crisis and subsequent credit squeeze, coupled with global recession fears, are having a serious impact on agriculture and agribusiness, a crucial source of both foreign exchange and employment.
Elusive finance. The sharp drop in the value of the real has in theory largely compensated for the fact that prices of most grains and oilseeds have fallen by 30% since mid-year highs; if the exchange rate remains weak, farmers will receive significantly more in the local currency in which most expenses are incurred. However, exchange rate uncertainty is making trade finance difficult to obtain, both for exporters and many importing countries.
The government has injected some 15 billion dollars into currency markets in recent weeks, more than half of that amount from international reserves, in part in a bid to get more money to farmers and to finance trade. However, banks are presently reluctant to lend for the long time period that elapses between commodities sales being agreed and goods being paid for.
Sugar and alcohol. In the midst of a 30 billion dollar expansion plan, Brazil's sugar industry is facing a severe crisis:
•Loans made to some 300 companies to finance expansion projects fall due in the next 12 months. While state banks may refinance debts, private banks are reluctant to do so.
•A record amount of the sugar crop is now used to produce alcohol for fuel. However, with credit restricted, new car sales will fall by up to 20% next year, slowing growth in domestic demand for alcohol. Moreover, exports of alcohol may remain static or fall next year, mainly due to the cutback in usage in the United States, the leading market.
Hedging headaches. Brazil's leading poultry producer and exporter, Sadia, has reported losses of about 400 million dollars in unwise hedging and currency speculation, exposing it to large penalties. Sadia, together with Brazil's largest pulp producer and exporter, Aracruz, and a large steel mill, has proposed to challenge contracts that oblige it to pay heavy penalties, although the steel company has admitted that its profits from hedging have far exceeded its losses thus far. It is not yet known whether other large agribusiness companies, including sugar mills, have also suffered large losses due to poor hedging decisions.
Meat matters. The chicken, beef and pork industries should have a record year in 2008. However, this situation will clearly not be repeated in 2009:
•Industry leaders have urged chicken producers to cut back production sharply, in an attempt to avoid large surpluses early next year that would push prices down further.
•Several large beef packers that bought processors in Latin America, the United States, Europe and Australia in the past two years, may have overstretched themselves financially and encounter serious difficulties. Three such companies went public in 2007 and raised large sums on the stock markets. Although their share prices have now collapsed, they received large loans from the National Development Bank.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said maintaining the relatively high growth rate of the past few years is a "matter of honor" and has promised to aid companies in agribusiness, including those which made hedging operations which turned sour. It is not clear that this will prove feasible.

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Now China points finger at foreign milk products (IHT)

Reuters
Thursday, November 6, 2008
BEIJING: China, embroiled in a tainted milk scandal that has made thousands of infants sick, has published a list of foreign companies that failed to meet quality standards for imported products ranging from milk powder to rosewater.
At least four children died and tens of thousands were made ill by drinking milk powder adulterated with melamine, prompting many worried parents to switch to foreign-made formula.
Melamine, a compound used in making plastic chairs among other uses, is added to food to cheat nutrition tests and has since been found in other dairy products, eggs and animal feed, prompting recalls of Chinese-made products around the world.
China's quality watchdog intercepted 191 batches of problem foreign goods in July, including milk powder and other dairy products made by Australian and South Korean companies, the Beijing News said, citing the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ).
Nearly nine tonnes of "Ausnutria" brand milk powder produced by Australian dairy company Tatura Industries and supplied to an Australian-Chinese joint venture in southern Hunan province had failed a standard for E. sakazaki, a bacteria, according to a list posted on AQSIQ's website (http://www.aqsiq.gov.cn ).
A company official at Tatura said the problem batch had passed quality inspections in Australia before being seized at Chinese customs.
"The products never made it into the local market," Tony McKenna, general manager of Nutritionals at Tatura, told Reuters by telephone.
"We've absolute faith in our quality systems, but we will comply with all of (the Chinese) requirements," McKenna said.
More than 14 tonnes of "Pauls" brand milk imported from Australia had also failed a bacteria standard, the notice said.
"Pauls" milk is produced by Parmalat Australia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Italian dairy giant Parmalat.
Parmalat Australia said in a statement emailed to Reuters it had never been informed of any problems with its products by Chinese authorities.
"We are keen to assist in any way to clarify the issue but it is unusual that the issue has just been raised now and only through the media," the statement said.
"All Parmalat products are subject to stringent quality standards, passing quality inspections in Australia prior to export," it added.
Authorities also seized more than 4,000 pounds (1,970 kg) of a brand of cheese supplied by an American company to Chinese dairy producer Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, and other products ranging from British biscuits to chicken feet from Argentina.
It was not clear why the customs authority posted the list more than three months after the inspections, but the publication comes as China battles to improve its food safety system in the wake of a series of food and product-safety scandals.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom)

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China destroys tons of tainted animal feed (IHT)

By David Barboza
Sunday, November 2, 2008
SHANGHAI: Chinese regulators said over the weekend that they had confiscated and destroyed more than 3,600 tons of animal feed tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical that has been blamed for contaminating food supplies in China and for leading to global recalls of Chinese dairy products.
In what appears to be the biggest food safety crackdown in years, the government also said Saturday that it had closed 238 illegal feed makers in a series of nationwide sweeps that involved more than 369,000 government inspectors.
The aggressive moves come amid growing worries that the Chinese animal feed industry could be contaminated by melamine, endangering the national food supply and posing a health threat to consumers.
Over the past week and a half, eggs produced in three different Chinese provinces were found to be tainted with high levels of melamine, a chemical commonly used to make plastic and fertilizer. And in September, melamine-tainted milk supplies were blamed for sickening more than 50,000 children and causing at least four deaths in China.
Regulators in the southern province of Guangdong, which is heavily populated with about 80 million people and is also a major manufacturing center near Hong Kong, said they had discovered six tons of melamine-tainted animal feed.
An official at the Agriculture Ministry said that the government would mete out harsh punishments to those who were deliberately adding melamine to animal feed.
"It is illegal for any individual or any enterprise to add melamine into feed, and we will crack down uncompromisingly on melamine," Wang Zhicai, director of the animal husbandry and livestock bureau at the Agriculture Ministry, said Saturday, according to a transcript of his news conference.
But government officials also said that China's animal feed supply was largely safe and that the quality of feed had improved in recent years. They insisted that only a small number of rogue operators had deliberately added melamine to feed, often using it as cheap filler in order to save money.
The government said something similar early last year when several animal feed makers were caught exporting melamine-tainted feed ingredients to the United States and other countries, resulting in contaminated pet food supplies that sickened and killed cats and dogs.
That case led to the largest pet-food recall in U.S. history. Melamine dealers in China said in interviews last year and as recently as Friday that it was not uncommon for animal feed operators to purchase melamine scrap, a cheaper form of melamine waste, and use it as filler.
A massive food safety campaign was announced in China late last year, with inspectors closing down thousands of substandard and illegal food and feed operators. And yet this year melamine has been found in animal feed, dairy products and eggs in China, triggering food recalls and warnings all over Asia and even in the United States.
The Chinese government has responded by firing high-ranking regulators and by arresting dozens of people suspected of intentionally adding melamine to milk supplies. The government has repeatedly promised to ensure the safety of the Chinese food supply.
But the nation's food safety woes are troubling global food companies that import from China and consumers around the world who fear that melamine may turn up in their food. Although China is not a leading dairy exporter, it is one of the biggest food exporters in the world.
Still, some food safety officials are asking consumers not to be too alarmed because although the melamine-contaminated eggs found in Hong Kong exceeded the government limit, a young child would have to consume about two dozen in a single day to become sick.
The concentrations in some of the Chinese baby milk supply, however, were far higher and caused kidney stones or renal failure in tens of thousands of children.

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China's contaminated food scandal widens (IHT)

A worker among stacks of eggs at a plant in suburban Beijing.

(Andy Wong/The Associated Press)

By David Barboza
Friday, October 31, 2008
SHANGHAI: Chinese regulators are widening their investigation into contaminated food amid growing signs that the toxic industrial chemical melamine has leached into the nation's animal feed supplies, posing health risks to consumers.
The announcement came after food safety tests earlier this week found that eggs produced in three different provinces in China were contaminated with melamine, which is blamed for causing kidney stones and renal failure in infants. The tests have led to recalls of eggs and consumer warnings.
The reports are another serious blow to China's agriculture industry, which is already struggling to cope with its worst food safety scandal in decades after melamine-tainted milk supplies sickened over 50,000 children, caused at least four deaths and led to global recalls of goods produced with Chinese dairy products earlier this fall.
The cases are fueling global concerns about Chinese food. In Hong Kong, food safety officials announced this week that they would begin testing a wider variety of foods for melamine, including vegetables, flour and meat products. On the mainland, Shanghai and other cities are moving aggressively to test a wide variety of food products for melamine, including fish and livestock feed, according to the state-run news media, which has in recent days carried multiple reports on melamine in animal feed.
In the United States, worried consumers frantically e-mailed one another on Thursday and Friday about the possibility of melamine-tainted Halloween treats following a spate of news reports that some candies and chocolates made in China or with ingredients sourced in China had tested positive for high levels of melamine or been destroyed in recent weeks as a cautionary measure.
A spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration said the agency was adjusting a nationwide sampling of products for melamine "as necessary." The FDA, along with state and local authorities, have been sampling products in Asian markets since mid-September for traces of melamine.
"Thus far, most of FDA's testing of milk and milk-derived ingredients and products from China focused on human foods, but have included animal feeds as well," said the spokeswoman, Stephanie Kwisnek. "The FDA is currently re-evaluating its overall approach to keeping these products out of the U.S. market."
Asian food safety experts warned consumers not to grow too alarmed over the finding of tainted eggs because they contained much lower concentrations of melamine than the powdered baby formula that caused such widespread problems in China.
Hong Kong food safety officials said a child would have to eat about two dozen of the eggs in a single day to become ill.
Still, if eggs, milk and animal feed supplies are tainted, there is the specter of an even wider array of foods that could come under scrutiny, everything from pork and chicken supplies to bread, biscuits, eggs, cakes, seafood and candy.
China is also one of the world's largest exporters of food and food ingredients, including meats, seafood, beverages and vitamins.
Melamine was banned as an animal feed additive in China in July 2007. And last year, United States regulators put tough restrictions on the amount of melamine allowed in food products.
But interviews on Friday, and over the past year, with several Chinese chemical dealers who sell melamine suggests that melamine scrap, the substantially cheaper waste left over after producing melamine, continued to be added to animal and fish feed.
"I heard some melamine dealers still sell to animal feed producers," said Qin Huaizhen, manager at the Gaocheng Kaishun Chemical Co. in city of Shijiazhuang, though he insisted he has never sold melamine to animal feed producers. "In Shandong province many animal feed manufacturers buy melamine scrap."
Two other melamine dealers in east and south China said that only after the recent dairy scandal did government regulators begin to closely monitor the sale of melamine to animal feed producers.
Kidney experts said that there has been very little research into how the chemical disrupts kidney function. Dr. Fredric Coe, a professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, said that melamine is likely concentrated in the kidneys into crystals that the body cannot dissolve. Those crystals clog many of the kidney's nearly one million nephrons, which are tiny filtering units, in a process very different from the usual way kidney stones are formed, Coe said. Urination slows or ceases, and patients suffer acute kidney failure.
Some food-safety experts are perplexed as to how melamine was allowed to seep into China's food supplies after melamine-tainted animal feed exports from China were blamed last year for sickening dogs and cats in the United States, touching off international trade and food safety disputes between the two countries.
"A year ago, everybody should have been in a complete panic about it, and done something then," said Marion Nestle, a professor of food studies and public health at New York University and the author of "Pet Food Politics" (University of California Press, 2008), which examines the pet food problem in detail. "Someone should have required that melamine not be in any food product."
The pet food case led to a vast recall in the United States and other parts of the world and also sparked a lengthy food safety crackdown in China, with regulators boasting that they had closed down thousands of illegal or substandard food factories and slaughterhouses.
Still, the Chinese government never made clear last year or even this year how extensively it had tested its own food and feed supply for melamine, even though melamine dealers acknowledged it was common to sell melamine scrap into the food and feed market.
In the dairy case, Chinese investigators have arrested dozens of suspects and blamed the scandal on a group of rogue milk and melamine dealers who they accuse of intentionally adding melamine, which is commonly used to produce plastic and fertilizer, to milk supplies as cheap filler in order to save money.
High-ranking government officials, including the head of the nation's quality watchdog, have been fired in the wake of the recalls and Beijing has acknowledged that "lax regulation" contributed to the scandal.
Similarly, last year, regulators in Beijing largely blamed the pet-food debacle on a pair of small exporters, who regulators said shipped feed or feed ingredients contaminated with melamine in order to save money and cheat the buyers.
Beijing also insisted its food safety problems were exaggerated, perhaps partly as a protectionist ploy to slow the boom in Chinese imports.
But several farmers and melamine scrap dealers said in interviews last year that melamine had been used for years in animal feed, particularly fish feed. Many melamine producers say they believed melamine scrap was nontoxic and would not be harmful to animals or humans.
Melamine dealers say the government crackdown on the sale to feed producers only occurred this year, after the Sanlu Group dairy company announced that its infant milk formula was tainted with melamine. That announcement, which came in September, triggered a nationwide recall and government announcements that other major dairy brands were also selling melamine-contaminated milk.
"Before the Sanlu scandal, we were not banned from selling melamine to anyone" Niu Qinglin, manager of the Hebei Jinglong Fengli Chemical Co., said in a telephone interview Friday. "I had heard melamine dealers sell melamine to animal feed companies and food companies; it was common before the Sanlu scandal."
Niu, however, said he never sold melamine or melamine scrap to food or feed producers. And he noted that regulators had moved in on the trade. "Now, the government regulates that melamine cannot be sold to any animal feed manufacturers or food processing companies," he said.

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9 families sue Chinese milk company (IHT)

By Edward Wong
Thursday, October 30, 2008
BEIJING: Nine families with babies suffering kidney problems, allegedly because of contaminated milk, have filed separate lawsuits against one of China's largest milk companies, according to lawyers representing the families. They are the latest lawsuits to be filed in China's worst food safety scandal in years.
The lawsuits were filed on Wednesday in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, the location of the headquarters of Sanlu Group, a company at the center of the milk scandal. The lawsuits demand compensation from Sanlu.
The milk scandal and the lawsuits have become politically sensitive matters, and so far no judge has agreed to hear a case in court. At least three other lawsuits had already been filed before Wednesday.
Both product liability lawsuits and class-action lawsuits are rare in China. This means that Chinese consumers have one less layer of protection against defective practices by big companies if governmental regulatory processes fail, as they have in many recent food and product safety cases, some legal scholars say.
The milk scandal first emerged in September, when it was revealed that babies drinking milk formula tainted with a toxic chemical called melamine had developed kidney stones. Melamine had been illegally added to dairy products to artificially boost protein counts to meet nutrition standards.
At least four babies have died and at least 53,000 other children have fallen ill, according to reports from official news agencies.
Since September, a wide range of food products from China have been discovered to have melamine, from yogurt and eggs to biscuits. Countries around the world have ordered recalls of Chinese-made food products suspected of being tainted with melamine.
Senior government officials and company executives have been fired as the scandal has widened, and dozens of people suspected of being involved have been arrested.
Given the Communist Party's sensitivities over the scandal, many lawyers in China do not have high hopes that the lawsuits will get a fair hearing in the courts, if they are heard at all.
The families, which are from several provinces, hope that the central government will eventually provide some sort of compensation for the ill children, said Ji Cheng, a lawyer with the Deheng Law Office, a large firm based in Beijing that is representing the nine families.
Each family had an infant that had to go to the hospital because of kidney stones, and six are still in the hospital, Ji said. The families have kept hospital records and complete records of their purchases of Sanlu baby formula, he added. The families are asking for at least 14,000 yuan, or about $2,000, per child in compensation payments from Sanlu.
Ji said the lawyers did not file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all the parents because each case had different details.
Class-action lawsuits are highly discouraged in the Chinese legal system. Technically they can be filed, but onerous rules put in place in recent years by official legal bodies have made it difficult for lawyers to file such lawsuits. Some Chinese legal scholars say the government views class-action lawsuits as a threat to social stability.
Over the course of the milk scandal, some lawyers have been discouraged from representing families seeking damages from dairy companies or from the government.
In the first weeks of the scandal, more than 100 lawyers put themselves on a list of lawyers volunteering to dispense legal advice to the families. But at least two dozen have since dropped their names from the list; most of them are from Henan Province, where lawyers have complained of subtle pressure put on them by local officials.
Huang Yuanxi contributed research.

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Bumper barley crop helps brewers, but not drinkers (IHT)

Reuters
Thursday, October 30, 2008
HAMBURG: A bumper barley crop has caused a sharp fall in prices for brewing malt and, while breweries are benefiting, beer drinkers will have little to cheer, analysts said Wednesday.
The European Union harvest of spring barley, which is used to make malt, rose by two million tons this summer after poor weather cut the 2007 crop.
As a result, malting barley prices have tumbled, cutting costs for beer makers. In Germany, malting barley is quoted around Euros160, or $207, a ton, compared with about €300 a ton before the harvest this summer.
"This price reduction provides a certain amount of relief on brewers' costs and could be positive for earnings," said Reiner Klinz at the consultancy KPMG, said. "But a beer retail price cut is not to be expected." He said brewers already had swallowed higher prices for raw materials, energy, glass and logistics, which had not been passed to consumers, and the commodity price reduction would help to reduce pressure on the sector.
The brewing giant SABMiller this month warned of an uncertain year ahead, despite the group's decision to raise prices to offset higher commodity costs and other input costs. Although prices for barley, aluminum and glass had fallen, the company said it would not see a big effect in the current year ending in March 2009 because of the company's forward hedging policy.








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