FYI on Dairy

Corn is due for more damage from a drought that has produced the worst U.S. growing conditions in almost a quarter century, according to David Driscoll, a Citigroup Inc. analyst. The CHART OF THE DAY displays the percentage of the corn crop in good to excellent condition, according to data compiled by the Agriculture Department. Average readings for the previous 25 years and data for 1988, another drought year, are included for comparison.

A map of significant climate events for the United States in June looks almost apocalyptic: hellish heat, ferocious fires and severe storms leaving people injured, homeless and even dead. That followed a warm winter and early season droughts. News came Monday that the mainland United States experienced its warmest 12 months since the dawn of record-keeping in 1895.

A majority of Americans want antibiotic-free meat, according to a national poll released by Consumer Reports. The report, “Meat on Drugs: The Overuse of Antibiotics in Food Animals and What Supermarkets and Consumers Can Do to Stop It,” is available at Consumer Reports.org. The release of the poll coincides with the laun

Farms and ranches are businesses, plan accordingly.

New research from Tetra Pak has identified 2.7 billion low-income consumers in developing countries as the dairy industry’s next big growth opportunity due to an expected rise in prosperity, purchasing power and desire for packaged liquid dairy products (LDP).

This year, India will displace the United States as the world's third largest beef exporter, behind Brazil and Australia. In just the first half of 2012, India exported $1.24 billion worth of meat, and a 30 percent growth in revenue from 2010 exports is projected by the end of the year, according to a U.S. Beef Export Federation study. While the bulk of Indian exports is buffalo meat bound for Middle East and Southeast Asian markets, the growing middle class in Arab countries has sparked a new craving for cow beef. The rise in demand could make India the world's king beef exporter by 2013, according to USDA estimates.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — More than 40 years ago, I first read Eduardo Galeano’s classic, “Open Veins of Latin America.” Yes, it’s the same book that snarky Hugo Chavez presented to President Barack Obama in 2009. The first sentences of Galeanos’s book remain as starkly comprehensive, and controversial, as ever: “The division of labor among nations is that some specialize in winning and others in losing. Our part of the world, known today as Latin America, was precocious. It has specialized in losing ever since those remote times when Renaissance Europeans ventured across the ocean and buried their teeth in the throats of the Indian civilizations.”

What exactly fueled the firestorm over what some call "lean finely textured beef" and others call "pink slime"? Here's a possible answer: a troubling mix of industry intransigence, uninformed consumers and a megaphone-toting media—social and otherwise. The only innocent bystander was the cow.

Global food prices rose in March for a third successive month, driven by gains in grains and vegetable oils, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said on Thursday, putting food inflation firmly back on the economic agenda.

Ground beef processor AFA Foods filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday and said it plans to sell some or all of its assets, citing the impact of media coverage related to a meat filler critics have dubbed "pink slime."

The majority of cattle markets traded lower last week, driven by sharply lower boxed beef prices and soft retail demand. The continuing saga of lean, fine-textured beef (LFTB), commonly referred to in the media as “pink slime,” reduced demand for the product and resulted in the temporary closure of three plants and the loss of 650 jobs.

The main producer of "pink slime" and the politicians defending the company will have a hard time persuading consumers and grocery stores to accept the product, even if the processed beef trimmings are as safe as the industry insists. Three governors and two lieutenant governors plan to tour Beef Products's plant in South Sioux City, Neb., Thursday afternoon to show their support for the company and the several thousand jobs it creates in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Texas.

In general, a bullet to the coal industry provides a shot in the arm for natural gas. That the latest proposals from the Environmental Protection Agency haven't done so is telling. The EPA wants to limit carbon emissions from new power plants to a level that, in practical terms, could only be met by efficient gas-fired turbines. This is supportive of gas taking market share from its lumpy rival.

A new report has found dozens of cases of illness, death and reproductive issues in cows, horses, goats, llamas, chickens, dogs, cats, fish and other wildlife, and humans. It says these conditions could be the result of exposure to gas drilling operations.