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Texas Agriculture Archive

November 15, 2002

The Texas Department of Agriculture is administering the distribution of $10 million in agriculture assistance funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Commodity Credit Corporation to Rio Grande Valley producers who rely on irrigation water from the Rio Grande and who were impacted by decreases in water allocations due to Mexico's non-compliance with the 1944 U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty.

Applications for federal agriculture assistance funds will be accepted until close of business Dec. 16 at local water irrigation district offices and USDA Farm Service Agency offices. Agriculture producers with farming acreage in Cameron, Hidalgo, Kinney, Maverick, Starr, Val Verde, Webb, Willacy and Zapata counties are eligible, provided: 1) acreage has been eligible for water allocations for agricultural use in the Rio Grande Watermaster system through either irrigation water rights as an independent or through a water irrigation district during the 2001 crop year; and 2) agricultural producers must have had the right to farm eligible acres on Jan. 1, 2001.

Eligible producers can apply beginning Nov. 1 through the close of business Dec. 16, 2002. Information and applications are available at Water Irrigation District offices, Texas Cooperative Extension offices, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Farm Service Agency (USDA-FSA) offices, Rio Grande Watermaster offices and TDA's website.

Completed applications may be filed at your Water Irrigation District office or at USDA-FSA offices in counties without a water district. Applications submitted directly to TDA will not be accepted. TDA will distribute funds after all valid applications are processed.

For more information, contact Steve Bearden, TDA's Regional Valley Office in San Juan at (956) 787-8866 or by e-mail at steve.bearden @agr.state.tx.us.

Like farmers across America, researchers in Wisconsin are bringing in their soybeans this fall. But their crop was not grown in a field, but aboard the International Space Station. The team has collected information from the first-ever soybean crop grown in space, and will now begin several months of chemical and biological analysis on the plants. The team will determine whether the low-gravity environment inside the Space Station has changed the chemical make-up of the soybeans.

"We want to examine the seeds produced by plants grown on the Station to see if they have any unique, desirable traits," said Dr. Tom Corbin, a research scientist for Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. "If we find changes, then we want to know if the positive traits can be inherited genetically by future generations of plants for the benefit of farmers and consumers."

"This experiment and others are paving the way for improving crops grown on Earth, as well as potentially feeding people living in space," said Mark Nall, with NASA's Space Product Development Program.

New control, new priorities

The strong Republican showing in the recent election will greatly influence the congressional agenda during the upcoming lame-duck session and beyond.

Taxes will certainly move up on the list, with a major overhaul of the tax code becoming a priority. In addition, President Bush said during the campaign he needed GOP support to confirm a backlog of conservatives to federal judgeships.

Disaster aid for farmers and ranchers could still pass. However, Bush and House Republican leaders have insisted in the past that the aid must be offset with spending cuts, making it highly unlikely that aid will come without strings attached.

The change in control of the Senate will result in a new Senate Ag Committee chairman. Sen. Richard Lugar, who chaired the Ag Committee for several years, is expected to chair the Foreign Relations Committee instead, making room for Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) to take on that role. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) should return the chair the Finance Committee.

"Z-trim," a product designed to reduce calories in fatty foods, will be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for consideration as a "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) ingredient.

Z-trim was developed by George Inglett of USDA's Agricultural Research Service in 1995.

Inglett came up with Z-trim while researching ways to use crop components like fiber as value-added products.

Z-trim is made from oats, soybeans or rice hulls and replaces fat in foods with insoluble fiber, adding no calories.

If the product is approved as a GRAS, it will be marketed for use in dairy products, baked goods, ground meats, pasta, snack foods and nutritional drinks.

Notable Quotables

"We are consulting with the U.S. Department of Justice to determine the next steps regarding this matter."

—USDA Secretary Ann Veneman reacting to a ruling by a District Court in Michigan that the Pork Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act is unconstitutional.