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Texas Agriculture Archive

November 18, 2005

London WTO talks end on down note

 
Trade officials, involved in World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in London, left the meeting on Nov. 7 worried that expectations for results at the WTO's December conference in Hong Kong might have to be modified.

There was no breakthrough in talks among officials from the United States, the European Union, Brazil, India and Japan. The central issue continues to be the EU's refusal to budge on concessions to further open markets and reduce tariffs.

The WTO meeting site switched to Geneva later in the week and included a larger group of trade ministers. The group was expected to discuss whether to target more modest accomplishments at the December Hong Kong meeting.

European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in London repeated the EU's stance that there is little chance for further concessions because of mandates fixed by EU member countries. French officials are some of the most outspoken against EU concessions. France was cited as one of the most grievous in subsidizing big farming businesses at the expense of small farmers. The international charity organization Oxfam reported that 15 percent of French farm businesses received 60 percent of the country's direct EU farm payments.

FSA County Committee elections begin

The election period for USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) county committees is open through Dec. 5, 2005.

Agricultural producers, who participate or cooperate in any FSA program and are of legal voting age, can vote. A person supervising and conducting the farming operations on an entire farm, but not of legal voting age, can also vote.

Eligible producers should contact their local FSA offices if they do not receive a ballot. All ballots must be returned to the voter's FSA office or be postmarked by Dec. 5, 2005.

The candidate receiving the most votes serves a three-year term as the elected county committee member. The person receiving the second most votes serves a three-year term as the first alternate. The candidate receiving the third most votes serves as second alternate for three years.

Approximately one-third of the nearly 8,000 committee seats nationwide are up for election annually. Newly elected committee members and alternates take office Jan. 1, 2006.

Producers can learn more about FSA county committees by contacting a local FSA office or online at http://www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/

Biodiesel: Too much of a good thing?

A look at the ballooning production capacity for biodiesel is investigated in an article appearing in the Des Moines Register newspaper.

The article asks if demand will keep pace with the production capacity increase because at least 100 biodiesel plants are either in operation or in some stage of planning and construction across the United States.

A biodiesel consultant is quoted as saying a penny-per-pound increase in the price of vegetable oil or animal fats increases the price of biodiesel by 7.5 cents a gallon. A main factor to make biodiesel competitive with 100-percent petroleum diesel is the $1-a-gallon subsidy that Congress enacted to be in effect through 2008. A question is whether biodiesel demand could have positive influence on soybean prices but equally negative influence in keeping the fuel competitively priced.

The article can be found at: http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20051107/BUSINESS01/511070313/1030 .

Japan report: U.S. BSE risk low

Japan's Food Safety Commission approved a draft report recently by a panel investigating the risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) infected beef being exported by the United States.

The report judged the potential for infected beef to be extremely low from beef cattle younger than 20 months of age. Public hearings on the report are the next step. This is a major step in opening Japan's market to U.S. beef.

Meanwhile, another inspection team is being sent to North American by the Japanese government to look at United States and Canadian beef slaughterhouses, meat-packing facilities, ranches and feedlots.

One goal of the team will be to determine how the United States will verify that the cattle slaughtered for export to Japan are less than 20 months of age.

Notable Quotables

"Conservative members of Congress have a very strong background and a very strong bent toward protecting private property rights. Many of the liberal members of Congress represent constituencies in the inner cities—the lower income and the elderly people whose property is most at risk from eminent domain for economic development purposes—because they're the ones whose property cannot generate as much tax revenue as everything else."

Rick Krause, private property rights specialist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, explaining why he thinks Congress is taking strong action against a recent Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain, known as the Kelo decision. The House of Representatives easily passed legislation—376-38—that would stop federal economic development funding for two years to any state or local government that uses eminent domain to take property to improve its tax base.