Agriculture is so far exempt from carbon emission regulation in the carbon bill making its way through Congress. This means that tractors, manure lagoons and the methane produce by cows will not be subject to regulation. However, no provision has been made to reward farmers for introducing carbon sequestering techniques such as no-till and high stock density grazing. Farm groups say this lack of reward has the same effect as punishing agriculture because the carbon legislation is expected to increase the cost of diesel, fertilizer and steel farm implements. Corn farmers are also getting nervous about the increased scrutiny of corn-based ethanol and its role in increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Representative Collin Peterson has threatened to "bring this climate bill down" unless ethanol has a prominent role in any program aimed at reducing greenhouse gases.

Corn has fallen worse than any other commodity since last summer with a decline of 40% in price. However, The Wall Street Journal warns that corn prices could get quite pricey again this summer and into next year. Due to heavy rains in the Midwest much corn did not get planted this year. Also, continuing heavy rain is deteriorating what did get planted. World stocks of corn are already running low. By early next year, global inventories could fall below 60 days of supply according to Deutsche Bank. This would be the lowest level since the 1970's. Luckily, those same heavy rains in the Southeast and Midwest are growing lots of grass and should allow cattle to stay out of the feedlots longer or altogether.

The Truthful Labeling Coalition estimates that American consumers annually spend an estimated $2 billion for added salt water in commercial grade chickens, The Wall Street Journal reported. Currently, roughly one-third of fresh chicken sold in the USA is "plumped" with water, salt and sometimes a seaweed extract that helps the meat retain the water. And, the USDA allows such chickens to be marketed as "all natural" or "100% natural." This is hardly the case. Untreated chicken has about 45 to 60 mgs of sodium per four-ounce serving whereas "plumped" chicken has between 200 to 400 mgs of sodium per serving. This is almost as much as a serving of fast food French fries. Chicken companies say their private surveys show that consumers prefer the salty taste of the plumped chicken and said the practice was forced upon them by the large discount chain stores that wanted a uniform weight and price for each chicken. A recent telephone survey of 1000 West Coast consumers found that 63% were unaware of the practice and 82% believe that salt-water injected chicken shouldn’t carry the all-natural label.

Ethanol supporters are upset that the EPA is expected to propose measuring the greenhouse gas emissions associated with biofuel production - including emissions that result when pastures and forests are converted to grain production. The Wall Street Journal reported that last year in the journal Science a study was published that found that corn-based ethanol increases emissions by 93% compared to using gasoline when land-use conversions were figured in. Needless to say the ethanol industry is not interested in seeing research done on the carbon-sequestering ability of pulse-grazed pasture which would worsen this figure even more. Democrats in Congress warn that the continued financial subsidies for ethanol totally depend upon it being seen as a "green alternative" to petroleum. The ethanol lobby is currently pushing for a Congressional mandate to allow ethanol blends to increase from 10% to 15% due to falling demand from decreased driving.

I just returned from a 10 day trip to the Mediterranean areas of Greece and Turkey. My primary focus was to enjoy myself and have a little vacation but secondarily I wanted to get a sense of what an artisanal, post-irrigation agriculture would look, and taste, like. I plan to fully detail this in a future Al’s Obs but first let me explain the "post-irrigation" comment. The American west, and particularly California, are running out of water. Currently, the West is the most urbanized region of the country. Where are these people going to get water in the future? From farmers. Currently, agriculture consumes 75% of the region’s water, while domestic and municipal consumption consumes only 10%. If you think people get upset over waiting in line for gasoline, wait until they can’t flush their commodes. This year, California rice farmers could sell their irrigation water to city dwellers, grow nothing and net $900 an acre. What I am interested in is what can you do with that land without irrigation and the Mediterranean region of Europe which has a similar climate to California, offers a lot of profitable possibilities. By the way, it only rains 36 days a year in Greece. Two of those days were during my vacation.

Joel Salatin and his Virginia-based pastured pig operation were featured on last night’s Nightline news show on ABC television. His operation which features the rotational grazing of pigs in both pasture and forest was offered as a counterpoint to the industrial pork operation in Mexico that was apparently ground zero for the current outbreak of Swine Flu. The show said that industrial scale confinement pork operations were the "perfect petri dish" for the development of new human flu strains. Salatin also produces several hundred head of grassfed beeves a year and thousands of pastured chickens - both broilers and layers.