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Cloning animals for food products is even less popular than GM food with 18 per cent of Europeans in support. In only two countries – Spain and the Czech Republic – does animal cloning attract the support of three in ten. This contrasts with 14 countries in which support for GM food is above 30 per cent. Is this an indication of broader public anxieties about biotechnology and food? The idea of the ‘natural superiority of the natural’ captures many of the trends in European food production, such as enthusiasm for organic food, local food, and worries about food-miles. And if ‘unnaturalness’ is one of the problems associated with GM food, it appears to be an even greater concern in the case of animal cloning and food products.

Despite the Department of Agriculture’s interventions to minimize the effects of El Nino from January to September 2010, the country’s agriculture sector slowed down by 2.62 percent (%), even as the poultry, livestock and fisheries subsectors posted positive growth rates.

Confirming what food-animal producers have suspected about a proposed federal rule on buying and selling livestock and poultry, a comprehensive economic analysis of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposed regulation found it would be bad for farmers and ranchers, bad for consumers and bad for rural America.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is amending its regulations governing the importation of certain animals and animal products by adding the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina to the list of regions we recognize as free of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), rinderpest, swine vesicular disease (SVD), classical swine fever (CSF) and African swine fever (ASF). APHIS is also adding Santa Catarina to the list of regions that are subject to certain import restrictions on meat and meat products because of their proximity to or trading relationships with rinderpest- or FMD-affected countries.

According to the latest data published by the French agricultural statistics survey, Agreste, in the “GraphAgri France 2010” report, during 2009 the French swine herd had a total of 14,6 million pigs, of which 0,9 million were sows.

Defra has published a report on sales of veterinary antimicrobials for 2009. The report, produced by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), shows that total sales of therapeutic antimicrobials in 2009 was 402 tonnes, which was an increase of 18 tonnes (4.7%) when compared with 2008, when 384 tonnes were sold.

The Russian VPSS published a semiannual report on the epizootic situation in the country for the first half of 2010.

The biggest and most important single cost for pig producers is feed; on average it accounts for almost 60% of total production costs. It is no exaggeration to state that global rises in the price of feed are the biggest threat to the sustainability of English high welfare pig production and processing.