Page 869 of articles about news

A first-of-its-kind agreement has been reached between the U.S. and Canada that will expand opportunities for organic producers in both countries, announced Kathleen Merrigan, Agriculture Deputy Secretary. The "equivalency agreement" follows a review by both nations of each other's organic certification program and a determination that products meeting the standard in the U.S. can be sold as organic in Canada, and vice versa.

Meat production including by-products of the first grade grew 11.6% to 1.3m tons in January – May 2009 in Russia, if compared to the same period in 2008, Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) reports.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 with an amendment that would exempt meat, poultry, eggs and the farms and facilities that produce and process them exclusively.

Because food is a basic necessity, the agriculture sector is showing more resilience to the global economic crisis than other industries. But the risks could increase if the economic downturn deepens, according to a new report by the OECD and FAO.

The nation's biggest hog farmer and pork processor said it is reducing the size of its own sow herd by another 3% after cutting the number of breeding females by 10% in fiscal 2009.

A brainstorming meeting of scientists, risk assessors and risk managers on the influenza A(H1N1) at the human animal interface organised by the Commission with the support of ECDC and EFSA took place on 9 June 2009 in Brussels. It focused on the potential risks posed by that virus at the interface between humans and animals. Scientists from the public health, animal health and food safety field from the EU, USA, Canada and Russia attended the meeting.

The Welsh Assembly will not be introducing a National Envelope scheme – a provision which would have seen the redirection of 10 per cent of the Single Farm Payment allocated to farmers.

The deputy head of the Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nguyen Xuan Duong, said according to the Viet Nam Livestock Development Strategy until 2020, the nation aimed to increase the proportion of livestock products in the agriculture sector to 42 per cent by 2020.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) have published today a joint Scientific Report on methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in livestock, pets and foods.

Canadian farmers and exporters now have new market opportunities in Mongolia for beef, cattle and swine and their products. Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz made the announcement yesterday after meeting with Mongolia's Minister for Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, the Honourable Tunjin Badamjunai.

In order to assist pork producers in Minnesota to demonstrate their commitment to consumers and the general public, University of Minnesota Extension has teamed up with the Minnesota Pork Board to provide training and certification sessions for producers to become individually certified in Pork Quality Assurance Plus (PQA+) and Transport Quality Assurance (TQA) programs.

After meeting with Russian Minister of Agriculture Elena Elena Skrynnik, Brasilian Minister Reinhold Stephanes announced Russia’s government decision of enabling meat processing plants from Santa Catarina State to export meat products to Russia. (Original in Portuguese. Read Google translation here).

During April over 640,000 weaners were exported — a staggering increase of 61 percent on April last year. Total export of piglets during the first four months of this year are up over 40 percent on the same period last year.

The OIE has reported 3 new outbreaks of classical swine fever in Rio Grande Do Norte and 1 in Amapá. The three new outbreaks in Rio Grande Do Norte were detected by the surveillance programme and have an epidemiological link with the "Jucurutu 1" outbreak, where animals from the farm considered to be the index farm were introduced. All farms are for self-consumption or local trade. The State of Rio Grande do Norte is located outside the area declared at a national level as free of classical swine fever. The Animal Health Department has approved the vaccination of all pigs of the State of Rio Grande do Norte. Vaccination remains prohibited in the rest of the country. In Amapaá, the affected farm, of a traditional type, is for self-consumption. The State of Amapá is located outside the area declared at a national level as free of classical swine fever. Surveillance and epidemiological investigation are continuing.