FYI on Beef

A key factor enabling China's transformation ("China Population Balance Tilts Urban," World News, Jan. 18) is the ability of landowning local governments to simply grab land instead of transferring ownership by means of a sales contract. Much of this land is arable and turned into industrial parks, plus housing.

U.S. exporters will continue to see “massive demand” for meat overseas, especially from China, the world’s biggest pork consumer, according to Brett Stuart, the co-founder of farm-industry researcher Global AgriTrends.

Top trade officials from the United States and European Union said today they were pleased with a final ruling from the WTO, which went against Chinese trade restraints on raw materials. The WTO’s Appellate Body said in Geneva that China needs to bring its restraints on exports of the materials into conformity with international trade agreement. The materials in question are used in the chemical and steel industries.

Researchers studying a potentially deadlier, airborne version of the bird flu virus have voluntarily suspended their studies for 60 days because of concerns it could be used as a devastating form of bioterrorism, according to a letter published in the journals Nature and Science on Friday.

For the past decade, cattle ranchers and meat packers watched with despair as America's beef consumption steadily declined, ceding ground to leaner meats as well as vegetarian trends among the health-conscious. Most recently, high unemployment in the world's wealthiest nation had cash-strapped Americans avoiding restaurants where beef is a common entree and had them switching to lower cost non-meat dishes at home.

Is the Chinese bubble about to burst? For some time now out of the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - China's growth rate has been not only one of the most rapid, but it has also been dragging the rest of the world economies along behind it - shining as a beacon to the faltering economies in Europe and the US

In a year of record agricultural earnings in the U.S., Steve Ruh spent a chunk of his income to build what’s become an increasingly common sight at farms across the Midwest -- grain storage bins. The Illinois corn grower started with 250,000 bushels (2 million gallons) of storage capacity in 2009 and added 100,000 this year to avoid wasting precious harvest time in line at grain elevators. He can now hold crops in gluts, hoping to sell at higher prices when grain is scarcer, and is storing half the 400,000-bushel corn crop this season at his farm in Sugar Grove.

Over the past two years, the Department of Agriculture's monthly forecasts of how much farmers will harvest have been off the mark to a greater degree than any other two consecutive years in the last 15, according to a Journal analysis of government data. This year's early-season forecasts also appear to have been way off.

For Canada, the cost of either meeting its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, or failing to do so, was too much to bear. On Monday, the country became the first signatory of the landmark climate treaty to back out of the deal, citing the huge potential cost of legally binding commitments.

While the long-term bull run in agri commodities remains, we expect prices across the agri complex to ease from their record highs, continuing the downward trajectory since mid-2011,says Luke Chandler, Director of Agri Commodity Markets Research. Prices need to stay at these higher levels through 2012 to encourage farmers to continue expanding production and keep pace with demand growth, and to allow global inventories to rebuild.

Dozens of agriculture groups are pressing the Department of Labor for changes to what they believe are overreaching proposals to on-farm child labor regulations. The National Pork Producers Council, National Farmers Union, American Sheep Industry Association and National Turkey Federation last week submitted comments on the U.S. Department of Labor’s proposed on-farm child labor regulations.

The U.S. House Agriculture Committee voted to subpoena Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., for a Dec. 8 hearing on the collapse of the New York-based brokerage.

This week, the conclave of global warming's cardinals are meeting in Durban, South Africa, for their 17th conference in as many years. The idea is to come up with a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire next year, and to require rich countries to pony up $100 billion a year to help poor countries cope with the alleged effects of climate change. This is said to be essential because in 2017 global warming becomes "catastrophic and irreversible," according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency. Yet a funny thing happened on the way to the climate apocalypse. Namely, the financial apocalypse.

Forced to cut its budget, the Agriculture Department has decided to eliminate dozens of reports, including the annual goat census (current population: three million), and the number of catfish on the nation’s fish farms (177 million, not counting the small fry).

With hay prices rising across the country, the ability to judge hay quality is an increasingly critical skill -- both for buyers and producers. Hay prices, though varying by region, quality and package, are sharply higher this fall compared to a year ago, Agriculture.com sources reported this week. Prices have as much as doubled in some areas, due to acreage shifts and a poor growing season.

Scientists are cooking up new ways of satisfying the world's ever-growing hunger for meat. "Cultured meat" -- burgers or sausages grown in laboratory Petri dishes rather than made from slaughtered livestock -- could be the answer that feeds the world, saves the environment and spares the lives of millions of animals, they say. Granted, it may take a while to catch on. And it won't be cheap.

Whole Foods Market Inc. continued its strong growth Wednesday, posting a 31% jump in fiscal fourth-quarter profit and its eighth straight quarter of identical-store sales growth. It also hiked its dividend 40% and announced a $200 million share-repurchase program.