News Update

News Update
Nov. 2, 2007

USDA Readies $257 Million in CSP Contract Payments

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Acting Secretary Chuck Conner announced Oct. 29 that nearly $257 million in Conservation Security Program (CSP) payments are being readied for all 19,393 contracts with eligible landowners and producers.

The payments are for current contracts in all 280 CSP watersheds. CSP contract holders will receive payment in full for the current fiscal year 2008 contract obligations and will be given the option of receiving their payment in calendar year 2007 or 2008. CSP program participants should contact their local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office so their payments can be processed.

In preparation for the 2007 Farm Bill, USDA submitted a proposal that calls for substantial reform and improvement of the CSP with a goal of conducting nationwide signups. Currently, CSP is offered on a rotating watershed basis as funds are available.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) anticipates the next CSP signup to take place in early 2008 in the 51 eligible watersheds announced in September 2006. These watersheds include more than 64,500 potentially eligible farms and ranches in nearly 24 million acres of cropland and grazing land throughout the United States, the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean Area.

CSP is a voluntary program established as part of the 2002 Farm Bill to support ongoing conservation stewardship on private agricultural working lands and enhance the condition of the nation’s natural resources.

For more information about CSP, including payment information for existing contracts, eligible 2007 watersheds, and program eligibility requirements visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/csp or the nearest USDA Service Center.

— Release courtesy of USDA.

U.S. Efforts to Expand Foreign Markets Will Continue

Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner said in a speech Oct. 29 at the Global Outlook Symposium of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) that the United States is pressing its trading partners to broaden access to U.S. red meat based on internationally recognized scientific standards.

“I think I have made it clear in the past few weeks that I am going to work just as hard at opening markets to U.S. beef and U.S. pork products as my predecessor Mike Johanns did,” Conner said.

Conner noted that another speaker, Ellen Terpstra, deputy undersecretary for the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), had just returned from a two-week trip to Asia, where she had very detailed talks with senior officials in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong to bring their nations’ treatment of U.S. beef and pork imports in line with the standards set by the World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE.

Conner said the U.S. is on track for its fourth record year in a row for total U.S agricultural imports, which are expected to come in at $79 billion, with exports of beef, pork and lamb to account for some $5.2 billion of that amount.

He later told reporters that President Bush will urge Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to lift the age limit on U.S. beef imports when the two leaders meet for scheduled talks in November.

— From the speech and media questions transcript provided by USDA.

New Cancer Report Says Limit Red and Processed Meat; Industry Disagrees

A new report by the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research suggests limiting intake of red meat and avoiding processed meat as one of 10 recommendations to reduce cancer risk, MeatingPlace.com reported Oct. 31.

The report, an update of the group’s 1997 findings and review of more than 7,000 studies, said it found that both red meat (defined as beef, pork, lamb and goat) and processed meat (defined as meat preserved by smoking, curing or salting or chemical preservatives) increased the risk of colorectal cancer if eaten in large quantities.

It cautioned people who eat red meat to consume less that 500 grams (18 ounces) of cooked red meat a week and that they consume “very little, if any” processed meat, such as bacon, ham, sausage and lunchmeat.

The panel noted that the overall recommendation was not for diets that contained no red meat or diets containing no foods of animal origin, since “An integrated approach to the evidence also shows that many foods of animal origin are nourishing and healthy if consumed in modest amounts,” according to MeatingPlace.

The report pointed to excess body fat as a major cancer risk and noted that diets with high levels of animal fats can increase the risk of weight gain. It linked excess body fat to cancers of the esophagus, pancreas, colon and rectum, endometrium and kidney, along with breast cancer in postmenopausal women.

The American Meat Institute (AMI) disputed the report’s recommendations, suggesting that the report oversimplifies the complex issue of cancer by not considering factors like genetics, the environment, lifestyle and other issues.

AMI also disputed the report’s recommendations on processed meats, saying their own “reviews of the literature by independent epidemiologists documented that 15 of 16 comparisons regarding processed meat and colorectal cancer were not statistically significant,” according to AMI Foundation Vice President of Scientific Affairs Randy Huffman.

Huffman also questioned why a 2004 Harvard School of Public Health analysis that concluded that red meat and processed meat were not associated with colon cancer wasn’t used. The Harvard study, involving 725,000 men and women, was presented at the 2004 American Association for Cancer Research Conference in abstract form but has never been published in its entirety.

Lawmakers are now asking why the study, which Huffman called the largest ever done on red meat and colon cancer, has not been published given its completion three years ago and its federal funding.

— compiled by Linda Robbins, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc. (API)