News Update

News Update
May 7, 2008

White House Rebukes Farm Bill Costs

White House officials told reporters May 6 that the cost of the Farm Bill, which is still being held up in negotiations, remains too high, The Associated Press (AP) reported.

Speaking under anonymity, two sources close to the negotiations told AP that lawmakers are considering limiting subsidies to those making more than $750,000 in farm income annually.

At almost $300 billion, the cost of the five-year bill overshadows limits suggested by President Bush, who originally proposed a subsidy cap on those making more than $200,000 in average annual farm income.

According to AP, two-thirds of the proposed Farm Bill would pay for food stamps, and negotiators have allocated more than $10 billion in extra funds for nutrition programs. The bill would also increase grants to fruit and vegetable farmers and increase funding for conservation programs.

MN Governor Signs TB Bill

A plan to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (TB) from Minnesota cattle is now law, according to AP.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed the $6.2 million bill May 5, saying the disease threatens the state’s livestock industry. The plan includes paying ranchers to harvest their herds and putting up fences to keep deer from spreading the disease.

Part I: A Year Later, Survivors of Kansas’ Storm Offer Tips for Others

While much has been written about the May 4, 2007, tornado that claimed 11 lives and destroyed nearly 95% of Greensburg, Kan., a year later, the small city remains newsworthy.

“No one would choose the hardship that has come to our community,” said Darin Headrick, USD 422 school superintendent, who, without a school building or any of the essentials normally associated with school or school activities, announced that the new school year would start on schedule — Aug. 15, 2007 — and saw that it did.

A positive, can-do attitude is essential to the rebuilding process, said Headrick, who noted that the community’s new hospital is being built near a highway and will be easily accessible to emergency vehicles, patients and their families.

The town had grown up around the old hospital, with traffic increasing and sometimes slowing emergency vehicles, Headrick said, who also is a community development volunteer.

“We have an opportunity to make some choices that aren’t available to other communities,” Headrick said. He noted that residents’ environmentally friendly approach to the rebuilding process will benefit the community now and in the future.

Cassie Kirby, school secretary and school board clerk, and her husband, Troy, weathered the storm with their 4-year-old daughter, Allison, in the basement of their home. The family lost its business, a pivot irrigation service center, as well as their home.

The couple worked to replace the business first, and now is building a new home.

“The excitement in building the home is tempered by the losses our community has suffered,” said Kirby, who, with the exception of pictures of grown twins and their daughter and a purse she retrieved minutes before the storm struck, is starting over.

Pam Muntz, Kansas State University (K-State) Research and Extension family and consumer science agent in Kiowa County and a Greensburg resident also lost her home and is starting over.

Muntz, whose grown daughter and grandchildren were at her home when the storm struck, focused on the children’s safety and later realized that she had forgotten to put on shoes before heading to the basement. Later, she would have to tiptoe through broken glass and debris to retrieve a pair of shoes.

Muntz also had taken medication for a grandchild who is diabetic to the shelter, but had no idea that she would need medication for several days, rather than for a few hours.

Like the Kirby family and others in the community, Muntz also is rebuilding during an already stressful time.

Residents whose homes were spared have not, however, been immune to stress. Muntz’ co-worker, Carmen Stauth, also a K-State Research and Extension agent serving Kiowa County, is among the few whose homes were spared. She is, however, among those who have taken in family members who had lost their homes.

After accounting for their families, both Extension agents went to work helping others, and now, with the first year after the storm behind them, offered suggestions to help others:

Make — or take — time to organize vital information, including birth certificates, marriage license, passports, copies of other photo IDs (such as driver’s licenses), insurance policies and contact numbers to report a claim, titles to vehicles and other property, deeds, abstracts, medical providers’ names and telephone numbers, copies of insurance cards, a list of medications, and an up-to-date copy of your address book — and place the information in a water- and fireproof safe that can be secured to the floor. In Greensburg, many people found that such documents were either ruined or beginning to mold from rains following the tornado.

Make a plan for communicating with your family and place of employment after the storm. Designating a meeting place isn’t a bad idea, either. In Greensburg, landlines and cell phone towers were both knocked out by the storm.
Have a weather-alert radio with backup batteries in your home.
Pay attention to the weather and be prepared — stay dressed, for example, rather than getting ready for bed. Since the storm struck Greensburg at 9:45 p.m., many in the community were already wearing pajamas with footwear that offered little protection from broken glass, remnants of building materials, torn metal, etc.
Keep the basics such as a flashlight and lantern, blankets, first aid kit, bottled water to drink and non-perishable snacks in your storm cellar. If there are small children in the family, take a favorite blanket, diapers (if needed), stuffed animal or toy, coloring book and crayons.
Keep medications in a basket or other small container that can be easily picked up and taken to the shelter with you. An extra pair of glasses is a good idea.
Back up a home computer frequently, and consider storing backed up materials with other emergency supplies in the storm shelter.
Gather family photos in a basket or box, if time allows. Consider storing duplicates in a safe, bank safety-deposit box, or with family or friends who live elsewhere prior to storm season.
If in the habit of removing jewelry such as a wedding or mother’s ring during household or other chores, place the jewelry in a spot where it can easily be retrieved before heading off to a storm shelter.

“Finding such small items among household debris is unlikely,” Muntz said, who is now in her new home.

As Kirby and her family make plans to move into their new home this summer, she paused to reflect, saying: “I’m not planning to get too attached to the house. In Greensburg, we know the value of family, friends and neighbors and are not focusing on things.”

— Release provided by K-State Research and Extension.

Part II: K-State Safety Specialist: ‘Prepare to Weather Storm Safely’

Weather forecasting and warning systems have improved significantly since a tornado roared through Udall, Kan., May 25, 1955, killing 80, including many who were unaware that a deadly storm approached, said K-State professor Mike Bradshaw.

Bradshaw, who is retiring this year after more than 30 years as the K-State Research and Extension health and safety specialist, urges preparation prior to storm season.

“Safety steps need not be time-consuming or expensive,” Bradshaw said, who suggests covering the basics:

Look around your home or apartment and decide where you can — or should — go in case of a severe storm, fire, flood, power outage or other emergency.
Discuss and decide where to meet if storm sirens should sound. Include in the discussion what to do if children are on their way home from school or at a friend’s house or if parents are on the way home from work. While such family discussions are important, singles and others who live alone also should work out a system with friends and neighbors to account for each other if a storm should strike.
Invest in a battery-operated radio and flashlight, and an extra set of batteries.
Put together a three-day emergency kit with enough supplies for each person in your household: allow 1 gallon of water per person per day; nonperishable food such as canned, cooked meats or fish, canned vegetables, canned or dried fruits, nonfat dried milk, and canned or bottled fruit and vegetable juices, crackers and cereal bars. Rotate emergency supplies to prevent foods from becoming outdated, and remember to include a manual can opener, utensils, tableware, paper plates, napkins, towels and toilet paper.
First-aid kit.
Prescription medications for 72 hours.
Extra set of eye glasses, perhaps the pair most recently replaced.
Blankets, sleeping bags and a tent (if the family happens to have one).
Change of clothes for each person, including shoes or boots, socks, coat, jacket or rain poncho.
Coffee can or other re-sealable metal container with candles and matches.
Deck of cards and board games, and a few children’s toys. Such items as coloring books can reduce stress and anxiety.
A cell phone, if available, address book and phone book.
List of emergency contacts, cash, copies of insurance policies, household inventory and immunization records.

Taking pictures of each room in your home can be helpful in identifying how the home looked before a disaster. Store photos in a safe place, with other essential documents.

Stashing a camera — or making sure that you take it with you during an emergency — also can be helpful in documenting emergencies, Bradshaw said.

More information on personal safety and preparing for and recovering from disasters is available at local and district K-State Research and Extension offices; on its Extension web site at www.oznet.ksu.edu; on the Extension Disaster Education Network site http://eden.lsu.edu/; and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security site, www.dhs.gov/.

— Release provided by K-State Research and Extension.

Beef’s Place in Retail

Cattlemen must continually evaluate market conditions and make adjustments accordingly. It’s no different for businessmen on the other side of the beef chain.

Meat marketers completed a survey of 121 retail stores in metro areas across 34 states and compared it to a similar report from 2004. “The 2007 National Meat Case Study” identified the ways retailers are responding to their consumers.

The research, funded by supporters of the Annual Meat Conference, addressed two major questions:

What are retailers around the country merchandising in their fresh meat cases?
How has this changed in the last couple of years?

“Consumers will be very vocal,” says John Cremens, director of meat operations for Foodmaster Supermarkets Inc., based in Chelsea, Mass. “When they’re in the store looking for something, if there’s somebody there to listen, they’ll ask.”

The 10-store chain has been Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB)-licensed since 2002 and recently won the national Beef Backer award.

The survey showed a 50% increase in the percentage of whole muscle beef packages with on-pack nutrition labels.

“Retailers have been doing a better job of getting more information on the package,” Cremens says. “We use the Easy Fresh Cooking^â labels that give cooking and preparation instructions, which definitely help consumers.”

Information is one way to move beef. Innovation is another.

“We still have a lot of traditional cuts in the case that require some finesse. That’s an obstacle we face on a day-to-day basis,” he says. “That’s why you see companies doing value-added cuts and different fabrications. That makes it easier for the retailers to take those muscles and prepare them in a different way for retail sales.”

Although new merchandising methods have been implemented, beef is still given relatively the same amount of retail space. The survey says 27% of the entire self-serve meatcase is made up of beef products, with 8% being ground beef.

“Grinds are areas where we see growth and new offerings,” says Al Kober, CAB director of retail. “In the past, the impression was that when you grind CAB, it becomes just ground beef. Not so. The quality difference extends to the grinds.

Cremens sees value-added opportunities in the ground beef category, too.

“You generally have your four traditional blends of hamburger, but a lot of people are taking that to the next step and making seasoned burger,” he says. Prepattied hamburgers also hold appeal, especially when other ingredients, like portabella mushrooms or jalapeños and cheese, are added.

The average number of ground beef stock-keeping units (SKUs) rose from 12.1 in 2004 to 13.2 in 2007.

“These initiatives are changing the role of ground beef from just burgers to becoming ‘center of the plate’ items for dinner,” Kober says.

The value-added category is on the increase, from 4% in 2004 to 7% in the current study.

“Value added will continue to drive new sales,” Kober predicts. “CAB offers consumer-ready marinated top round London Broil in three flavors, fresh corned beef, beef entrees like pot roast and CAB patties.”

Those precooked items are growing in popularity.

“The majority of heat-and-serve is chicken, but we’re trying to gear toward all ready-to-eat categories,” Cremens says. Today, just over a quarter of all heat-and-serve items are beef.

“We find the consumers either don’t have the knowledge or the time to prepare a lot of cuts,” he says. “The more we can do in retail to get it one step closer to getting it on the table is definitely the way people are going.”

One area that consumers and grocers alike don’t fully understand is the natural arena. Ground beef with natural claims jumped from 7% to 25% in three years, a 257% increase. Whole muscle cuts climbed two percentage points.

“It’s definitely the buzz in the industry. All retailers are jumping on board in some natural aspect with beef,” Cremens says, noting Foodmaster offers CAB Natural. “In our particular locations — urban, inner-city Boston — we only have a couple of stores that have great success with it.”

He suggests price point as one hurdle and the lack of knowledge about it as a second.

Overall, the survey pointed to upward and downward trends, but Cremens knows a solid focus on good beef is good for Foodmaster.

“The company grew as a meat image company and it’s stayed that way to date,” he says. “We saw that beef quality grading lacked some consistency and that’s when we decided to make that switch to a brand that was always going to have that consistency.”

— Release provided by CAB.

USGC: FDA Withdraws StarLink Testing Guidance

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has withdrawn its voluntary guidance to corn dry millers and masa flour manufacturers to test all inbound corn for the presence of the Cry9C protein found in StarLink corn hybrids, the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) reported.

The withdrawal is concurrent with a white paper published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that states the presence of Cry9C has been sufficiently removed from the human food supply and that there is no longer any justification for continued testing of the protein for StarLink corn.

— compiled by Crystal Albers, associate editor, Angus Productions Inc.