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AgNews Summary for USDA Executives

Friday, Feb. 6, 2009 

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FOOD, NUTRITION AND CONSUMER SERVICES

PEANUTS SENT TO SCHOOLS DESPITE TESTS SHOWING SALMONELLA (101 
Washington Post 2/6) Peanut Corporation of America sold 32 truckloads of roasted 
peanuts and peanut butter to the federal government for a free-lunch program for poor 
children, even as the companys internal tests showed that its products were 
contaminated with salmonella bacteria.  On Thursday, USDA abruptly suspended its 
contract with the company, which is at the center of an outbreak of salmonella illness 
that has killed eight people, sickened 575 and triggered one of the largest food recalls in 
U.S. history (#103 below).  The fact that a federal agency that shares responsibility for 
keeping food safe was among the thousands of customers that may have received 
tainted food from the Blakely, Ga., plant is the latest revelation in a scandal that has 
exposed an array of failures in the governments systems for keeping deadly pathogens 
out of the food supply.  A spokeswoman for USDA said schools in California, Minnesota 
and Idaho received the suspected peanut products between January and November 
2007.  Federal officials notified the affected schools last week and told them to destroy 
any uneaten food, but officials said most of it has already been consumed, the 
spokeswoman said.  See AgNews 2/2 #103.

VILSACK SAYS USDA FOOD PROGRAMS CAN CUT CHILD HUNGER (102 Reuters 
2/5) Public nutrition programs like school lunch and food stamps can help meet President 
Obamas goal to end childhood hunger by 2015, Secretary Tom Vilsack told senators.  In 
written responses to questions from Senate Agriculture Committee members, Vilsack also 
said he will work aggressively to persuade trading partners that U.S. beef is safe from 
mad cow disease.  The responses were released Thursday.  During his confirmation 
hearing on Jan. 14, Vilsack said USDAs child nutrition programs could be a vehicle for 
improving diets and the overall nutrition level of children.  The first couple of steps that 
will help us to achieve this important goal are investing in nutrition and hunger programs 
in the economic stimulus package being developed by Congress and passing a strong 
child nutrition and WIC reauthorization bill, wrote Vilsack.  Beyond these near-term 
steps, we need to consider proposals to improve our capacity to support the nutritional 
needs of school children during the summer months and ensure that a greater number of 
eligible children are participating in the nutrition assistance programs.  

MARKETING & REGULATORY PROGRAMS

U.S. SUSPENDS PEANUT COMPANY FROM FEDERAL CONTRACTS (103 N.Y. Times 
2/6, Reuters 2/5) The company whose peanut butter and peanut paste has been linked 
to an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has been suspended from federal 
government contracts, USDA said Thursday.  Peanut Corp. of America and a subsidiary 
cannot participate in federal contracts for a year, USDA said.  The Department also 
proposed to debar the company from contracts for three years.  The companys actions 
indicate that it lacks business integrity and business honesty, which seriously and 
directly hinders its ability to do business with the federal government, said David 
Shipman, acting administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service.  The company has 
30 days to respond to the proposed debarment.  Its chief executive was also removed 
from a USDA peanut advisory board.  See also #109 below.

CLIFFORD SAYS DRUG SCHEME AT LAB MAY HAVE LASTED YEARS (104 AP 2/5) A 
scheme in which federal veterinary lab workers allegedly obtained low-cost medicine 
intended for animals and used it for themselves and their relatives may have been going 
on for years, a top USDA official said Thursday.  Chief veterinary officer Dr. John Clifford 
wouldnt elaborate on how Department officials discovered the alleged scheme at the 
federal laboratory complex in Ames, Iowa.  But, he said, we are aware that some of this 
activity has been ongoing for a number of years.  USDA announced on Wednesday that 
it has placed 19 employees on paid leave as officials look into the allegations (AgNews 
2/5 #103).   

UTAH ELIMINATES ORGANIC CERTIFICATION PROGRAM (105 Salt Lake Tribune 
1/28) Without knowing how much the state will save, Utah is eliminating its nationally 
recognized organic certification program, which has provided small farmers and 
processors a niche market.  State officials say private inspection companies can fill the 
void.  But farmers worry that private labels will not have the clout with consumers that 
the Utah state seal does, and hiring outside firms will be a costly burden to local 
businesses.  They never gave us a chance to pay more to keep the state program, said 
Russel Taylor, who grows organic beef and is a member of the state organic advisory 
committee.  We were not informed, there was no cost analysis and there were no efforts 
to make any kind of adjustment to keep it.  By any standard, thats not a good way to do 
business.  A spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food said that like 
the state of Utah, private companies can certify organic products, using standards 
developed by USDA.

WEST VIRGINIA TURKEY WORKERS INDICTED (106 AP 2/6) A brief article reports 
that three former turkey farm workers who were videotaped stomping on birds heads 
and wringing their necks have been indicted in 19 counts of animal abuse.  People for the 
Ethical Treatment of Animals, which had an undercover operative film the abuse last fall 
at Aviagen Turkeys Inc. in West Virginia, said it believes the felony counts are the most 
severe charges that American factory farmers have faced.  Each felony charge is 
punishable by up to five years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine.  

NATURAL RESOURCES & ENVIRONMENT

2,000-ACRE FIRE BURNS IN CALIFORNIAS OWENS VALLEY (107 AP 2/5) A wind-
driven wildfire spread over 2,000 acres in Californias Owens Valley, even as a Pacific 
storm moved into coastal areas of the parched state Thursday.  The fire erupted just 
before noon about six miles east of Fort Independence, and was burning in a sparsely 
populated region of brush and heavy grassland, said a spokesman for the California 
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.  The flames were fanned by strong winds, 
but winds decreased and rain had started to move in, helping firefighting conditions.  
Containment was estimated at 20 percent by evening, and full containment was expected 
this morning.   

RESEARCH, EDUCATION & ECONOMICS

CALIFORNIA STUDENTS PICKED TO ATTEND AG OUTLOOK FORUM (108 Fresno 
Bee 2/4) Rosalva Chavez, an agricultural business student from Fresno State in 
California, is preparing for the USDA 2009 Agricultural Outlook Forum, courtesy of USDA.  
She and Courtney Hannink, a student at Stanislaus State, are among 18 students 
nationwide selected for a free ride to the forum.  As part of the conferences student 
diversity program, Chavez and Hannink are having their airfare, meals, hotel expenses 
and $350 conference registration fee picked up by agribusiness sponsors and USDA.  

USDA -- MULTI-MISSION

LAWMAKERS SAY OBAMA MUST PUSH TO OVERHAUL FOOD INSPECTION (109 
dailies, wires 2/5-2/6) Fixing the nations food safety woes may not be possible this year 
unless President Obama makes it a top priority, Sen. Tom Harkin warned Thursday, after 
a hearing exposed loopholes in government oversight that contributed to the ongoing 
national salmonella outbreak.  I hope President Obama puts the weight of his office 
behind this, Harkin said.  Its going to require them to be actively pushing on this.  This 
is a matter that we cant continue to put off.  Obama said earlier this week he is not 
satisfied with how the Food and Drug Administration is handling food safety, and his 
administration is reviewing the agencys operations.  At the Senate hearing Thursday, 
lawmakers reacted angrily when told that food companies and state safety inspectors 
dont have to report to the FDA when test results find pathogens in a processing plant. 
We would like to have more information.  There is no question, said Stephen Sundlof, 
director of FDAs Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.  Id like to see some 
people go to jail, said Sen. Patrick Leahy.  This was a company that should have shut 
things down immediately. 
	SHIPPING PRODUCT AFTER MIXED TEST RESULTS CONDEMNED (110 USA 
Today 2/6) The Georgia peanut plant blamed for a massive food safety recall engaged in 
a practice that is universally condemned when it shipped products with contradictory 
test results for salmonella, a Food and Drug Administration official told Congress 
Thursday.  The Peanut Corp. of America plant shipped products 12 times in 2007 and 
2008 that tested positive for salmonella and then tested negative on a retest, FDA said.  
Retesting and shipping food after a positive test is not a problem that is rampant across 
the industry, Stephen Sundlof, director of FDAs Center for Food Safety and Applied 
Nutrition, said at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing.  What the company did is 
universally condemned, he said.  

FEMA PULLS BACK FOOD KITS DUE TO POSSIBLE CONTAMINATION (111 AP 2/5) 
Emergency officials have identified four trailers of food kits in Arkansas with potentially 
salmonella-contaminated peanut butter, and have removed the meals from distribution 
to victims of last weeks storms, a federal official said Thursday.  The trailers were found 
unopened at a staging area in Fayetteville, and are believed to be the only shipments to 
Arkansas that were part of a recall this week by the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency, an agency spokesman said.  He said none of the recalled food kits were 
distributed.  The recall also applied to Kentucky, and officials there said Thursday they 
have stopped distributing the meals, and have received no complaints of illnesses from 
the peanut butter.  

PLANT WORKER CITES SANITATION CONCERNS (112 Atlanta Journal-Constitution 
2/6) Sanitation problems at the Georgia peanut butter plant linked to the national 
salmonella outbreak were no secret to upper management, according to one sanitation 
worker.  I used to tell them all of the time, We need to shut down and really clean this 
place, said Ann Bristow, who had been at the plant nearly three years at the time it 
closed.  I did see rodents and roaches, but was it bad enough that Id pick up my coat 
and leave? No.  Bristow said she became so concerned about sanitary conditions that 
she kept a journal, which she said is now locked up in the shut-down plant.  The article 
quotes another plant employee who says he had no first-hand knowledge of any roach or 
rodent problems at the plant, and that quality control workers had the authority to shut 
down the plant until any problem was fixed.  That never happened as far as he knew, he 
said.  

PEANUT PRODUCT RECALL ONE OF THE LARGEST (113 AP 2/5) The recall of peanut 
products because of possible salmonella contamination has mushroomed into one of the 
largest.  Depending on how recalls are measured, few others come close.  If counted by 
the number of products, more than 1,313 had been recalled as of Thursday.  The closest 
is 1,177 pet food products recalled in 2007 after melamine was discovered in some 
ingredients.  If measured in pounds, the February 2008 recall of beef from a California 
packaging plant would top the list, with 143 million pounds affected.  

PEANUT COSTS ADDING UP FOR FOOD COMPANIES (114 Reuters 2/5) Kellogg Co., 
the first company to report the financial costs of a sweeping peanut product recall caused 
by an outbreak of salmonella, said Thursday the withdrawals are likely to cost it up to 
$70 million.  The recall, which has included more than 1,300 products, resulted from 
contamination at a single peanut plant in Georgia.  Unilever, General Mills and Nestle SA 
are among the major food makers that have recalled products, but many smaller 
manufacturers and grocery store chains have been affected.  Peanut farmers are worried 
about the impact on their revenue.  

DAIRY FARMS IN CRISIS AS MILK PRICES TURN SOUR (115 Reuters 2/5) Many of 
the more than 60,000 dairy farms in the U.S. have been cutting costs, selling off their 
cows or leaving the dairy business altogether as milk prices have dropped 35 percent in 
just the past two months while dairy farm operating costs remain uncomfortably high.  
Some farms are losing $200 per head every month.  Milk prices are down more than 50 
percent from last summer after hitting all-time highs during 2007 and notching the 
second-highest prices on record in 2008.  Given the suddenness and severity of the 
plunge in farm-level milk prices, a significant number of farmers wont survive the 
winter, said the president and chief executive of the National Milk Producers Federation.  
Analysts expect milk prices to remain depressed through at least the first half of the 
year, and prices later this year may only be high enough to cover production costs.  

FLORIDA FARMERS MOSTLY MAKE IT THROUGH CHILLY TEMPERATURES (116 
wires 2/5) Citrus growers and vegetable growers in Florida appeared Thursday to have 
weathered the statewide freeze better than expected, but tomato growers took a hit as 
temperatures stayed below freezing long enough to cause damage to some of those 
crops.  It will take days for growers to know the extent of the damage.  But temperatures 
in the tomato growing regions in southwestern Florida and near Tampa were cold 
enough that there will be pockets of damage to those crops, said a spokeswoman for the 
Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.  The mercury was expected to dip into the low 
20s in northern Florida Thursday night for the second night in a row.  

ACTIVIST GETS 22 YEARS FOR SETTING FIRE TO PROTEST GM RESEARCH (117 
AP 2/5) A radical activist who helped set a $1 million fire to protest research on 
genetically modified crops was sentenced Thursday to nearly 22 years in prison  even 
more than the prosecution recommended.  The explosion and fire caused more than $1 
million in damage to Michigan State Universitys Agriculture Hall on New Years Eve in 
1999.  In her plea agreement, Marie Mason also admitted causing an additional $3 
million in damage through other acts from 1999 to 2003, including destroying homes 
under construction in the Detroit area and Indiana and setting fire to two boats owned by 
a man who formerly raised minks.  Mason acted on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front, 
which has been implicated in a spate of similar crimes.  

CHINA DECLARES EMERGENCY AS DROUGHT BITES (118 Reuters 2/4) China has 
declared an emergency over a drought that could devastate crops and farmers incomes, 
official media said on Thursday, threatening further hardship amid slumping economic 
growth.  The drought gripping parts of central and northern China has sent Zhengzhou 
wheat futures prices up 5 percent this week, but physical prices have not moved, with 
most investors confident the countrys reserves and last years big harvest can offset any 
fall in wheat production this spring.  The national Office of  State Flood Control and 
Drought Relief declared a level two emergency, calling it a severe drought rarely seen 
in history, the Peoples Daily and other official media reported.  The absence of rain or 
snow since November has affected 9.5 million hectares of farmland -- 37,000 square 
miles, or 43 percent of the winter wheat sources, the China Daily reported.

STUDY SHOWS COWS WITH NAMES RELAX AND GIVE MORE MILK (119 USA Today 
2/5) Cows that are given names produce more milk than those that are not, a study out 
of England says.  The study discovered that more affectionate treatment of cattle -- 
including giving cows names -- can increase milk production by more than 68 gallons 
annually.  An average cow produces about 2,000 gallons of milk a year.  One of the 
researchers said the positive effect of naming cows has always been a belief among 
farmers, but until now there was no scientific evidence.  The reason behind more 
productive named cows is chemical, she said.  If a cow is not given individual attention, 
she may not be comfortable around humans and may become stressed.  The stress 
releases cortisol, a hormone that inhibits milk production.

SAN FRANCISCO TO CONVERT COOKING GREASE TO FUEL (120 San Francisco 
Chronicle 2/5) San Francisco will become the first city in the country to convert large 
batches of brown grease  the smelly, mucky mess left over from foods cooked in oil  
into biodiesel and other fuels under a program set to start by the end of the year. The 
$1.2 million pilot program, which is being funded by state and federal grants, will go 
toward building a grease recycling plant near the citys Oceanside treatment plant.  The 
program will allow the city to collect about 10,000 gallons a week of dirty grease, which 
can be converted into roughly 500 gallons of fuel.  San Francisco has been recycling 
yellow grease  oil thats been used for clean cooking like frying potatoes  since 
2007.  Programs that convert used cooking oil into biodiesel are becoming increasingly 
common in the United States, but so far no one has created a large-scale system for 
converting brown grease into fuel, said the biofuel program coordinator for the Public 
Utilities Commission.

AGRICULTURE AND TRADE PRESS

DTN 2/5
(121) Growers balance paperwork against ACREs rewards
(122) Senators see no value in meat label from multiple countries

USAGNET 2/5
(123) Final Republican member named to House ag committee
(124) Frozen chicken recall linked to peanut products recall

AGWEB.COM 2/5
(125) Why the card check issue is important to the meat processing industry

AGRI-PULSE 2/5
(126) Senate hearing spotlights serious food safety problems
(127) USDA opens up acreage for fruits and vegetables
(128) New payment limits: full employment for accountants and attorneys?

FARM WEEK, Ill. 2/4
(129) Major housecleaning anticipated at USDA

MEATINGPLACE 2/5
(130) U.S. beef exports to S. Korea slump at end of 2008

AND ALSO

IT MAY BE AN INFLATABLE RAT, BUT ITS PROTECTED SPEECH (131 AP 2/5) Even 
a 10-foot inflatable rat has free speech rights in New Jersey, the states Supreme Court 
ruled Thursday.  In a case that pitted the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 
union against a central Jersey town, the high court ruled unanimously that the rodent is 
protected speech under the First Amendment.  The towns elimination of an entire 
medium of expression without a readily available alternative renders the ordinance 
overbroad, Justice John E. Wallace Jr. wrote for the court.  The super-size rat, sitting on 
its hind legs and baring fangs, is a national symbol used by organized labor to signal a 
labor dispute.  It was blown up and displayed at a 2005 labor event in Lawrence 
township until police enforced a law than bans banners, streamers and inflatable signs.  
Union lawyers argued that the law violated the right to free expression and suppressed 
protest.  

FRIDAY AG HUMOR: A farmer was on holiday in Louisiana, where he tried to buy some 
alligator shoes.  However, he was not prepared to pay the high prices, so he decided to 
catch his own alligator.  He went out into the bayou, and after a while saw two men with 
spears standing in the water.  The men told the farmer they were catching alligators, and 
could help him get an alligator and a pair of alligator shoes.  Just at that point, the 
farmer noticed an alligator moving in the water towards one of the men.  The guy stood 
completely passive, even as the gator came ever closer.  Just as the beast was about to 
swallow him, he struck home with his spear and after a furious struggle, wrestled the 
gator up onto the beach, where several others were already lying.  Together the two 
guys threw the gator onto its back.  "Darn! they said.  This one doesn't have any shoes 
either!"

NETWORK NEWS

Thursday, Jan. 5

NBC:	Congress threatens to crack down hard on the peanut company in the salmonella 
outbreak, and the FDA for letting it happen.

USDA RELEASES

Thursday, Jan. 5

0039	SECRETARY VILSACK TO BE 2009 AGRICULTURAL OUTLOOK FORUM'S KEYNOTE 
SPEAKER

0038	USDA PROPOSES TO DEBAR PEANUT CORPORATION OF AMERICA

To obtain a USDA release, access USDAs Home Page at  http://www.usda.gov 
To access AgNews on the USDA Intranet, go to http://agnews.usda.gov

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magazines and mass distribution press.  Inclusion of an item in AgNews does 
not imply USDA agreement; nor does USDA attest to the accuracy 
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