Victory celebrations continue over Brazilian meatpacker JBS S.A., the world’s largest beef packer, abandoning its efforts to acquire National Beef Packing of Kansas City, which is the nation’s fourth largest beef packer.

“This is a huge victory for American ranchers and farmers with livestock.  Thousands of family farmers, ranchers and other concerned citizens, rural and urban, signed the Center for Rural Affairs’ petition against the JBS mergers and reached out to the Justice Department to urge them to challenge the JBS mergers,” said John Crabtree of the Center for Rural Affairs.  ”Justice responded by challenging the JBS – National Beef merger in court, and this announcement is the end result.”

JBS originally announced its intention to acquire National Beef on March 4, 2008. The Department of Justice filed a suit to block the deal on Oct. 20, 2008, on grounds that the merger reduced competition in cattle markets.

JBS became one of the top three U.S. beef packers in October 2008 when Justice approved their purchase of the Smithfield Beef Group, which included four beef packing plants and the Five Rivers Ranch cattle-feeding operation with the capacity to feed over 800,000 head of cattle.  However, JBS negotiations with the Justice department were insufficient to convince Justice to compromise.

JBS S.A. is currently the world’s largest beef producer and packer, with a daily slaughter capacity of 65,000 head of cattle.  They are the largest global exporter of processed beef.  Their operations include 22 plants located in nine Brazilian states, six plants located in Argentina, nine plants in Australia, 10 plants in Italy and in the U.S. a daily beef slaughter capacity of 28,100 cattle, Five Rivers Cattle Feeding and a lamb slaughter plant along with three pork packing plants with a daily slaughter capacity of 47,900 hogs.

Look to the skies and tell me what you think you see.

Could it be a trolls, elves, spirits or UFOs?

According to scientists at Tel Aviv University, they may have found the answer.

Thunderstorms, says Prof. Colin Price, head of the Geophysics and Planetary Sciences Department at Tel Aviv University, are the catalyst for a newly discovered natural phenomenon he calls “sprites.” He and his colleagues are one of the leading teams in the world studying the phenomenon, and Prof. Price leads the study of “winter sprites” ― those that appear only in the northern hemisphere’s winter months.

“Sprites appear above most thunderstorms,” explains Prof. Price, “but we didn’t see them until recently. They are high in the sky and last for only a fraction of a second.” While there is much debate over the cause or function of these mysterious flashes in the sky, they may, Prof. Price says, explain some bizarre reports of UFO sightings.

According to Andrew Dessler, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University, said that warming, due to increases in greenhouse gases, will lead to higher humidity in the atmosphere.

And because water vapor itself is a greenhouse gas, this will cause additional warming, Dessler said.

He said the process is known as water vapor feedback and is responsible for a significant portion of the warming predicted to occur over the next century.

“It’s a vicious cycle – warmer temperatures mean higher humidity, which in turn leads to even more warming,” Dessler said.

Are storm clouds ahead for rural communities with ethanol plants?

That’s what Andrew Isserman, a professor of agriculture economic and urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois, wonders in a new study he has co-authored.

“Our research found lots of storm clouds that posed risks for ethanol plants, even though the industry was go-go-go at the time,” he said “The last 15 months have proven just how risky it is.”

Just over a year ago, Isserman said the U.S. ethanol industry was still in “overdrive, fueling a wave of new factories to keep pace with surging demand for the corn-based gasoline additive.”

But the boom, he said,  has since stalled amid a deep economic downturn that has stifled demand.

In a study Isserman co-authored, he found that plants are beset with a host of uncertainties, ranging from shifts in federal energy policy and global economics to changing technology that threatens the long-term viability of corn as an ethanol blend.