Recently, the  National Farmers Union participated in a White House roundtable discussion on rural health care.

According to Roger Johnson, president of the National Farmers Union, the discussion highlighted the challenges farmers, ranchers and rural communities face in affording health care coverage and accessing quality care.

“Rural communities are on the front lines of today’s health care crisis,” Johnson said. “President Obama’s commitment to address this challenge is welcome news to our members. Today’s economic conditions do not provide the leisure of waiting any longer.”

A new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) entitled, “Hard Times in the Heartland: Health Care in Rural America,” was shared with participants. The report highlights reasons why rural communities especially must address health care this year:

— One in five uninsured people live in rural areas.

— Rural residents pay on average 40 percent of health care costs out of pocket.

— One in five insured farmers have medical debt.

Elisha Greeley Smith of the Center for Rural Affairs, said recent estimates show that about 47 million Americans lack health insurance, millions more are underinsured and health care costs continue to spiral. But for rural Americans the situation is even more critical.

According to a Center for Rural Affairs’ report “Causes and Consequences of the Rural Uninsured and Underinsured”, Smith said rural Americans are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than urban Americans.

“With an economic foundation of small businesses, and self-employment, rural communities are not well served by a health insurance system that relies on employer-based coverage,” she said.  “Many more rural families are forced to purchase from the individual insurance market where they often wind up underinsured, with coverage that costs too much and provides too little. Those who cannot afford the significantly more expensive individual insurance packages must go without or rely on public insurance.”

Smith said the report found that rural residents are twice as likely to be underinsured as urban residents, and about twice as likely to be uninsured because their employer is a small business.

“Farmers and ranchers are four times as likely to be covered by insurance with reduced benefits and high deductibles,” she said.  “It’s not surprising that a quarter of family farmers and ranchers carry medical debt and expenses that often contribute to their financial difficulties.”

Smith said all society pays for the skyrocketing costs of health insurance.

“It is crucial for reform legislation to create a public health insurance option that provides small business and the self-employed the ability to choose more affordable, quality health care coverage,” she said.

A lot of attention has been focused on birds and planes recently when a pilot was forced to land in the Hudson River after his plane hit a flock of Canada geese.

According to the Associated Press, the FAA recently released data showing that collisions with birds or other animals have destroyed 28 aircraft since 2000. The FAA estimates its voluntary reporting system captures only 20 percent of such incidents.

Recently, Purdue University studied 10 small Indiana airports found that animals can gain easy access to runways and infield areas, increasing the likelihood of planes striking those animals.

According to Purdue University, the study by Gene Rhodes, a professor of forestry and natural resources, documented that animals found ways through damaged fences or unfenced areas onto airport properties. Spotting deer, coyote and other animals in dangerous places was common.

“Just about every pilot we talked to at these airports said that during a landing they’ve had to pull up to avoid hitting an animal on the runway,” Rhodes said. “With the size of planes using these airports, hitting a rabbit could flip a plane.”

Rhodes’ research was published in the fall issue of the journal Human-Wildlife Conflicts.

While Rhodes’ study looked only at Indiana airports, he said there are thousands of airports all over the country that don’t have the budgets to adequately fence their properties, endangering countless flights each year.

In the study, only four of the Indiana airports had fences around the entire perimeter, and even those had maintenance problems – such as holes dug under fences, access through culverts and holes in fences – that allowed animals onto the properties.

Despite the desire to keep animals away, Rhodes said airports often are a magnet for wildlife. Airports are required to own property around runways that is often rented to farmers. While that increases airports’ meager budgets, those crops can attract animals looking for food.

“What you have planted affects what type of animals will be there,” Rhodes said. “Even if you have certain grasses, you have small mammals that eat those, and those attract red-tailed hawks. A red-tailed hawk can bring down a small plane as fast as anything.”

Previous studies cited in Rhodes’ paper have shown that wildlife strikes cost more than a half a billion dollars each year and have been responsible for more than 350 human deaths in the last century. Travis DeVault, who co-authored the paper as Rhodes’ postdoctoral researcher and is now a field station and project leader with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, said wildlife strikes have become more common in recent years.

“Many of the most hazardous species are increasing in population size. For example, about two-thirds of the largest bird species have shown population increases during the past 30 years,” DeVault said. “Also, air traffic continues to increase. More birds in combination with more flights leads to more bird strikes.”

DeVault added that new technology means planes are quieter today, giving birds less time to detect and avoid being struck.

Rhodes’ study suggests enclosing 100 percent of airport perimeters with partially buried fencing, which keeps animals from tunneling underneath. Frequent maintenance also is key because many of the animals observed during the study entered the airports through damaged fences.

“If airports can use this study to show their needs, it can allow them to go after federal grants they need to make improvements,” Rhodes said.

How do you stop pigs from getting swine flu?

How about feeding them genetically altered corn that has had a flu vaccine put into its genetic makeup.

That’s what a team of researchers from Iowa State University are doing as they believe that someday this will allow pigs and humans to get a flu vaccination simply by eating corn or corn products.

Talk about a brave new world. That will probably go over like a lead balloon with those folks who believe that the flu bug going around the world came from pigs raised in industrial hog farms.

Now what do you expect them to say about raising  GMO corn with the flu vaccine and feeding it to pigs in a factory farm, along with people.

“We’re trying to figure out which genes from the swine influenza virus to incorporate into corn so those genes, when expressed, would produce protein. When the pig consumes that corn, it would serve as a vaccine,” said Hank Harris, professor in animal science and one of the researchers on the project.

The project is a collaborative effort with Harris and Brad Bosworth, an affiliate associate professor of animal science working with pigs, and Kan Wang, a professor in agronomy, who is developing the vaccine traits in the corn.

The corn vaccine would also work in humans when they eat corn or even corn flakes, corn chips, tortillas or anything that contains corn, said Harris.

The research is funded by a grant from Iowa State University’s Plant Sciences Institute, and is their Biopharmaceuticals and Bioindustrials Research Initiative.

The corn vaccine may be possible in 5 to 7 years if research goes well. Meanwhile, the team is trying to speed up the process.

“While we’re waiting for Wang to produce the corn, we are starting initial experiments in mice to show that the vaccine might induce an immune response,” said Bosworth.

Harris says the team still needs more answers.

“The big question is whether or not these genes will work when given orally through corn,” said Harris. “That is the thing we’ve still got to determine.”

One of the advantages to the corn vaccine is stability and safety.

Once the corn with the vaccine is grown, it can be stored for long term without losing its potency, say the researchers. If a swine flu virus breaks out, the corn could be shipped to the location to try to vaccinate animals and humans in the area quickly. Because corn grain is used as food and feed, there is no need for extensive vaccine purification, which can be an expensive process.

Traditional vaccines are made from animal culture or eggs that are in liquid form and last only 1 to 2 years.

The current outbreak of swine flu is affecting humans and has never been identified in pigs. If this swine flu crosses over into pigs, the scientists are hopeful that the corn vaccine would be effective to vaccinate uninfected pigs.

Organic farming is catching on in Nebraska.

And for a good reason, U.S. sales of organic products, both food and non-food, reached $24.6 billion by the end of 2008, growing an impressive 17.1 percent over 2007 sales despite tough economic times, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA), which today made available final results from its 2009 Organic Industry Survey.

While the overall economy has been losing ground, sales of organic products reflect very strong growth during 2008. “Organic products represent value to consumers, who have shown continued resilience in seeking out these products,” said Christine Bushway, OTA’s Executive Director.

The survey, conducted by Lieberman Research Group on behalf of OTA, measured the growth of U.S. sales of organic foods and beverages as well as non-food categories such as organic fibers, personal care products and pet foods during 2008. Results show organic food sales grew in 2008 by 15.8 percent to reach $22.9 billion, while organic non-food sales grew by an astounding 39.4 percent to reach $1.648 billion. As a result, organic food sales now account for approximately 3.5 percent of all food product sales in the United States.

“This marks another milestone for the organic food market,” said Bushway.

With tough economic times, consumers have used various strategies in continuing to buy organic products. Because most venues now offer organic products, consumers have the opportunity to shop around. Increased use of coupons, the proliferation of private label brands, and value-positioned products offered by major organic brands all have contributed to increased sales.