With global climate change an immediate threat and the world population increasing and crowding more and more into urban areas, pandemics are going to be a likely result.

And because of modern agricultural practices, such as large animal confinements, pandemics are especially dangerous to the world food supply. With more and more people crowding into urban areas, large animal confinements because a necessity to feed a hungry population.

This week the National Pork Producers Council sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture urging help for the U.S. pork industry to deal with the negative effects of what initially was misnamed “swine” influenza and is now known as the H1N1 flu or Influenza A.

Pork producers, who prior to the announcement of the current flu “outbreak” already were losing money, have seen losses accelerate to an average of $17.69 on each hog marketed as of May 1. Total losses reached $7.2 million a day between April 24 and May 1.

“Given those loses and based on May 1 futures prices,” said NPPC President Don Butler, “a bad situation for pork producers has been exacerbated and could get worse unless the industry gets some relief.”

To help stem the losses U.S. pork producers are incurring, NPPC has asked USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to:

—   Implement a USDA purchase program for $50 million of pork products to help boost cash hog prices. Products can be put into federal emergency food programs, food pantries, senior/elderly feeding programs, hunger programs and other non-commercial food channels.

— Urge President Obama to work with U.S. trading partners to remove all restrictions on exports of U.S. pork and pork products and to maintain U.S. pork export markets around the world.

— Develop a comprehensive surveillance program for swine diseases, which will provide an early warning for emerging diseases that affect human and animal health. Mandatory premises and animal identification would be necessary for an effective surveillance program.

—  Work to keep open the border between the United States and Canada – in the wake of a report that pigs on a Canadian pork operation contracted from a worker the H1N1 flu – to allow hog movements.

NPPC told Sec. Vilsack it would identify and bring to his attention other actions USDA could take to assist the U.S. pork industry during the current situation.

By Robert Pore
robert.pore@theindependent.com
On Tuesday, President Obama issued a presidential directive today to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to “aggressively accelerate the investment in and production of biofuels.”
Vilsack also announced Tuesday that he will help lead an unprecedented interagency effort to increase America’s energy independence and spur rural economic development.
Vilsack said Obama’s announcement demonstrates “his deep commitment to establishing a permanent biofuels industry in America.”
“Expanding our biofuels infrastructure provides a unique opportunity to spur rural economic development while reducing our dependence on foreign oil – one of the great challenges of the 21st century,” he said.
According to the USDA, increasing renewable fuels will reduce dependence on foreign oil by more than 297 million barrels a year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 160 million tons a year when fully phased in by 2022.
Also, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will  establish four categories of renewable fuels, some of which would be produced from new sources. To address lifecyle analysis, the EPA said they are soliciting peer reviewed, scientific feedback to ensure that the best science available is utilized prior to implementation.
“Producing clean, renewable energy in our country is a powerful rural development tool that creates jobs domestically while generating new tax revenues for local, state, and federal governments,” Vilsack said.
Obama directed Secretary Vilsack to expedite and increase production of and investment in biofuel development efforts by:
— Refinancing existing investments in renewable fuels to preserve jobs in ethanol and biodiesel plants, renewable electricity generation plants, and other supporting industries; and
— Making renewable energy financing opportunities from the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 available within 30 days. These opportunities include:
— Loan guarantees for the development, construction, and retrofitting of commercial scale biorefineries and grants to help pay for the development and construction costs of demonstration-scale biorefineries.
— Expedited funding to encourage biorefineries to replace the use of fossil fuels in plant operations by installing new biomass energy systems or producing new energy from renewable biomass.
— Expedited funding to biofuels producers to encourage production of next-generation biofuels from biomass and other non-corn feedstocks.
— Expansion of Renewable Energy Systems and Energy Efficiency Improvements Program, which has been renamed the Rural Energy for America Program, to include hydroelectric source technologies, energy audits, and higher loan guarantee limits.
— Guidance and support for collection, harvest, storage, and transportation assistance for eligible materials for use in biomass conversion facilities.
The USDA, Department of Energy and EPA are forming a Biofuels Interagency Working Group that will develop the nation’s first comprehensive biofuels market development program.
Vilsack said the increased collaboration between federal agencies “will accelerate the production of and access to sustainable homegrown energy options by coordinating policies that impact the supply, secure transport, and distribution of biofuels, as well as identifying new policy options to improve the environmental sustainability of biofuels feedstock production.”
The Biofuels Interagency Working Group will also work to develop policies to increase flexible fuel vehicle production and assist in retail marketing efforts while also taking into consideration land use, habitat conservation, crop management practices, water efficiency and water quality, and lifecycle assessments of greenhouse gas emissions.
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson applauded the creation of a Biofuels Interagency Working Group.
He said the purpose of the working group is to continue to analyze contentious issues such as indirect land use effects while the administration moves forward with other components of the proposed rule implementing the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2).
“There is currently no scientific agreement or certainty to quantify domestically produced ethanol impacts on land use change,” Johnson said. “I commend the President’s plan to have the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency work together in a comprehensive manner to guide the continuation and growth of the biofuels industry.”
Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation said the president’s commitment to renewable fuels will economically help rural America by producing more green jobs, while allowing the U.S. to become less dependent on foreign oil.
“Farmers and ranchers are at the forefront of producing clean, green, renewable energy,” Stallman said. “We support a comprehensive energy policy that creates a more diverse energy supply, including renewable sources such as ethanol, biodiesel, biomass and wind.”

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.