Dozens of nations around the world have sharply decreased food exports in order to ensure they have enough to feed their own populations, according to a report in today’s New York Times. This trend could help drive food prices higher in parts of the world and add to global tensions concerning food supplies. Read the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/business/worldbusiness/30trade.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1214838019-wBxVvX3LPMvLPKcH8QXThQ

Today, June 18, a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives is possible to override the veto of H.R. 6124, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Farm Bill). An earlier version of this legislation was enacted into law in May.  But due to a clerical error that omitted one of the bill’s titles, the Congress has resubmitted the legislation.  More information about the House floor schedule can be found on the website of the Office of the Clerk.

http://clerk.house.gov/

WASHINGTON, D.C. June 12, 2008 - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer today announced USDA has delivered its first actions implementing the new farm bill. Within three weeks of commodity title enactment in the 2008 farm bill, USDA is implementing marketing assistance loan and loan deficiency payment (LDP) provisions.

Read the full USDA news release here:

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2008/06/0156.xml

In this MarketWatch column, Jennifer Openshaw makes some interesting points about the nature of rising food prices and how the Bureau of Labor Statistics analyzes prices.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/why-rising-food-prices-eating/story.aspx?guid=%7BE2C47792-2693-48BF-8967-26B070F10EBF%7D

Rising food prices are driving up school lunches. The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.) reports wheat prices up 11 percent, dairy up 16 percent and juice prices up 22 percent. By the end of the year the Polk County Schools food service division could be $1 million in the red.

Read the story here:
http://www.theledger.com/article/20080418/NEWS/804180459/1039

See the front page story in the April 18, 2008, New York Times regarding the effects of rising food prices globally: “The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments.”

Read the full story here (if the link doesn’t highlight, please cut and paste into your browser): http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Earlier this year, Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson awarded 12 grants totaling $25 million day by  as part of the state’s “Farm to Fuel” initiative, to encourage the development of bio-fuel technology.

Read about the grants here:

http://domesticfuel.com/2008/01/22/florida-awards-biofuels%20grants/

April 14, 2008, President Bush directed the Secretary of Agriculture to draw down on the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust to meet emergency food aid needs abroad. With this action, an estimated $200 million in emergency food aid will be made available through the U.S. Agency for International Development. This additional food aid will address the impact of rising commodity prices on U.S. emergency food aid programs, and be used to meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere.

Read the White House’s statement  here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080414-4.html

Haiti’s government collapsed April 12, 2008, after a week of food riots prompted the Haitian Senate to remove Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis from office.  Enraged by the soaring cost of staples such as rice and beans, Haitians had engaged in a week of rioting that cost at least five people their lives. 

Read a story by the Reuters news service here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSN12217781._CH_.2400

Florida Grower magazine has the following posted: “House Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., an Agriculture Committee member and Blue Dog, are preparing a bipartisan food safety bill that might have the potential to garner industry support as well as attract Democrats with agriculture interests away from other approaches in the works.”

Read the article in Florida Grower here:

http://www.floridagrower.net/news/page.php?page=news