Genetically altered seeds sound alarm for contamination

Anyone who has driven through central Oregon has witnessed first-hand some of America’s most fertile crop ground. And what farmers there grow are, in large part, seeds to supply other farmlands. Oregon farmers right long and hard to ward off invasive grasses. It is a constant threat and battle so that they can continue to reap the yields that such grow-friendly soil/climate allows.

That has meant there’s been an urgency for Oregon farmers to plant genetically-altered seed stocks, so that they can ward off invasion from grasses. But what if the altered seed stock turns out to be a threat with serious implications, too?

Great story from the Associated Press today about potential contamination from altered seed. An organic farmer in central Oregon who is worried that cross-pollination of these altered sugar beets will take up with table beets and Swiss chard, among other crops being grown in the area.

“Who’s responsible if it isn’t on a leash?” said Frank Morton, a certified organic grower.

Morton began organic farming in the Willamette Valley 20 years ago, growing lettuce varieties for restaurants. He considers it a moral obligation to keep his seeds free of contamination from transgenic crops.

Four-fifths of the nation’s crops are grown from genetically-altered seeds, with Monsanto leading the way.

Last week, a forestry expert in Seattle, Kim McDonald, penned a very interesting piece in Crosscut.com which she described the purchase of 500 square miles in northwestern Montana by conservation groups. The land was bought from Plum Creek, the largest and most diverse private land owner in the U.S.

In addition to the seismic shift in thinking this deal signals, McDonald addresses a Farm Bill funding mechanism that will allow the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land to issue Qualified Conservancy Bonds, for which a secondary buyer can receive a tax credit.

Anyone got $500 million to invest — tax credit included?

Ever since Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton announced that they would make their first appearance together post-primary season, TV cameras have been broadcasting images from Unity, N.H.. The rural town on the Vermont border is where Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each got 107 votes in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. It is also where Clinton and Obama will appear in public for the first time since Clinton ended her bid.

We’re all for the symbolism of this photo-opportunity moment for the presumptive nominee and Clinton. However, what we’re more interested in is … the land.

According to the Economic and Labor Market Bureau of New Hampshire, the territory was first chartered in 1753, when land grants were dispensed and disputed until a resolution was reached in 1764 and the town of Unity was incorporated.

Ah, we see: Dispute between two parties. Agreement! The tracts were divided into … “EQUAL SHARES for all those named in the grant!”

Equal shares? That’s where the Unity, N.H. metaphor breaks down. Still, we of land-loving leanings applaud the choice, not just for the symbolism, but because WHY NOT put Obama and Clinton in the middle of a rural township and call it the right move? The myth of America is that we are all urban hipsters when, in fact, a majority of Americans live in rural areas.

As for Unity: It is 37 square miles and its population is 1,715. It is, in other words, rural — with most residents perplexed but intrigued about being the spot of such national intrigue, thanks to tomorrow’s Obama-Clinton event. This is a place where logging and welding are the major activities, according to one message board item about how the formerly unified township experienced a hiccup when a developer from “down state” bought a 500-acre parcel to build a retirement community. It’s only rural until it’s a commodity, which most rural land in America is. They don’t make it any more.

Maybe the presumptive nominee Obama and Senator Clinton can stop off and pick up some organic food stuffs, which seem to be growing in abundance in and around Unity, according to the Valley Food & Farm site.

Or, perhaps the power pair of Democrats can do what we’d do if we were in Unity: Land shop!

Here’s a listing for 7 acres in Unity, NH, with a house and little ol’ structure: $225K.

Or this 15-acre lot for $135K, and all we’d have to do is ditch the mobile home!

Looks like some deals can be had, even if the cash-rich Obama doesn’t need a land bargain.

Corn — now at $10 a bushel. Land. Ethanol. More corn. Global warming. Change. Climate Change. Gore. Obama. Farmers. Corn. Future. Futures. And, then, there was this item in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was an article that elucidated the terrible impact that all the corn-growing in Iowa will have on the Mississippi Delta and the Gulf of Mexico.

We’re talking: Energy crisis = Ethanol = Corn Crops for fuel source = Food prices surge = Runoff into Gulf means dead zone = More global warming impact.

“Scientists predicting the biggest-ever “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico are blaming Midwestern corn grown for ethanol for higher levels of pollution escaping down the Mississippi River.

“In the past several years, there’s been an expansion of corn, which has the highest fertilizer per acre … and that’s for biofuels.” said R. Eugene Turner, a Louisiana State University professor who directed the study into the gulf’s water quality.”  from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

If there were ever more clear signs as to how our entire system of life is, well, basically screwed, this was the week to see it.

About 600 people were busted and brought to the fairgrounds, where federal officials had hooked up generators in order to use barns and out buildings to “interview” detainees regarding residency status.

Nice to know our government can be so efficient when it really needs to show some muscle!

We’re talking ‘A Civil Action’ meets ‘Ellen Brockovich.’ That kind of blockbuster. Our only hope is that the heirs and the lawyers in this case can now find a way to make everyone involved in this suit happy.

It’s been a long time coming, this settlement. Sixty years after the U.S. government forced landowners in western Kentucky to sell their land so it could be used for the Camp Breckinridge army base, a federal judge took a courageous final step and approved compensation.

The case it absolutely fascinating, if only because of the tenacious fight waged by the Kentucky land heirs. They battled the government in Congress and court, refusing to go away despite efforts by government officials and branches to stall and stymie the compensation effort.

Judge Susan Braden made good on her word to rule on this case. She found that the government benefited to the tune of $127 million on the land “bought” for the army base, but was then re-sold in huge lots to developers, with gas, coal and mineral rights also leased for huge gains. The landowners were able to prove, despite the government’s suppression of evidence, that gas, coal and mineral rights were not theirs to sell or lease.

Oh, praise be the Energy Bill that slathers subsidies to corporate farmers growing corn! It’s amazing how swiftly Congress can act when it’s politically advantageous to do so. Ethanol is not the answer to our longterm energy needs, especially when some estimates say it costs a gallon of gas to produce a gallon of ethanol.  As this post on Oilism.com says, not much of green or sustainable energy sources are green.

Good thing we’re in Iraq, protecting “our” oil supplies!

Anyway, USA Today reported that the average farmland valuation has doubled since 2000:

Demand for grain for food, fuel and export, along with low interest rates and a weakened dollar have raised farmland prices by double digits the past two years. Average values have doubled since 2000.

Farm real estate prices rose 20% to 23% in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming in 2007, according to Farm Credit Services of America, an agricultural lender.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reports that prices rose 15% for the first three quarters of 2007 in its district, which includes Iowa and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. That’s on top of a 14% increase nationwide in 2006 — to a record average of $2,160 an acre — the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. Figures for 2007 will come out in summer.

The growth has attracted “a tidal wave of investors,” says Murray Wise of Illinois’ Westchester Group, which manages $500 million in client assets. “It’s everybody from the person concerned about the stock market to large government and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds.”

Ron Paul is a presidential candidate because he does not believe that a central bank should print money out of thin air, thus creating a house-of-cards economy on the verge of collapse. Ron Paul wants to abolish the Federal Reserve.

“Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy. In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies. This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the American people,” Paul said in a 2002 speech.

Anyone watching the GOP debate last night had to take notice of Paul’s emphatic and sound argument that our economy is a mass of manipulations. To curry favor with the Reaganomics audience at the Reagan Library in California, Paul relayed a story about how Ronald Reagan told Congressman Paul 20 years ago that any nation whose economic system veers away from the gold standard is a flawed economy.

Which brings us to another form of hard currency: Land. Like gold, it’s value is almost impossible to undermine.

And to show how valuable land is, read this story out of Bismarck, N.D. Tribune, which quotes U.S.D.A. officials on the price of farmland in 2007:

Farm real estate values nationwide rose 14 percent from Jan. 1, 2006, to Jan 1. 2007, to a record average of $2,160 an acre, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

USDA spokesman Scott Shimmin said the report on 2007 farm real estate prices won’t be finished until this summer, though it appears last year will set another record.

Low interest rates, government farm programs and reinvestments to avoid taxes on capital gains are among the factors contributing to the record farm land prices, but record commodity prices are the main reason, he said.

“Commodity prices have remained very strong, if not excellent – you would expect that to drive up real estate prices,” Shimmin said. “If you look at the past 25 to 30 years, (farm land) has not been a very risky investment. Over the long term, it has had a pretty solid return.”

At least I thought Teddy Ranch Hand was sitting front and center.

Turns out that the look-alike was the brand-new U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, the former governor of North Dakota. His first job is to iron on details of the five-year, $286-billion U.S. Farm Bill, which G.W. Bush has threatened to veto if it raises taxes or fails to end crop subsidies to the wealthiest Americans.

Here’s an excerpt on Schafer from the World Wide Agricultural Network.

“Schafer has had a lifelong interest in conservation and helped arrange the U.S. Forest Service’s May 2007 purchase of the 5,200 acre Elkhorn ranch in North Dakota. The site was where Theodore Roosevelt had his home and operated a cattle ranch in the 1880s. It is near the preserved town of Medora-the state’s leading tourist attraction,” according to a Associated Press report.

We’re always interested in the established land sales brokers who’re making a solid effort keeping up with the times. As we’ve said many times before, the Web has offered rural land sellers an amazing opportunity to get their message out. And what better message is there than land listings in some of the most amazing settings?

Lately, we’ve been getting e-mail updates from Knipe, out of Boise, which has been selling and listing ranches and land in Idaho for 64 years. Their site shows them to be one of a growing number of veterans listers who’re making the entire northwestern region their domain.