Global Economy Bursting?

[Randolph Kinney]

Major Grocer to Label Foods With Gene-Modified Content

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/b...?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130309&_r=0

Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain, on Friday became the first retailer in the United States to require labeling of all genetically modified foods sold in its stores, a move that some experts said could radically alter the food industry.

A. C. Gallo, president of Whole Foods, said the new labeling requirement, to be in place within five years, came in response to consumer demand. “We’ve seen how our customers have responded to the products we do have labeled,” Mr. Gallo said. “Some of our manufacturers say they’ve seen a 15 percent increase in sales of products they have labeled.”

Genetically modified ingredients are deeply embedded in the global food supply, having proliferated since the 1990s. Most of the corn and soybeans grown in the United States, for example, have been genetically modified. The alterations make soybeans resistant to a herbicide used in weed control, and causes the corn to produce its own insecticide. Efforts are under way to produce a genetically altered apple that will spoil less quickly, as well as genetically altered salmon that will grow faster. The announcement ricocheted around the food industry and excited proponents of labeling. “Fantastic,” said Mark Kastel, co-director of the Cornucopia Institute, an organic advocacy group that favors labeling.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the trade group that represents major food companies and retailers, issued a statement opposing the move. “These labels could mislead consumers into believing that these food products are somehow different or present a special risk or a potential risk,” Louis Finkel, the organization’s executive director of government affairs, said in the statement.

Mr. Finkel noted that the Food and Drug Administration, as well as regulatory and scientific bodies including the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association, had deemed genetically modified products safe.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Berkeley Councilman Proposes Email Tax To Save Post Office

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/08/email-tax-post-office-gordon-wozniak_n_2838324.html

If the post office is going to go down, perhaps it should at least go down with a fight.

Gordon Wozniak, a city councilman in Berkeley, Calif., has proposed an email tax to provide much-needed revenue to the ailing U.S. Postal Service, local blog Berkleyside reports. The idea comes amid efforts to avoid the sale of a local post office building due to the service’s flagging revenue, both locally and on the national scale: In its latest budget year, the U.S. Postal Service lost more than $15 billion.

“There should be something like a bit tax,” Wozniak said, according to CBS Berkeley. “I mean a bit tax could be a cent per-gigabit and they would still make, probably, billions of dollars a year… And there should be, also, a very tiny tax on email.”

Wozniak told The Huffington Post that while not his own idea, the bit tax could bring in revenue to help a number of sectors, beyond just the post office.

As of now, there is one large factor standing in the way of the tax on email: It wouldn’t be legal until Congress allows the expiration of the Internet Tax Freedom Act in 2014.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Whole Foods Market, the grocery chain, on Friday became the first retailer in the United States to require labeling of all genetically modified foods sold in its stores, a move that some experts said could radically alter the food industry.

Ain't that the bunch that is so darn expensive usually? I thought they were pretty much organic foods in the first place. I know their meat prices are sky high.

 

[Big ole Boy]

Ain't that the bunch that is so darn expensive usually? I thought they were pretty much organic foods in the first place. I know their meat prices are sky high.

This is why I believe Herbalife is such a buy.

Did you know that modern science can put more of everything you need in your body with a teaspoon of supergreens and superfruits from a plastic container and cost you no more than a $1 a day?

Why buy special Kale when you can use tech to accomplish the same?. Ichan knows this.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Genetically modified food

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-whole-foods-gmo-20130309,0,2950264.story

Although California voters didn't back the labeling of products made with genetically modified ingredients, the practice will soon be mandatory at Whole Foods Market Inc.

In November, California voters struck down Proposition 37, a controversial ballot measure that would have required labeling of certain genetically modified products.

The grocery industry contends that genetically modified foods provide the same nutrition as organic fruit, vegetables and grains. Agriculture, food and beverage companies opposed to the initiative poured millions of dollars into advertising and lobbying to defeat the measure.

Monsanto Co. dumped $8.1 million into the attack campaign and PepsiCo Inc. contributed $2.5 million, according to a MapLight analysis of data from the California secretary of state. By voting day, opponents had raised $46 million against Proposition 37 — five times the $9.2 million cobbled together by supporters.

The chain, known for its upscale emporiums of healthful and organic foods, has decreed that all items sold in its American and Canadian stores note the presence of genetically modified organisms, or GMO, by 2018. The Austin, Texas, company says it's the first national grocer to set such a deadline.

Whole Foods Co-Chief Executive Walter Robb described customer demand for the labeling as "a steady drumbeat."

"This is an issue whose time has come," he said. "With cases like horse meat discovered in the U.K., plastic in milk in China, the recalls of almond and peanut butter in the U.S., customers have a fundamental right to know what's in their food."

Activists have long pushed for more transparency on supermarket shelves. Some see Whole Foods' pledge as evidence of retailers' growing power to force policy changes when voters and regulators can't.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

High-stakes fight over soybeans at high court

http://www.kpcnews.com/business/latest/kpcnews/article_6bed0b30-9f7f-5565-9af6-3fcd6e496fd1.html

The 75-year-old Indiana farmer figured out a way to benefit from a high-technology product, soybeans that are resistant to weed-killers, without always paying the high price that such genetically engineered seeds typically bring. In so doing, he ignited a legal fight with seed-giant Monsanto Co. that has now come before the Supreme Court, with argument taking place this week.

The court case poses the question of whether Bowman’s actions violated the patent rights held by Monsanto, which developed soybean and other seeds that survive when farmers spray their fields with the company’s Roundup brand weed-killer. The seeds dominate American agriculture, including in Indiana where more than 90 percent of soybeans are Roundup Ready.

Monsanto has attracted a bushel of researchers, universities and other agribusiness concerns to its side because they fear a decision in favor of Bowman would leave their own technological innovations open to poaching. The company’s allies even include a company that is embroiled in a separate legal battle with Monsanto over one of the patents at issue in the Bowman case.

The Obama administration also backs Monsanto, having earlier urged the court to stay out of the case because of the potential for far-reaching implications for patents involving DNA molecules, nanotechnologies and other self-replicating technologies.

Monsanto’s opponents argue that the company has tried to use patent law to control the supply of seeds for soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa. The result has been a dramatic rise in seed prices and reduced options for farmers, according to the Center for Food Safety. The group opposes the spread of genetically engineered crops and says their benefits have been grossly overstated.

 

[Workbox]

High-stakes fight over soybeans at high court

http://www.kpcnews.com/business/latest/kpcnews/article_6bed0b30-9f7f-5565-9af6-3fcd6e496fd1.html

The 75-year-old Indiana farmer figured out a way to benefit from a high-technology product, soybeans that are resistant to weed-killers, without always paying the high price that such genetically engineered seeds typically bring. In so doing, he ignited a legal fight with seed-giant Monsanto Co. that has now come before the Supreme Court, with argument taking place this week.

The court case poses the question of whether Bowman’s actions violated the patent rights held by Monsanto, which developed soybean and other seeds that survive when farmers spray their fields with the company’s Roundup brand weed-killer. The seeds dominate American agriculture, including in Indiana where more than 90 percent of soybeans are Roundup Ready.

Monsanto has attracted a bushel of researchers, universities and other agribusiness concerns to its side because they fear a decision in favor of Bowman would leave their own technological innovations open to poaching. The company’s allies even include a company that is embroiled in a separate legal battle with Monsanto over one of the patents at issue in the Bowman case.

The Obama administration also backs Monsanto, having earlier urged the court to stay out of the case because of the potential for far-reaching implications for patents involving DNA molecules, nanotechnologies and other self-replicating technologies.

Monsanto’s opponents argue that the company has tried to use patent law to control the supply of seeds for soybeans, corn, cotton, canola, sugar beets and alfalfa. The result has been a dramatic rise in seed prices and reduced options for farmers, according to the Center for Food Safety. The group opposes the spread of genetically engineered crops and says their benefits have been grossly overstated.

Control the seed/food, control the population/society.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Bills would require labels on genetically engineered food in Minnesota

http://www.startribune.com/business/194056041.html?refer=y

Minnesota could become the next battleground in the fight over mandatory labels for genetically modified food.

Bills were introduced Thursday in the Minnesota Legislature that would require food manufacturers to label their products to indicate whether they contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. Similar bills are being considered in other states, and California voters took part in a bruising battle last fall over the labeling issue.

The majority of packaged food in U.S. supermarkets is derived from genetically engineered crops like corn or sugar beets. Labeling proponents say the long-term health implications of GE crops are not known, and that consumers should have the right to know if the stuff is in their food.

The food industry, which has a big presence in Minnesota, says GE technology is supported by ample science and the approval of health and food regulators nationwide. Labels would be expensive and needlessly scare consumers, the industry maintains.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Ethanol Trails Gasoline as ‘Blend Wall’ Sends RINs to Record

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...oline-as-blend-wall-sends-rins-to-record.html

The “Blend Wall,” as it’s known in industry circles, is the point where there is more gas to be blended than ethanol to use.

Domestic energy producers are facing some tough choices in the coming months thanks for a one – two punch of ethanol and government regulations. A combination of the drought this summer wiping out a fair portion of the corn crop and an unfunded mandate scheme by the federal government have resulted in there not being enough affordable ethanol for producers to blend into E-10 fuel.

When producers can’t meet the minimum amount of “renewables” required by Uncle Sam, they have the choice of using RINs (Renewable Identification Numbers issued by the government) instead. Since the RINs are able to be traded, this makes them into a new sort of commodity exchange system, and like any other, when supply goes down, prices go up.

The long and the short of it is that they can either sell their fuel elsewhere, charge more for it to cover the cost of the RINs or produce less. (Which also drives up prices.) Either way, you lose and the EPA wins.

 

[JSmith43]

News flash: The local McDonalds raised the price of their SW salad, one of the few menu items I tolerate while on the road) 8% a couple days ago.

We've all probably noted food price increases at the grocery store. When a bottom feeder like McD, competing with the likes of Burger King, Wendy's & White Castle makes a move, it gets my attention.

The CPI as of January 2013 year over year data indicates 1.1% inflation for cost of "food at home." It indicates 2.3% inflation for "food away from home."

The "food away from home" costs will likely spike as Obamacare kicks in. A minimum wage mandate will also likely hit "food away from home."

I guess the only thing to do is pack a lunch and go long in manufacturers or retailers of seat covers

BTW, the food at home & away from home CPI numbers are very suspect, on the low side.