Dog farm owners in South Korea, asking for their right to exist, have held a protest aimed at the Korean government, causing controversy among Koreans.

On September 24, about 500 members of the Korean Dog Meat Association gathered in front of the Gwacheon Government Complex and held a protest, urging the Korean government to make its stand official. A collective action by a group of dog farm owners is an unprecedented matter in Korea.

The association insisted that the dog farm owners’ right to exist is threatened because the Korean government has been showing a lukewarm attitude towards dealing with matters related to dog meat, and animal protection groups are maligning them with groundless reasons.

At the protest, some members had their hair shaved in a show of complaint, saying there exists at least 20,000 dog farms with 6 million dogs.

Moon Duk-bong, the head of the association, said during a protest, “If the Korean government makes our association an official organization, it will become easier for us to check our member farms’ sanitary facilities. Our offer has been rejected for four times by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and that’s why we are gathered here today.”

It was reported that most dog farms in Korea have poor sanitary facilities and cannot meet the standards required by the Korean Ministry of Environment.

He added. “However, we are not trying to ask the Korean government to entirely legalize breeding edible dogs.”

Under Korea’s current law, breeding edible dogs is illegal.

According to Korean newspaper, Hankyoreh Shinmun, Korea’s Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is unwilling to give the Korean Dog Meat Association an official status, due to worries about harsh public criticism.

Meanwhile, Korea Animal Rights Advocates (KARA) showed its support of the decision of Korea’s Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. KARA also announced that if breeding an edible dog is legalized in Korea, it will ultimately threaten public health, with unknown diseases derived from poor dog farms’ sanitary situations, and dog farms should stop abusing dogs as soon as possible. KARA added that the Korean government should take a measure to get rid of breeding edible dogs in Korea step by step.

It is reported that the Korean government has no specific data about how many edible dogs are raised, or what kind of facilities dog farms have. There are no laws that can regulate dog farms or dog meat restaurants, according to KARA’s official statement.

Korean people showed different views regarding this issue.

Fifty-year-old surnamed Hwang said, “Even though it is illegal, edible dogs are still widely consumed by many people. We should take more time to think about how to deal with this issue,” while 21-year-old Shin said, “I heard many dogs are raised and killed in the worst situation. This tragedy has to be stopped as soon as possible.”

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Washington,U.S.A–The U.S. Senate passed the 2012 Farm Bill today, meaning the measure is a big step closer to enactment. The Farm Bill, renewed every five years, is the largest source of funding for conservation on America’s working farmland, ranchland and private forestland. In addition to funding federal conservation and nutrition programs, the bill also authorizes risk management and other programs that influence the decisions of land managers across the country.

“The Farm Bill is the United States’ primary means for engaging farmers, ranchers and foresters in stewardship of America’s natural resources,” said Sara Hopper, agricultural policy director of Environmental Defense Fund. “The continuing economic prosperity of agriculture is critical to the nation. But it is also true that agriculture has a significant environmental footprint. It affects – and is affected by – soil health, reliable supplies of clean water, and healthy ecosystems.”

As part of an effort to reduce the federal deficit, the Senate voted to cut more than $23 billion from the Farm Bill budget over the next 10 years, including $6.4 billion from conservation programs. While these cuts will hurt conservation efforts on the ground, senators made an effort to mitigate the impact of the loss in conservation funding by including policies that will make conservation programs more effective. Specifically, the Senate bill consolidates some conservation programs and creates a stronger emphasis on leveraging additional resources from local and state governments and other partners who can assist producers in voluntary, cooperative efforts to address local, state and regional conservation priorities. Senators also voted yesterday to apply to taxpayer-funded crop insurance premium subsidies the requirements that farmers of some environmentally sensitive lands currently have to meet in order to receive other farm subsidies.

“With increasing pressures to feed a growing global population, America’s natural resources are under more demand and stress than ever before,” said Hopper. “Demand for conservation assistance for farmers already outstrips available conservation dollars. Congress must maintain and strengthen its commitment to conservation in this Farm Bill and one way to do that is through innovate partnership programs that bring conservation dollars to local communities.”

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Just a few weeks before hosting the UN Sustainable Development Conference, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vetoed 12 of 84 points and made 32 modifications to the controversial “Código Florestal” or “Forest Code” on 31 May 2012. The bill has now been sent back to the Brazilian Congress to be re-approved there. Rousseff also promises to pass several executive orders to help maintain the balance between the environmental and agricultural sides of the bill.

Some of Rousseff’s vetoes include giving amnesty to landowners who illegally cleared forests before 2008. These landowners must restore these areas but there is no part of the bill that requires them to use native plants, meaning that landowners can introduce exotic plants or cash crops instead. Rousseff also denied allowing large landowners to ignore illegal deforestation on their lands from other parties; these landowners must stop the deforestation and restore the forest.

Another essential veto for Rousseff was stopping deforestation near riverbanks and hillsides, which are delicate environmental areas and allow for erosion of the soil. Rousseff also extended the forest buffer zone for rivers from ten meters to one hundred meters.

The bill, which gives many allowances to landowners and farmers, has many environmentalists worried that the progress Brazil has been making at restoring and protecting the Amazon rainforest will be lost if the bill is passed at all. The activist group Avaaz sent in a petition to President Rousseff with almost two million signatures from around the world asking for a total veto of the bill.

However, if Rousseff had vetoed the bill outright the Congress could have overruled her veto and the bill would have passed with the most environmentally detrimental aspects still in it. Since the bill passed fifty-nine to seven in the Senate this overturning of a full veto would not be difficult.

Agriculture groups claim that uncertainty over legislation has undermined investment in the agricultural sector which accounts for 5% of Brazil’s GDP. President of Brazil’s National Agriculture and Livestock Association (CNA) stated after the passage of the bill in the senate, “this is the first time we’re ending the monopoly, that we’re ending the environmental dictatorship where half a dozen [non-governmental organizations] controlled the environment ministry.”

Rousseff made several campaign promises to both environmental protection and economic development; this bill is the first major bill that has brought these two concepts into opposition. However the ministers of environment, agriculture, and development agree that Rousseff has managed to strike a good balance between preservation and sustainable development

Sixty percent of the Amazon rainforest is in Brazil and twenty percent of the Brazilian rainforest has already been destroyed. In order to slow deforestation, Rousseff created an environmental police in 2008 to monitor deforestation through satellite imaging. These 1,400 rangers police an area the size of the US west of the Mississippi.

The Amazons are considered the lungs of the earth and clean out tens of billions of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It possess ten percent of the world’s biodiversity and has many plants and insects with the medicinal potential. Scientists claim that less than half of one percent of the flowering plants in the rainforest has been studied for their medicinal purposes, and with the rainforest shrinking many of these species that may possess cures are being lost. With the recent drought in the Amazon scientists are beginning to worry that deforestation and climate change will begin to turn the Amazon into a savannah.

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Washington, U.S.A - International agency Oxfam warned that the announcement of the “New Alliance to Increase Food and Nutrition Security” focuses too heavily on the role of the private sector to tackle the complex challenges of food insecurity in the developing world. The organization called instead for G8 leaders to keep the promises they have already made to help developing countries invest in sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty.

“The New Alliance is neither new nor a true alliance,” said Oxfam’s Lamine Ndiaye. “The rhetoric invokes small-scale producers, particularly women, but the plan must do more to bring them to the table.” Smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, make up the majority of hungry people in poor countries and are key agents of change in their communities.

Three years ago, at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, and President Obama rallied the leaders of the world’s richest countries to pledge $22 billion to poor countries that had good plans to tackle hunger. Seven months away from the end of the L’Aquila initiative, dozens of poor countries have lived up to their end of the bargain, but the G8 is falling down on the job.

“President Obama deserves credit for focusing the G8′s attention on the fact that one billion people go to bed hungry every night,” said Oxfam’s Gregory Adams. “We applaud the clear focus on the target of helping 50 million people escape hunger and poverty through agriculture.”

“G8 leaders should join President Obama to commit resources to help developing countries reach this ambitious goal. The pledge to find $1.2 billion for the trust fund to support country agriculture plans is a good start. But the G8 should recommit to the partnership they began at L’Aquila and maintain that level of investments. Otherwise, they’ll be offering a shrinking solution to a growing problem.”

The alliance includes 45 companies from around the world, representing what G8 leaders hope will be the missing link to achieve transformational development in poor countries. While there is a positive role for the private sector in the fight against global hunger, the plan’s top down approach does not reflect what many people in poor countries say they want or need. The average private sector role in existing country food security plans, the basis for the L’Aquila agreement, is about 5%, and most have no role at all.

“This new alliance – is a nice complement at best, a deflection at worst. The role of the private sector is important, but they will not be able to make up for the G8′s broken promises,” said Ndiaye. “Smallholder farmers need the freedom to pursue their own growing strategies, not take overly-prescriptive tips on farming from G8 leaders, or one size fits all technologies from far away CEOs.”

A number of African civil society leaders and groups publicly raised concerns about the path the G8 is taking on food security in an open a letter to the G8 and a declaration signed at a Committee on World Food Security Consultation for African civil society groups in April of 2012.

“Having been developed without African civil society, it’s unclear what role they will play in its execution,” said Ndiaye.

The plan mentions but must do more to address the growing threats of climate change and natural resource constraints. And while the G8′s initiative endorses the United Nations Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure, an important step forward in preventing land grabs, they make a misstep in also legitimizing a weaker World Bank standard.

“Unless the G8 reaffirms and continues its L’Aquila pledges, they are passing the buck on global hunger,” said Adams. “The private sector, especially local small and medium enterprises, can play an important role in tackling food security, but G8 leaders have to first deliver on their end of the deal.”

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The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a new arrangement for Niger under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) in an amount equivalent to SDR 78.96 million (about about US$120.97 million). The Board’s decision will enable an immediate disbursement equivalent to SDR 11.28 million (about US$17.28 million).

The authorities’ program is aimed at maintaining macroeconomic stability while increasing resilience to shocks; strengthening public finance and debt management; putting in place a transparent legal and supervisory framework for the mining and petroleum sectors; and supporting private and financial sector development.

“The 2012 budget is well aligned with the authorities’ growth and poverty reduction program. Medium-term fiscal policy is rightly geared towards creating the fiscal space for increased development spending, while maintaining debt sustainability.

“Rising receipts from oil production and strengthened domestic revenue should primarily finance the planned investment. It will also be important to step up efforts to seek grants and concessional financing for large infrastructure investment and other projects. Non-concessional loans should only be contracted for well-assessed, high-yield projects,” observes Naoyuki Shinohara, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair.

“A significant build-up of government reserves at the central bank will provide flexibility in budget execution and bolster Niger’s resilience to exogenous shocks.

“Important structural reforms are underway. Measures to strengthen budget execution, reduce the number of tax exemptions, and modernize tax and customs administration will help maintain fiscal stability. At the same time, steps to strengthen and develop the financial system and improve the business climate will promote private sector development and diversify the economy,” Shinohara added.

Niger is emerging from a prolonged period of social unrest and from military rule. A democratically-elected government came into power in April 2011. Building on the poverty reduction strategy, the government has adopted an ambitious development program.

Economic activity in recent years has been affected by large swings in agricultural production. Following a year of serious food shortages, economic growth recovered quickly in late 2010, driven by an excellent harvest and the expansion of services related to agriculture.

The authorities’ medium-term policy framework is based on a favorable growth outlook driven mainly by the oil and mining sectors. With the startup of a new petroleum project, GDP is projected to expand by13.4% in real terms in 2012. Investments in a large new uranium mine and the development of the petroleum sector should sustain economic activity in the years after 2012

Niger’s medium-term prospects are nevertheless subject to various risks. The country is vulnerable to exogenous shocks, including recurrent, weather-related food crises and fluctuations in commodity prices. The deteriorating security situation in the region is another factor adding to Niger’s vulnerabilities.

Medium-term fiscal policy will aim at maintaining debt sustainability while creating room for increased development spending. At the same time, the objective to strengthen government cash balances to increase the resilience of the budget to unexpected shocks. In light of these objectives and the current projections for external donor aid, the authorities intend to keep the basic fiscal deficit below 1.5 percent of GDP during the program period.

The government is committed to further strengthening public oversight of the natural resources sector in 2012 through the Inter-ministerial Committee for natural resources assessment, which will ensure appropriate information flows and coordination between government representatives in each natural resource company. In addition, the government intends to undertake a study on its overall strategy and policy in the petroleum and mining sector, including the policy to maximize the government’s petroleum resources and the structure of government oversight in that sector. This study is to be completed by end-December 2012.

A key objective for the medium term will be to bring the Investment Code into line with best practices. In collaboration with the World Bank, the authorities are planning to undertake a comprehensive review of the Code in 2012.

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This afternoon, Putnam Circuit Court Judge Derek Swope granted preliminary approval to comprehensive settlements agreed to by  Monsanto company and the Calwell Practice PLLC that resolve all claims in all pending litigation as well as all class actions filed in West Virginia. The litigation, including the pending class action suits relate specifically to a chemical plant once located in Nitro, West Virginia and activities which took place 40 to 60 years ago.

“These settlements ensure that both individual and community concerns are addressed, and services are made available for the people of Nitro,” said Scott Partridge, vice president of Monsanto company. ”We are pleased to resolve this matter and end any concerns about historic operations at the Nitro plant.”

“The settlements provide needed medical benefits and remediation services to the people of Nitro and broader community,” said Class Counsel Stuart Calwell of the Calwell Practice. “The principal goal of the litigation was to provide long-term medical monitoring and to provide professional cleaning of individual homes.”

These resolutions provide for eligible class members in the Nitro community to have their health monitored and to have their houses professionally cleaned. Approximately 4,500 homes are located in areas where individual remediation of homes may be desirable.  A program will be created to offer free professional cleaning of these homes and provide funding of up to $9 million dollars for this purpose.

The parties have agreed that a thirty-year medical monitoring program will be established at a local hospital. Thousands of persons who lived, worked, or attended school in the Nitro area during the period of time covered by the lawsuit will be eligible to apply for benefits.  The plan will be supported by a primary fund of $21 million dollars which will pay for medical testing of eligible class members.

Up to $63 million dollars in additional funding will be available over the thirty-year life of the medical screening program. In addition to the direct benefits these agreements will provide to the residents of the Nitro area, Monsanto has agreed to pay Court approved legal fees and litigation costs incurred by Class Counsel over the last seven years.

The class action resolutions will now be fully reviewed by Circuit Judge Derek Swope to ensure the fairness of the class action settlement agreements.

Monsanto noted that this settlement will allow it to maintain its focus on its global agriculture business and its commitment of investing in improved seed products for farmers throughout the world. Monsanto indicated that, for fiscal year 2012, the settlement will not affect ongoing earnings per share but the one time expense will reduce as reported earnings per share by approximately $0.05.

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Beyond Pesticides, along with Center for Environmental Health, Farmworker Justice, Healthy Schools Network, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange and over 100 national, state and local grassroots organizations, told the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect public health and eliminate unnecessary pyrethroid pesticides.

The group criticized EPA’s cumulative risk assessment, which concluded that pyrethroids “do not pose risk concerns for children or adults,” ignoring a wealth of peer reviewed studies linking this class of chemicals to cancer, respiratory and reproductive problems. EPA went as far as to state that it will consider additional uses, opening the flood gates and endangering public health.

EPA is mandated to complete cumulative risk assessments for pesticides, like pyrethroids, that have the same mechanism of toxicity. However, as the commenters point out, EPA’s evaluation ignores various routes of exposure, underestimating the risks.

The agency also chose to reduce the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) safety factor from 10 to 3 times for children less than six years of age and eliminate it completely for children over six. The FQPA safety factor is intended to protect infants and children to account for their special vulnerability to pesticides. Given that children are particularly sensitive to certain pyrethroids, this reduction is egregious.

Pyrethroids are used for indoor pest control, mosquito management, in agriculture, and on pets. Exposure has been reported to lead to headaches, dizziness, nausea, irritation, and skin sensations. EPA classifies pyrethroids permethrin and cypermethrin as possible human carcinogens, and permethrin as a suspected hormone disruptor.

Pyrethroids have also been linked to respiratory problems and triggering asthma attacks. Many are persistent and CDC reports that pyrethroids contaminate the bodies of more than half of all U.S. residents.

At the same time, there are clear established methods for managing homes, schools and other buildings without toxic pesticides, including exclusion techniques, sanitation and maintenance practices, as well as mechanical and least toxic, non-volatile pesticides.

Organic agriculture, which now produces yields similar to or greater than chemical-intensive farming, has proven that these chemicals are not necessary on the farm either. And, it is more effective to fight mosquitoes with natural larvicides than it is to fog with pyrethroids. Based on the host of health effects linked to this chemical class, pyrethroid use is hazardous and unnecessary.

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Dean Foods Company commends the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for recognizing the importance of dairy in the revised nutrition standards for school lunches, announced during a ceremony with First Lady Michelle Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, at Parkland Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia.

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recognized milk products as a key contributor of three of the four “shortfall nutrients” in the U.S. diet – calcium, potassium and vitamin D – and recommended adults and children increase consumption of fat-free and low-fat dairy products.

Parkland Elementary serves milk made by the Dean Foods Shenandoah’s Pride brand, including white milk, and fat-free TruMoo chocolate milk. Launched last year, TruMoo fat-free chocolate milk contains just 40 more calories than plain white milk per serving and is made without high fructose corn syrup. With only 130 calories per serving and 10 grams of added sugar, TruMoo delivers the same nine essential nutrients as white milk in a fat-free formula that conforms to the new USDA guidelines.

“Shenandoah’s Pride has been a strong partner with our school customers in developing a better-for-you chocolate milk formula with a taste kids love and the nutrition they need,” said Bill Hogan, Shenandoah’s Pride general manager.

In 2011, Fairfax County Public Schools in the Washington, D.C., suburbs gained national attention by reversing a chocolate milk ban to partner with Shenandoah’s Pride to bring a reformulated chocolate milk back into the cafeteria. The milk piloted with Fairfax schools became what is known today as TruMoo.

After successful regional retail and school pilots in the Northeast and Pacific Coast regions, virtually all of the flavored milk across Dean Foods’ family of regional brands converted to TruMoo in August 2011, making it one of the largest milk brands in the country by sales and by volume.

Tens of thousands of schools across the country converted to fat-free TruMoo at the start of the school year, meeting proposed USDA nutrition standards for school meals ahead of the finalized rules announced today.

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On January 10, 2012, beekeepers from across the country gathered at a national conference, with environmental organizations at their side, to draw attention to the growing plight facing their industry –the decline of honey bees – a problem that has far reaching implications for the U.S. economy.

“Bees and other pollinators are the underpinnings of a successful agricultural economy,” said Brett Adee, Co-Chair of the National Honey Bee Advisory Board and owner of Adee Honey Farms. “Without healthy, successful pollinators, billions of dollars are at stake.”

Many family-owned beekeeping operations are migratory, with beekeepers traveling the country from state-to-state during different months of the year to provide pollination services and harvest honey and wax. Bees in particular are responsible for pollinating many high-value crops, including pumpkins, cherries, cranberries, almonds, apples, watermelons, and blueberries. So any decline in bee populations’ health and productivity can have especially large impacts on the agricultural economy.

Honey bees are the most economically important pollinators in the world, according to a recent United Nations report on the global decline of pollinator populations.

On Tuesday, commercial beekeepers shared first-hand accounts of the value of beekeeping and of the dramatic impact of bee declines. Beekeepers estimate that one single bee kill from a pesticide exposure incident, representing 200 bee colonies, is responsible for an estimated $5 million of value to the agricultural economy. David Hackenberg, Co-Chair of the National Honey Bee Advisory Board and owner of Hackenberg Apiaries, estimates that his colonies alone generate $5 million in value over 6 months: $500,000 from California almonds in January, $800,000 from Georgia blueberries in March, $2 million from Pennsylvania apples and cherries in April, $500,000 from Maine blueberries in May, and $1 million from Pennsylvania pumpkins in June.

“If you think about it, bees and other pollinators are Mother Nature’s ultimate economic stimulus,” said Hackenberg. “Economists quantify pollination as an ‘ecosystem service’, although these figures are often unaccounted for in the traditional measures, like the GDP.”

In 2000, the last official study, the value of pollination was estimated at $14.6 million. Beekeepers suggest the number under-calculates the value of their services. They suggest the real value of their operations is $50 billion, based on retail value of food and crop grown from seed that relies upon bee pollination.

Beekeepers have survived the economic recession only to find their operations are still threatened.  Recent, catastrophic declines in honey bee populations, termed “Colony Collapse Disorder”, have been linked to a wide variety of factors, including parasites, habitat loss, and pesticides.

“The threats facing pollinators should raise concerns, as sub-lethal impacts on bees are more serious than we had initially thought,” said Dr. Jim Frazier, professor of Entomology at Penn State University. “Every time someone looks, they find something new.”

Beekeepers also noted they are partnering with environmental organizations, highlighting the threat of pesticides to the continued success of the profession and the agricultural economy. They raise special concerns with neonicotinoids, a class of systemic pesticides that is taken up a plant and expressed through the plants through which bees then forage and pollinate.

Research released last week in the journal, ‘PLoS ONE’, underscores the threat of these pesticides through a previously undocumented exposure route – planter exhaust – the talc and air mix expelled into the environment as automated planters place neonicotinoid-treated seeds into the ground during spring planting.

“Independent research links pollinator declines, especially honey bees, to a wide range of problems with industrial agriculture, especially pesticides,” said Paul Towers, spokesperson for Pesticide Action Network.

Threats to pollinators, especially commercial honey bees, concern the entire food system.  With one in three bites of food reliant on pollination, beekeepers and environmental organizations alike call out the wide-scale problem.

“Because EPA has not adequately regulated certain pesticides, the food system, including many of the foods we enjoy eating most, are at risk,” said John Kepner, Project Director for Beyond Pesticides. “We can’t afford not to take action to protect pollinators – for wallets and dinner tables alike.”

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/wohack/

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The Coalition for U.S.-Russia Trade, comprised to date of more than 70 business associations, companies and agricultural groups, including  the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Farm Bureau Federation, welcomed the announcement made by the WTO’s Ministerial Conference in Geneva to formally invite Russia to become a member of the global rules-based body.

The Coalition’s task now is to work with the U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration to pass necessary legislation that makes Russia’s market concessions fully available to U.S. business and agriculture.

“Russia is the 11th largest economy in the world, yet it is still not bound by the international principles and standards of the WTO.  Today’s invitation brings Russia one step closer to abiding by and adhering to global rules.

We applaud the negotiators from the United States, Russia and other WTO members, without whose dedication and hard work this historic moment would not have been possible,” said Edward Verona, President and CEO of the U.S.-Russia Business Council (USRBC), the Washington, D.C.-based trade association that serves as Secretariat of the Coalition for U.S.-Russia Trade.

“The terms of Russia’s WTO accession agreement will provide businesses in the United States the opportunity to operate with greater transparency and predictability in the Russian market – but only once the U.S. Congress graduates Russia from the Jackson-Vanik amendment and extends Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR),” Verona added.

Russia’s WTO membership agreement stipulates that the Russian government must ratify the accession package by June 15, 2012.  Once the agreement is approved by Russia’s legislature and signed by the Russian President, the Russian government will notify the WTO of its approval, and 30 days later Russia will officially become a member of the WTO.

For now, the Obama Administration has invoked what is known as “non-application,” notifying the WTO that the United States cannot yet offer Russia immediate and unconditional free trade status, as WTO rules require.  Thus, Russia is not obligated to grant U.S. business and agriculture full rights to the wide range of concessions it made to become a WTO member.

Thus, while the achievement of a high-standards deal on Russia’s accession is cause for celebration, the U.S. business and agricultural communities realize their work is not done.

“We now need to help Congress understand that, without Russia PNTR, the U.S. private sector is going to miss out on growing export and investment opportunities in Russia that will create and sustain jobs here in the United States,” said Randi Levinas, Executive Director of the Coalition and Executive Vice President of the USRBC.

“The Jackson-Vanik amendment no longer provides us with leverage in our relationship with Russia.  It now stands only as an impediment for U.S. economic interests. We will be working hard in the coming months with the Congressional leadership, the committees of jurisdiction and the Administration so that U.S. interests can take full advantage of Russia’s accession in a timely fashion.

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Egyptians must prepare themselves for the “black cloud,” a thick layer of smog that is produced from burning straw, every year after the rice harvest. It spreads across the Nile valley and Cairo and lasts for many weeks. The capital already has toxic air, and environmentalists fault burning waste from the harvest for making the air even worse.

Farmers generate 30 million tons of waste every year, and what they burn contributes to 42 percent of the pollution in the air during the autumn season. Experts challenge the farmers’ definition of waste, however, and state that the rice straw has potential for other uses. Egypt’s economy took a hit after the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, and the country is faced with the challenge of stimulating their failing economy by developing lucrative technologies that are able to convert the waste into fertilizer, pulp for paper, and other useful things, instead of being burned.

“Developed countries don’t even have that term in their dictionary. There is no such thing as waste, anything they produce they use,” said Galal Nawwar, the head of the chemical industries research division of Egypt’s National Research Center. Nawwar is among the environmentalists and Egyptian scientists who contend that farmers are wasting a valuable commodity by burning their rice straw.

They say the rice straw could produce up to 300 Egyptian pounds per ton. However, many farms have not changed their cultivation techniques in decades, or sometimes even in centuries, so they continue to burn about four million tons worth of rice straw every autumn, which emits 80,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the air.

The impact is the worst in one of the world’s most polluted cities, Cairo, which contains a population of 17 million. Because the city is surrounded by high ground on either side, pollutants become ensnared in a layer that hovers 25 meters off the ground. Farmers are not conscious of the straw’s value. “Burning the rice straw is not good for us either, but I have to burn it anyway, there is no other solution,” said Mohamed Sabah, an Egyptian farmer.

Though the Environmental Ministry has attempted to contain pollution over the past ten years by buying rice straw for 45 pounds a ton from some farms, many farmers still continue to set their waste ablaze. Amr Helal, a board member of the Egyptian Chamber of Industry and Engineering, is trying to create an industry to turn rice straw into useful things.

This project, which is a joint effort made by the National Research Center, the Henri Poincare University, and the German institute of Polymer Technology, has completed its pilot phase. In regards to his firm studying options to create this new industry, Helal stated, “The difficult part is not the money, as we will find funding, but the technology and the know-how.”

He remains confident that it can be done, despite the turmoil in Egypt from Mubarak’s overthrowing. He said, “The most profitable investment is to invest in science.”

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