Sugar vs. corn sweetener lawsuit dropped

The sugar and corn sweetener industries have reached an out-of-court settlement in a bitter lawsuit launched in U.S. District Court in California.

Terms of the settlement have not been revealed.

The two giant industries accused each other of false claims about how their products harm the health of people, and they each brought reams of scientific opinions and studies to the trial.

Corn sweetener sales have declined, partly because more people are concerned about obesity.

"The parties had been trying to work on an agreement for a month before trial, and these things take time," W. Mark Lanier, an attorney for the sugar processors, told Reuters news agency.

A representative for corn refiners, chief among them Archer, Daniel Midlands, declined to comment.

Several sugar refiners including global leader ASR Group alleged in a 2011 lawsuit that a Corn Refiners Association advertising campaign describing high fructose corn syrup as "corn sugar" and "natural" was false.

The corn refiners countersued, saying the Sugar Association falsely said in its newsletter that corn syrup caused obesity and cancer.

Corn refiners argued that sugar processors were not damaged because they enjoyed record sales and profits during the ad campaign.

The sugar growers sought $1.1 billion in compensatory damages over the campaign. The corn refiners asked for about $530 million in their countersuit.

A joint statement issued after the settlement was neutral about which product is healthier.

Both industries "continue their commitments to practices that encourage safe and healthful use of their products, including moderation in the consumption of table sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners," the parties said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012 ruled that corn syrup, used to sweeten foods including soda, could not be called sugar.

Quebec preparing to restrict neonics

Quebec’s Environment Minister David Heurtel is promising consultations before he introduces a bill that would be even tougher than Ontario in restricting the use of neonicitinoid seed treatment insecticides.

He says every farmer would require an expert assessment of the need to use them before permission will be granted.

But he is also promising subsidies to encourage farmers to plant soybean and corn seeds that have not been treated with neon's.

In Ontario, the neonic restrictions call for an expert assessment of insect pressure, but only if farmers intend to use treated seed for a majority of their acreage.

The Grain Farmers of Ontario association which represents corn and soybean growers has filed court challenges, claiming the restrictions are too draconian.

Huertel said Quebec also intends to curb the use of atrazine weed killer and chlorpyrifos insecticides.

Quebec’s strategy also pledges to allow the sale of lower-risk bio-based pesticides at all retailers, and to provide “economic incentives” favouring the use of pesticides deemed to be of lower risk.

The province, in its strategy document, said it would also triple the number of pesticides banned from use in urban areas such as lawns and parks, to about 60 products — and would require golf course operators to reduce, by 25 per cent, the use of pesticides deemed of greater risk.

The new rules would also require that pesticide applicators’ qualifications in pest management are adequate for the job in question, and would widen buffer zones between residential areas and pesticide applications.

Heurtel said he intends to introduce legislation this winter.

                       

Neonic defence reported by Associated Press

Associated Press reporter Emery P. Dalesidio has written a long feature article about how Bayer CropSciences and Syngenta are trying to defend neonicitinoid seed treatments from accusations that they are responsible for killng bees.

The story that is circulating globally includes a quote from extension worker who says neonicitinoids do kill bees, but says the company doesn’t know how many.

"I think the final verdict is still out there" on how large a role neonics play in bee deaths, said Dominic Reisig of North Carolina State University.

"I would say clearly there's something there, but is it one percent? Ten percent? Ninety percent? We don't know."

But the United States Department of Agriculture recently released its research report that finds that the more than three dozen “neonics produced by Bayer CropScience and Syngenta (are) among the chemicals most toxic to bees,” reports Dalesidio.

“Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto - which coats its seeds with neonics - are encouraging nonprofits, landowners and governments to plant more flowers and other plants bees need to feed., reports Delesidio.

“Their representatives are speaking at beekeepers' conferences and visiting agricultural research universities.”

Besides inviting visitors to bee centers on its corporate campuses outside Raleigh, North Carolina, and Monheim, Germany, Bayer offers teachers a downloadable digital science lesson about bees. A company Twitter feed promotes the benefits of neonics and studies that refute their link to bee deaths, often using the hashtag #FeedABee.

A global agro-chemical trade magazine recently honored Bayer's pro-bees campaign for what judges said was its effort "to broaden understanding and shift conversation from blaming solely pesticides towards a multiplicity of factors."

Critics say the pesticide companies claim their products aren’t the only problem, so therefore it isn't a problem," said Massachusetts beekeeper Dick Callahan, a retired executive with a doctorate in entomology who co-authored a Harvard study on the effects of neonics on honeybees.

Callahan said that mites may be the greatest adversary of his honeybees, yet that doesn't explain why mite-free bumble bees are also disappearing.

Neonics were a breakthrough because they can be used to coat seeds rather than sprayed.

Bayer produces three of the world's top five neonic pesticides in a worldwide market estimated to be worth about $3 billion, with Bayer's two top-selling products taking about half the market, said Sanjiv Rana, editor-in-chief of Agrow, a trade publication for the agricultural chemicals industry. Syngenta's best-selling neonic is worth about $1 billion in annual sales, Rana said.

Becky Langer, the Bayer CropScience manager for U.S. bee health, denied the company's four-year-old campaign is related to the company's neonic sales. It grew out of decades of research on the interaction of chemicals and the crucial pollinators, she said.

"One didn't pop up because of the other," said Langer, whose center oversees bee field research locations in North Carolina, California and Ontario.

She said: "Bee numbers are actually not declining."

But that depends how you count. On the one hand, figures from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.S. Department of Agriculture show there are more bee colonies now than 30 years ago.

But those numbers can be deceiving since beekeepers routinely separate a healthy hive into two, a practice that helps overcome accepted annual losses of about 18 percent.

Losses in the U.S. the past five years have been especially acute, with reported annual losses of 30 percent to 45 percent, according to a study authored by researchers including the University of Maryland's Dennis vanEngelsdorp.

The heavy death toll continues through the spring and summer, when bee populations are collecting pollen and should be their healthiest, the study said.

Across Europe and nearby countries such as Algeria, beekeepers reported 17 percent of colonies lost last winter, twice that of the previous year.

That has regulators and retailers zeroing in on neonics. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working on new risk assessments, and the European Union is reviewing a two-year-old ban on the biggest-selling neonics from crops during their flowering stage.

"We're going to push with every ounce of our energy to get this thing reversed," former Syngenta Chief Executive Officer Michael Mack told stock analysts in February.

Meanwhile, Bayer and Syngenta are working on new bee-saving products. Syngenta is testing biological and chemical agents to fight mites and parasites.

Bayer is working on repellants to keep bees away from pollinating plants until pesticides lose their killing power, remote sensors for monitoring hive health, and the latest in a 30-year series of mite-killing treatments.

Work to develop a new miticide is worthwhile even though the parasites will likely develop a resistance before long, Bayer CropScience North America CEO Jim Blome said.

"It's very difficult to get your investment back that way. In fact, you won't," Blome said. "We believe in expanding bee populations."

                           

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Connolly continues to transform ConAgra

Sean Connolly continues to transform ConAgra since he took over as chief executive officer, this time spinning off Lamb Weston, its frozen potato business.

Lamb Weston has sales of about $3 billion a year.

This will further simplify ConAgra, changing it from a rather unwieldy conglomerate with fingers in a lot of pies.

It's also good news for farmers because they will have renewed competition from buyers.

The split of Lamb Weston will rid ConAgra of most of its existing business selling foods to restaurants and other commercial customers, leaving it to focus on its dozens of grocery-store brands, which include Peter Pan peanut butter, PAM cooking spray, Hebrew National hot dogs and Gulden’s mustard, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Connolly said the move will enable both the remaining business, to be called Conagra Brands, and Lamb Weston both to better focus and generate stronger growth. 

“Clearly, as a company, we’ve had a lot of different things going on and competing for management’s attention,” he said on a conference call. 

“By creating two pure-play companies, we are best positioning each to compete.”

Connolly executed another spinoff seven months ago. The two big moves reduce ConAgra’s annual sales from $19 billion to $9 billion, but leaves the company more profitable.

Earlier this month, ConAgra agreed to sell its struggling private-label business—which makes foods for supermarkets’ in-house brands—to Treehouse Foods Inc. for $2.7 billion—less than three years after ConAgra acquired it. 

In October, it disclosed a plan to cut $300 million in annual costs that included 1,500 layoffs, and said it would move its headquarters to downtown Chicago from Omaha, Neb.

Mr. Connolly has also brought in a new senior executive to streamline the company’s supply chain.

Carroll wins PIC award

Debbie Carroll, who recently retired as secretary-treasurer for the Ontario Hatcheries Association, is this year’s winner of the Poultry Industry Council’s Poultry Worker of the Year award.

The award is named in honour of Ed McKinlay.

Carroll has been the key employee at the Ontario HatcheryAssociation since 1985 and has made many contributions to the overall Ontario poultry industry.

Ed Verkley, chairman of the P.I.C.,  noted that "she coordinated events such as the hatchery-industry convention, baseball tournament, curling bonspiel, and golf tournament which brought the entire industry together. She is very deserving of this award."

 Debbie organized educational workshops and provided labour and property tax legislation advice, biosecurity protocols and served as a conduit to share information on issues impacting the sector.

 Bob Guy, general manager of the Ontario Broiler Hatching Egg and Chick Commission, said  she "provided a high level of professionalism, personal integrity and commitment to the industry over her 30 years, and that is why we nominated Debbie for this award."