The upshot of this pig plague is a near-30% rise in pork prices and an even bigger jump in the price of pigs. This hits China's population hard, since pork is a staple of the local diet, notwithstanding recent incursions by Western food vendors. Why do we care about this distant problem? For starters, some analysts project that inflation in China will have risen to around 4% from 3% in the most recent month. It apparently set up a "strategic pork reserve" in the late 1990s to offset an...

Researchers have developed a new vaccine that looks promising for protection against foot-and-mouth disease which strikes cattle and swine, as well as sheep, goats and deer. Tests so far have shown that vaccinated cattle retain immunity for at least 21 days, but scientists expect that future studies will show that the new vaccine at least matches the six months of immunity provided by current vaccines. The new vaccine has been tested on cattle and swine, and is equally effective in both...

Only articles from today's edition are available for free on our web site. This is only an excerpt from the full story. The entire article is approximately 136 words in length. Market Matters Some Love May Close The Oil and Gas Gap A realization that the biggest stocks are cheap has led to a market-wide rally. Special Reports Funny, Terrible, Scary. And That's Just the Films From scheming staff to vengeful vampires, Russian hotels have seen it all. Georgians Halt Spread of Swine Fever The...

China's mammoth and largely successful efforts at improving the lot of its billion-odd people have run into the realities of the limits posed by centralized development. In a nominally totalitarian state, such expressions of protest may appear anachronistic, but they are well within the character of today's China. Anecdotal evidence from various second-tier Chinese cities such as Shantou, Xiamen and Bobai show that protests over local issues such as enforced family planning or abrupt...

Working together to expand our scientific understanding of air emissions from livestock operations, we can do what's good for agriculture, good for our environment, and good for the American people. This agreement established a framework for farmers to participate in a monitoring study. EPA concluded in the late 1990's that it did not have sufficient air emissions data for AFOs, which made it difficult to determine the compliance status of AFOs with existing air emissions requirements. EPA...