The need for COOL is once again driven home by the Food and Drug Administration s (FDA) discovery that the tainted Chinese feed additives were labeled as wheat gluten and rice protein, but actually were ordinary wheat flour illegally mixed with melamine and related banned compounds in an effort to boost the apparent protein content. The recent melamine problems in wheat gluten and rice protein imported from China brings to center stage the issue of unrestrained free trade as it relates to...

Slackening demand may have also weighed on farm gate prices for HRW Monday, as USDA reported a halving in weekly export inspections for that class of bread-quality wheat. Grain merchandisers feel the amount of US cornh acreage in good/excellent condition could be as much as 3 percentage points higher when USDA crop condition ratings are updated late Monday afternoon. CIF/export/barge/track basis for other US cash grains were mixed Monday, with values 2-5 cents higher for spring wheat, and...

The recent mass removal of tainted and suspect spinach from the market is a reminder of this - and of the need for US agriculture to adopt more appropriate safety measures. Food-safety experts pushing for produce to be as regulated and overseen as meat are probably right, but this direction involves an irony and perhaps an element of faulty reasoning. Moving to meat-like inspections will force even more centralization of food production, because only large producers will be able to afford...

While the city could apply the sale proceeds toward its $3 million deficit, it would have to come up with more than $1 million for parkland development required by pending state legislation. As political rhetoric swirls around the possible sale of the Mark Twain Golf Course, the question remains: Who has the better plan, Elmira or Chemung County? Some academic experts have declined to address the specifics of the potential sale, but they offered some general observations about relative...

The summer respite will find barbecuing, baseball, boating and other summertime pleasures the order of the day, capped off by evening fireworks displays. But after the Fourth of July holiday period, grain futures traders will even more keenly focus on the critical timeframe that occurs after the holiday. Here is what Conrad Leslie, the longtime and highly respected crop forecaster and market commentator, told me a few years ago: "Following the July Fourth holiday period, those who are...