Beetles Help Fight Invasive Weed From The Associated Press The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the non-profit Nature Conservancy released the Aphthona flea beetles in limited areas about 10 years ago and have found they're experts at gobbling up leafy spurge, a weed with milky, latex sap that causes lesions in cows that eat it. "Leafy spurge is just such an aggressive weed," said Scott Moats, who works for the Nature Conservancy in northwest Iowa and Nebraska. The larvae are planted near the foot of leafy spurge plants and through the winter and...

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Wheat Jumps on Supply Concerns From The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) Wheat futures shot up 60 cents a bushel Monday after Kazakhstan said it would slow grain exports by imposing customs duties, adding to concerns over tightening global supplies. Wheat prices have surged to historic highs as bad weather has battered crop after crop around the globe, most recently in India and Canada. The higher wheat prices may not immediately affect U.S. consumers since big food companies like Kellogg Co., General Mills Inc., and Kraft Foods Inc. typically...

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AGRICULTURE A 'Dying Business'? From Tampa Tribune Machen, who came to UF in 2003 from the University of Utah, also infuriated agriculture interests when he added that agriculture in Florida "is not worthy of the investment being made by the legislature" in the state's extension service program. Machen was quoted as saying the university's agriculture extension service should take the brunt of the $25 million in budget cuts slated for the university. Royce said it's clear that budget cuts will have to be made at the University of Florida,...

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Uganda: Mess in Agriculture; It's State House Versus Washington From AllAfrica.com According to Denis Mutabazi in his article "Govt messing up agriculture" Daily Monitor,Tuesday, February 21, "the expert government panel which facilitated Naads design identified lack of farmer access to information, knowledge and technology as the biggest impediment to agricultural growth. Secondly, Naads and other 'transformatory' government programmes inherently have two sets of objectives -one technical and the other political. Mr Mutabazi and most commentators approach things from the...

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Agriculture Min. warns against eggs smuggled from West Bank From Ha'aretz Agriculture Ministry inspectors and the Border Police have confiscated some 120,000 eggs smuggled into Israel from the West Bank in recent weeks, warning that the eggs are dangerous to people's health. In 2007 Israel confiscated some 12 million smuggled eggs, and thus far in 2008 some 500,000 eggs have been confiscated.

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