Western Farm Press. 27 January 2012.  An uptick expected in worldwide consumer spending as the global financial picture improves will likely open the doors for increased sales of U.S. commodities including California almonds.   In the short term, we’re looking at a recession in Europe and a temporary slowdown in China and India and other emerging global markets due to the global economy.  Over the long term, moderate economic growth in Western Europe. China will grow slightly slower, but its move to a more consumer-driven economy will result in stronger consumer spending growth.

This is good news for Western agriculture. The expansion of California nut acreage and production continues to set records. The California almond industry will likely surpass the 2-billion-pound production plateau, an industry record, this year barring significant weather events.

The U.S. is the top California almond customer followed by China, Spain, Germany, and India, respectively. The U.S. purchased nearly 500 million pounds of almonds in 2010/2011. China imported 168 million pounds.  As the worldwide economy improves,  it is predicted that China and other emerging markets including India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam will buy more consumer goods. This is due to a large number of citizens earning more income and climbing from the poverty bracket to the middle class.  read more 

Growing Produce. 25 January 2012.  One of Americans’ favorite topics of conversation, the weather, was discussed at length at the opening session of the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium in Sacramento, CA, Tuesday.

The opening session, moderated by Hans Walter-Peterson of Cornell University Cooperative Extension, and a columnist for American/Western Fruit Grower magazine, kicked off with a discussion of global warming from Richard Snyder of the University of California-Davis.  Snyder said that global warming is a long-term problem, but a real problem nonetheless. He said by the end of the century we’re looking at a 4 degree increase in Celsius temperatures.  “It’s a big effect,” he said, “I don’t think you want to take this lightly.”

Snyder noted that during the ice age, temperatures only were reduced by 5 degrees Celsius.  Snyder said there could be some good effects. Carbon dioxide, which plants like, will increase, and crops will mature faster.  read more

Yahoo! News.  23 January 2012.  Scientists in Britain and Japan have unveiled a fast-track way towards breeding crops with higher yields or resistance to climate change.  Early beneficiaries should be Japanese farmers who need salt-loving rice plants after their fields were submerged in last year’s tsunami.

The technique unveiled Sunday, which does not use genetic modification, pinpoints DNA variants which confer specific qualities in a plant.  Armed with this knowledge, breeders can then use classic methods to splice these genes into an existing strain.  Right now, it can take up to five or even 10 years to develop a strain, which is known as a cultivar. But the “MutMat” approach should speed this marathon to a sprint of little more than a year, say its inventors.  “Essentially, it helps to get to the needle in the haystack faster,” Sophien Kamoun, a professor at The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, eastern England, told AFP.

The method, reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology, focussed on a Japanese wild rice cultivar called Hitomebore.  read more

Western Farm Press. 19 January 2012.  The USDA-NASS California Field Office surveyed California’s tomato processors for intended contract acreage and tonnage for the upcoming 2012 season. The data reported by processors was either in tonnage with derived acreage or acreage with derived tonnage.  As of January, California tomato processors reported plans to sign 2012 contracts totaling 12.7 million tons of processing tomatoes. Processors estimate the contracted production for 2012 will come from 266,000 acres producing an average yield of 47.74 tons per acre.

The contracted planted acreage forecast is 8,000 acres more than under contract in the August 2011 California Processing Tomato Report.  This early processing tomato estimate is funded by the California League of Food Processors in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.