Archive Article: 1997/09/20
GROWERS and trade organisations have just over a month to comment on the HGCA for the Governments five-year review of the organisation.
The need for the HGCA is one of the options to be considered by MAFF when it decides on its future. Comments on the HGCA or any of its activities should be sent by 17 October to Miss NW Jones, Cereals & Set-Aside Division, Branch A, MAFF, Room 607, Whitehall Place (East Block), London SW1A 2HH.
MONSANTO is considering a UK consumer campaign to fend off concern and possible resistance to buying foods made from genetically-engineered plants. According to Marketing Week, the US company has appointed Bartle Bogle Hegarty to mastermind a campaign to counter recent critical press reports.
The companys own offices in High Wycombe were partly occupied this year by green campaigners lobbying against GM foods.
BREWER Carlsberg-Tetley has put its Herefordshire hop farm on the market for £1.8m. Brierley Court, near Leominster, grows 100ha (250 acres) of hops, as well as commercial poplars. It is being sold through Savills.
CWS Agriculture has held its hand up to being the largest UK recipient of arable aid payments at £2.02m. A further 17 payments made in the UK were for sums of more than £500,000.
FORMERLY absent agrochemical companies are signing up for next years Cereals 98 at Sleaford, Lincolnshire.
After a gap of several years, AgrEvo, Bayer and Monsanto have all booked demonstration plots on the site which now takes in more than 32ha (80 acres). Zeneca, BASF, Mandops, Stoller and Uniroyal are continuing their connection with the event.
SUGAR beet factories opened this week to cope with what early sampling suggests could be an above average crop.
All East Anglian factories, plus Newark and Bardney, opened on Thursday. Kidderminster and York open on 25 September and Allscott on 30 September. York is opening slightly later than the other factories because it is being recommissioned after an overhaul.
ENTRY forms for the 1997 National Malting Barley competition are available from the Institute of Brewing, 33 Clarges Street, London W1Y 8EE. The closing date for entries is 13 Oct.
FOLLOWING the August purchase of a 20% stake for Pioneer Hi-Bred International, DuPont is to pay $1.5bn for the soyabean processing unit of Ralston Purina, bringing its recent agchem acquisitions to $3.2bn.
The soyabean business, named Protein Technologies International is a world leader in the supply of soya proteins for food and paper processing. It will enable DuPont to process genetically engineered soyabeans for pharmaceutical use in a joint research venture set up with Pioneer.
SPECIFIC weights in wheat and barley are down on last year according to the HGCAs cereal quality survey. Based on 550 barley and 400 wheat samples, it shows nitrogens in barley are generally higher than last. In early cut samples of wheat hagbergs and protein content, are above those of last year. However, due to the onset of wet weather, poorer hagbergs and even lower specific weights are expected in the later cut crops.
MEMBERSHIP of the Royal Society of Birds has topped the million mark. It has more than doubled in the past 10 years making it the largest voluntary wildlife conservation organisation in Europe.
AMMUNITION against the use of viral genes in engineered crops has been fuelled, by the emergence of a hybrid virus which attacks cassava, according to the New Scientist. Two species of the virus that attack the plant have merged in to one virulent strain, destroying entire crops in Uganda.
SEVERAL oilseed rape varieties will be downgraded for their disease resistance on the 1998 NIAB Recommended List. Apex drops a point to seven for downy mildew, while Bristol is knocked back to one for light leaf spot, Arietta to eight, and Herald and Artus both to seven.