Short Takes

Everything went wrong at the California State Fair in Sacramento in July when a pregnant cow broke loose from an exhibit at a birthing barn.

According to KCRA News, the cow stampeded through the midway area just after 9:30 a.m. A veterinarian gave police permission to shoot the agitated 1,400-pound Holstein. “She wasn’t predictable and she was a little mean,” the vet said on camera.

The upshot is that the University of California-Davis has called for a complete review of animal use and handling procedures for all animals intended for public exhibition at the state fair and for the veterinary emergency response team to develop a plan and training for public safety officials who must deal with large, unrestrained animals in public places and on roadways.

Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) has announced its withdrawal from the Ontario Cheese Society (OCS), citing its “endorsement of raw milk advocate Michael Schmidt.”

In DFO’s monthly newsletter, Pipeline, its marketing logistics director, Dave Nolan, is quoted as saying: “It’s unconscionable that the OCS continues to endorse, and even promote, the consumption of raw milk by consumers.”

But secretary-treasurer Don Pendlebury says the six-year-old society was not endorsing raw milk sales and  its members believe in producing a safe product. He says the society “is a voice” for artisan cheese makers “for people to share ideas” and Schmidt is a member.

American chicken  producers disagree about what constitutes a “natural” chicken in their country and the federal Department of Agriculture has promised to sort it out.

Label guidelines are being reviewed after some producers, politicians and health advocates pointed out that injecting a chicken with salt water and other ingredients can increase the weight of meat by 15 per cent and double or triple its sodium intake with potentially harmful results. Perdue, the third largest chicken producer, joined a group called the Truthful Labeling Coalition, which hired a lobbyist and launched an advertising campaign.

On the other side are Pilgrim’s Pride and Tyson Foods. Both of them affix “natural” labels to chicken injected with extra salt and water.

The Ontario Ministry of Education’s ban on sugar drinks in high schools will eliminate 500 ml chocolate milk containers starting next September, citing its sugar content. Dairy Farmers of Ontario hopes to get this changed and notes that this trend appears to be sweeping in from the United States. Officials in West Virginia, for example, are determined to clean up the state’s reputation, right or wrong, as having the least healthy diet in the United States.British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s primetime six-part TV show Food Revolution on ABC had an effect. He declared flavoured milk to be no healthier than a soft drink because of added sugar.

Move over fat. The newest “bad food” target is high fructose sugar made from corn syrup.

In May, ketchup maker Hunt’s, owned by food giant ConAgra, 
announced it was ditching corn syrup from its formula because it has been targeted as a cause of obesity. Competitor Heinz is offering ketchup that is free of high-fructose sugar. Energy drink maker Gatorade chose more expensive processed cane or beet sugar.

Corn sweeteners get a bad rap, says the Center for Consumer Freedom, a coalition “promoting personal responsibility and consumer choice.” Corn syrup is no better or worse than fructose made from sugar cane, the Center charges.

Statistics on food consumption show that the Chinese and Indians aren’t becoming big meat eaters. So that “trend,” popularly raised as a reason for the boom in commodities, didn’t drive up corn, wheat and soybean prices two years ago, says a study by World Bank Development Prospects.

“A closer look at the growth trends of population and income over the past decades, coupled with those of demand for food commodities, shows no evidence that food demand growth accelerated either in China and India or in the world as a whole,” says the study.

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Food prices will increase in the next decade, but the run up will be muted by rapidly growing agricultural production in emerging economies, says a report produced jointly by the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Growth in food production in Europe has stalled, but Brazil, Russia, India and China (the so-called BRIC economies) are growing three times as fast as overall world production. Brazilian agriculture output is expected to grow by more than 40 per cent to 2019. Ag output from Ukraine and Russia will grow 29 and 26 per cent respectively. China agriculture will grow by 26 per cent and in India by 21 per cent.

That cow with the gleam in her eye isn’t angry because you are standing between her and her calf. She’s “mad” for another reason.

Iowa State University and the National Animal Disease Center in the United States found that sheep with scrapie, another prion disease like bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), have a distinct fluorescence in their retinas. Scientists believe it is an accumulation of a substance called lipofuscin. The results of the research need to be confirmed. A non-invasive test conducted while the animal is still alive, means that slaughtering an entire herd, as is done now when BSE is found in an animal in Canada, is unnecessary.

In spite of the distraction posed by a ground squirrel, sniffer dogs’ noses proved better than human eyes when it comes to identifying spotted knapweed, says a scientific journal devoted to invasive plant species.

Invasive Plant Species and Management, published by the Weed Science Society of America, cites a study conducted in Montana that pitted trained detection dogs against human eyes. Dogs and humans were equally good at spotting medium and large sized plants. Dogs were better at finding the small ones. Humans found plants 59 per cent of the time, while the dogs’ success rate was 81 per cent. “Visual surveys for these plants often reflect only adult life stages, whereas non-flowering plants and inconspicuous life stages can often be overlooked under intense searches.”