USDA awards $447.5M in loans
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced that 24 rural electric utilities in 20 states have been selected to receive a total of $447.5 million in loans to build new distribution lines and make system improvements.

Loan funds will be used for a variety of upgrades. These funds will bring electricity to more than 63,561 customers and finance the construction and repair of 6,197 miles of distribution and transmission lines.

Since 2001, USDA Rural Development has awarded approximately $28 billion in electric loans to utilities across the nation. Funding for individual recipients is contingent upon meeting the conditions of the loan agreement. Loans of the following amounts will be made, in part, to the following utilities in the Farm World coverage area:
Tri-State Electric Membership Corp. of Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, $10.998 million; Dubois Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. of Indiana, $5 million; Clark Energy Cooperative, Inc. of Kentucky, $10 million; Farmers Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. of Kentucky, $17.402 million; Tri-County Electric Cooperative of Minnesota and Iowa, $5 million; and Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative, Inc., $8.5 million.

FDA finds salmonella strain
WASINGTON, D.C. (AP) — Federal health officials say the salmonella strain linked to a nationwide outbreak has been found in irrigation water and a serrano pepper at a Mexican farm.
Dr. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) food safety chief, is calling the finding a key breakthrough in the case. Acheson said the farm is in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Previously, the FDA had traced a contaminated jalapeno to a farm in another part of Mexico.

Acheson and other officials were grilled July 30 at a congressional hearing about why the investigation originally focused on tomatoes. The officials insisted that tomatoes still cannot be ruled out and that it is quite possible that the outbreak was caused by several different kinds of contaminated produce.

Police find $2M in marijuana

HEBRON, Ill. (AP) — A police raid in rural McHenry County has yielded nearly $2 million worth of marijuana growing in two cultivated but isolated fields.

Miguel Talavera-Lopez, of Battle Creek, Mich., remains in the McHenry County Jail, charged with unlawful production of cannabis. A second man escaped during the raid, when police discovered about 2,000 3-to-5-foot tall marijuana plants.

Police suspect the plants were hydroponically grown elsewhere before being transplanted to the fields southeast of Hebron. Police destroyed the marijuana by setting it afire.

Congress OKs animal drug laws

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) praised Congress for approving legislation to reauthorize an animal-drug review law and to implement a new generic animal-drug review statute, both of which it stated will give pork producers access to products that safeguard animal and public health.
 The Senate last week approved H.R. 6432, the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA) and the Animal Generic Drug User Fee Act (AGDUFA), by unanimous consent. The House July 30 passed the bill on a voice vote.

 “We want to commend the leadership on both sides of the aisle in the Senate and House for approving this important legislation,” said NPPC President Bryan Black. “Congress’ action will help ensure that pork producers have access to products that keep our pigs healthy and our products safe and wholesome.”

First enacted in 2003, ADUFA allows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to collect fees from the animal health industry for the review and approval of animal health products. The NPPC stated the fees supplement the agency’s annual congressionally-approved appropriations and have enabled FDA to reduce its review time for new animal drugs, bringing medications to the market more quickly while maintaining high standards for safety and effectiveness. AGDUFA will do the same for generic animal drugs.
The laws will require animal health companies to report to FDA by March 31 of each year certain data related to the distribution and export of animal health products. (Although individual company data will be kept confidential, FDA will publish an aggregate of it.) Some lawmakers had proposed that the drug firms and livestock producers publicly report such data as well as information on uses of animal health products.

According to the NPPC, since ADUFA was signed into law, four new swine health products have come on the market, helping producers fight the increasing challenges that swine respiratory diseases have created for the industry. Additionally, last year, veterinarians received nine new products to help pets live longer, healthier lives.

ASA likes RR2 overseas approval

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — The American Soybean Assoc. (ASA) announced final regulatory approvals have been received in Mexico, Australia and New Zealand for Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 Yield. U.S. soybean producers anticipate commercialization of this new product in 2009.

ASA also noted the action of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which has issued a positive scientific opinion concluding Roundup Ready 2 Yield is safe for import as food or feed.
Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans have completed the regulatory process in the U.S. and Canada, and were approved in Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.