EU production decreases somewhat

Shortly before the end of the year, the EU pig market is in crisis. For weeks now, the extensive range of meat on offer has only been available on the market at falling prices, and prices for slaughter pigs are currently as low as they have been in four years. Read the statement of the farmers' association on the market situation [here]. The forecast committee at the EU Commission is now spreading a little hope.

The times at the pig market are anything but rosy. The year 2003 will be remembered negatively by the producers, but also by many slaughterhouses and cutting plants. For long stretches of the year the sales prices were too low and the profits too meager, if any could be achieved at all. It was often heard that the supply was too extensive for demand and that the price pressure was due to this.

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Prices at a high level

The supply of slaughter calves was rather scarce throughout the month, but it was sufficient for the existing demand. The prices strengthened until the middle of the month, they fell slightly in the second half of the month, but remained at a high level.

At the purchasing stage of the mail order slaughterhouses and meat product factories, the weighted federal average for lump-sum slaughtered calves increased by six cents to 4,85 euros per kilogram of slaughter weight in November, according to a preliminary overview. The comparable previous year's level was exceeded by two cents.

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Purchase prices remain at a high level

The production of compound feed companies in Germany is likely to continue to increase and be above the previous year's level. This can be deduced from the market conditions, the number of animals, the low farm's own basic forage supply and this year's drought-related yield losses in grain. At least in the coming weeks, the relatively high prices for components and compound feed will remain stable if they do not even strengthen.

According to the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE), compound feed production in the 2002/03 financial year rose by around one percent to 19,74 million tons compared to the previous year. Compound feed covers around 25 percent of the total feed requirement, roughage, green fodder and root crops around 50 percent and self-produced grain and directly purchased feed, such as oil meal, almost 30 percent.

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Customer spending continued to fall

As the ZMP writes, the current economic situation is spoiling German citizens when they go to restaurants: they are spending less and less money on eating out. Total consumer spending in commercial catering fell to 2003 billion euros in the first half of 17,44, over three percent less than in the same period of the previous year and now nine percent less than in the first half of 2000 when the DM was still available.

Expenditures in restaurants with service decreased particularly significantly. The Germans even left eleven percent less money there in the first half of 2003 than in the first half of 2000. If you also consider the price increases in the context of the introduction of the euro, the collapse of the catering market is even more dramatic

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Processing of the case in Central Hesse shows the interaction of other unfavorable factors

Feeding the genetically modified, insect-resistant Bt-176 maize from Syngenta is not responsible for the health problems of dairy cows on a farm in Central Hesse. The scientific processing, analysis and final evaluation of possible causes was completed in January 2003. In the conclusion of this causal research, independent experts and the responsible Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin come to the conclusion that an interaction of several unfavorable, health-damaging factors, but not Bt-176 maize, caused the deaths.
  
Syngenta regrets the events and problems on the farmer's farm. That's why the company helped him find the triggering factors. Syngenta's support was provided on the one hand in the form of examinations and analyzes as well as the involvement of recognized experts. On the other hand, Syngenta also supported the farmer financially in the situation that threatened his existence, in order to help him out until the causes were clarified. This clarification was completed for the company with the receipt of the final report from the RKI.
  
After the experts consulted had attested deficiencies in feeding and hygiene, the farmer expressed the hypothesis in December 2001 that the Bt maize could possibly be related to the problems. In April 2002, Syngenta arranged for an official sample to be taken, in which not only the Bt maize but also the other components of the feed ration were sampled.
  
The experts consulted name a mixture of high infectious microbial pressure, harmful concentrations of fungal toxins in the feed, excess protein in the animals, feeding of unsatisfactory quality grass silage and significant feeding errors as the causative factors for the disease and death of the cows. In addition, the animals have been exposed to frequent feed changes in rapid succession, which is a problem for the digestive tract and the health of ruminants. At the suggestion of Syngenta, an examination of the population for botulism, a bacterial poisoning, was carried out in 2002. The toxic pathogen itself could be detected in dead animals or antibodies in living animals. Despite these serious results, the farmer declined advice from an independent feeding expert and refused to take further samples.
  
Syngenta emphasizes that scientific evidence and recognized experts rule out Bt maize from any association with the problems encountered on the farm.
  
1. The BT-176 maize fed in the central Hessian company is approved as animal feed in Germany, so it passed the safety tests of the approval process with positive results. In Spain, maize has been grown on an area of ​​around 20.000 hectares for years. There have also been positive experiences from the USA, although Syngenta is now marketing an even more successful successor product there.
  
2. In its final report, the responsible approval authority, the Robert Koch Institute, came to the conclusion that the suspicion of a connection between the deaths and the feeding of Bt-176 maize could not be substantiated.
  
Theo Jachmann, Managing Director of Syngenta Germany: "Syngenta has worked closely with the farmer and consulted recognized experts to solve the problem. Several factors such as botulism, a very serious bacterial poisoning, came to light. All of them Those involved should not ignore the problems that actually exist and are clearly identified by the experts, otherwise they not only damage a new future technology, but also endanger consumers. "

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Scientists warn of biodiversity collapse

Some top experts in marine biology warn of the impending collapse of the oceans off the two coasts of America. Both the Atlantic and the Pacific are in a deplorable state, the scientists explain. This is due to decisions made by politicians over 30 years ago. At that time it was said that the oceans represented immense and never-ending resources, reports The Register Guard http://www.registerguard.com from Eugene / Oregon.

In the seas off the American coast, too, those scenarios take place that cause discussions within the EU Fisheries Commission every year in Europe: The extreme decline in fishing grounds. "The word emergency is not an exaggeration," said Jane Lubchenko, a marine biologist at Oregon State University and one of the 18 scientists on the Pew Oceans Commission http://www.pewoceans.org. The historical mistake was made in 1969 by the Stratton Commission, a group that studied the state of the oceans and then summarized them in a report. "The resulting behavior has resulted in the oceans in this state today," explains the specialist. The Pew Oceans Commission has concluded that the oceans and the animals that live in them are seriously threatened.

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Marine biotechnology funded with 390.000 euros from federal and EU funds

Molecular biologists from Lübeck are the scientific cooperation partners of the "Marine Collagen" project, for which the Minister for Economics, Labor and Transport of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, Dr. Bernd Rohwer, has now handed over the grant notification. The funding of 390.000 euros comes from federal and EU funds. The project sponsor is the company "Coastal Research & Management" (CRM) in Kiel. The aim of the research and development work is to isolate marine collagen, characterize its biochemical and biophysical properties and develop products for the health market.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Holger Notbohm from the Lübeck University Institute for Medical Molecular Biology (Director: Prof. Dr. rer. Nat. Peter K. Müller) and the Tissue Engineering Competence Center in Lübeck explains the scientific perspectives of the project: "Collagen is one of the most important components in the human body and one extremely helpful tool in modern medicine. Our first results have shown that it is worth taking a closer look at collagen from certain marine organisms, such as jellyfish. "

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Stress responses are highly personalized

Animals with an innate fear of the new have higher levels of stress hormones after a new experience and die much earlier than their more courageous relatives. A study by the University of Chicago http://www.uchicago.edu found that lifelong fearfulness takes a clearly identifiable health toll. It is not known whether there is a relationship between neophobia and life expectancy in humans. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences http://www.pnas.org.

Senior scientist Sonia Cavigelli emphasizes that personality traits and behaviors play an important role in studying the physiological mechanisms of health. While observing primates, Cavigelli first noticed, according to Newscientist http://www.newscientist.com, that stress is very highly personalized. "Many animals were exposed to the same stress stimuli. However, they reacted very differently." Further research into the health effects of neophobia has been carried out in rats.

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An explanatory entry into a dark chapter of German reality

On November 3, 2003, 300 officials from the public prosecutor's office in Oldenburg, customs, the tax authorities and employment offices as well as the Lower Saxony police searched the business premises, offices, and apartments of the suspected entrepreneur Wilfried Ideke in 30 at 3.500 locations in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia Cases of having smuggled workers into Germany on a commercial basis. This means that workers were recruited in Romania, placed in Germany under false promises about wages and working conditions and offered to German slaughterhouses and employed as contract workers. The investigating authorities regularly uncover cases of illegal employment, wage dumping and social fraud during controls. Commercial smuggling, i.e. human trafficking, on this dramatic scale - that is a new quality and shows that occasional controls and fines can neither deter nor curb illegal employment.

At the beginning of this year, Wilfried Ideke made headlines and came under the spotlight of the public prosecutor's office after he had proceeded with extreme brutality against some of his employees who insisted on the payment of the outstanding monthly wages. With three rounds from a handgun, the property's caretaker, who has family ties to Ideke, attempted to force the staff to leave. He then appeared at the accommodation with several assistants. There were massive attacks on workers. Some had to be taken to nearby hospitals with serious injuries. As a result of this attack, the entrepreneur was temporarily arrested, and then, inter alia, on suspicion of serious robbery and extortion in the event of a risk of obscuration, pre-trial detention was ordered.

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The EU Commission has appointed Juan Riviere y Marti as the first consumer liaison officer in the Directorate-General for Competition. It was decided in December 2002 to set up this body in order to involve European consumers in a permanent dialogue. In doing so, the Commission takes account of the fact that the well-being of consumers is a main concern of competition policy, but that their voice is not yet sufficiently heard when dealing with competition cases or discussing political issues.

The liaison officer should perform the following tasks:

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The Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture (BMVEL) presented a draft law to reorganize food and feed law in mid-October 2003. With this extensive and very complex draft law, national food law and national feed law are to be adapted to Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002 (so-called basic regulation). The core element of this draft law is the creation of a Food and Feed Code (LFGB), which is intended to replace the previous Food and Commodities Act (LMBG) and other food and feed regulations.

With reference to the corresponding procedure in the White Paper on Food Safety and the Basic Ordinance, the previously independently regulated legal matters of food and feed law are merged into their core content in a body of law. The reorganization of national food and feed law, which is necessary due to the basic regulation, is also used as an opportunity for a number of previously independent laws from the field of food law, such as B. to merge the Meat Hygiene and Poultry Meat Hygiene Act as well as the Baby Food Advertising Act in the Food and Feed Code. The content of a large part of the previous statutory provisions is to be regulated in future by means of ordinances. Irrespective of this, it should be pointed out that the LFGB contains a large number of authorizations that are extremely far-reaching in terms of content to issue statutory ordinances. The tendency, expressed in the expansion of the authorizations, of a gradual shift of regulatory powers from the legislative to the executive, should not only meet with reservations at the BLL, but also at the institutions involved in legislation.

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