Biofuels up the beer price
German beer brewers are feeling the heat of global warming as many farmers are abandoning barley as a crop to plant other, subsidised crops for sale as environmentally friendly biofuels. In the last two years, the price of barley has doubled to 200 euros ($271) per ton from 102 euros per ton as farmers plant more crops such as rapeseed and corn that can be turned into ethanol or biodiesel. “With the current spike in barley prices, we won’t be able to avoid a price increase of our beer any longer,” warned Helmut Erdmann, director of a family-owned brewery in Aying. Eventually, Erdmann and other brewers say, it is drinkers who will bear the brunt of the higher costs for raw materials. – Staff reporter
Canada moves to no-till
Canadian farmers are continuing to switch from the deep, wide furrows of conventional tillage to no-till techniques, Statistics Canada reports. The five-year agricultural census found that no-till increased from 29,7% to 46,4% of the area tilled since 2001. The area worked with conventional tillage, historically the most popular method, dropped from 40,5% to 28% over this period. Conservation tillage – between conventional and no-till – dropped from 29,8% of tilled area to 25,6%. – Alan Harman
Threat to wild crop genes
Climate change is threatening the wild relatives of plants such as the potato, the peanut and the cowpea with extinction, putting at risk a valuable source of genes that are necessary to boost the ability of cultivated crops to resist pests and tolerate drought. A study released by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research said that in the next 50 years as many as 61% of the 51 wild peanut species analysed and 12% of the 108 wild potato species analysed could become extinct as the result of climate change. – Alan Harman
