Agribusiness Update for Wednesday 8/21/13

Agribusiness Update for Wednesday 8/21/13

This is the Agribusiness Update...I’m Greg Martin...

For the past four-years - America’s Farmers Grow Communities has invested more than 13-million dollars in rural America. Each year - the Monsanto Fund evaluates new counties to be included in this program - and this year there are 18 new eligible counties - so the program now reaches more than 12-hundred-89 counties across 39-states.

A New York Times report says a new computer system used by inspectors at 65-hundred meatpacking and processing plants across the U.S. shut down for two days - forcing inspectors to use old paper forms to complete some of their work. The overall goal of this new system was to provide real-time information about meat processing plant conditions and make it easier for the FSIS to track food safety problems -many inspectors say the system’s failure prove otherwise.

An outbreak of the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus - first identified in the Midwest in May has spread to 18-states - but the National Pork Board reports anecdotal information from the field indicates the spread of the virus is slowing down.

That’s today’s Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network. 

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