US Corn Prices continue downward trend
Amid hopes of a record harvest and as more crop comes into the market, US corn prices continue to slide lower. Prices are reported to be lower than expected even though barge rates are reported to be higher about 400 percent higher than base rates.
Prices for Oct – Dec deliveries at the end of the week (Oct 08, 2004) were as under:
Corn: $ 95 – 95.50 / ton (FOB US GULF)
Sorghum: $ 98 – 99 / ton (FOB US GULF)
Barley: $ 100 – 103 / ton (FOB PNW)
For detailed market reports, please follow the link
How 10 top new technologies will help world reach globally-agreed goals by 2015
(Adapted from Medical News Today)
Biotech breakthroughs promise to save millions of lives per year; Experts call for global body to better use knowledge worldwide
The list of top 10 of biotechnologies for improving health in developing countries represents a consensus of 28 eminent scientists canvassed separately in developing and developed countries. These technologies are:
1. Easy-to-use molecular diagnostic tests for TB, hepatitis C, HIV-AIDS, malaria and other diseases, which detect the presence or absence of pathogen-associated molecules, such as DNA or protein, in a patient's blood or tissues;
2. Recombinant vaccines against infectious diseases, produced through genetic engineering, which promise to be safer, cheaper and possibly easier to store and transport than traditional vaccines;
3. Reducing pollution and making water safe to drink through bioremediation - the potential exploitation of micro-organisms with remarkable biochemical properties;
4. Creating microbicides for female-controlled protection against sexually transmitted disease like HIV, both with and without contraceptive effect;
4. Better drug and vaccine delivery methods that avoid the use of needles and reduce cross contamination;
6. Bioinformatics to identify drug targets and to examine pathogen-host interactions;
7. Nutrition-enriched crops to counter specific deficiencies, such as vitamin A-rich "Golden Rice" to improve health for millions without a balanced diet;
8. Sequencing pathogen genomes to understand their biology and identify new antimicrobials;
9. Recombinant technology to make therapeutic products (e.g. insulin, interferons) more affordable to help fight such diseases as diabetes, now emerging as a major public health problem throughout the world;
10. Combinatorial chemistry for drug discovery.
A report prepared for the Science, Technology and Innovation Task Force of the UN Millennium Project, calls for a global institute to share and promote the health and environmental benefits being created through genomic sciences - and thereby save tens of millions of lives per year in developing countries.
The report also predicts the extent to which the new science will drive progress towards five of the eight globally agreed objectives:
a. Promote gender equality and empower women;
b. Reduce child mortality;
c. Improve maternal health;
d. Combat HIV, malaria and other diseases; and
e. Ensure environmental sustainability.
Of the above 5 goals, three goals, namely reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating diseases also include inclusion on Nutritionally Enhanced GM crops to make progress in the goals set.
Chicken genomics: Feather-pecking and victim pigmentation
Feather-pecking in domestic birds is associated with cannibalism and severe welfare problems. It is a dramatic example of a spiteful behavior in which the victim's fitness is reduced for no immediate direct benefit to the perpetrator and its evolution is unexplained. Here we show that the plumage pigmentation of a chicken may predispose it to become a victim: birds suffer more drastic feather-pecking when the color of their plumage is due to the expression of a wild recessive allele at PMEL17, a gene that controls plumage melanization, and when these birds are relatively common in a flock. These findings, obtained using an intercross between a domestic fowl and its wild ancestor, have implications for the welfare of domestic species and offer insight into the genetic changes associated with the evolution of feather-pecking during the early stages of domestication.
(courtesy – Nature Magazine – Oct 07, 2004)
Amit Sachdev
Consultant, U S Grains Council - India
FF 303 G, Sushant Shopping Arcade, Sushant Lok 1
Gurgaon - 122 002 (Haryana), India
Tel: +124-2396539 * Fax: +124-2396209 * Mb: +98110-61516
E mail: bluecros@vsnl.com * bluecross@touchtelindia.net
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