Biofuels behind food price hikes: leaked World Bank report Biofuels have caused world food prices to increase by 75 percent, according to the findings of an unpublished World Bank report published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday. The daily said the report was finished in April but was not published to avoid embarrassing the US government, which has claimed plant-derived fuels have pushed up prices by only three percent. Biofuels, which supporters claim are a "greener" alternative to using fossil fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions, and rising food prices will be on the agenda when G8 leaders meet in Japan next week for their annual summit. The report's author, a senior World Bank economist, assessed that contrary to claims by US President George W. Bush, increased demand from India and China has not been the cause of rising food prices. "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases," the report said. Droughts in Australia have also not had a significant impact, it added. Instead, European and US drives for greater use of biofuels has had the biggest effect....
9th Circuit: Judges shouldn't act as scientists An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled it's improper for federal judges to act as scientists when weighing in on disputed U.S. Forest Service timber projects. Timber industry lobbyists and Forest Service officials called the unanimous ruling overturning a challenge to a northern Idaho logging sale significant, partly because it emerged from a court often seen as favorable to environmental groups. In the ruling released Wednesday, the judges dumped a July 2007 decision by a three-judge 9th Circuit panel that halted the Mission Brush timber sale in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Environmental groups The Lands Council, based in Spokane, Wash., and the Wild West Institute, in Missoula, Mont., contended the Forest Service's logging plan exceeded what was needed to restore the forest's historic character and claimed logging would harm the region's ecosystem for species including small, migratory owls. The ruling also overturns a 2005 9th Circuit decision in which judges concluded the Forest Service's approval of logging in burned areas of western Montana's Lolo National Forest was based on an arbitrary and capricious environmental analysis. U.S. Agriculture Department Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, called this "the most important decision involving a Forest Service environmental case in the last two decades," saying it restores the ability of federal agencies, not meddling judges, to exercise discretion over timber sales. "The judges established a much more limited framework for judicial review of Forest Service decisions - a framework that's much more consistent with the standard use by other circuits," Rey told The Associated Press on Thursday. "The court says its role is not to act as a panel of scientists. They wanted to move back to a more appropriate role." Timber industry representatives said this will help stop judges from asserting their opinions over the decisions of Forest Service managers....
High gas prices threaten to shut down rural towns The price of gas isn't an annoyance here. It's a calamity. Peggy Hanley uses a generator that burns a gallon of diesel fuel every hour — at about $5 a gallon— to power Forks General Store, the only place to buy groceries for miles around. There's no electric service, so Hanley, the owner, uses the generator to run eight refrigerators, nine freezers, lights and two ice machines for the store, which has been in a trailer since a fire destroyed the original building in 1994. There are no utilities and no public transportation in this unincorporated town of a couple hundred people along a narrow road that winds through the mountains 314 miles north of Sacramento. Many people here buy gas for their vehicles and gas or diesel for generators that power their homes. "I'm scared to death" of rising fuel prices, Hanley says. At the store, the hub for visiting whitewater rafters and residents of other isolated towns, gas cost $5.30 a gallon on a recent day when the national average was $4.07. This community may be an extreme example of how rising gas prices are hitting rural Americans particularly hard, but people in small towns from Maine to Alaska are in a similar bind as those here. Soaring gasoline prices are a double whammy for many rural residents: They often pay more than people who live in cities and suburbs because of the expense of hauling fuel to their communities, and they must drive greater distances for life's necessities: work, groceries, medical care and, of course, gas....
Utah-Nevada water standoff quiet, fierce On moonless nights here in the Utah-Nevada borderlands of Snake Valley, the naked eye can see five planets, countless stars and the great swath of the Milky Way. Climb the hill to Great Basin National Park and one can see the nighttime glow of Las Vegas, whose leaders say their sprawling city must have the water under Snake Valley - or wither and die. And they are coming for it, making plans for a 285-mile pipeline to tap the aquifer that stretches from Salt Lake City to Death Valley and take the water south. At the same time, Utah wants to build a pipeline on Lake Powell to suck up Colorado River water and send it northward to growing desert communities before it gets anywhere near Glitter Gulch. For now, the two driest states in the nation are in a quiet standoff, fitfully negotiating or scuffing lines in the sand. Eventually, though, the outcome of this tale of two pipelines, begun with an agreement struck 86 years ago to share the Colorado and now groaning under rapid population growth and climate distress, could shake the foundations of Western water law....
Bridger Fire fuels distrust of Army One sign of the distrust between the Army and the ranchers around the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site is that weeks after the Bridger Fire was extinguished, questions remain about how Fort Carson personnel managed the 48,500-acre fire that burned for two weeks on the training site and spread onto private lands. "Did they throw all the resources at the fire that they could have? Nobody will know that because in the first days, the Army didn't tell anybody what was going on," said Lon Robertson, a Kim-area rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. "I know people first spotted smoke on the training site on (June 9)." Robertson also is a firefighter with the Kim volunteer department and he said the rural fire departments at Hoehne, Branson, Springfield and elsewhere rely on each other for help when the summer wildfire season begins. La Junta Fire Chief Aaron Eveatt said his department largely was kept in the dark about what was happening with the Bridger Fire until the Type II incident team took over. The Forest Service incident teams, made up of veteran wildfire managers, are accustomed to dealing with big fires, the public, the news media and local communities when they arrive at a blaze. "I don't want to second-guess how another department fought a fire, but it was like night and day after the Type II team arrived," Eveatt said. "That's when we were notified to be on standby to protect residences on private land."....
Legacy of UT's oil wealth: a denuded landscape Investors appealed to the patron saint of impossible causes when oil drilling began on University of Texas System land in 1921. It didn't hurt. Santa Rita No. 1 blew in on May 28, 1923, after rose petals blessed by a priest were scattered from the top of the derrick at the behest of some Catholic women in New York who had purchased shares in the Texon Oil and Land Co., which drilled that first well. Since then, the UT System's 2.1 million acres in West Texas have produced $4.4 billion in royalty payments and other mineral income for the Permanent University Fund, an endowment that supports the UT and Texas A&M University systems. But this long-running bonanza for higher education exacted a price from the remote, semiarid landscape where it all began. Millions of barrels of salt water, a byproduct of oil and natural gas production, contaminated 11 square miles, or more than 7,000 acres, killing virtually all vegetation and leaving the land vulnerable to wind and water erosion. Hundreds of mesquite stumps with three feet of exposed roots testify to the dramatic loss of topsoil....
Focus on elk as disease persists near Yellowstone Federal officials are considering a tentative proposal that calls for capturing or killing infected elk in Yellowstone National Park to eliminate a serious livestock disease carried by animals in the area. Government agencies have killed more than 6,000 wild bison leaving Yellowstone over the last two decades in an attempt to contain brucellosis, which causes pregnant cattle to abort their young. Cattle in parts of Wyoming and Montana where bison haven't roamed for decades are being infected, and livestock officials in both states are now targeting elk as the cause. "We've got way too many elk," said John Scully, a rancher living in Montana's Madison Valley. "Clearly with so many elk, the risk rises. We need to reduce their numbers." A tentative proposal, drafted by federal officials, sets a goal of eliminating the disease — not just controlling it in bison and in elk. Livestock officials say infected elk herds around Yellowstone must be culled — an explosive proposition for a prized big game species that has thrived under the protection of a dedicated constituency of hunting groups. Nevertheless, pressure is mounting to kill or capture more of the animals....
Cattle Fever Ticks Lay Claim To A Million Acres In Texas The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) marked an ominous anniversary July 3 by expanding the preventive cattle fever tick quarantine area in south Texas by 307,000 acres, after the dangerous livestock pests were detected on cattle outside quarantine areas in Starr and Zapata counties. Fever ticks, capable of carrying and transmitting deadly “tick fever” to cattle, have been detected on livestock or wildlife on 139 Texas pastures during the past 12 months. “In July 2007, the first preventive quarantine was established­-39,325 acres in Starr County­-to enable the US. Department of Agriculture’s Tick Force and the TAHC to inspect and treat livestock moved from the area, get ahead of the fever tick and push it back across the quarantine line,” said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas’ state veterinarian and head of the Texas Animal Health Commission, the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency. “Now, a year later, we have more than a million acres under preventive quarantines in Starr, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Maverick, Dimmit and Webb counties, in addition to the half-million acres in the permanent fever tick quarantine zone that runs alongside the Rio Grande, from Del Rio to Brownsville.”....
Weak horses sent to Mexico to be slaughtered The traders at Dallas County's half-filled horse auction knew the fate of their scrawny thoroughbreds even before they herded them into the ring. And it wasn't to go back to the ranch. The ones with visible backbones and skin stretched over their ribs – at least half of the 36 horses for sale – would probably end up in Mexico, where money can still be made off horse slaughter. Texas horse traders say it's the best solution to the combined wallop of forced American slaughterhouse closures last year and one of the worst horse markets in history. "We don't have anywhere to move them, and they're starving to death," said Steven Oden, a horse trader from Terrell whose prize horses once sold for $8,000 but now go for $800. Breeders, ranchers and cowboys are struggling to continue a livelihood that extends generations. The closure of the kill plants coupled with the rising price of hay and fuel means rising numbers of horses with dwindling funds to care for them. Horse owners say they're left with little option but to sell their horses to a "killer buyer," or trader who buys the horses at a reduced price and takes them to Mexico for slaughter. About 25,000 horses have been shipped to Mexico for slaughter this year, 10,000 more than this time last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture....
Taste of western culture The best place to get a taste of western culture at the Stampede is at the Western Showcase art show. Since 1912, western art has been a fixture at Stampede and now the showcase has grown to become one of the top western art shows in Canada. Located in Hall C and Hall D of the Roundup Centre, the Western Showcase features work of over 100 artisans. The Western Showcase is the largest western art show in Canada and gives visitors a first-hand look at unique pieces that celebrates cowboy culture. From a life-size moose sculpture, to landscapes and native art this show attracts buyers from around the world and brings together artists from across North America. "This is the best show, absolutely the nicest show," says Stephen Lee a rancher and artist from New Mexico. "The international crowd and the attention [we] get is like no other." Lee says, for him, western art is about telling a story with every piece. The inspiration for his bronze piece called Cruz, which has been chosen for this year's art auction, came from his own horse. "Cruz is one of my mares. She's a horse we raised at our ranch and we broke her. As you can see from the piece the topic is her bucking which is something she did alot when I was raising her, but I broke her. It's about her and I growing up together," says Lee....
Longhorns announce return of ranch rodeo At high noon in downtown Colorado Springs Friday the streets looked reminiscent to a scene from an old western movie. Hundreds of Texas longhorn cattle took over Tejon Street to announce the arrival of the Ride for the Brand Ranch Rodeo. Now in its sixth year, the ranch rodeo is has become part of the summer rodeo tradition in Colorado Springs. Following the rodeo on Saturday, the Pikes Peak Range Riders will return from their trek around the mountains on Sunday. They will then ride in the rodeo parade Tuesday night to celebrate the beginning of the 68th Annual Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo on Wednesday. In professional rodeos, the competitors are often professional athletes who spend much of the year competing in rodeos around the country. But at the ranch rodeo, all one hundred of the competing cowboys come from working ranches. Even the competition events are typical of ranch life. They include wild cow milking, ranch bronc riding, trailer loading, stray gathering, and sorting and branding....
Early settlers pushed into New Mexico One of the biggest land deals in United States history helped bring about the settlement of the barren plains of Eastern New Mexico. In 1881 brothers Charles and John Farwell and others organized a syndicate of eastern investors and agreed to build the red granite capitol building in Austin in exchange for title to 3 million acres of land in the Texas Panhandle. This grant took in portions of 10 counties ranging from Yellow House near Lubbock in the south to the Oklahoma Panhandle in the north. The brand of this new ranch, “XIT,” was designed to foil rustlers, and XIT became the name of the ranch. In 1882 when they began surveying and fencing this vast area, it forced the settlers who were already there to move on. Many of them moved west into New Mexico. Yellow House, near the present site of Lubbock, fell inside the XIT property, so in 1882, Newman began moving his cattle to Salt Lake, now Grulla Wildlife Refuge, just across the state line in New Mexico. Since his brand was “DZ,” the ranch was known by that name. With him came several cowhands, including my step-grandfather, R. L. “Bob” Wood, who was Newman’s first cousin; Sid Boykin; Walter Fulcher; and Julius Darby, a black man. Newman had bought the rights to the water from Andy McDonald, and McDonald’s brother Will’s wife, Lizzie, became camp cook. The men dug troughs at the northeastern end of Salt Lake to catch the spring water which flowed into the lake and built an adobe house. The logs for beams and door frames had to be hauled from Las Vegas, N.M., and Newman complained that they cost him $10 apiece....
Uncle Amos Oliver and Gene Autry This time of year, rodeo stories come out of the woodwork. Jack Oliver reminds that Belton July 4 rodeos were the training ground for three Belton/Bell County All Around American Cowboys on the National Circuit, Cotton Proctor of Belton, Bob White of Three Forks and Les Hood of Killeen. Which brought up the close friendship Jack's uncle, the late Amos Oliver, well known farmer-rancher in the Three Forks Community, with the late Les Hood, and Uncle Amos meeting up with the cowboy movie star singer, Gene Autry. Uncle Amos was a good friend and strong supporter of Les Hood and attended every rodeo in driving distance when Les Hood was riding. Back of the chutes visiting with Les and other rodeo hands was where Autry came in. Both Oliver and Autry were strong and well known breeders of shorthorn cattle. They checked out the shorthorn pens carefully and faithfully at every show. "One year at Ft. Worth Gene Autry asked Amos if he would consider buying a $10,000 registered shorthorn bull from Scotland. If they each would buy one it would help on shipping costs. Uncle Amos and Gene Autry each bought one of those $10,000 calves to be shipped from Scotland, the British Isles....