Agribusiness Update for Tuesday 3/19/13

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

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced his country’s intention to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations. Farm Bureau and National Pork Producers are supporting the addition of Japan as a negotiating partner in the TPP. Farm Bureau says Japan would bolster the reach of the TPP for U.S. agriculture noting Japan was the fourth-largest U.S. ag export market in 2012.

In response to the European horse-meat scandal - a bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives have introduced the Safeguard American Food Exports Act to ban horse slaughter in the U.S. along with shipping horses to other countries to be slaughtered for consumption. NFU President Roger Johnson says horse slaughter has gained increasing momentum in the media recently and the narrative played is plagued with misinformation.

C-Lock Incorporated believes cattlemen will someday be able to determine feed efficiency and illness through measuring animals’ belches and breaths. They’ve developed a system called GreenFeed - which is like a breathalyzer that measures methane and carbon dioxide output in cattle. Each cow is tested three to five times a day for three to seven minutes each time.

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