State
Departments Of Agriculture Are Attempting To Regulate Seed Banks Out Of
Existence - (www.mintpressnews.com) Last
year, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture officials sent ‘a friendly letter’
to a seed bank/seed exchange group in Mechanicsburg, telling them they need to test every variety of seed with extremely
impractical and pointless tests to ensure that they are up to standards with
regulations. ‘Agri-Terrorism’ was cited by officials as a reason why such regulations should
be enforced on something as natural as the right to exchange and possess seeds.
There are laws in every state regulating the possession and exchange of
seeds. The actual enforcement of these laws is spotty, because a lot of law is
actually too complex most often to even decode, and just about any crazy thing
that was once written in law can be enforced if the law enforcement wants to.
Also, who wants to enforce laws regulating and stifling such a productive,
natural right? “There’s almost no danger,” said John Torgrimson, the
executive director of the Seed Savers Exchange. “This is not a risk to
agriculture in any state. This is not a risk to our food supply.” Pennsylvania
is not alone in this fight. Regulators in Nebraska are also looking at local
seed banks.
The
Oil Crash Has Claimed Its First Casualty - Business ... - (www.businessinsider.com) Excelerate
Energy's Texan liquefied natural gas terminal plan has become the first victim
of an oil price slump threatening the economics of U.S. LNG export projects. A
halving in the oil price since June has upended assumptions by developers that
cheap U.S. LNG would muscle into high-value Asian energy markets, which relied
on oil prices staying high to make the U.S. supply affordable. The floating 8
million tonne per annum (mtpa) export plant moored at Lavaca Bay, Texas
advanced by Houston-based Excelerate has been put on hold, according to
regulatory filings obtained by Reuters. The project was initially due to begin
exports in 2018. Excelerate's move bodes ill for thirteen other U.S. LNG
projects, which have also not signed up enough international buyers, to reach a
final investment decision (FID). Only Cheniere's Sabine Pass and Sempra's
Cameron LNG projects have hit that milestone.
Dollar’s
Surge Pummels Companies in Emerging Markets - (online.wsj.com) The
soaring U.S. dollar is squeezing companies in emerging markets from Brazil to
Thailand that now face higher costs on roughly $1 trillion in bonds sold to
investors before the greenback’s surge. For 2014, the dollar is on track to
gain more than 7% compared with a group of emerging-market currencies tracked
by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis As the rise ripples through economies
around the world, it is causing particular pain at firms in emerging markets
that issued bonds in dollars instead of local currency. The dollar’s rise means
it costs more to make regular bond payments and pay off outstanding bonds as
they mature. That is starting to hurt earnings at many companies, will likely
force some to dip into emergency reserves and could trigger defaults on some
corporate bonds, analysts warn.
Uber's
legal troubles pile on after judge's ruling
- (www.cnbc.com) A
federal judge rejected Uber Technologies bid not to disclose emails from Chief
Executive Travis Kalanick in a California lawsuit accusing the popular
ride-booking service of deceiving customers about how it shares tips with
drivers. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen's ruling in San Francisco was the
latest setback for Uber, which has drawn criticism around the globe over
whether its service complies with local licensing and safety laws and whether
its drivers have been adequately vetted. Chen said a Nov. 26 ruling by federal
Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu that the plaintiff in the lawsuit can receive emails
from Kalanick and global operations chief Ryan Graves about Uber's tipping
practices was neither "clearly erroneous'' nor legally wrong.
Why
Is the Post Office Buying Bullets? - Businessweek - (www.businessweek.com) As
if the U.S. Postal Service didn’t already have enough to worry about, it has
now become the target of gun enthusiasts, who are accusing the agency of
stockpiling ammunition as part of a broader government plot to deprive
Americans of their liberties. On April 14, Newsmax.com reported that the USPS was seeking to buy a large amount of ammunition on the heels of similar purchases by the
Social Security Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This alarmed some people whom
Newsmax described as “second amendment advocates.” One was Philip Van Cleave,
president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. “The problem is, all these
agencies have their own SWAT teams, their own police departments, which is
crazy,” he told the website. “Do we really need this? That was something
our Founding Fathers did not like and we should all be concerned about.”
Salisbury
News: Monsanto Tries Patenting Natural Tomatoes - (sbynews.blogspot.com) Many individuals are aware that biotech has developed
a seed monopoly largely by patenting genetically modified organisms, but not
everyone realizes that Monsanto tried to patent a tomato that had no biotech
traits. Now, the European Patent Office (EPO), with help from an international
coalition, No Patents on Seeds!, has revoked Monsanto’s
fraudulent patent and claim to tomatoes that are naturally resistant to a
fungal disease called botrytis. These natural, non-GMO tomatoes, like many healthy plants, have a natural
resistance to certain pests. In this case, a fungal disease, but this is not a
novel phenomenon. Why Monsanto would try to claim they created it is about as
believable as Syngenta or Dow saying they invented the sun.
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