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Lincoln Journal Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 12

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Lincoln, Nebraska
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12
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i i i Lincoln Journal Star Monday. January 8. 1305 Page design: George Wright i 1 BUSINESS Waiter! I've got microlivestock in my soup! fy 6 We ran out of all 400 or so crickets we served. David Fluker Rouge, cricket farmer With mealworm and cricket you end up with cuticles between your teeth." Last June, edible insects got a public-relations boost of sorts, when Air Force pilot Scott O'Grady ate them to survive after being shot down over Bosnia. Amid the media frenzy, "we received quite a few calls from people inquiring about eating insects," says Dale Cochran, president of Grubco Inc.

in Hamilton, Ohio, which grows beetle larvae for zoos and aviaries. Though Cochran says "we've donated a lot of insects to entomological societies for their dinner events," he doubts that demand is strong enough to justify going into commercial production of insects for human consumption. Entomologists, nutritionists and other insect fanciers scoff at Westerners' bias against bugs. Insects are a prized source of protein and vitamins in many countries of Africa, Asia and South America. nutritional value.

"I think it shows insects' new status," says DeFoliart Ronald Taylor, an entomologist and co-author of "Entertaining With Insects," a cookbook about to go into its third printing, has a hard time fathoming resistance to bug cuisine. Noting that insects are closely related to popular crustaceans, he says: "It's interesting that we prefer lobster and crab, which eat dead and decaying flesh. Insects are far cleaner." Next summer Taylor will demonstrate his beetle, moth-larva and cricket recipes at a food fair in Orange County, Calif. His piece de resistance uses the larvae of wax moth, a pest that invades beehives. "When you drop them in oil, they expand and explode like popcorn," he says.

"It's particularly tasty." How tasty? "If you can tell me how bacon tastes, I will describe how wax moth tastes," he says. He is especially partial to the wax moth's soft skin, and explains: BY AMAL KUMAR NAJ Wall Street Journal They want you to eat your grub. And crickets. And wax moths. A small but energetic group of entomologists, fanners and chefs are promoting edible insects, a foodstuff better known in academic circles as "microlivestock," But moving bugs off the science-fair banquet circuit and onto the American dinner table is a hard sell Though insects are a dietary staple in much of the world, squeamish Western palates resist.

This perplexes people like David Fluker. The Baton Rouge, cricket farmer, a supplier to zoos and pet stores, recently began marketing the insects as a human snack: freeze-dried, oven-roasted and dipped in melted chocolate. Fluker, who says he shipped 200 cases of chocolate crickets in the first two weeks, introduced them at a trade 9 crickets. "But the idea of eating insects is beginning to get some serious attention," asserts Gene R. De-Foliart, an entomologist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

He edits the Food Insects Newsletter, a quarterly that runs recipes for fried bee larvae, sauteed giant ants and the like. At the International Symposium on Biodiversity in Agriculture in Beijing last September, a third of the scientific papers dealt with microlivestock. Topics ranged from insect farming and harvesting to identification of edible species and their Baton show last year, along with Cajun-spiced sauteed cricket. "We ran out of all 400 or so crickets we served," he recalls. William Schultz, who sells Fluk-er's crickets at his roadside fruit stand in Port Allen, says, "It's just a real exciting thing here.

We are selling them, not by the thousands a day, but 20 to 25 a day, at $1.89 apiece." Observing that most customers buy one to taste and more for friends, he concedes: "I haven't had anyone buy two for themselves." McDonald's isn't about to offer mealworm burgers or deep-fried Unwanted Gift Illegal pig shipments bring a $4,500 fine fe. ar. Z. in September. Although there was no evidence the illegal shipments spread the disease, Polk County attorney Ron Coiling said that the disease can remain hidden for a long time.

"You don't always know what you've got (with feeder pigs). That's why the law is there," Colling said. Your Free Information Service! MONEY MATTERS 1000 Slockline 1003 How to use Stockltne 2020 Financial News Headlines 2015 Slock Market Report 2025 Most Active Stocks 2035 Money Rates 2040 Commodities Reports 2030 Precious Metals SPORTS SHORTS Local Sports Coverage 4050 High School Sports 4055 Regional College Sportsline 4100 Husker Hotline Scheaufes Scores for All Cornhusker Teams National Sports Coverage 2045 Sports Headlines 8830 Tennis 8835 Golf 8840 Ski Report Professional Sports Coverage 2050 NFL Report 2055 NHL Report 2060 Baseball Report 2065 NBA Report 2070 College Report Schedule Standings ASSOCIATED PRESS Near Peoria, William Rutherford has been trying to donate to the public a $1 9 million, wildlife park replete with bison, bobcats, eagles and other animals. "There it is on a plate," he told federal, state and local officials. To his astonishment, however, not a single government agency has expressed interest.

Top-selling herbicide not close to withering Checkoff i changes a necessity Even as Congress continues to pare back, dismantle or return to the states many federal programs; several ag groups oppose suggested changes in national commodity checkoffs 1. that offer more accountability and representation to the farmers who fund them. On Dec. 5, Sen. Russell Feingold, proposed legislation that, as he describes, "makes some 1 modest and common sense reforms to all existing ag promotion programs." The chief reforms sought by Feingold: require the Secretary of Agriculture to hold producer referenda every five years or so to determine if producers wish to continue or terminate any checkoff; require a similar vote to determine if producers want checkoff refunds; eliminate "bloc voting" by cooperatives in national referenda; prohibit spending checkoff money on feel-good "industry image" advertising; strengthen language to keep checkoff-funded groups from lobbying Congress; clarify the very messy and very rich sweetheart relationships between checkoff governing boards and commodity groups hired as checkoff contractors.

Beef, soybean, dairy While the Feingold initiative never mentions specific checkoff programs which abuse current rules, no special insight is needed to see it is aimed at the beef, soybean and dairy checkoffs. These three, federally instituted, non-refundable producer checkoffs will wallop beef, bean and milk producers for close to $400 million in W96. Senate staffers explain that Feingold is "simply fed up with checkoff officials bending the rules and the wasteful and ineffective spending by commodity groups who receive the lion's share of their funding from producer checkoffs." Feingold is right on both counts. Even though federal rules prohibit spending checkoff dollars on government lobbying, notes one Senate staffer, "I can't begin to count the number of times checkoff officials have come to my office and wink, wink 'not lobby, but inform' me on any number of checkoff issues." Image advertising is another rabid checkoff abuse, reckons Feingold. Is there any good reason the Beef Board should use checkoff dollars to advertise beef in Montana or Wyoming, arguably two states with the most carnivores per capita in the Union? And why should dairy cooperatives, many who receive checkoff dollars to promote milk, be allowed to bloc vote for their dairy farmer members to defeat a producer initiative to recall the checkoff-collecting National Dairy Board? The short answer is they should not; it is a blatant conflict of interest.

Opposition no surprise As might be expected, several checkoff collecting boards and commodity organizations who rely on checkoff dollars believe Feingold's legislation is unnecessary and expensive. 1 Some complain his every-five-year referenda idea is itself wasteful of producer dollars. They argue that since referendums cost the checkoffs $200,000 or more, producers would be better served by using the cash for other promotions or new product development. That defense, as penny-pinching or as logical as it sounds, is bunk. For example, in the coming five years the National Dairy Board will collect over $1 billion of checkoff funds from dairy producers.

A referendum might cost and let's be generous $500,000. In round numbers then, a referendum in the year 2001 might cost dairy producers 0.0005 percent of total collections. Alas, Feingold knows his checkoff reform bill is dead in 1996. Presently, it has no co-; sponsors in either the Senate or the House. Senate watchers say checkoff organizations and commodity groups who thrive on checkoff dollars will hammer it and anyone who offers support so the reform package will never see a Congressional vote.

COLUMBUS (AP) A rural Albion man was fined $4,500 for 30 counts of illegally shipping feeder pigs from facilities quarantined for pseudorabies. "I knew the health of the pigs. I knew no one would be harmed," Tom Ketteler testified Wednesday in Polk County Court. "I won't do it again." Ketteler has managed hog operations for 20 years for a set fee. He didn't profit from the shipments.

The illegal shipping occurred in 1994. Ketteler pleaded no contest to the charges in October. Healthy pigs are worth more than pigs that are infected. In September, charges against Ketteler for a related case were dropped in Boone County Court under an agreement that he pay $1,000 to a charitable organization. The Nebraska Bureau of Animal Industries in Lincoln investigated shipments from sites managed by Ketteler, and charges were brought 1990, with dollar revenues slightly behind that, company executives say.

And the outlook for sales growth is at least that strong. "We're talking about a $3 billion product by the year 2000," says S.G. Warburg analyst Paul Raman. Meanwhile, he says, Roundup should be able to maintain its extraordinary profit margin of more than 40 percent through the end of the decade. The average profit margin in the chemical industry is around 10 percent.

Driving Roundup into the future are farmers, who since the mid-1980s have been increasingly tilling their fields chemically with Roundup, instead of mechanically with a pibw. That technique a form of so-called conservation tillage leaves dead stubble on the ground in place of neatly cleared rows. The advantages include saved water, less soil erosion and, in some cases, so much time saved that an extra crop can be planted. One advantage that Roundup has over other herbicides is that it is relatively benign to the environment. The National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides notes that the glyphosate molecule on which Roundup is based is not on the group's list of harmful chemicals.

In fact, the Charles Darwin Institute, a group that watches out for the protection of endangered species, went with Roundup to clear the weeds choking off the island habitat of the giant Galapagos turtles. Still, because Roundup essentially kills anything green, Monsanto has had to come up with a way to immunize produce to the chemical. "Roundup-ready" soybean seeds that grow plants resistant to the chemical will move out of Monsanto labs and into the market during the 1996 spring planting season. The company is also developing Roundup-ready canola, tomatoes, cotton and sugar beets. "This could be a very important innovation," says Mr.

Semegran, the Lehman Brothers analyst. He estimates that if the seeds prove cost-effective, Monsanto could keep Roundup sales volume growing by 20 percent a year via soybeans alone. Business briefs Grass dairying is of interest Dairy producers are considerably interested in grass-based management, said a University of Nebraska extension educator. Robert Stritzke of Fairbury said that interest is why grazing will be the focus of dairy conferences Feb. 15 at the city auditorium in Hartington and Feb.

16 at the 4-H building in Fairbury. Some dairy industry analysts project that future dairies in the United States will be of two types: 1) large, heavily capitalized, focused on maximum output per cow using high concentrate rations; and 2) small, low-input operations, focused on low production cost and high return per cow using pasture grazing as a primary feed resource. The conferences will examine the advantages of grazing, which are lower costs for machinery and facilities, reduced stress for producers and cows, and overall healthier herds, Stritzke said. Some of the presentations will be: "Why Graze Lactating Cows?" "Converting from a Grain-based to a Pasture-based Dairy," "Dairy Cows Selected for Grazing," and "Producer Experiences with Grazing" by a producer panel. The conferences are from 9:30 am.

to 3: 15 p.m. Advance registration is $15 per person and $20 per couple and is due by Feb. 8. Registration at the door is $20 per person. To obtain registration materials, contact Mike Lechner at Box 368, Hartington, NE 68739, 402-254-6821; or Stritzke at 517 Fairbury, NE 68532-2432, 402-729-3487.

Alfalfa group to host 2nd expo The Nebraska Alfalfa Marketing Association will host the second annual Mid-America Alfalfa Expo at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Hastings on Feb. 6 and 7. It will feature more than 24,000 square feet of indoor exhibits showcasing the latest in haying equipment, seed varieties and many related exhibits. It will also feature educational speakers and seminars on the latest technology and ideas for profitable alfalfa production. At 5 p.m.

on Feb. 6, there win be an auction of the use of haying equipment, consigned by exhibitors, for the 1996 haying season. For more information contact show manager Craig Buescher, BY PETER FRITSCH Wall Street Journal It's nowhere near the last "Roundup" for Monsanto flagship herbicide. When the company introduced Roundup in 1974, executives expected that, like most herbicides, its importance to the company would eventually wither like the weeds it attacks. Superior products would evolve and stiff competition would sprout up as Roundup patent protections expired around the globe.

Instead, Roundup remains Mon-santo's top selling product by far. It accounts for $1.5 billion of the St. Louis-based chemical company's $8 billion in annual revenue and half of its $625 million in earnings. And, most impressive, it's poised to make further gains in the years ahead. "Roundup's the kind of product that comes along in this business once in a lifetime," says Monsanto chief economist A.

Nicholas Filip-pello. Sure, Monsanto said similar things about NutraSweet when it bought G.D. Searle a decade ago, before spoonfuls of knock-offs began making their way into America's coffee cups. But Monsanto's dogged reinvention of Roundup suggests that sometimes, a company's most promising product isn't the one being developed in a research lab; it's sitting on the same shelf it has sat on for a generation. "Some people try to be negative on the fact that Monsanto's got the one superior product," says Lehman Brothers analyst Theodore Seme-gran.

"But they deserve credit for the way they've been able to breathe new life into" Roundup. Monsanto has kept Roundup going, in part, by aggressively cutting its price. Since 1985, Roundup prices have come down by more than 50 percent world-wide, even in markets where it has no competition, says Arnold Donald, Monsanto's president of crop protection. That has thwarted potential rivals, while putting the herbicide within reach of new consumers in overseas markets, particularly in the Third World. Volume sales have been expanding at about 20 percent a year since 476-3119 R.R.

1, Box 54, Deweese, NE 68934, or call 402-252-2311. Insect meeting set for March The 51st annual meeting of the North Central Branch of the Entomological Society of America will be held in Omaha March 24-27. Members of the Department of Entomology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will host the event at the Red Lion Inn, said Dave Keith, professor of entomology in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at UNL. More than 400 persons are expected to attend the meeting, which includes sessions on biological control of insects, insect stresses on plants, a symposium on insect allergies and a workshop on the uses of insects by teachers of science and natural history, Keith said. One of the most popular features of the annual meeting is an insect photography salon and public exhibition, he said.

Several hundred photographs are usually submitted by entomologists and professional and amateur photographers. Entry rules and forms will be available soon. The conference is expected to attract crop consultants, chemical dealers and applicators, agriculturalists, scientists, teachers and extension specialists and educators from 13 North Central states and Canada. For registration information contact: Lance Meinke, Registration Chair, Department of Entomology, Room 312E, Plant Industry Building, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE 68583-0816. Room reservations can be made by calling the Red Lion Hotel, 402-346-7600.

Ag calendar items: The Nebraska Grain Sorghum Development, Utilization and Marketing Board will meet Jan. 12 at 9 a.m. in the Department of Agriculture Platte Conference Room, in the Nebraska State Office Building. The Nebraska Soybean Board will hear proposals for research project funding on Jan. 23 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus Student Union beginning at 9 a.m.

The board will hold its regular business meeting Jan. 24 at the Cornhusker Hotel, 333 S. 13th beginning at 8 a.m. The Nebraska Wheat Development, Utilization and Marketing Board will meet Jan. 19 at the Hampton Inn in North Platte, beginning at 8:30 a.m.

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Neuhaus 1300 Street (Doualas Theater Bldal Now Participating With Blue i.

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