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46 animals are threatened with death
As reported by the Agriculture Ministry in Schwerin, BSE was found in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the first time since December 2002. A cow from the Ludwigslust district was affected. Another 46 animals belonging to the so-called cohort must now be killed. This also applies to the three offspring, two of which were sold to Spain.
Many of the 46 cohort cows are very pregnant, according to a ministry spokesman. The authorities are now checking whether they can calve before they are killed according to EU regulations. The affected cow had shown no signs of mad cow disease, the spokesman said. She had been slaughtered after being injured. The compulsory tissue sample produced the BSE result.
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Caviar Creator Düsseldorf builds largest closed aquaculture facility / 30 million euro investment / laying of the foundation stone in Demmin
Caviar from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania? What sounds unusual at first will soon be commonplace. In the Hanseatic city of Demmin in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Düsseldorf company Caviar Creator is building the world's largest closed aquaculture facility for rearing sturgeons. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in December last year, and the cornerstone for the 20 million euro project was ceremoniously laid on Saturday, March 30th.
The first sturgeons should come into the basins of the facility as early as next autumn. They are adult animals that provide the roe known as caviar after a year of acclimatization. Frank Schaefer, Head of Caviar Creator Europe, specifies the planned production volume as 33 tons of caviar per year. That is twice as much as the total German caviar imports in 2002. "The demand for high-quality caviar is very high," emphasizes Frank Schaefer. Due to the decline in the sturgeon population in the wild, the supply of wild caviar has drastically decreased. 15 years ago there were around 2.000 tonnes traded on the world market, last year the supply was only 70 tonnes. In addition, the sturgeon has been under species protection worldwide since 1998.
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Partly quieter business after Easter
At the beginning of April, many agricultural products are in increasing demand due to the upcoming Easter holidays. Business calmed down again in the second half of the month. At the meat markets, beef, veal and lamb are initially the focus of interest; after Easter, depending on the weather, demand could shift more to grilled cuts of pork. However, the prices for slaughtered cattle tend to decline somewhat. Eggs are lively until Easter, after which there is a rather restrained demand. The sale of dairy products also benefits from Easter. In the case of potatoes, the focus of sales has shifted significantly to imported early goods in the course of the month. The range of fruit and vegetables is becoming more and more diverse. Large quantities of strawberries and asparagus are already coming from southern Europe. Cattle prices often lower
The fixed price development in the marketing of young bulls should come to an end in April for the time being. The quotations are likely to tend to be weak. Strong discounts are not to be expected, as the number of young bulls is likely to remain small. The domestic beef trade is concentrated in the first half of April on the fine cuts that the trade has already stocked up on from mid-March. The Easter holidays could affect beef sales somewhat, as many German citizens go on vacation abroad. When sending young bull meat to EU partner countries, however, no significant recovery is expected.
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Germany is the most important customer
Denmark's exports of live pigs and pork increased again last year. According to preliminary Danish data, the country exported 2003 million tons of pork from January to September 1,22, 6,6 percent more than in the same period last year. Denmark's main customer was Germany for the first time with around 244.000 tons; that is almost 25 percent more than in 2002. In previous years this position had mostly been taken by the United Kingdom. In the first nine months of 2003 Great Britain imported 238.000 tons but “only” a good nine percent more than in the same period in 2002.
The third country exports of Denmark also developed positively up to September 2003 with a moderate increase of 2,6 percent to 471.000 tons, but they suffered from the weak dollar: export revenues declined despite the satisfactory export volumes. Japan, Denmark's most important trading partner for pork outside the EU, put the safeguard clause under the WTO treaty into force for the third time in a row at the beginning of August, which resulted in a significant increase in minimum import prices. Until then, however, Danish exporters were able to expand their trade with Japan considerably. A total of 191.000 tons went to Japan by September, a good four percent more than in the previous year. With a good 55.000 tons of pork, the USA delivered even more than 40 percent more than a year ago. In contrast, Brazil and Poland proved to be strong competitors on the Russian market; the Danes were only able to deliver around 56.000 percent of the previous year's amount with a good 67 tons.
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With a neutral organization for classifying and accounting slaughter pigs based on the French model, the desired trust in the slaughtering industry can be built up. This was the central demand of the ISN chairman Franz Meyer zu Holte during the strategy meeting of the interest group of pig keepers North-West Germany eV (ISN) in Münster on March 17, 2004. Around 1.200 pig farmers came to meet with representatives of the leading slaughterhouses in Europe and the ISN in the Halle Münsterland to discuss the future of the European pig market. The podium was top-class: In total, the experts stood for 58 million slaughter pigs, which corresponds to added value of around 7 billion euros.
Unilateral contracts without a price would not have been successful for pig farmers in either Germany or Denmark, explained Meyer zu Holte. This is the case regardless of the legal form of the slaughterhouse. According to Bent Claudi Lassen, Vice President of Danish Crown, the Danes are continuing on their way: “We will continue to expand export activities and pig farming in Eastern Europe. As usual, vertical integration plays the central role. "Lassen emphasized that the slaughterhouses in Denmark belong to the farmers and that they therefore have a direct influence. In the same vein, Dr. Giesen, managing director of Westfleisch eG: “The farmers also have to take care of the marketing of their products. And you do that with us through your participation. ”His vision for 2010: vertically integrated meat marketers with a high regional density in farm hands.
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More optimistic again after tough cuts - "Peter from FRoSTA" is coming back
2003 was not a satisfactory year for FRoSTA AG. For the first time since 1988, when the company entered the frozen food business, the consolidated financial statements show a loss of € 7,7 million.
Consolidated sales fell by 284% from € 262 million to € 7,6 million. The sales losses were mainly caused by the FRoSTA brand. The sales of the other areas in Germany could be kept at the previous year's level, while the FRoSTA sales increased abroad.
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foodwatch report on false prices, true costs and the futility of moral appeals to consumers.
"The prices at the meat counter in the supermarket lie because there is a distorted competitive environment for conventional and organic products." According to foodwatch, that is the result of the study "What does a schnitzel really cost?", which the organization from the Institute for Ecological Economic Research (IÖW ) in Berlin. A kilo of conventional schnitzel costs seven euros – compared to 13 euros for a kilo of eco-schnitzel. Conventional meat is so cheap because the producers don't have to pay for the high environmental damage caused by production. They are around 50 euros per pig, which should increase the producer price by a third. Eco-schnitzel is so expensive because there are no effective distribution channels available. Processing and sales currently account for around ten euros per kilo of the price of an organic schnitzel. This means that if environmental costs are included and effective sales channels are used, the price difference between organic meat and conventional goods could drop from the current 90 to 14 percent.
Thilo Bode, Managing Director of foodwatch, on the Schnitzel Report: "The IÖW study impressively refutes the claim of the German Farmers' Association that conventional farmers produce with high environmental standards. On the contrary, they pollute the environment at the expense of the general public.” Politicians must create incentives so that food retailers open up and use their efficient distribution channels not only for mass-produced goods, but also for ecological products. In addition, a different advertising strategy must increase the demand for organic products.
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Favorite Enemies, Unanswered Questions and Amazing Analysis - A Commentary by Thomas Proeller
Today Thilo Bode from foodwatch presented a study entitled "How much does a schnitzel really cost". It states that the price of conventional pork does not take environmental costs into account and that it is therefore significantly cheaper than organic pork. In addition, the study contains a rather interesting essay on why organic meat is so much more expensive at the counter than conventional meat.
When skimming through the 47-page paper for the first time, some technical weaknesses are noticeable:
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The founding of subsidiaries was decided
QS Qualitäts und Sicherheit GmbH, founded in 2001 to ensure the quality and origin of food products, to which representatives of associations and companies from agriculture, the feed industry, slaughterhouses and cutting plants, meat processing, retail and the CMA Centrale Marketing-Gesellschaft belong , has elected Stefan Feuerstein, member of the Management Board of METRO AG, as the new Chairman of the Shareholders' Meeting. He succeeds Peter Zühlsdorff in this function.
With the aim of continuously improving the structure of the QS system and integrating further product areas, the shareholders' meeting also unanimously decided to found two subsidiaries. Accordingly, on the one hand, a specialist poultry society will be founded, into which the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry (ZDG) will be included. On the other hand, the founding of a specialist society for fruit, vegetables and potatoes was agreed, in which, among other things, the Federal Committee for Fruit and Vegetables (BOG) and the Federal Association of Producers' Organizations for Fruit and Vegetables (BVEO) will be integrated, as well as other sectors and organizations is open.
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The assumption that a high cholesterol content in food leads to arteriosclerosis or a heart attack is still highly controversial. dr Rainer Schubert from the Institute for Nutritional Physiology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena describes in the following article that the majority of studies that should be taken seriously show no connection between the intake of dietary cholesterol and coronary heart disease.
For a long time, the opinion was that atheromas (also called plaques = thickenings in arteries) consisted mainly of cholesterol. According to later more detailed analyses, the arterial plaque consists of only approx. 5% lipids and cholesterol, the majority being connective tissue (80%), calcium (7%) as well as foam cells and lymphocytes. Recommendations to reduce the risk of CHD by eating a low-cholesterol diet continue to this day, despite all the evidence to the contrary. The expected reduction in serum cholesterol from dietary measures is usually 5-10%. On average, in numerous controlled studies and health surveys, the reduction was only 3–6%. Correcting high cholesterol levels through dietary changes alone is therefore not an appropriate measure. In addition, the variety of food suffers considerably, giving rise to feelings of frustration and renunciation as well as fears (increased stress) and often leads to eating disorders. Stress can increase serum levels by 65 mg/100 ml. It is also interesting in this context that even if you have a lower cholesterol intake, you do not have to do without meat or meat products. The amount of cholesterol ingested with these foods is often overestimated. With 150 g meat per day, an average cholesterol content of 45-65 mg cholesterol/100 g raw material (beef, pork, poultry) and an absorbability of the cholesterol of 35-50%, between 25 and 50 mg absorbable cholesterol are ingested per day. The absorbability decreases with increasing cholesterol content and with the proportion of plant sterols in the food.
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Dietary cholesterol intake is still widely regarded as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, despite the widespread publication of medical and epidemiological studies disproving this assumption since the 90s. private lecturer dr Rainer Schubert from the Institute for Nutritional Physiology at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena will present the various functions that cholesterol fulfills in the human body.
Cholesterol (also cholesterol) is a vital component of every cell or cell membrane and the precursor for important active substances in the body. It is particularly concentrated in the adrenal glands, brain, skin, spleen, ovaries, serum and erythrocytes. Cholesterol is a component of the brain, nerves and cell membranes, influences the immune system and is the starting point for hormones, vitamin D and bile acids. Like bile acids, steroid hormones, calciferols, sterols and other substances, cholesterol also belongs to the class of steroids. The substance is only found in animal products (including fish). Incidentally, meat contains relatively little cholesterol compared to other animal foods or seafood and is roughly comparable to plaice.
