Word: usda
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...acceptable methods of insect 'control will be expensive. The cost of producing even a few ounces of a pheromone runs into thousands of dollars; the expenses involved in sterilizing insects, identifying and isolating their hormones or finding parasites or pathogens that will prey upon them are equally high. The USDA alone, for example, will spend $48 million on insect control research this year. It will be money well spent, essential for keeping the insects at bay. Even as manufacturers begin producing some of the new biological controls, there are ominous signs that the ever adaptable insect may be adjusting...
...currently being grown on some 45 million acres in India, Pakistan and Africa; it accounts for 20% of the food increase attributed to the so-called "Green Revolution" in agriculture. Scientists are also seeking, through cell manipulation, to improve the characteristics of plants. Biologists at the USDA laboratory at Beltsville, Md., and at other centers are experimenting with ways to improve the efficiency of both nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis, the processes by which plants produce the proteins necessary for growth. One researcher has already succeeded in showing that plant engineering may some day be practicable. In 1972 Peter Carlson...
...their crops. Grain is not officially inspected until it reaches New Orleans, Houston or other ports. There inspectors' employed by private agencies but licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture grade the grain and also certify that ships are clean enough to carry it in their holds. Altogether, USDA has licensed about 3,000 inspectors, who earn an average salary of $10,000 a year; their relatively modest incomes are often supplemented by overtime wages and seasonal bonuses. Since loading delays can cost shipowners up to $20,000 a day, it is often more economical to bribe inspectors...
...Ferrara is correct that USDA figures may not include all wages from piece rates, but, given the realities of agricultural production, it is inconceivable that piece rates would substantially increase the income of a significant number of farmworkers. First, there are only a few instances where piece rates are paid as an increment to a base hourly wage, and piece rates alone generally produce low earnings. (Testimony before the 1969 Senate Sub-committee on Migratory Labor indicated that only 10-25 per cent of all farmworkers worked on a piece rate basis and that, at a maximum, a worker might...
Again, his use of data is very misleading. Mr. Ferrara mentions only farm corporations, but USDA figures indicate that in 1968 40 per cent of all farm tax returns over $500,000 were filed by sole proprietorships. In addition, USDA definitions of "farm corporation" include only those corporations where farm products account for the largest part of business receipts. Therefore Tenneco, which owns approximately 1,000,000 of California's 36.6 million acres of agricultural land, would not be included in Mr. Ferrara's statistics. It is estimated that the 1 per cent of farm corporations that Mr. Ferrara refers...