Agricultural Products

Calnetics Corp., a Chatsworth maker of molded plastic components for the building and plastics industries, says it has tentatively agreed to acquire Agricultural Products Inc. for about $4.4 million in cash and notes. The deal, which is contingent upon reaching a definitive agreement and shareholder approval, is expected to be completed in May. Agricultural Products, a closely held private company based in Ontario, had sales of about $10 million in 1993.

U.S. and Mexican officials Wednesday resolved a cross-border long-haul trucking dispute that will lift punitive tariffs on about $2.4 billion in U.S. products. Under the agreement, which ends a nearly two-decade ban on Mexican trucks entering the United States, Mexico will halve the punitive customs duties within the next 10 days and remove the rest by the end of the summer. "The agreements signed today are a win for roadway safety and they are a win for trade," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.

The Danbury, Conn.-based chemical firm said it has reached a definitive agreement to sell the business to the U.S. subsidiary of Rhone-Poulenc S.A., a major French manufacturer of chemicals and pesticides, for $575 million in cash. The sale does not include the agricultural production facilities of Union Carbide India Ltd. Union Carbide said it does not expect to post any material gain or loss on its earnings statement as a result of the sale.

To organic farmers, Kenneth Noel Nelson Jr. was the man with the golden manure: It was rich with Mother Nature's finest waste, robust for the soil and cheap in price. But to federal prosecutors in California, Nelson's organic fertilizer empire had developed a stench. On Thursday a federal grand jury indicted Nelson on 28 counts of mail fraud in connection with an alleged years-long scheme to dupe farmers and agriculture product distributors. The indictment accused Nelson, 57, of selling premium-priced liquid fertilizer touted as made from all-natural products such as fish meal and bird guano that instead was spiked with far cheaper synthetic chemicals.

Union Carbide, saying it can't keep pace with larger farm chemical companies, said Tuesday that it is selling all of its agricultural division except the Bhopal, India, plant where a gas leak killed more than 2,000 people. "We are competing against $1-billion-plus agriculture companies around the world, and they are about double our size in sales and probably double our size in what they are spending in research and development," Carbide President Robert D.

Be careful what you pack in your luggage. Hidden produce and other forbidden items can cost you up to $25,000 if discovered by authorities. Starting Jan. 1, the federal government began fining passengers caught carrying some kinds of fresh produce back into the mainland United States from Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Department of Agriculture crackdown is in response to increased fear of infestation by the Mediterranean fruit fly and other pests plaguing U.S. agriculture.

Tastiota, Mexico A few miles inland from the Sea of Cortez, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactus, neat rows of emerald plants are sprouting from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a man-made canal. And if you believe the American who is farming it, this incongruous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming.

Xenia Food Communications Inc. named Lewis A. Mason president. The company, which imports and exports edible agricultural products, is a subsidiary of Commercial International Corp.

Anyone who has taken the scenic drive along the 101 Freeway just north of Ventura couldn't miss them: rows and rows of lush banana plants hung thick with fruit. It was as though a bit of South America had come seaside in Southern California. Doug Richardson's small banana plantation was the only substantial planting in California--and they weren't just any bananas.

There are perhaps a dozen professional tomato breeders in the United States and no more than twice that worldwide. One--and we think only one--dreams of making yellow ketchup. Kanti Rawal, a plant geneticist, came to California almost 20 years ago and soon thereafter embarked on a great, strange, tomato-breeding adventure that included forays into biotechnology, corporate takeovers and yellow ketchup. Rawal's still here. The ketchup isn't. Here's his story.

DuPont is buying Danish food additives maker Danisco A/S for $5.8 billion as it looks to beef up the products it offers to improve the taste and health benefits of food. The chemical giant wants to widen its reach as the world's population grows and demand for food increases. The deal also gives DuPont more exposure to alternative fuel markets, like ethanol, where Danisco products are also used. Danisco's compounds are used in a wide range of industries from bakery, dairy and beverages to animal feed, laundry detergents and bioethanol.

As investors tire of Wall Street's roller coaster, more of them are plowing their money into land — farmland. Few people understand this shift better than farm manager Carl Evers. On a recent morning, Evers steered his pickup truck through a Central California almond grove, his drawling sales pitch at the ready. Evers is co-founder of Farmland Management Services, which runs about 30,000 acres of nut groves, fruit orchards and wine grape vines for a Boston investment firm.

U.S. food prices are forecast to rise at their lowest rate since 1992, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday, showing the recent surge in agriculture prices for everything from hogs to wheat so far has not been felt at the dinner table. The USDA revised its food price prediction to an increase of 0.5% to 1.5% in 2010 from its forecast in late July that called for a rise of 1.5% to 2.5%. The increase could be the lowest since food prices rose 1.2% in 1992. "Although global economies have recovered somewhat from the 2008-09 recession, world economic activity remains below pre-recession levels, resulting in overall food price inflation in 2010 remaining below historical averages," the department said.

Climbing temperatures are expected to raise sea levels and increase droughts, floods, heat waves and wildfires. Now, scientists are predicting another consequence of climate change: mass migration to the United States. Between 1.4 million and 6.7 million Mexicans could migrate to the U.S. by 2080 as climate change reduces crop yields and agricultural production in Mexico, according to a study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Honk if you love farmers. The California Department of Food and Agriculture is trying to rally public support for special license plates that tout a driver's support for the state's agricultural industry and would charge a premium fee for them. The bulk of those fees, which would be tacked onto a person's normal vehicle registration costs, would pay for statewide education and training programs aimed at secondary school kids interested in farm careers. The fees for plates with numbers randomly selected by the state Department of Motor Vehicles would cost $50 for the first year and $40 a year to renew.

Federal health officials now blame raw jalapenos for some of the illnesses in the 3-month-old salmonella outbreak and Wednesday advised the elderly, infants and people with compromised immune systems to avoid them. Investigators still think tomatoes -- the original suspect in the outbreak -- have made people sick and are considering the possibility that the same rare strain of salmonella has contaminated both tomatoes and peppers.

Tastiota, Mexico A few miles inland from the Sea of Cortez, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactus, neat rows of emerald plants are sprouting from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a man-made canal. And if you believe the American who is farming it, this incongruous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming.

For many of California's upscale hotels and restaurants, green is the new black. Prompted by trendy, taste-making guests, California's chicest resorts, spas and eateries are integrating local ingredients into their decor, amenities and menus. And high quality may be why local products are now associated with status at many upscale retreats. Celebrity chefs such as Neal Fraser of Grace strive to "reduce our carbon footprint."