One of the arguments in favor of genetically modified seed is that it will increase yields. The world is filled with hungry people, the argument goes, and the way to feeding them is increasing yields. The evidence that new GMO seeds actually increase per acre yields is mixed. This week, Monsanto announced that its new Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans, planted on 1.5 million acres this year, boost yields 7.3 percent, on the low end of the company's forecast. 

The lagging yields is not helping Monsanto's stock price. The company had been hoping that its new seed would add $1 billion in profit by 2012. Bloomberg reported, "Some investors are losing confidence in Monsanto after growers and seed distributors told OTR Global, a Purchase, New York-based research firm, that the new soybeans aren’t meeting yield expectations."

“The shares will likely remain range-bound until the company addresses outstanding questions on Roundup Ready 2 Yield performance in 2009-2010 and pricing in both corn and soy,” Laurence Alexander, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies & Co., wrote in a report.

R-CALF USA, the cattle producer group, has sent a letter to President Obama titled "A Desperate Call to Action from the U.S. Cattle Industry."  R-CALF (and a host of other cattle raiser groups) write, "While absolutely no one was watching, $6.4 billion has been stolen since Jan. 1, 2007, from the U.S. live cattle industry in the U.S. fed cattle market alone." The group says this estimate is based on USDA data showing consistent losses from the sale of 49 million head of cattle. The group says this amount was "stolen directly from the hands of the nation's 82,170 remaining cattle feeders and transferred into the hands of just a few mega-meatpackers, only four of which control over 85 percent of the fed cattle market in the nation's $50 billion live cattle industry."

R-CALF notes that while cattle producers have been losing money, meat prices for consumers have gone up and meatpackers have "prospered greatly." The result has been a decline in the number of independent cattle producers — and decreasing competition in the meat market.

Of the nearly three quarters of a million cattle operators, R-CALF writes: "Their numbers also are shrinking at an alarming rate, and Rural America is reeling from the consequential, rapid loss of its economic base. We may already have reached the point of no return: the point where it no longer matters if competition is restored because the industry may already lack the critical mass of independent cattle farmers and ranchers necessary to sustain a competitive industry."

Microsoft's Bill Gates gave his first major speech on agriculture today in Des Moines. Gates has committed $1.4 billion from his foundation to agricultural development, reports Philip Brasher in the Des Moines Register. About 5 percent of that amount will go to biotech projects. Gates' speech was a defense of genetically engineered crops as a way to help poor farmers increase food production. Gates criticized those who were "instantly hostile to any emphasis on productivity" while ignoring food production in a world affected by climate change. 

“They act as if there is no emergency, even though in the poorest, hungriest places on earth, population is growing faster than productivity, and the climate is changing,” Gates said. The Microsoft founder said transgenic crops "can help address farmers' challenges faster and more efficiently than conventional breeding alone." The Gates Foundation will  help develop drought-resistant corn for use in East Africa. Brasher reports that Gates said the seeds would be licensed royalty free to distributors so that there would be no extra cost to farmers. 

“Of course, these technologies must be subject to rigorous scientific review to ensure they are safe and effective,” Gates said. “It’s the responsibility of the governments, farmers and citizens, informed by great science, to choose the best and safest way to help feed their countries.” Gates said the next green revolution “must be guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances and sustainable for the economy and the environment.”

In the last year, more than 225,000 dairy cows have been "retired" as a way of removing 4.5 billion pounds of milk from the market nationwide. The idea is to reduce the supply as a way of raising prices — and the way to do that is to get rid of dairy herds built up over the years. "Farmers and ranchers who want to participate submit a bid on the number of cows they want to retire," explains Monte Whaley in the Denver Post. "They are paid based on the previous year's production of the cows and on the value of the cows going to slaughter." 

This destruction of food-production capacity is seen through the eyes of the Bernhardt family of Milliken, Colorado. The day 11 trucks showed up to haul away the cows was traumatic. "We closed the curtains in his bedroom so he wouldn't have to watch," Dave Bernhardt said of his 87-year-old father. "He knew they were there, but still, we didn't want him to see it all."

The U.S. market has been flooded with milk. Two years ago milk was expensive. It was "white gold." Now prices have collapsed. Consumers are paying the same for a gallon of milk that they paid in the 1970s. So herds are being "retired." The Bernhardts have been farming in northern Colorado since 1920. The reduction program pays well, better than just taking the cows to market. But it will require all dairy farmers to be involved in order for it to effective. So far, only about 70 percent are taking part, according to the Denver Post.