The board, set up by Public Act 262 of 2000, will establish selection criteria and review grant applications from local governments interested in purchasing development rights from willing farmland owners. The board also will determine the amount of grants and which ones will be awarded.

The board will have seven members, including the director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Other members appointed are James Goodheart, executive director of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs; Sharon Steffens, supervisor of Alpine Township; Gilbert White, a realtor from Haslett; and Robert Zeeb, a farmer from Bath. Two additional members could be appointed but would be non-voting, advisory-only members.

Under the bill's provisions, once the fund board establishes a selection criteria, local units of government may apply for grants to purchase agricultural conservation easements, provided they have adopted a development rights ordinance and a comprehensive land-use plan within the last 10 years, said Jim Fuerstenau, executive director of the Michigan Farmland and Community Alliance. The plan must include provisions for agricultural preservation.

When the local government gets applications from farmland owners, it applies to the Agricultural Preservation Fund Board, which reviews each application.

One of the problems that could limit the board's work, however, is limited funding. Presently, part of the money dedicated to preserve farmland comes from farmland owners who repay tax credits when their land is removed from a P.A. 116 contract. P.A. 116 was established in 1974 to give farmers tax relief. In exchange for deferred taxes, farmers agreed to keep their property as agricultural land - development is prohibited - until the contract expires, at which time taxes are due under most circumstances.

Although the level of funding is not where we would like to see it, the board will work with the money available, Fuerstenau said.

"It's an excellent board," he said. "It has experience, is concerned about farmland in Michigan, and it will help lead Michigan toward a responsible farmland preservation plan. That's going to strengthen Michigan agriculture and Michigan as a whole."

Citing the current battle between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality over the requirements of CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) permits for livestock operations, Yeutter predicted worse things will come under a Gore administration.

"I can't understand why any farmer in America would vote for Al Gore," Yeutter said. "Let's get somebody as president of the United States who'll achieve some balance on these kind of environmental and food safety and other highly contentious issues, where balance and common sense and reason and scientific support form the criteria for decision making."

He said every American should buy Al Gore's book, Earth in the Balance, a book that Yeutter called sheer environmental radicalism. "Read at least 10 pages and then decide whether or not you'd vote for Al Gore. I think you'll conclude you'd better vote George W. Bush in November," he said.

Yeutter, who also served as U.S. trade representative during the Bush administration, took aim at the Clinton/Gore track record on international trade. A lack of bipartisan support and leadership from the White House resulted in the WTO fiasco in Seattle and, consequently, the overall farm economy, Yeutter claimed.

"This is really a reflection of the fact the we've been spinning our wheels on the whole issue of so-called fast-track authority for trade negotiations for the last several years in Washington, D.C. - and most of that is the fault of Al Gore," Yeutter said. "The reason for that is Gore's insistence that the administration has taken a position that the only way you should grant fast-track authority to the American negotiators to go out and do a big deal on trade is if you incorporate environmental provision and workers' rights provisions in those agreements."

Yeutter said Bush, on the other hand, understands the value of bipartisan support on resolving crucial issues and, most importantly, possesses the leadership skills to get the job done. Case in point, Yeutter said, is the current energy crisis in America. Reluctance by the Clinton administration to pursue oil exploration in environmentally sensitive areas, and a lack of any substantive energy policy for the last eight years, is coming home to roost for U.S. farmers.

"Governor Bush believes that we can pursue development and use either pipelines or ships to bring the oil and gas resources down into the United States and we can do it in a very environmentally sensitive and careful way in order to avoid problems," Yeutter said. "Those are the kind of things we need to do but it takes leadership and it takes some guts to take on the environmental advocacy groups to be able to deal with issues like that."

Bush's experience in the petroleum industry has resulted in an appreciation for research and new technology for alternative, renewable fuel sources, including ethanol. "If we're going to have an edge in agriculture, you do it through research, which means renewable fuels from agricultural commodities," he said.

Based on personal experiences with both candidates, Yeutter called the decision for who should be the next president an easy vote. "If your decision is based on character, integrity and leadership, it's a hands-down win for George Bush."

"Farmers started and stopped several times because of the weather, so it's difficult to get a good handle on where the harvest is," he said. "Areas in the eastern part of the Thumb were still quite wet, so in those areas the crop may be somewhat less than 25 percent harvested."

Farmers also report that yields are variable, Sutherland said.

"The latest report we have is that the crop will be about average, but below last year," he said. "Reports from central Michigan are that the crop is averaging in the mid 40s (bushels per acre), with lows in the 30s. But nobody said it's better than they anticipated."

The crop itself is in variable stages of development because of the wide range of planting dates this spring, again, due to weather, said Bob Boehm, manager of the commodity and marketing department at Michigan Farm Bureau.

"The early planted beans are coming off well, but the late crop that was planted into wet soils isn't quite as far along," he said.

A late soybean harvest may decrease wheat acreage in Michigan this year, Boehm said, but that may mean long-term price improvements, according to Sutherland.

"I think we can build a case for improved prices for wheat in the long term," he said. "The Australian crop is down, and China is experiencing drought. There are concerns over the crop's quality from the European Union. Combine that with a potential, though not significant, reduction in planted acres here because of low prices and vomitoxin, and I think, overall, it will pay farmers to store wheat. I think there's a good opportunity to see stored wheat prices reach $3.40 to $3.50 in February and March at the Chicago Board of Trade."

The study says that although pollen from biotech corn can kill Monarch butterflies, there is little risk to them around cornfields. Some scientists even believe biotech corn can benefit the butterflies because farmers would use fewer pesticides on biotech crops.

"Considering all the information available, the weight of evidence indicates no unreasonable adverse effects (of the biotech crops) to non-target wildlife, plants or beneficial invertebrates," the study said.

The study also says biotech crops provide "significant benefits" to farmers and the environment.

Contact: Ken Nye (800) 292-2680, ext. 2020

"I've no doubt that without the government, tens of thousands of farmers would have been forced out of business," Glickman said. "There would have been chaos in American farming."

Glickman said the government gave producers $28 billion in fiscal 2000, including $11 billion in supplemental income assistance from the last two years. Total federal aid to farmers in 1999 was $16.6 billion.

Under the 1996 farm bill, Glickman said, insufficient assistance is available to farmers when a commodity price nosedives.

"I remain concerned that the 1996 farm bill has left our farmers without an adequate safety net in tough times," he said.

Contact: Bob Boehm (800) 292-2680, ext. 2023

The unnamed board, established when blueberry growers passed a national referendum this year to establish a national promotion program, will have nine council member positions initially, and those nine will nominate the final four seats on a 13-member council. Nominees must have produced 2,000 pounds or more of cultivated blueberries in the United States from Jan. 1, 1999, through Dec. 31, 1999.

Michigan is expected to have two or more members on the board, since it produces more blueberries than any other state. Potential nominees are required to complete a council nomination form and send it to the North American Blueberry Council, 4995 Golden Foothill Pkwy., Ste 2, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762.

After nominations are made, ballots will be mailed to blueberry growers on Dec. 11. Voting will close Jan. 12.

The promotion program, which includes establishing the board, will be funded by a $12-per-ton assessment on domestic cultivated blueberries and on imported blueberries. The assessment begins with the 2001 crop.

For more information, contact NABC at (916) 933-9399.

Contact: Ken Nye (800) 292-2680, ext. 2020

"The choice to produce ethanol will be mostly a political choice, not an economical one," said Ed Makin, executive vice president of a sugar trade house in the United Kingdom. "The bottom line is that you need cheap sugar and high oil prices."

That situation exists presently and could be the boost the ethanol industry needs for it to live up to its potential.

"Ethanol has the potential to become a much more important globally traded commodity," said Luis Carvalho, head of a Brazilian agricultural industry group. Brazil is the world's largest producer and consumer of ethanol.

Contact: Bob Boehm (800) 292-2680, ext. 2023

Beans could claim a place among red wine and colorful fruits, berries and vegetables as cancer- and heart disease-fighting foods. A food quality geneticist has found some of the same antioxidants in bean coats that give these other foods their anti-aging properties. The finding is inspiring scientists to find ways to boost the already high nutritional value of beans and could lead to more iron and other vitamins and minerals, as well as more antioxidants.

Cinnamon adds zest to more than just food. The spice contains substances that, in test tube studies at least, wake up body cells to the hormone insulin. Because insulin regulates glucose metabolism and thus controls the level of glucose in the blood, the substances may have the potential to delay or prevent adult-onset, or type 2, diabetes.

In a couple of years, consumers won't need to cook pork chops and roasts to the consistency of shoe leather. An innovative program to certify pigs right on the farm as free of trichinosis-causing worms is going through its final shakedown - a two-year pilot study. The program is also expected to be a model for controlling other foodborne pathogens at the source of infection. The number of pigs infected with Trichinella spiralis has been on the decline for decades, thanks to changes in the way most pork producers manage their operations. Not a single positive animal turned up out of 220,000 pigs tested during a six-month study of a Midwestern packing plant and pork producers in three states.

Fried in shortening, chocolate-glazed, and filled with cream or jelly, doughnuts are a guilty pleasure. But scientists are hoping to ease consumer guilt by reducing the oil content of doughnuts - a breakfast favorite that generates $4-5 billion in annual sales. In preliminary trials, doughnuts made from dough containing modified rice starch and other ingredients absorbed as much as 70 percent less oil during frying than traditional, all-wheat doughnuts. Compared to all-wheat doughnuts, which had 24 to 26 grams of oil, the wheat-rice flour doughnuts had about 8 grams. When mixed with wheat flour, the rice-based ingredients help reduce oil uptake by making the dough more tender, consistent and moist. Though less oily, the doughnuts' taste and texture are comparable to traditional cake doughnuts.

Tomorrow's tortillas, if made with a newly developed unique corn, may help reduce iron-deficiency anemia. That could be a boon in developing countries where corn-based foods are a part of nearly every meal and in developed nations where iron deficiency is also common. The novel corn has about 66 percent less phytic acid, or phytate, than most common varieties. Phytic acid is thought to reduce the body's ability to absorb certain nutrients, like iron.