http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/06/26/world/europe/26reuters-wine-plague.html

A wine plague spread by lice destroyed vines in France in the 19th century but a small area in the Pyrenees, which contains plants up to 200 years old, was spared and is being classified as a national heritage monument.

Like other national treasures such as the Palace of Versailles and Notre Dame cathedral, the vines in the Ardour valley will be protected.

They contain the ancient DNA of local grape varieties. Some grapes are still being used with grapes from younger generation vines to make Saint-Mont wine.

“It is an exceptional plot,” said Olivier Bourdet-Pees, director of the Plaimont wine making firm. “The vines go back 200 years. They were planted in 1800 and 1810. There are 29 different grape varieties of which seven were unknown,” he said.

The vine disaster forced many vintners from regions such as Bordeaux and Burgundy to seek grafts, or entire vines, from as far away as America.

The vines of Bordeaux were ravaged by the phylloxera outbreak from 1865, a decade after the famous classification of great wines in 1855, and had to be replanted with imported grafts on remaining stems.

In Burgundy, vintners pulled up their old French vines and replanted them with American pinot noir until they discovered that grafting was the best method.

SAFEGUARDING A NATIONAL HERITAGE

Scientists have been researching the plants and the grapes as part of a mission to safeguard the national heritage. On June 1, the local heritage and sites commission of the Midi Pyrenees region included the vines on the list of national historical monuments.

“This plot of 40 acres contains very old and non-grafted stocks and offers a remarkable example of biodiversity and of genetic heritage: 600 vines in 12 rows, some 20 different varieties of which seven have not previously been recorded,” the regional authorities said in a statement.

The plot also showed traces of ancient methods of agriculture, with double rows of vines planted in squares. Although the production is too small for a special wine, the vegetal material can be used to make younger vines.

For eight generations the plot has been in the hands of the family of vintner Jean-Pascal Pedebernade. About 20 years ago, scientists started to study the vines. It took them until 2008 to completely map the genetic make-up of the plants in a study that helped sway the commission in its decision.

The sandy soil plot lies near the village of Sarragchies near Saint-Mont in the Gers, in southwest France. The vines are planted wide apart, which may explain why it resisted the attacks by the phylloxera aphids that traveled to Europe from their original habitat in the United States.

Saint-Mont has its own AOC wine denomination. It is a sturdy wine like the Madiran, which is also produced by the vintners associated in the Plaimont cooperative group. Its headquarters is in the former Benedictine monastery whose monks planted vines around the year 1050 in the Middle Ages. The group also makes the sweet golden Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh and the Cotes de Gascogne wines.

The Saint-Mont AOC area has 46 villages and uses the Tanat, Pinenc, Cabernet France and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes for red and rose wines as well as Gros Manseng, Arrufiac and Petit Courbu for the whites.

While the cabernets are widely used elsewhere, the other grape varieties are typical for the region. Its producers are proud of the biodiversity of the area, which is helpful in the ultra competitive market for inexpensive wines.

Production is about 8 million bottles, half in red, 30 percent in whites and the rest in rosé. Two-thirds of the production is consumed in France with exports mainly to other European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and China. They sell in the range of seven to 14 euro per bottle ($8.77 to $17.54).

Other parcels of vines have also resisted phylloxera.

The Bollinger champagne firm has two walled pre-phylloxera vineyards, which it uses in its rare Vieilles Vignes Francaises. The 2000 vintage sold for 600 euro ($751.76) a bottle.

Other old plots include Romorantin in the centre of France, where Henry and Jean-Sebastien Marionnet claim to own a vineyard planted in 1850. The oldest vines they use for their La Pucelle de Romorantin are 160 years old, mixed with grapes from younger vines grown from the sprouts of the old vines from 2007.

The Stara Trta vines at Maribor in Slovenia are reputed to be more than 400 years old, while the oldest in France, in the city of Reims, are believed to be at least 344 years old.

http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDAOC-44ad97

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2012 — Today, USDA released the annual report, Expenditures on Children by Families, finding that a middle-income family with a child born in 2011 can expect to spend about $234,900 ($295,560 if projected inflation costs are factored in*) for food, shelter, and other necessities to raise that child over the next 17 years. This represents a 3.5 percent increase from 2010. Expenses for transportation, child care, education, and food saw the largest percentage increases related to child rearing from 2010. There were smaller increases in housing, clothing, health care, and miscellaneous expenses on a child during the same period.

The report, issued annually since 1960, is a valuable resource to courts and state governments in determining child support guidelines and foster care payments. The report is based on data from the Federal government’s Consumer Expenditure Survey, the most comprehensive source of information available on household expenditures. For the year 2011, annual child-rearing expenses per child for a middle-income, two-parent family ranged from $12,290 to $14,320, depending on the age of the child.

The report, developed by the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, notes that family income affects child rearing costs. A family earning less than $59,410 per year can expect to spend a total of $169,080 (in 2011 dollars) on a child from birth through high school. Similarly, middle-income parents with an income between $59,410 and $102,870 can expect to spend $234,900**; and a family earning more than $102,870 can expect to spend $389,670.

For middle-income families, housing costs are the single largest expenditure on a child, averaging $70,560 or 30 percent of the total cost over 17 years. Child care and education (for those incurring these expenses) and food were the next two largest expenses, accounting for 18 and 16 percent of the total cost over 17 years. These estimates do not include costs associated with pregnancy or the cost of a college education or education beyond high school.

The report notes geographic variations in the cost of raising a child, with expenses the highest for families living in the urban Northeast, followed by the urban West and urban Midwest. Families living in the urban South and rural areas have the lowest child-rearing expenses.

This is the 51th year USDA has issued its annual report on the cost of raising a child. In 1960, the first year the report was issued, a middle-income family could have expected to spend $25,230 ($191,720 in 2011 dollars) to raise a child through age seventeen. Housing was the largest expense on a child both then and now. Health care expenses on a child doubled as a percentage of total child-rearing costs. In addition, some current-day costs, such as child care, were negligible in 1960.

Expenses per child decrease as a family has more children. Families with three or more children spend 22 percent less per child than families with two children. As families have more children, the children can share bedrooms, clothing and toys can be handed down to younger children, food can be purchased in larger and more economical quantities, and private schools or child care centers may offer sibling discounts.

The full report, Expenditures on Children by Families (2011), is available on the web at www.cnpp.usda.gov. In addition, an interactive web version of the report is available where families can enter the number and ages of their children to obtain an estimate of costs.

*Projected inflationary costs are estimated to average 2.55 percent per year. This estimate is calculated by averaging the rate of inflation over the past 20 years.

**For the purposes of this report, a middle-income family is defined as the middle third of the income distribution for a husband-wife family with children.

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Secretary Ross (center) at the Longwu Imported Fruit and Vegetable Market in Shanghai, with, L to R, Richard Matoian, American Pistachio Growers; Zhen Xu, Agricultural Trade Office – Shanghai; Candy Hansen-Gage, Center for International Trade Development; Zheng Xu, General Manager, Longwu Market; and Keith Schneller, Agricultural Trade Office – Shanghai.

I am making my first-ever visit to Shanghai, China and I’m very impressed with the quality and reputation of California grown food products here. I’m joining 27 California food companies as part of a trade mission supported by the California State Trade Export Program and facilitated by the Fresno Center for International Trade Development. This mission is truly bringing a taste of California to Chinese consumers.

China is our fourth largest export destination for agricultural products, representing more than $1.4 billion in exports. Our tree nut, fresh fruit, wine, cotton and dairy farmers enjoy great results and have increasing export potential within the market.

Accompanying me on this mission are fresh fruit exporters from Lodi, tortilla chip makers from Fresno, an export trading company from Los Angeles, and many other companies representing some of the best products California has to offer.

My visit included a meeting with the Shanghai Longwu Imported Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Trading Market, where fresh California citrus and cherries were available and on prominent display. Importers from the market spoke about the high quality and diversity of California products in China and that, in some cases, demand is surpassing available supply.

With growing competition from South America, California fruit imports remain strong, but are not experiencing some of the robust growth that is occurring with Chile, Peru and other markets. Prospects are optimistic for California, but we need to work harder to achieve greater market access for products (such as strawberries) and reducing tariffs on a host of products. Chinese fruit importers are looking for new, flavorful products and believe California, with its great diversity of offerings, can help meet this growing consumer demand.

One of the interesting marketing channels I was able to observe in Shanghai was an actual channel, as in television – the Shanghai SMG-CJ Home Shopping Co., Ltd. Live TV sales of California food products on the channel are very successful, with more than one container of product–1,600 cartons–sold every 30 minutes. The sales and promotion there stress California’s reputation for freshness, taste and quality.

Shanghai is a dynamic market and I look forward to spending time with participating companies and the great staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Trade Office in making further inroads for California food products.

The studios of the Shanghai SMG-CJ Home Shopping Co., Ltd. (the China equivalent of QVC).

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/12/4554935/lodi-vintners-welcome-chinese.html

LODI – With bottles ready for tasting, a group of Lodi wine producers waited
anxiously Friday morning for a delegation of monied business people they hoped
to impress. The vintners burst into applause when the group finally arrived,
over an hour late.

These honored guests weren’t Hollywood moguls or Silicon Valley venture
capitalists. They were potential customers and investors from the city of
Shenyang in northern China, coming to check out Lodi as a potential source of
affordable wine to supply China’s rapidly growing market.

A second delegation from Shanghai is scheduled to visit Lodi today, exploring
potential business partnerships with the state’s largest wine grape growing
region. Chinese investors are also eyeing Northern California vineyards.

The rising middle class in China and other Asian-Pacific countries is fueling
one of the wine world’s fastest-growing markets. According to the McKinsey
Global Institute, China is expected to add 235 million consumers by 2020 and
will account for 20 percent of the global luxury market by 2015.

U.S. wineries exported $62 million in wine to China in 2011, a 42 percent
increase from 2010, according to the Wine Institute, an advocacy group for
California’s $61.5 billion wine industry. Exports to Hong Kong jumped 39 percent
in the same period, to $163 million.

Those numbers – while small compared with the total market – have grabbed the
attention of Northern California wineries looking for alternatives to the
cutthroat competition of U.S. wine sales. California wine makes up 90 percent of
U.S. exports.

“If you structure the deal correctly, it’s both safer and more profitable to
sell to China than it is to sell domestically,” said Frank Gayaldo, director of
international development for the Lodi District Chamber of Commerce and
organizer of Friday’s tasting.

“Imports are eating up roughly 20 percent of our domestic (wine) market, and
it’s difficult for small wineries to get good distribution contracts.”

One Lodi winery at Friday’s tasting already sells more wine in China than in
the United States. Benson Ferry Vineyards has shipped wine to China since 2007,
mostly to Beijing. It exported 2,000 cases of pinot grigio and 4,000 cases of
merlot in May.

“There’s over 80 wineries in Lodi, and we’re just one,” said Wendy Stokes,
who oversees sales and marketing for Benson Ferry. “Right now, China’s an open
market and we’re looking to expand in all parts.”

Along with a growing taste for designer clothes and high-end watches, China
and other Asian nations are deepening their thirst for wine. At first, Chinese
consumers were interested mostly in elite California brands and highly coveted
“first-growth” French wines, such as Chateau Petrus and Chateau Lafite
Rothschild, which sell for thousands of dollars per bottle. Now, a softening
Asian economy has led to more interest in value-friendly California brands, such
as those from Lodi.

“They’re looking at Lodi and even Napa for bottles in the $20 to $30 range
that are tasting good,” said Turino Fuad of VINX International, Inc., a Gold
River wine brokerage. “As brokers, we continue to educate our partners about
where wines are coming from. What is Lodi known for? What is Amador know for?
China’s learning the market faster than we think.”

France still leads other countries for wine exports to China, followed by
Australia and Chile. Market share for the United States remains small, about 5
percent, said Rex Zhang of the U.S. Agricultural Trade Office in Shenyang, who
accompanied the Chinese delegation Friday.

“In my area it’s even lower,” Zhang said of Shenyang. “Americans consume
about 80 percent of their total production, and haven’t had to depend on the
overseas market that much. Now, they’re seeing big potential in China.”

Other members of the delegation included Yuan Tuo, a sales manager for
Shenyang Wine Fairy Tales Trade Co., and representatives from Shenyang Jiatong
Trade Co. Along with a morning tasting near downtown Lodi, the delegation toured
Sorelle Winery on Highway 88, Omega Vineyards & Winery and Oak Ridge
Winery.

“At the beginning we knew California, then we knew Napa and now Lodi,” said
David Hua of the Dalian Wine Association, who acted as a consultant for the
delegation. “I enjoy (Lodi wines), but they’re a little different. It’s a little
sweet, but easy to drink.”

California wineries are selling more of their product to other Asian
countries as well. U.S. exports to Japan rose 39 percent in 2011, to $105
million. Sales to Vietnam jumped 266 percent – to $21 million.

Exchanges between Lodi wineries and Chinese business delegates started in
2008. The Wine Institute has also organized trade missions to China with
California vintners for 12 years, including a California delegation to Hong Kong
in May representing 250 wine brands.

The Wine Institute has targeted China with an ad campaign that joins the
words “Discover California Wines” with images of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Chinese aren’t interested in buying only California wine. Increasingly,
they’re also looking to buy the wineries and vineyards themselves.

The high-end Sloan Estate Winery, which offers some bottles for upward of
$600, sold its property to a Hong Kong conglomerate in 2011 for $40 million.
Also last year, Zhang Winery of China purchased Napa’s Frazier Winery out of
bankruptcy protection.

Other countries have also invested in Napa wineries. The Australian Foster’s
Brewing Group paid more than $1 billion for Beringer Wine Estates of California
in 2000, and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars sold for $185 million in 2007 to a
partnership that included Italian vintner Piero Antinori. Kenzo Tsujimoto, a
Japanese video game magnate, invested $100 million for his high-end Kenzo Estate
winery.

Gayaldo recently met with an investor from Shanghai who was interested in
purchasing a Lodi winery.

“I’ve received a couple of inquiries where companies are looking for a
workhorse winery that can produce ultra-premium wine at medium prices, and
nobody can do that better than Lodi,” Gayaldo said.

Though Friday’s exchange wasn’t specifically for scouting vineyards, Zhang
said that some Chinese investors are eyeing such investments.

“Now that the economy in China is slowing down, (business people) don’t want
their money to depreciate and some want to move their money to other
industries,” said Zhang. “After tasting, they feel the U.S. has very good wine.
They’re really impressed and think, ‘Here is some proper vineyards and maybe I
can invest in that.’ ”

© Copyright The
Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross appears in a short video PSA reminding California farmers and ranchers to participate in the USDA’s 2012 Census of Agriculture. July 1 is the deadline for signing up for the census, which is intended to be a complete count of U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. Local, state and national leaders rely on the census to make a variety of decisions affecting agriculture.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57448205/urban-beekeeping-all-the-buzz-among-posh-hotels/

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK – An iconic hotel in the heart of midtown Manhattan is buzzing with thousands of tiny new visitors. But watch out: They’ll sting if you get too close.

Honeybees have taken up residence at the Waldorf-Astoria New York, one of New York City’s most famous institutions and a favorite stopover for many U.S. presidents. The hotel plans to harvest its own honey and help pollinate plants in the skyscraper-heavy heart of the city, joining a mini beekeeping boom that has taken over hotel rooftops from Paris to Times Square.

“Today about half the population of each hive, the foragers, are flying mostly in the direction of Central Park,” explained Andrew Cote, the Waldorf’s beekeeper-in-residence, on a recent sunny afternoon as he inspected each hive. “They’re plucking up pollen, nectar, water. They’re bringing it back to their hives, to their homes.”

Beekeeping is a natural fit for hotels trying to keep up with industry-wide pressure to “go green,” whether it’s retrofitting their buildings to make them energy efficient or simply adopting environmentally conscious practices. Enter urban beekeeping, a buzz-worthy pastime nowadays in light of the mysterious disappearance of honeybees in recent years, which led some state agriculture departments to encourage hobby beekeeping.

New York City lifted a ban on beekeeping inside the city limits two years ago, allowing the Waldorf and other aspiring beekeepers to keep hives on their roofs, CBS New York station WCBS-TV reports. The subsequent rise in beekeeping has come with some drawbacks, such as an uptick in random swarms around the city.

About one-third of the nation’s diet benefits from honeybee pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In New York City, the bees will help pollinate new trees that have taken root as part of the city’s plan to plant 1 million trees over the next decade.

“In terms of sustainability, it’s not only giving back to the environment,” said Andrew Gajary, general manager of the Intercontinental New York Times Square, which recently installed its first beehive, following in the footsteps of its counterpart in Boston, where a veritable colony of bees has been growing for the past year. “I’m no longer having to go out and get packaged honey from hundreds of miles away.”

Bee fever has even infected hotels beyond American shores. In Paris, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel ensconced its first hive this year and plans to hand out little honey pots as gifts for guests.

At the Waldorf, the insects are visible from certain rooms, and guests can sign up for tours of the hives — although they may want to put on a bee suit first.

“I don’t know how many times I was stung today, but I probably deserved each and every one and more,” Cote joked as he carefully lifted a bee-encrusted honeycomb out of a hive.

Cote is something of a celebrity in the beekeeping world, having waged a successful campaign against the city’s ban on keeping bees, which was lifted in 2010. He sells jars of honey at green markets throughout the city, tends hundreds of hives from Connecticut to Manhattan and founded the nonprofit Bees Without Borders and the New York City Beekeepers Association.

On the Waldorf’s roof, he was checking the hives for a healthy queen and for any signs of disease or swarm intentions. After lifting the wooden cover from each hive, Cote immediately doused it with smoke.

“The smoke makes the bees a bit more docile,” he said. “It calms them a bit. It also distracts them.”

In keeping with the Waldorf’s posh reputation, the bees arrived in a luxury car in April and were escorted through the lobby to their new home on the 20th floor roof deck. There are six hives in total; the most mature one already has 20,000 bees and counting.

The Waldorf’s first batch of honey is expected be ready for harvest by early summer.

“Honey’s such a versatile ingredient that we can use it anywhere,” said David Garcelon, the Waldorf’s executive chef, who has been experimenting with new honey-infused recipes.

There should be plenty of honey to go around. If all goes well, there could be as many as 300,000 bees camping out at the Waldorf this summer.

Cote couldn’t resist sampling some of the honey before finishing up his hive inspections. The prognosis?

“Nectar of the gods,” he said.