Today , 80 percent of antibiotics used in the U.S. are given to animals raised for food, but which animals are given the drugs, how much they are administered and what types of antibiotics are used are not disclosed by farmers.
Back on his Pretoria farm, Mr Mokwene hopes his poultry business will still be around to support his two young children when they are older but he says this will not be possible if local farmers are not protected.
There are farmers who say they could not survive without these government subsidies.
When you talk to farmers, these are technologies they do not want to lose.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), has announced that US sugar supplies could run short this year as farmers could lose 21% of the 2011 crop if they are not able to start sowing in the spring.
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Schmallenberg is still considered a low-impact disease and farmers are not required to notify authorities about it, although they are advised to do so.
African farmers without adequate road networks are condemned to grow not what they can eat, but what they can carry on their heads and eat quickly before pests destroy it.
But some poorer countries, such as India (which is just harvesting its first crop of genetically modified cotton), are worried that their farmers will be shut out of European markets because they will not have the means to comply.
The failure of farmers in poor countries to respond to price signals does not mean they are deaf to them.
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"Farmers are very resilient - they're used to working with the weather - but not like this, " Mr Gerrard said.
As a result of the negotiations, the Farming Minister Jane Kennedy has confirmed farmers in England will not now have to electronically tag sheep intended for slaughter before they are 12 months old when the new rules come into force.
Their reluctance has been put down to ignorance (farmers do not appreciate the benefits of fertiliser until they have tried it), timidity (they are wary of upfront commitments of money and prefer farming that delivers a reliable, even if low, return) or illiquidity (farmers cannot get the credit they need to afford seeds and fertiliser).
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