A rice farming hamlet of about 400 Tay ethnic minority people without telephones, television or even electricity, Na Lia is part of another Vietnam, the rural hinterland that is struggling to catch up with the boom. Rice grows in small paddies but the hills are denuded from erosion caused by slash-and-burn farming and felling of trees by villagers to sell for timber. Back in the one-room house he shares with his mother, he says what most impressed him about Hanoi was electricity, but that...

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The program, using arcane formulas, provides subsidies to farmers to maintain certain price levels for selected crops, including cotton, corn, rice and wheat. Agricultural interests such as the Texas Farm Bureau support the subsidies, saying they are necessary to keep domestic products competitive with cheaper imports. They charge that the subsidies increasingly help wealthy and absentee landowners more than family farmers, and they want to slim down the program in the new farm bill before...

The national weight problem is fed, in some part, by the prevalence of grain-fed beef, corn-sweetened soft drinks, and soybean-based cooking oils, they say. Out of the venture grew a documentary film linking America's abundance of major, subsidized crops to its obesity epidemic. In response to growing concerns about health, particularly children's health, the new five-year farm bill going before the Senate now provides a record $2 billion for specialty crops, including money to buy fruits...

With the single commodity ETCs, investors can buy a range of commodities such as gold, oil and zinc as well as soft commodities like corn, cotton, soybeans, sugar and wheat. The growing wealth and purchasing power of emerging economies such as China and India, as well as new demand for the production of biofuels, are reasons cited by enthusiasts for the bull run to continue. Now a fund to be launched next week aims to capitalise on renewed interest in agricultural commodities. Wheat, corn,...

By Ellen Zhu Word Count: 1,018 . Companies Featured in This Article: Bear Stearns SHANGHAI -- With the introduction of stock-index futures -- derivatives products that may cool down the broader Chinese stock market -- looking ever more imminent, there are several companies in one sector whose fortunes could be helped: futures brokerages. By Ellen Zhu Word Count: 1,018 . Companies Featured in This Article: Bear Stearns SHANGHAI -- With the introduction of stock-index futures -- derivatives...