AgClips
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Washington’s dairy farmers need NAFTA — and more
edairynews | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Agriculture NewsThe Washington state dairy industry contributes nearly $4 billion a year to the state’s economy and provides more than 18,800 jobs. In fact, dairy is part of a booming food and agriculture sector that is creating more than 736,700 jobs and is providing a $69 billion economic stimulus to the state. But a U.S. withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other free-trade agreements puts this economic sector at risk. Nationwide, U.S. dairy companies employ nearly 1 million skilled individuals and generate more than $39 billion in direct wages.
While a fight unfolds to save net neutrality, rural America struggles to get online
The New Food Economy | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Rural NewsYou might’ve heard that the internet is going to get more expensive.For most of us, that’s really big news. But the bigger issue in rural areas, and especially on farms, is getting high-speed access in the first place. Paying high prices for internet connectivity to any site, at all, is something that residents of rural areas have been dealing with for years.Sure, there’s a digital divide. Ninety-six percent of urbanites have access to high-speed broadband internet access, compared to only 39 percent of rural Americans, according to the FCC.
As milk prices stall, Wisconsin dairy farmers disagree on how to turn market around
Wisconsin Public Radio | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Agriculture News"There’s just a lot of dairy product on the marketplace and I don't see farmers cutting back very quickly, unless prices really go south and I don't expect that to happen," said Mark Stephenson, director of dairy policy analysis for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "So I just think that there’s more like this longer, slow bleed this time."If Wisconsin farmers want better prices, they need to tip the scales of supply and demand back into their favor.
Tax reform bills will affect Iowa’s farmers and ranchers
The Gazette | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Agriculture, Federal NewsAt Iowa Farmers Union’s annual convention earlier this month, if tax reform was raised, it was out of concern over who would benefit, and at what cost. IFU’s family farmer members had greater concern for low crop prices, increased corporate consolidation, and efforts to improve on-farm conservation practices. And their alternative priorities track with broader American sentiment, as the rest of America seems resigned to accept that current tax reform efforts just aren’t for them.
California and Washington state join carbon pledge in defiance of Trump
Reuters | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Energy, SARL Members and Alumni NewsCalifornia and Washington state joined five nations on the Pacific coast of the Americas on Tuesday to agree to step up the use of a price on carbon dioxide emissions as a central economic policy to slow climate change.The U.S. states were acting in defiance of President Donald Trump who says he doubts that man-made greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are the prime cause of global warming and plans to quit the 2015 Paris climate accord.
‘Puppy Mills’ Targeted by One State, Activists Seek Others
Pew Charitable Trust | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Rural, SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe number of local ordinances across the country banning the sale of pets from commercial breeders, defined as large operations that raise pets for wholesale distribution, has grown from about a hundred last year to about 250. “The momentum is there,” said Goodwin, senior director of the Humane Society’s Stop Puppy Mills campaign. California this fall became the first state to outright ban sales of commercially raised animals in retail shops — a new success for activists working across the country to transform the way pets are taken in by families.Although the U.S.
States sue Massachusetts over animal confinement law
Watt Ag Net | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsIndiana and 12 other states are suing Massachusetts over its farm animal confinement law, which is set to take effect in 2022. The lawsuit, which was filed by the State of Indiana in Supreme Court of the United States, takes exception to the future law, which makes it illegal for farmers to keep sows in gestation crates, layer hens in cages, or calves in veal crates.
Forest resilience declines in face of wildfires, climate change
Science Daily | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Agriculture, Rural NewsThe forests you see today are not what you will see in the future. That's the overarching finding from a new study on the resilience of Rocky Mountain forests.Researchers analyzed data from nearly 1,500 sites in five states -- Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Idaho, and Montana -- and measured more than 63,000 seedlings after 52 wildfires that burned over the past three decades.
CRISPR-Cas9 technique targeting epigenetics reverses disease in mice
Science Daily | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Agriculture NewsScientists report a modified CRISPR-Cas9 technique that alters the activity, rather than the underlying sequence, of disease-associated genes. The researchers demonstrate that this technique can be used in mice to treat several different diseases.
Suburban ponds are a septic buffet
Science Daily | Posted onDecember 18, 2017 in Rural NewsHuman waste accounts for a high percentage of nutrients consumed by some animals and plants in suburban ponds, new research indicates. Researchers found that residential, suburban land use is altering the dynamics of the food chain, as well as where nutrients originate and how they move through pond ecosystems.