AgClips
Recent AgClips
Immigrants are backbone of Wisconsin's dairy operations
The Chippewa Herald | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Agriculture, Rural NewsImmigration as a top line issue for dairy farmers would have been unthinkable just a generation ago when Wisconsin’s agricultural landscape was dominated by small and medium-sized dairy farms run by the families that owned them.Now, the nation’s No. 2 milk producing state is home to a growing number of large concentrated animal feeding operations.
Ohio hands out fines over fish kills caused by farm manure
ABC News | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Agriculture NewsThe operators of three agriculture businesses have been told to pay more than $30,000 for three large fish kills that Ohio's natural resources department says were caused by livestock manure spread on fields. Investigators think ammonia-laden manure put onto the fields in northwestern Ohioahead of rainstorms in August washed into creeks and caused the fish kills.An Ohio law put in place to combat algae in Lake Erie prohibits farmers from putting manure on fields before heavy rains because the manure also contains phosphorous that feeds algae.
Syngenta CEO wants debate on ‘sustainable agriculture’
The County Press | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Agriculture NewsSyngenta’s CEO is calling for “honest and open” discussions between NGOs and the industry, instead of debates that were politicized and unscientific. Syngenta CEO Eryk Fyrwald thinks there should be a wide-scale debate on what constitutes “sustainable agriculture” in face of a number of current controversies over pesticides.“We have a lot of discussions about specific products.
Seed Giants See Fresh Start in Gene Editing
Wall Street Journal | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Agriculture NewsThe agriculture industry is betting that new technology for editing the genes of plants will yield enhanced crops—and potentially reset a long-running debate over genetically engineered seeds. Seed developers including Monsanto Co. and DowDuPont Inc. have invested in gene-editing technology, which enables scientists to make precise changes to plants’ existing DNA. Executives say they’re also strategizing on how to introduce it to consumers without arousing the same fears and suspicion that followed the development of GMOs.
USDA plan to axe livestock pricing rule divides meat producers
Reuters | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Federal NewsThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in a filing on Tuesday said it will dismantle Obama-era rules for buying and selling livestock, a move that has divided the U.S. meat industry. While some of the biggest meat companies opposed the rule, smaller producers fought to keep the regulation in place. Some felt intimidated by the larger processors, who control large segments of the country’s meat industry.
How Washington's formula for fighting wildfires makes them worse
The Los Angeles Times | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Federal, Rural NewsThe absurd way in which Washington pays to put out wildfires throughout the West is making a dangerous situation even more so. It’s a rare point of bipartisan agreement in Congress that a fix is urgently needed, particularly as fires grow in duration and intensity. The root problem: the U.S. Forest Service is strapped for cash. Its firefighting budget amounts to a fraction of what it actually costs to fight fires. Not sending firefighters is hardly an option.
Puerto Rico's Environmental Catastrophe
The Atlantic | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Rural NewsHurricane Maria has exposed and intensified the island’s ecological crisis and its human consequences. Can it build a sustainable future? We’d followed the path that Hurricane Maria’s eye had taken along the highway to the west of San Juan. Three weeks after the storm, the tropical green was just starting to come back, sprouting over the brown wounds of mud and giant trees pulled up from their roots. Here in Arecibo, a small municipality about 40 minutes from San Juan on a good day, high-water marks from the flood stood out on building walls, seven or eight feet high.
Trump orders EPA to back off RFS changes
Bloomberg | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Energy, Federal NewsPresident Donald Trump intervened personally with the Environmental Protection Agency amid pressure from Republicans in the politically important state of Iowa who worried the agency was poised to weaken biofuel quotas, three people familiar with the discussions said.
The state of Trump’s USDA: what you need to know
Civil eats | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Agriculture, Federal NewsShortly after being confirmed in March, Perdue announced he’d be leading the USDA’s first major reorganization since the mid-1990s. The first stage of the reorganization created a new Farm Production and Conservation mission area, and an under secretary role to support it. The mission area encompasses a wide scope of the agency’s work, including risk management, crop insurance, commodity programs, and conservation.
Pro-Trump states most affected by his health care decision
ABC News | Posted onOctober 19, 2017 in Rural NewsPresident Donald Trump's decision to end a provision of the Affordable Care Act that was benefiting roughly 6 million Americans helps fulfill a campaign promise, but it also risks harming some of the very people who helped him win the presidency.Nearly 70 percent of those benefiting from the so-called cost-sharing subsidies live in states Trump won last November, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.