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Agriculture News

Wine industry contributes $220 billion to economy, study finds

Capital Press | Posted on October 18, 2017

The study by the trade group WineAmerica notes that while California accounts for the bulk of the revenue in wine, there are wineries in all 50 states generating jobs and income for their communities. The figure includes $84.5 billion in economic contributions directly attributed to the wine industry and its nearly 1 million jobs, plus the ancillary benefits from supplies, investment, tourism, taxes and other transactions that come as a result of the wine businesses being there, the report states.


Wine industry contributes $220 billion to economy, study finds

Capital Press | Posted on October 18, 2017

The study by the trade group WineAmerica notes that while California accounts for the bulk of the revenue in wine, there are wineries in all 50 states generating jobs and income for their communities. The figure includes $84.5 billion in economic contributions directly attributed to the wine industry and its nearly 1 million jobs, plus the ancillary benefits from supplies, investment, tourism, taxes and other transactions that come as a result of the wine businesses being there, the report states.


Retailers Are Bottling Their Own Milk, Raising Pressure on Dairy Companies

Wall Street Journal | Posted on October 18, 2017

Kroger, Wal-Mart and Albertsons spend millions of dollars on dairy processing plants in effort to expand their foothold in the industry. Food retailers are becoming big players in the milk processing and bottling business, a development that threatens to squeeze a longstanding network of dairy processors and farmer-owned plants.


PA: Equine industry has $670 million economic impact

Delaware Valley College | Posted on October 18, 2017

Residents and tourists driving around Southeastern Pennsylvania are frequently impressed with the beauty of the area’s pastures and horses, but many do not realize the full contribution of the equine industry on the region’s economy. The equine industry spends $546 million on goods, services, wages, and salaries in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The impact of this spending generates $670 million to regional GDP, supports more than 6,550 jobs and generates $58 million in tax revenue. The sector also provides almost $160 million in annual payroll and plays a vital role in maintaining open spaces and agricultural production.  John Urbanchuk, chair of agribusiness at DelVal, directed the study. Dr. Sarah Young, chair of the DelVal animal science department; Cory Kieschnick, chair of the DelVal equine science and management department; and Christine Seel; co-chair of the DelVal business and information management department worked with Urbanchuk on the study. The study was commissioned by the Chester-Delaware County Farm Bureau. The region in the study consists of: Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Schuylkill and York counties. Southeastern Pennsylvania is home to two leading equine counties in Pennsylvania, Lancaster, and Chester. 


Wolf Administration Announces New Apprenticeship Program for STEM ‘Jobs that Pay’ in Agriculture

Pennsylvania State Government | Posted on October 18, 2017

Wolf administration officials today introduced a new apprenticeship program to prepare agriculture equipment service technicians for “jobs that pay” by developing hands-on skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Pennsylvania will face more than 1,000 job openings by 2027 as current farm equipment mechanics and service technicians retire.


PA Adds 44 Farms, More Than 3,600 Acres to Nation’s Leading Farmland Preservation Program

Pennsylvania State Government | Posted on October 18, 2017

Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board permanently preserved 3,620 acres on 44 farms for agricultural production as part of the Wolf administration’s continued commitment to the future of agriculture in the state. The board preserved farms in 20 counties: Adams, Berks, Bucks, Butler, Chester, Cumberland, Dauphin, Erie, Franklin, Greene, Lancaster, Lawrence, Lehigh, Lycoming, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Washington and Westmoreland.“Pennsylvania is a rich and diverse state, and our agriculture industry reflects that in its people, its products, and its farms,” said Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “In each corner of our state and everywhere in-between, agriculture is unique, important, and threatened by pressures of development, challenging markets, and a host of other factors. Despite these challenges, the 40 families who stepped forward today to preserve their operations did so because they want to see their land remain in production agriculture in perpetuity. They are committed to the future of agriculture here, so we’re committed to investing in them.”Redding added that today’s meeting resulted in the greatest number of farms and acres being preserved in a single meeting for the program in three years.


Rural Ag Expo focuses on the facts of modern agriculture

Farm Talk Newspaper | Posted on October 18, 2017

To an American farmer or rancher, notions of gluten-free corn, non-genetically modified marshmallows and cows only finding happiness in California seem ludicrous.  To the American consumer, however, they’re perceived as natural solution to unnatural modern agriculture. At the Rural Agriculture Expo in Columbus, Kansas, extension and university professionals met with local farmers, ranchers and consumers to discuss hot topics and strategies for finding truth amidst the misinformation age. Harold Trick, a professor of plant pathology at Kansas State University, tackled the tough topic of genetically modified crops. “Genetic modification is also considered precision breeding,” Trick said. “It’s considered precision breeding because you are taking a specific trait and moving it into a plant.”Because genetic code is universal between plants, animals, humans, microbes and more, Trick said moving genes is a fairly technical but simple process.“It takes anywhere from 3-5 months to up to a year and a half to move from single cells to generate a plant,” Trick said. “Once we have inserted those traits into the genetic makeup of the plant, they act like any other trait that could normally be found in the plant.”Today, there are only 10 commercially available plants with GMO varieties on the market — corn, soybeans, potatoes, papaya, summer squash, sugar beets, apples, canola, cotton and alfalfa.Trick said acres of GMO corn saw an increase from 4 percent in 1996 — the first year they were available — to 92 percent in 2017. Likewise, GMO soybean acres saw an increase from 7 percent in 1996 to 94 percent in 2017.Today 26 countries have adopted biotechnology — a 3 percent increase since 2015.


Catalina Sea Ranch snags federal grant to start kelp farming

Daily Breeze | Posted on October 12, 2017

Inside a cavernous steel warehouse built in the 1910s for the Port of Los Angeles’ then-booming fishing industry, Catalina Sea Ranch’s unique aquaculture labs are blazing a trail for a budding new U.S. industry. A Cryolab nurtures bunches of genetically diverse breeding mussels growing in baths infused with phytoplankton. Many of their shiny black-shelled progenies, hanging on lines in federal waters 10 miles offshore, are awaiting the ranch’s first harvest in December.And ranch founder Phil Cruver just began work to produce his newest crop: giant sea kelp.The U.S. Department of Energy recently awarded Catalina Sea Ranch $450,000 to help kick off the new offshore aquaculture industry, farming kelp for human and animal consumption. The ranch is the first U.S. aquaculture farm permitted in federal waters.


Japanese mutant chickens are laying eggs filled with cancer-fighting drugs

Fast Company | Posted on October 12, 2017

In their ongoing efforts to make drugs cheaper, Japanese researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have genetically engineered chickens to lay eggs containing drugs that can fight diseases like hepatitis and cancer. According to Phys.org, the unique drug creation technique uses gene-editing technology to make the …er, cocks produce interferon beta, a protein related to the immune system that is a powerful tool in treating of skin cancer and hepatitis. Those cells were then used to fertilize eggs and create hens, which inherited those genes. A few rounds of cross-breeding later and voila!: chickens were laying eggs with disease-fighting superpowers.


Under pressure, Amish farmers begin to exit dairy business

edairynews | Posted on October 12, 2017

Has a slow exodus of Plain Sect farmers from the dairy business in Lancaster County already begun? The farmers do not blame consumers’ declining milk consumption for their predicament.Rather, frustrated local Plain Sect farmers here and around the state have banded together to protest — and in at least one case, sue — over the way milk is controlled, priced and sold after leaving their milking barns.They blame what they see as lack of representation and empire-building by large, officially nonprofit milk cooperatives that now are assuming control of dairies and milk processors, and have broad powers.Among the powers cooperatives wield are the right to deduct the costs of marketing and milk transportation from dairy farmers’ checks without having to itemize those deductions to the farmer.The cooperatives also have voting rights on how milk pricing is set, while individual farmers don’t.


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