Agriculture

USDA and FDA have announced they will work together to regulate cell-cultured meat. [node:read-more:link]

Local dairy farmers say they’re under attack by animal rights activists and have been warned of planned protesters. “We’ve been told that they are planning something or that they could be planning something, so to be vigilant,” said Hank Van Exel of Lodi. Van Exel is a third-generation dairyman, his cows are his life.“That’s my deal. I love cattle,” he said.But over the years he’s been harassed, terrorized, and even threatened. One major reason Exel has been called these names is based on how animal rights activists believe these calves are being treated. [node:read-more:link]

Wisconsin has lost six-hundred dairy farms in the past twelve months, including 584 since January first. University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Profitability Director Mark Stephenson says we continue to see more efficient larger dairy farms.  “Our attrition rate has been higher than in modern times for sure.  You know, it’s up north of seven percent right now and that’s big.  Usually, it’s between four to maybe five percent, but we aren’t producing any less milk.  We’re losing farms but there’s still a lot of milk production.” [node:read-more:link]

“Everybody brags on my stuff,” said Joyce, 58, a wistful pride crossing his bronzed, weathered face. But now, he has nothing to sell.Joyce leans against the greenhouse he’s building, hands in the pockets of his overalls, peering at the field where he started nearly 800 tomato plants in the spring. It was early August when the telltale signs of trouble emerged. The plants’ broad, flat leaves shriveled and curled, their branches twisted and buckled. Then blossom rot set in. Joyce knew they couldn’t be saved. [node:read-more:link]

Farm incomes and agrarian credit conditions continued to erode in the third quarter of 2018, as economic pressure from the U.S.-China trade war has bankers seeing loan repayment rates fall, according to separate reports released on Thursday by the Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City and St. Louis. [node:read-more:link]

Jurors found that Monsanto, now owned by Bayer in a $66 billion merger, had acted with malice and negligence in failing to warn Johnson, a former school groundskeeper, about the cancer risks associated with Roundup and its key ingredient, glyphosate. Johnson is now suffering from late-stage non-Hodgkins lymphoma.The German-based company Bayer merged with Monsanto in June 2018, just two months before the California jury ruled unanimously in favor of Mr. Johnson. [node:read-more:link]

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., needs to read a joint farm bill offer from House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway, D-Texas, and ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., before commenting on it, a spokeswoman for Roberts said Friday."We'll have to read it first, but it's a good sign," Meghan Cline, Roberts' press secretary, said in an email.Earlier, Politico reported that Conaway and Peterson had come up with a joint offer. [node:read-more:link]

A large Yakima hotel has been mostly converted into farmworker housing and owners foresee it meeting more need as use of foreign guestworkers continues to grow. [node:read-more:link]

 Cargill, ADM agree to ship soybeans from South America.  Soy stockpiles in U.S. forecast to rise as exports decrease.Some of the most iconic names in U.S. agriculture just agreed to do more business with China. But it’s coming at the expense of American farmers as the companies agree to ship more soybeans from Brazil amid Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing.Cargill Inc., the biggest privately-held U.S. company, as well as its century-old rivals Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. [node:read-more:link]

New Nevada tax data shows marijuana revenues are continuing to grow and top records in the state. The Nevada Department of Taxation said Wednesday that marijuana tax revenues at the retail and wholesale levels generated $8.1 million in August.That's a record and $3.2 million higher than the same month in 2017.The previous record was $7.9 million in July. [node:read-more:link]