A survey of Big Island farmers has found that they suffered nearly $28 million in damages because of the months-long eruption earlier this year of the Kilauea volcano, the Hawaii Tribune Herald reported. [node:read-more:link]
A Chinese-owned pork producer is eligible for federal payments under President Donald Trump's $12 billion farm bailout, a program that was established to help U.S. farmers hurt by Trump's trade war with China. Smithfield Foods, a Virginia-based pork producer acquired in 2013 by a Chinese conglomerate now named WH Group, can apply for federal money under the bailout program created this summer, said Agriculture Department spokesman Carl E. Purvis.JBS, a subsidiary of a Brazilian company by the same name, is also eligible to apply for the federal money. [node:read-more:link]
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has suspended pork imports from Poland over concerns about export protocols in the country as it deals with an outbreak of African swine fever. According to APHIS, a routine review of ongoing operations revealed one Polish facility exporting pork to the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
U.S. soybean futures fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, with the benchmark November contract on track for its largest single-day decline since August, on disappointing weekly export sales and improving U.S. harvest weather, analysts said. Corn and wheat followed the weak tone. November soybeans futures were down 20-1/2 cents at $8.65-1/4 per bushel. CBOT December corn was down 3-3/4 cents at $3.70-1/2 a bushel and December wheat was down 4-3/4 cents at $5.12-3/4 a bushel. Soybeans tumbled after the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported export sales of U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Animal rights activist groups have and will continue to go to extremes, doing almost anything in their power to end animal agriculture. In spite of the industry’s commitment to animal welfare, these extremist groups view the agriculture industry as “speciest” if they do not share their same views that animals… [node:read-more:link]
Researchers have found that the swell of infestations of winter ticks -- which attach themselves to moose during the fall and feed throughout the winter -- is the primary cause of an unprecedented 70 percent death rate of calves over a three-year period. [node:read-more:link]
Many organic advocates claim that genetically engineered crops are harmful to human health, the environment, and the farmers who work with them. [node:read-more:link]
Dairy farmers are under siege thanks to low prices and changing tastes. Even a one-week holiday shutdown by yogurt giant Chobani inflicted pain.New York dairy farmers who jumped at the chance to expand their herds five years ago are now wondering whether it was the right move. “We were told we needed to expand,” said Deb Windecker, a dairy and beef farmer in the Mohawk Valley, and a former Chobani supplier. “ ‘Yogurt capital, grow, grow, grow.’ And now everybody’s turned their back on us.” [node:read-more:link]
The number of licensed dairy farms in Wisconsin dropped to a new, all-time low of 8,372 as of September 2018, according to the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. The new NAFTA – now known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or MCA – agreed to this month should help, but dairy-farm organizations expect the downward trend to continue. Wisconsin dairy farmers' profit margins are being squeezed by several factors, said Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative's Director of Government Relations John Holevoet. [node:read-more:link]
Farmers suing over crop damage allegedly caused by Bayer AG unit Monsanto Co and BASF Corp’s dicamba-based seeds and weedkillers urged a federal judge on Monday to reject the companies’ motions to dismiss the cases. In filings opposing the requests for dismissal, lawyers representing the roughly 20 farms told U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, that the companies had ignored facts in an attempt to avoid responsibility for the alleged “ecological disaster” they created. [node:read-more:link]
