AgClips
Recent AgClips
Tyson wants poultry plant built where it’s welcome
Watt Ag Net | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Agriculture NewsTyson Foods was caught by surprise in September when residents of Tonganoxie and Leavenworth County, Kansas, made it clear that they did not want the company to build a broiler complex in their community.
McCartney’s Meatless Monday movie
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Food NewsSir Paul McCartney is a gifted musical artist. In his former Beatles life as well as in his solo career, he has always been at the top of the popular musical scene even now at the tender age of 75. After meeting his future wife Linda, a vegan, he joined her in that gastronomic choice. Now, however, he is proselyting for others to join him in this vegan lifestyle by promoting a new movie that extolls the virtues of a non-meat eating day per week. Ok, my concern isn’t the movie. After having viewed it a few times, I can say that it is professionally produced, but factually disingenuous.
GOP senators from NC come out against Trump EPA nominee
AP | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Federal NewsNorth Carolina’s two Republican senators said Wednesday they oppose President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee chemical safety at the Environmental Protection Agency, putting his nomination at serious risk. Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis issued statements saying they will vote against Michael L. Dourson to serve as head of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.Environmentalists and Senate Democrats have vehemently opposed Dourson, a toxicologist with close ties to the chemical industry.
Top 1 percent of Texas commodity farmers get quarter of $1.6 billion in subsidies
Texas Observer | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Agriculture, Federal NewsLast year in Nueces County, sorghum farmers raked in $10.9 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies. Corn farmers in Castro County took $12.6 million. In Deaf Smith County, the kingpins of cotton were paid $32.5 million, according to new farm subsidy data released last week. But as the state’s biggest farms drew lucrative paydays, the pocketbooks of small family farmers got thinner. Now, critics of federal farm subsidy programs are calling for reform of a system they say overwhelmingly favors big agribusiness. The U.S.
Stop pretending the estate tax has anything to do with us family farmers
The Washington Post | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Agriculture, Federal NewsAs Republicans push ahead with their tax reform plan, the small farmer is again invoked. This time it’s about the estate tax. During a speech in North Dakota, President Trump declared, “We’ll also protect small businesses and family farmers here in North Dakota and across the country by ending the death tax.” He added: “Tremendous burden for the family farmer, tremendous burden. We are not going to allow the death tax or the inheritance tax or the whatever-you-want-to-call-it to crush the American Dream.” But few farmers put the elimination of this tax on the top of their wish lists.
Perdue issues sweeping reorganization memo
Agri-Pulse | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Agriculture, Federal NewsAgriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is moving ahead with some reorganization moves just a few weeks after hitting the pause button so they could be discussed further.
CRISPR-carrying nanoparticles edit the genome
Science Daily | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Agriculture NewsNanoparticles that allow for CRISPR genome-editing in adult animals have now been developed by researchers. Using a new nanoparticle-based, nonviral delivery technique, the researchers were able to cut out a disease-causing gene in about 80 percent of liver cells, and permanently lower cholesterol in mice.
Pharmaceutical, personal care pollution impacts aquatic life
Science Daily | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Agriculture, Rural NewsTraditional toxicity testing underestimates the risk that pharmaceutical and personal care product pollution poses to freshwater ecosystems. Criteria that account for ecological disruption -- not just organism death -- are needed to protect surface waters, which are under pressure from a growing population and escalating synthetic chemical use.
In bee decline, fungicides emerge as improbable villain
Science Daily | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Agriculture NewsWhen a team of scientists analyzed two dozen environmental factors to understand bumblebee population declines and range contractions, they expected to find stressors like changes in land use, geography or insecticides. Instead, they found a shocker: fungicides, commonly thought to have no impact.
Citizen investment drives rural Kansas
Hays Post | Posted onNovember 16, 2017 in Rural NewsWithout question, the most important resource in Phillipsburg, Dodge City, Pittsburg, Salina or any community in Kansas, is human resources. If you look up the definition of human resources, you will find it as: “the individuals who make up the community and their learned skills that create the ability to lead teams of people, manage systems and produce goods and services.” Rural communities thrive and prosper when farmers, ranchers and small community businesses work together for the common good.