AgClips
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Community Banks On The Decline Since 1980s
Ag Web | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Rural NewsCommunity banks across America are disappearing at astonishing rates due to pressure from the rising costs of doing business. In an AgDay exclusive, stockholder-owned lending company Farmer Mac is releasing the results of its study on the health of the farm economy. The lender says more than 10,000 community banks have ceased to exist since 1984, largely due to failure, mergers and acquisitions. Farmer Mac economists are quick to point out that many of these banks were smaller with a limited number of employees and were gobbled up by larger banks.
Spread of diseases in farmed animals shown using social network analysis
Phys.org | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Agriculture NewsResearchers have shown that looking at movements of operators and vehicles between farms in the same way we look at contacts in social networks can help explain the spread of dangerous infectious diseases of livestock, such as foot-and-mouth disease and avian influenza.
Federal judge considers ranchers' discrimination case
Las Cruces Sun News | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Federal NewsAn attorney representing Hispanic ranchers told a federal judge that the U.S. Forest Service violated the law when deciding to limit grazing on historic land grants despite recognition decades ago by the government that the descendants of Spanish colonists have a unique relationship with the land that is integral to their heritage and traditional values.
KY Dept of Agriculture proposes legislation to help feed the hungry
KY Department of Agriculture | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Agriculture NewsThe Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) has come forward with legislation to help businesses and individuals who wish to donate food to organizations that serve hungry Kentuckians. “These measures would provide incentives and protections for those who want to join the fight against hunger in Kentucky,” Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles said. “This is due to the work of the Hunger Task Force, which met for the first time last spring.
Federal Court Orders Wisconsin Legislature To Redraw District Lines
Wisconsin Public Radio | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Rural NewsA federal court has ordered Wisconsin lawmakers to redraw the state’s legislative district lines by Nov. 1, saying the current lines are unconstitutional and should be replaced in time for the November 2018 election. "Under the prevailing view in this court, the people of Wisconsin already have endured several elections under an unconstitutional reapportionment scheme," wrote Judges Kenneth Ripple, Barbara Crabb and William Griesbach in an eight-page court order.
Court Rules Against Monsanto, Allows California To Put Cancer Warning On Roundup
CBS Sacramento | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Agriculture NewsCalifornia can require Monsanto to label its popular weed-killer Roundup as a possible cancer threat despite an insistence from the chemical giant that it poses no risk to people, a judge tentatively ruled. California would be the first state to order such labeling if it carries out the proposal.
The 35 Best College Farms
College Rank | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Agriculture NewsToday’s college farms are not simply research facilities as they have been in the past. College farms provide students with hands-on experience in the growth of crops and animals. Students are able to learn more about how plants thrive, what can damage their growth and how best to maximize yield in a crop. The life-cycle of animals is demonstrated first-hand, providing information for all types of career paths, including veterinary medicine and pharmaceutical development. Campus farms also provide benefits to the community.
Trump’s trade agenda is on a collision course with his rural voters’ economic interests
Vox | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Federal NewsRural America has backed Republicans for decades, but it gave unusually strong support to Donald Trump’s 2016 candidacy, with Iowa scoring the biggest D-to-R shift of any state in the union. It’s interesting, then, that one of the segments of the business community with the biggest concern about Trump’s policies is agribusiness. This sector enjoys traditional Republican priorities like lax environmental regulation and eliminating the estate tax, but could suffer enormously from trade wars that Trump might initiate.
In America’s Heartland, Discussing Climate Change Without Saying ‘Climate Change’
The New York Times | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Agriculture NewsDoug Palen, a fourth-generation grain farmer on Kansas’ wind-swept plains, is in the business of understanding the climate. Since 2012, he has choked through the harshest drought to hit the Great Plains in a century, punctuated by freakish snowstorms and suffocating gales of dust. His planting season starts earlier in the spring and pushes deeper into winter. To adapt, he has embraced an environmentally conscious way of farming that guards against soil erosion and conserves precious water.
Water Quality– Iowa Case Resolves One Issue, Clean Water Act Permitting Issue Remains Open
Farm Policy News | Posted onJanuary 31, 2017 in Agriculture NewsA case filed by Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) involving financial damages from treatment of this water recently made its way to the Iowa Supreme Court. On Friday, January 27, the Iowa Supreme Court resolved one issue associated with the DMWW case; however, non-point source permitting issues under the Clean Water Act will still be considered by a trial court in June.