Agriculture News
The immigrants contributing to rural towns and economies
High Country News | Posted on July 5, 2018Their future success depends on many factors, including comprehensive immigration reform, which will better enable people to get the education, resources and jobs they need to become full members of U.S. society. But that also depends on the nation’s willingness to reframe the way it talks about immigrants: not as social problems to be kept out by a border wall, but rather as opportunities to contribute to the communities they live in, while helping to build a more inclusive America. When one of Gaspar’s former colleagues learned about her situation recently, she wanted to know if she could help. “Can I sponsor you in some way?” she asked. Unfortunately, Gaspar explained, there is no way. It didn’t matter that she was brought across the border as a child, that she graduated from high school in America, that she now had a job and three kids who were U.S. citizens. The laws offered no way for people like her to belong. America’s immigration laws — dictated largely by labor needs and race discrimination — have alternately shaped and shattered the lives of immigrants across the West for generations. Laws like the Immigration Act of 1924 were deliberately designed to permanently restrict immigrants from "undesirable” areas of the world — particularly Asia, the Middle East, and southern and eastern Europe. When severe labor shortages followed, particularly in agriculture, the Bracero Program was created, bringing millions of temporary Mexican workers to the U.S. That was followed in 1954 by Operation Wetback, which sought to deport many Mexicans who could not prove their citizenship, often without regard for due process.
Ag Research Gets Boost in Pennsylvania State Budget
Lancaster Farming | Posted on July 2, 2018Agricultural research will benefit from the expansiveness in Pennsylvania’s new budget. Gov. Tom Wolf signed a spending package June 22 that provides a 3 percent raise for Penn State research and Extension, and for the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school. Their research helps Pennsylvania farmers remain competitive, reduce pollution and stay ahead of livestock diseases, said Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, minority chairman of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.
Dairy Farm Vs. FDA: Maryland Dairy Farmer Stands Up for Milk Labeling
Dairy Herd Management | Posted on July 2, 2018Maryland dairy farmer Randy Sowers has butted heads with the government before—and won. The first time it was for pipe he placed in a pasture to help control erosion. Government officials claimed the pipe had replaced a natural stream, but it was actually a runoff ditch. Sowers eventually was able to keep the pipe in the ground.A bigger run-in with the government happened when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seized $60,000 in February 2012 for a violation of structuring laws. With the help of the Institute for Justice, Sowers’ money was returned, a rare win against the IRS.
Drones, Joysticks, and Data-Driven Farming
University of Wisconsin | Posted on July 2, 2018Brian Luck grew up on an 800-acre corn and soybean farm in western Kentucky, so he knows well the look of a planted field from the exact height of a tractor seat.But these days, Luck is more familiar with a much loftier view of farm fields. It’s a bird’s-eye perspective afforded by the “unmanned aircraft vehicles,” or drones, that have captured Luck’s imagination as an assistant professor of biological systems engineering and extension specialist in machinery systems at UW–Madison.From a workshop in the Agricultural Engineering Laboratory, Luck has been working to wed the programmable flight of drones with the evolving science of remote sensing — imaging farm fields with spectroscopes and infrared cameras to reveal what the naked eye cannot see.This summer, he and Shawn Steffan MS’97, an assistant professor of entomology will test knowledge gained from months of sweaty greenhouse studies by piloting their disease- and pest-seeking drone above cranberry bogs in northern Wisconsin.
Smithfield loses second N.C. hog farm nuisance trial
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on July 2, 2018A jury in eastern North Carolina found on Friday that a Smithfield Foods hog farm posed a nuisance to neighboring residents and awarded them $25 million in damages, according to federal court documents.Plaintiffs Elvis and Vonnie Williams claimed victory in the second of what is expected to be a dozen similar cases alleging that the company’s hog farms’ waste, noise and odors are diminishing neighbors’ quality of life.A group of residents also won in the first case of the series held in April, with the jury in that case awarding $50 million. That was whittled down to $3 million per a state law that caps damages.
Can more candor win back support for animal research?
Science Magazine | Posted on June 28, 2018As soon as the big yellow school bus pulls into the parking lot of the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) here, it’s clear that many of the high school students on board don’t know what they’ve signed up for. They know that science happens somewhere on this wooded, 70-hectare campus west of Portland—and that they may get to see monkeys—but everything else is a mystery. “Are we going to go into some giant underground lair?” asks a lanky sophomore in a hoodie, imagining that the center is set up like a video game or Jurassic Park. Diana Gordon is here to disabuse him of both notions. As the education and outreach coordinator of the country’s largest primate research center, she spends her days guiding students, Rotary clubs, and even wedding parties through the facility. Here, visitors see monkeys in their habitats and meet scientists—all while learning, Gordon hopes, that the animals are well-treated and the research is critical for human health. “If we don’t speak up, there’s only one side being heard,” she says. “The side that wants to shut us down.”
A tale of two ICE raids
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on June 28, 2018What to make of the nearly back-to-back raids at meat plants in Tennessee and Ohio by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)? Let's set aside, for a moment, the discussion of the role of undocumented workers in an industry desperate for warm bodies to keep up with demand. They are here illegally, the law says they go back home. These raids set off a firestorm of debate over immigration and employment within the industry. From the perspective of those outside the industry — which is almost everybody — all meat processors look shady. But what are a company's options, if participating in the government's own programs isn't a guarantee? No database as large and far-flung as E-verify or even the IMAGE program is going to be foolproof. But if companies are going to put the time and investment into participating, there ought to be an alternative to the headline-grabbing raids by gun-toting federal officers. i thought it strange, actually, to read the comments under our news coverage of the Ohio raid. They centered on the need to protect our borders at any cost and on welfare reform to get under- and unemployed American workers into the plants, much like the comments that followed our reports on the raid at Southeastern Provision. Nobody mentioned Fresh Mark's efforts to remain on the right side of immigration law. I read the reports and was concerned about federal overreach, a zealous pursuit of immigration enforcement at the expense of fair treatment of employers.
North Carolina hog farmers win new protections as lawmakers override Roy Cooper's veto
Charlotte News Observer | Posted on June 28, 2018North Carolina will place new limits on how and when neighbors of hog farms can sue the agriculture businesses next door. The state legislature gave final approval on to a bill that restricts nuisance lawsuits against farms and other livestock and forestry operations. The state House voted 74 to 45 in the morning to override a veto that Gov. Roy Cooper issued. The Senate voted to reverse the governor's action. “Overriding this veto and correcting Gov. Cooper’s unwise decision sends the clear message to our family farmers and rural communities that they have a voice in the legislature and that this General Assembly intends to give them the respect they deserve," Sen. Brent Jackson, a Sampson County Republican and farmer, said in a statement. "This was never a partisan issue or about politics, but about doing what is right, and I am glad we had bipartisan support in both chambers as we stand up for our farmers."
California to vote on new farm animal confinement laws
Watt Ag Net | Posted on June 28, 2018Petitioners gain enough signatures to place law that would require all eggs. pork and beefr produced and sold in California to be from cage-free systems. Californians will vote this fall on whether to strengthen the state’s laws governing how farm animals are confined and raised.The proposed measure that qualified for the November ballot late Friday builds on a previous voter-approved initiative and a separate state law.In 2008, Californians passed Proposition 2. It required egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs and calves raised for veal to be placed in cages big enough for them to lie down, stand up, turn around freely and fully extend their limbs.Two years later, the Legislature passed a law that bans the sale in California of shelled eggs from hens raised in violation of those standards — even eggs that come from out-of-state.Both efforts, which took effect in 2015, have so far survived legal challenges, though the latest federal lawsuit is still pending.Now, animal rights advocates led by the Humane Society are back with a new initiative.It would increase the minimum space requirements in which those animals could be confined. And it would expand the ban on sales to pork, veal and liquid eggs — including products grown outside California.
Gov. Walker announces $700,000 in grants to support entrepreneurship in dairy industry
Wisconsin State Farmer | Posted on June 28, 2018Governor Scott Walker today visited the Center for Dairy Research (CDR) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Great Lake Cheese to award $700,000 state grants to support and promote entrepreneurship within the state’s $43 billion dairy industry. The grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) will enable CDR to continue to provide companies with grants of up to $20,000 to support the commercialization of unique dairy technologies and products. Launched in 2013, the Tech Transfer, University, Research and Business Opportunity (TURBO) Program has helped 11 companies purchase equipment needed for new products or processes. To date, this program has helped create or retain 29 jobs in rural communities. “The TURBO program has a proven track record of success in a legacy industry that employs nearly 80,000 people statewide,” said Governor Walker. “We must continue to invest in programs like this to ensure that dairy-related businesses can continue to compete in an ever-changing environment.”