Agriculture News
'Scruffles Law' proposed in NJ to offer animal justice
My Central Jersey | Posted on April 10, 2018When Danielle DiNapoli's English bulldog, Scruffles, died last year after being groomed at the PetSmart in Flemington, she found no real legal recourse in the event of possible gross negligence or recklessness when pets are in the care of others. Her attorney, Daryl Kipnis, a Somerset attorney and Republican 12th District congressional candidate, is looking to change that by proposing an animal justice revision to New Jersey Civil Code that would allow pet owners to sue for damages, including statutory damages of $10,000.On Friday, Kipnis introduced "Scuffles Law" to be considered by the New Jersey State Legislature. His Somerset law office worked on writing the proposal. According to Kipnis, the proposed legislation recognizes the relationship that owners of domestic companion animals have with their pets and gives them powerful legal remedies against individuals who cause the injury or death of their pets through negligence, recklessness or animal cruelty.
How many farms won't survive a trade war? In Iowa, the question is real
Politico | Posted on April 10, 2018Across the Iowa countryside, the prospect of a damaging trade war with China at a time of stubbornly low commodity prices has given rise to an uneasy guessing game among the state’s agricultural bankers and lenders. “The bankers are quietly talking in the corners of the room,” said Leslie Miller, vice president at Iowa State Savings Bank in Knoxville, Iowa. “We talk about those farmers we know that, if pricing doesn’t get better, aren’t going to make it.”Slumping commodity prices and low land valuations are nothing new. But last week China imposed an initial set of tariffs on U.S. goods, including on modified ethanol and pork. That's no small matter in Iowa, the country's biggest pork-producing state. And as the Trump administration moves to crack down on China's intellectual property practices, the possibility of further retaliation from Beijing threatens U.S. farmers' access to the second-biggest market for American agricultural goods.While the increasing U.S.-China trade tensions have fueled a dizzying spate of headlines over the last few weeks, bankers in Iowa have been hashing out forecasts of how many farmers could be forced to downsize — or pack it in altogether — by the end of the year if a full-blown trade war develops.
Midwestern BioAg gets a dream opportunity with new partnership with General Mills
Wisconsin State Journal | Posted on April 10, 2018“Biological farmers want to feed the soil life and create the ideal home (for plants) and we’ve got a whole concept,” Zimmer said. A major food manufacturer, General Mills, agrees. Last month, it announced it was partnering with Midwestern BioAg — the Madison-based biological farming company Zimmer founded in 1979 — to convert the 34,000-acre Gunsmoke Farm near Pierre, South Dakota, into an organic farm. When it’s completed in 2020, it will become the largest organic transition in North America, Zimmer said.
Vermont needs to make ‘tough decisions’ on cow herds
Vermont Digger | Posted on April 10, 2018There are more cows in Vermont than the state’s agricultural land can accommodate under current practices, according to a new study from a UVM research fellow. But a promising solution to the problem would place a financial burden on struggling dairy farmers. The study recommends “precision feeding” as a promising approach to reduce dairies’ rate of water pollution without reducing herd sizes. However, some Vermont counties, including Franklin and Orleans, may simply have more cows than the land can handle.“We have in many parts of the state a herd size the land cannot support,” said Jon Erickson, a UVM professor who co-authored the study.“I hope [the study] is yet another wake-up call, that despite our best efforts … in many senses the efforts are missing the target: We need to make some tough decisions around herd size and location,” Erickson said.Authored by UVM’s Gund Graduate Fellow Michael Wironen, of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, the study focuses on phosphorus, and its accumulation in Vermont soil over the past 90 years.The study looks at how much of the element is imported into the state, how much is exported through products like milk and meat, and how much remains in the state, either bound to the soil or polluting surface waters.“While feed is imported and milk exported, manure remains in Vermont,” the study states.
ICE raids Tennessee meatpacking plant
Meat + Poultry | Posted on April 10, 2018Immigration officials executed a federal criminal search warrant at the Southeastern Provision meatpacking plant in Bean Station, Tennessee, on April 5. According to a statement released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Public Affairs Officer Tammy Spicer, 97 people were arrested during a search by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The individuals detained could be deported.The Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division also participated in the search.Spicer stated that 10 people were arrested on federal criminal charges, one was arrested on state charges and 86 were arrested on administrative charges for being in the US illegally.
Marfrig buys National Beef, becomes world's 2nd largest beef processor
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on April 10, 2018Brazil's Marfrig Global Foods has reached an agreement to acquire 51 percent of National Beef Packing Company for $969 million, becoming the world's second largest beef processor.
Cheese-maker stepping up to help save 4 family farms as dairy crisis deepens
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Posted on April 10, 2018Not many people get to save a family farm, let alone four of them, but cheese-makers Jay and John Noble may do just that. The Racine County brothers are reopening the Beechwood cheese plant near Adell, in Sheboygan County, that's been closed for about a year. By most standards it’s a small plant, a two-man operation where the Nobles will make high-end organic cheese. But for a handful of dairy farms that were about to lose their milk buyer for the second time in two years, the plant is a lifeline that may keep them in business.The four farms, roughly in the Mayville area, were in a tough spot when Westby Cooperative Creamery, of Westby, said it was dropping them this month. "We must have called 50 to 75 plants and couldn't find anybody looking for milk," said Tom Weidmeyer, who milks about 120 cows. "I have never seen anything like this in my life," he said, including the farm crisis of the 1980s that wiped out scores of small dairy operations. But even that stemmed from other economic factors, not a surplus of milk.
Front-of-package labelling proposal has Canadian dairy farmers concerned
The Western Producer | Posted on April 10, 2018Health Canada launched a consultation period in February for its proposed new front-of-packaging labelling. The proposal is part of Health Canada's Healthy Eating Strategy and would include placing new warning labels on the front of products sold in Canada for foods that are high in saturated fats, sugars and sodium. “Our concern is that many Canadians would actually put that product back down if they see a warning label on it. So it would impact our markets domestically,” said David Wiens, chair of Dairy Farmers of Manitoba. Dollar-wise the proposal could have a huge effect for Canadian dairy farmers. Wiens has heard that it could negatively impact the Canadian dairy industry by as much as C$800 million.While milk will be getting a pass from the proposed labels, other dairy products such as cheeses and yogurts will not, which has the Canadian dairy industry concerned.
Missouri Attorney General defends states’ sovereign, economic interests
Farm Futures | Posted on April 5, 2018In requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to accept its complaint in the California cage size case, Missouri’s Attorney General states, “Unless this Court acts, California will continue to impose new agricultural regulations on other states in violation of federal law and those States’ sovereign, quasi-sovereign, and economic interests…”. The Reply Brief filed on March 20, 2018, to the Supreme Court states, “California persistently ignores federal law in its regulation of extraterritorial agricultural production.” The brief also declares California’s effort to regulate the size of a cage for laying hens “…reflects one of several attempts by California to dictate the manner of agricultural production in other States…” California passed a Proposition, then legislation and regulations, which mandate that California egg producers and egg products in other states spend large amounts of capital to put in new cage systems for laying hens. We reported on this last December. California’s creative standards are required on other states if those states’ producers wish to sell eggs in California.In a move which has infuriated the complaining states, California has the audacity of sending its enforcement officials into neighboring states to enforce its cage size statute and regulations.
Milk production increases in the West
Capital Press | Posted on April 5, 2018University of Wisconsin economists say milk production seems to be trending westward while slowing in the Northeast and Midwest.