Agriculture News
EPA, Army propose two-year delay of WOTUS
Farm Futures | Posted on December 4, 2017The U.S. EPA and the U.S. Department of the Army are proposing to delay the effective date of the Waters of the U.S. rule by two years. The 2015 rule, which redefined the scope of where the Clean Water Act applies, had an effective date of Aug. 28, 2015. Implementation of the 2015 rule is on hold as a result of the Sixth Circuit’s nationwide stay of the rule, but that stay may be affected by a pending Supreme Court case. The 2015 rule is also stayed in 13 states due to a North Dakota district court ruling. EPA and the Army are taking this action to provide certainty and consistency to the regulated community.
Veterinarians may be the biggest advocates in explaining how food is produced
The Fence Post | Posted on December 4, 2017With the problems in animal agriculture today, veterinarians may be the most important advocate for the beef industry and food animal production. "My job is to work with retailers of the beef industry, and tell them what a good job we do as an industry, how hard we work, how safe our food is, and how much we care about our animals and neighbors," Thomson said to producers. "Based on what the retailer asks for, I go out into the country and say to producers, 'Here are some things our customers want us to do in the future.'"Sustainability has been the buzz word in the agriculture business for the last several years. Thomson sees animal welfare, environmental stewardship, and food safety and security as all important parts of sustainability. "The one thing people forget, is if it will cost more to be sustainable? Without profitability, there is no sustainability. Define what you want to be sustainable," he said.
Scare-mongering not productive approach to antibiotic discussion
Feedstuffs | Posted on December 4, 2017Antibiotic resistance represents a serious, complex public health consideration and there is work to be done, but over-simplified storylines and scare-mongering is not a productive path toward a science-based solution.Avoparsin (chemically similar to vancomycin) was banned in 1997 in the EU – largely the result of a rise in VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci) incidence in food animals. Following the ban, there have been NO consistent trends in VRE isolates from hospitalized humans following. Based on the most recent research, hospital-associated VRE appears to be genetically distinct from VRE in livestock. Establishment of risk mandates identification of the causal pathway where resistant pathogens cause lack of therapeutic responsiveness. In other words, concern is a relatively general, vague and non-quantifiable concept -- risk is a specific, measurable and verifiable concept. It goes without saying, antibiotic resistance represents a very serious, complex public health consideration. There’s work to be done. Long-term solutions will require ongoing research, surveillance, and comprehensive collaboration.Unfortunately, over-simplified storylines and scare-mongering are easy to exploit. Sure, it gets attention and sells books. However, it misses the mark for what’s really going on –- and in the end proves to be a public disservice. So while the cows are getting out, that approach wants only to shut the gate because it’s easy and avoids what’s really needed –- the hard work of fixing fence.
Science Moms: Download the film here
Science Moms | Posted on December 2, 2017This is a film that will give a voice to the science-minded moms - the women who are too often drowned out by the fear mongers, the shamers, and the CelebMoms. Through interviews with "science moms" who are on the front lines of this struggle, we’ll dissect the bogus claims of these celebrities one by one and explain in simple language what the science really shows about GMOs, vaccines, homeopathy, and any of these topics that are often in the headlines, yet even more often are misunderstood. We can’t change everyone’s minds, but we can make our voices heard. One mom at a time.
Letter: Stop using farmers like me to sell flawed tax reform bill
Ag Week | Posted on December 2, 2017Whether Republican or Democrat, most of us agree that tax reform and simplification is necessary. However, as is often the case, those supporting a piece of legislation overstate their talking points. As a farmer, I felt that I had to respond to those politicians who use farmers like me as the reason why the estate tax should be eliminated. The fact of the matter is the tax affects very few family farmers and ranchers in North Dakota, or in any state for that matter.Listening to the political talking points used to sell the latest House of Representatives tax reform bill, including those from Rep. Kevin Cramer, the estate tax is a tremendous burden on the average family farmer or rancher — but that's just not the case.Given the exemptions of nearly $5.5 million per person and almost $11 million for a couple, the vast majority of estates are not affected by the so called "death tax." Last year, according to the IRS, fewer than 10 estates in North Dakota were required to pay the tax — any family farm or small business worth less than that is exempt. Looking through the smoke and mirrors, we can see that the tax bill Cramer helped the House pass is detrimental to middle-class North Dakotans, including farmers. It gives massive handouts to the wealthier Americans, with few benefits for workers and retirees.
Why are supply management programs such an anathema to so many people
Ag Policy | Posted on December 2, 2017Why are supply management programs such an anathema to so many people? Part of the reason can be traced to events that took place 34 years ago. Between the 1981 crop year and the 1982 crop year, corn ending stocks increased 1 billion bushels (12.2 percent of production) to 3.5 billion bushels with grain reserves growing to 3.0 billion bushels and prices falling to the loan rate of $2.55 per bushel.“On January 11, 1983, President Reagan announced that the US Department of Agriculture would implement a payment-in-kind (PIK) program to help reduce government grain surpluses and to improve farm income” Secretary of Agriculture John Block explained, “PIK is basically simple…. Farmers who take out of production additional acres over what they agree to take out under the current program will receive as payment a certain amount of the commodity they would have grown on these acres. The commodity is theirs to do with as they wish. Commodities for the PIK program will come from farmer-owned reserve, regular loan or CCC-owned stocks.“We have a three-fold objective with PIK…. Reduce production, reduce surplus stock holdings, and avoid increased budget outlays that would otherwise be necessary under price support programs.”Farmers responded positively to the program. Production problems during 1983 resulted in farmers taking more acres out of production than anticipated. In the end, 32.2 million corn acres were taken out of production and the harvest fell by nearly 50 percent to 4.2 billion bushels.With reduced acreage, purchases of input supplies fell drastically, fewer machinery repairs were needed, and reduced production resulted in less grain going through the marketing channels. The impact on Main Street and the agribusiness sector was immediate as was the response.At that point, the agribusiness sector began to pay more attention to agricultural policy and the design of commodity programs. Blame for reduced sales was directed toward supply management programs which used acreage reduction programs to keep from accumulating excessive stocks.
WOTUS Block included in appropriations bill
National Stone Sand & Gravel Association | Posted on December 2, 2017A bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 16 would block the implementation of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule as it funds the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at $32 billion. The 2017 Interior and Environment bill would cut $125 million from current fiscal 2016 levels and is $1.1 billion less than the White House sought. The House Appropriations committee also marked up its Interior and Environment bill that includes a rider against WOTUS. The House bill is funded at $32.1 billion and would cut $64 million from current spending levels, including a $164 million cut to EPA.
CRISPR’s impact on diesel is now
http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2017/11/29/crisprs-impact-on-diesel-is-now/ | Posted on December 2, 2017CRISPR technology will ultimately impact what we eat, wear, and how we maintain our health — and it just crashed successfully into the big party known as the Advanced Transportation revolution. Specifically, a new path to producing fuel molecules that replace diesel. For some time we have seen tremendous activity around the development of CRISPR gene-editing technology — allowing scientists to directly clip and insert genetic material.Now, Fuzhong Zhang, associate professor at the School of Engineering & Applied Science updated the Digest this week and noted that “We designed and then constructed a synthetic metabolic pathway inside the fast-growing E.coli by introducing genes from other species, including Staphylococus aureus, cyanobacteria and soil bacteria. By using CRISPR, we incorporated genes from different species with favorable traits into E.coli’s fatty acid pathway.”Zhang’s research focuses on engineering metabolic pathways that, when optimized, allow the bacteria to act as a biofuel generator. In its latest findings, recently published in Biotechnology for Biofuels, Zhang’s lab used the best bits of several other species — including a well-known pathogen — to enable E.coli to produce branched, long-chain fatty alcohols (BLFLs).
70% of Americans Want Better Treatment for Farm Animals, Poll Finds
Organic Authority | Posted on December 2, 2017A survey conducted by the nonprofit think tank Sentience Institute (SI), in collaboration with Ipsos Group, found that 70 percent of Americans have some level of discomfort with how animals are being used in the food sector and support changes to how animals are raised and slaughtered for food. “The public support we see for these proposals is remarkable,” said SI Research Director Jacy Reese. “Less than 10% of the population is vegetarian, but you can eat turkeys for Thanksgiving and still want society as a whole to shift away from animal agriculture. This is in line with the result that an overwhelming 97% of people see vegetarianism as a personal choice, despite many of them supporting policy change.”Forty-nine percent of Americans polled agreed with this statement: “I support a ban on the factory farming of animals.” Forty-seven percent supported a ban on slaughterhouses while 33 percent supported a ban on all animal farming. And a stunning sixty-nine percent said they think factory farming has become one of the most important social justice issues of our time.
Washington State Dept. of Ag favors tagging every cow with radio ID
Capital Press | Posted on December 2, 2017The Washington State Department of Agriculture may adopt rules requiring producers to tag every cow with radio-frequency identification, a level of electronic monitoring opposed by some ranchers. The department says the tags will help follow a cow from birth to slaughter, aiding animal-health officials to speedily respond to diseases and bringing the state in line with coming USDA standards.“These (the rules) are all intended to track an animal within hours rather than within days,” State Veterinarian Brian Joseph told the Senate Agriculture Committee Nov. 14. “It’s very important we be able to do that rapidly because the more rapidly we can do that, the less economic impact there is.”WSDA continues to work on its ability to trace animal diseases more than a dozen years after the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy appeared in Washington, The state currently records changes in livestock ownership, though the department says the system, partly based on self-reporting of sales, has gaps.WSDA reports that only 5 percent of the state’s beef cows now have radio-frequency identification. Although 80 percent of dairy cows are electronically tagged, they come from a minority, 40 percent, of the dairies.The department envisions that by no later than 2023 every ranch, dairy and farm with cattle will have a “premises identification number” and that every cow that leaves the premises will have a radio tag.