Agriculture News
FDA reaches out to Ag Commissioners on Food Safety
FDA | Posted on December 1, 2017FDA's Scott Gottlieb wrote to the state Ag Commissioners reinforcing the agency’s commitment to work in partnership with the states to effectively implement FSMA. Issues that are still being addressed include terminal markets, dispute resolution, on farm visits and agriculture water.
American farm towns, with changing priorities, reject industrial agriculture
Wall Street Journal | Posted on November 30, 2017Rural Americans are turning their backs on the industry that made the U.S. the biggest meat-exporting country in the world. Residents of Tonganoxie, a 5,300-person town in northeast Kansas, spent part of the fall hanging white-and-red placards that say “No Tyson in Tongie” on fenceposts and pickup trucks. Their efforts were part of a public push against Tyson Foods Inc., TSN 0.10% the largest U.S. meat processor by sales, which trumpeted in early September its plans to build a $320 million chicken-processing complex just south of town.The investment, Tyson said, would bring 1,600 jobs to the area and deliver $150 million annually to the Kansas economy, in part because it would pay local farmers to raise chickens and buy locally grown grain to feed them. “Kansas will be an outstanding home for this Tyson complex,” said Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who joined Tyson staff and local elected officials in Tonganoxie when they unveiled the plan.Many residents, including farmers, disagreed. Online, they raised alarms about groundwater pollution, infrastructure burdens and noxious smells. With a relatively strong economy, and job flexibility that comes from proximity to the Kansas City metropolitan area, many weren’t persuaded by the promised economic benefits. Critics railed at Tyson’s proposed plant on radio shows and in local newspapers, and crowded into city council and county board meetings by the hundreds.
Opioid crisis affects farmers harder than their rural neighbors
Bloomberg | Posted on November 30, 2017The U.S. opioid crisis that’s sweeping through America’s heartland has hit farmers harder than the wider rural population. Almost three-quarters of U.S. farmers and farm workers say they have been directly affected by opioid dependence, either from taking an illegal dose or dealing with a habit themselves, or by knowing someone who has used. That compares with about 45 percent for the rural population as a whole, according to a poll commissioned by the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union, the two biggest U.S. farmer groups.
What is the Food and Ag Industries' Impact in your Community?
Feeding the Economy | Posted on November 30, 2017America’s food and agriculture sectors feed the economy and fuel the nation. Together, they account for roughly one-fifth of the country’s economic activity, supporting over 22 million jobs or nearly 15% of US employment. It begins in the rich soil of America’s farms and ranches – more than 2.1 million of them -- spread across the heartland and stretching to the coasts, covering two out of every five American acres.Meanwhile, millions of food scientists, grocers and truck-drivers work in more than 200,000 food manufacturing, processing, and storage facilities, to keep food fresh and deliver it on time.The journey may conclude at one of the nation’s 1 million restaurant locations staffed by some of the 14.7 million Americans employed there. More often, it ends at home, at the kitchen table, surrounded by a family grateful for the nation’s bounty. Use this website to look it up in your district!
MN:Grants available to keep wolves away from livestock
Duluth News Tribune | Posted on November 30, 2017Minnesota livestock producers have until Dec. 15 to apply for grant money to help prevent wolf attacks. The deadline was extended three weeks due to a late harvest that kept farmers in the fields longer than average, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture said.The Wolf-Livestock Conflict Prevention Grants are a new program funded by the 2017 Minnesota Legislature with $240,000 available over the next two years.
'Hobby farm' growers getting hurt, killed
The Indy Channel | Posted on November 30, 2017The risk of serious injury or death has always been a part of farming. But the nation’s growing embrace of small-scale production of local and organic crops is drawing more amateurs into the field, and inexperienced growers are increasingly getting maimed and even killed, often by old, unsafe machinery. Experts say some novices have little appreciation of the occupation’s dangers.Up to a quarter of Indiana’s 115 farm fatalities over the past four years have been on small operations that include so-called hobby or lifestyle farms, which are often run by people who entered farming from other lines of work, according to research by Purdue University farm-safety expert Bill Field, who has tracked farm fatalities for nearly four decades.Those deaths — nearly 30 between 2013 and 2016 — represent a disproportionately high percentage of Indiana’s total farming deaths, given the state’s widespread commercial farming operations, Field said.Gasperini warned in a July article in the Journal of Agromedicine that “very small, subsistence, part-time, non-traditional and hobby farms will continue to pose significant challenges” to the safety of U.S. agriculture.
USDA Publishes School Meals Rule, Expands Options, Eases Challenges
USDA | Posted on November 30, 2017The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today provided local food service professionals the flexibility they need to serve wholesome, nutritious, and tasty meals in schools across the nation. The new School Meal Flexibility Rule, published today, makes targeted changes to standards for meals provided under USDA’s National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs, and asks customers to share their thoughts on those changes with the Department.The interim final rule published today gives schools the option to serve low-fat (1 percent) flavored milk. Currently, schools are permitted to serve low-fat and non-fat unflavored milk as well as non-fat flavored milk. The rule also would provide this milk flexibility to the Special Milk Program and Child and Adult Care Food Program operators serving children ages 6 and older. States will also be allowed to grant exemptions to schools experiencing hardship in obtaining whole grain-rich products acceptable to students during School Year (SY) 2018-2019.Schools and industry also need more time to reduce sodium levels in school meals, Perdue said. So instead of further restricting sodium levels for SY 2018-2019, schools that meet the current – “Target 1” – limit will be considered compliant with USDA’s sodium requirements. Perdue again lauded the efforts of school food professionals in serving healthful, appealing meals and underscored USDA’s commitment to helping them overcome remaining challenges they face in meeting the nutrition standards.
Cow abuse videos prompt reforms by dairy industry group
Sun Sentinel | Posted on November 30, 2017A dairy industry group announced reforms Monday after undercover videos at two Florida dairy farms showed cows being kicked, punched and beaten with metal bars. Southeast Milk Inc., which ships and markets milk for dairies in Florida and three other states, will work with members to introduce or enhance 24-hour video surveillance of dairy farm operations, the organization announced at a news conference at Zolfo Springs, in Hardee County.It will hold mandatory remedial training sessions for dairy owners and operators next month. It will accelerate the adaptation of new, stricter national standards for cow care, which requires more training, closer working relationships with veterinarians and stronger sanctions for farms that fail to comply.“Southeast Milk has a zero-tolerance policy for animal abuse,” said Jim Sleper, chief executive officer of Southeast Milk. “As a cooperative of family-owned dairies, we know that caring for our animals is the right thing to do morally, economically and ethically.” But Animal Recovery Mission, the Miami-Dade animal-rights group that made the videos, expressed skepticism over the statement, saying that while the reforms may be a step forward, they failed to address major abuses and appeared intended to reassure the public that it was still all right to consume milk, cheese and ice cream.
Report: Food and agriculture drive one-fifth of nation's economy
Farm Futures | Posted on November 30, 2017More than one-fifth - 20.4% - of the nation’s economy is linked, either directly or indirectly, to the food and agriculture sectors, according to a recent study commissioned by the Corn Refiners Association. The study also found that more than one-fourth of all American jobs - 28% - are similarly connected.
Farmers for America:A documentary to celebrate and support young farmers
Farmers for America | Posted on November 30, 2017The documentary traces the extraordinary changes coming to America’s food system as more and more consumers flock to farmers’ markets, embrace farm-to-table lifestyles and insist on knowing where their food is coming from. At the center of the film are the farmers, young and old, who provide the spirit and energy to bring urban and rural America together over what both share in common: our food. These farmers reflect nothing less than the face of America. With the average age of today’s farmer at 60, and rural America losing population as the cost of land and equipment soars, this film reveals the people waiting to take their place, the practices they’re championing and the obstacles they must overcome.