Agriculture News
USDA breeds pathogen-resistant broilers in study
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on November 29, 2017A blood test that identifies chickens with innate immunity to pathogens such as Salmonella and Campylobacter could help breed sturdier flocks for improved consumer food safety, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service said, citing an in-house study.
High school senior proposes bill mandating ag education
Capital Press | Posted on November 29, 2017A high school senior will propose a bill during the 2018 Idaho legislative session requiring high school students to complete at least two agriculture education classes.If it passes, that means every student in the state would have to take at least two semesters of classes that teach them about agriculture. In other words, they would emerge from those classes with at least a basic understanding of the farming and ranching industry and where their food comes from, said Anna Peterson, 17, an FFA member at Skyview High School in Nampa who is proposing the legislation.
Tax Legislation and the Specter of Sequestration on the Farm Bill
Farm Doc Daily | Posted on November 29, 2017A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has raised concerns about the potential impact the Congressional tax bills could have on farm programs and the farm bill. In short, the concern raised is that if the tax bills increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years, existing statutory requirements for sequestration and Pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) would require automatic reductions to offset the deficit increases. The following reviews the issue from the perspective of the potential implications for farm programs, crop insurance, conservation and the upcoming farm bill debate. Sequestration is triggered automatically. OMB's role is to calculate and implement it, as well as to issue reports to Congress. Recent sequestration reports under the 2011 BCA provide examples but not the full scope of the potential concern for the farm bill.The next farm bill will be written using the 10-year baseline estimated by CBO in 2018. Therefore, the concern is that sequestration would eliminate the entire baseline for commodity programs, as well as a substantial portion of the baseline for conservation programs.
Rush of pot grows splits rural California before legal sales
News Observer | Posted on November 29, 2017Marijuana has deeply divided financially strapped Calaveras County, among many where growers are increasingly open about their operations and are starting to encroach on neighborhoods.DiBasilio estimates the county — population 44,000 and about the size of Rhode Island — has more than 1,000 illegal farms in addition to the hundreds with permits or in the process of obtaining them. The influx has caused a backlash among residents and led to the ouster of some leaders who approved marijuana cultivation.Pot farmers operating legally, meanwhile, say they are helping the local economy and have threatened to sue over attempts to stop them.California is set to issue licenses in January to grow, transport and sell weed for recreational purposes, nearly 20 years after the state first authorized the drug's consumption with a doctor's recommendation.
USDA, Virginia Tech explore a world without food animals
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on November 29, 2017What would happen if U.S. farmers stopped producing animals for food and Americans went vegan? Noting some have called for a move toward veganism to address concerns about U.S. health, eating habits and climate change, researchers at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and Virginia Tech set out to explore the nutritional and greenhouse gas impacts of removing animals from U.S. agriculture.They found that a complete shift away from food animal production would present major challenges to meeting America's nutritional needs. With no meat, milk, eggs, fish or cheese in the American diet, the U.S. population would not receive enough of several different essential dietary nutrients from the foods they eat, according to the study results. Eliminating food animals would increase deficiencies in calcium, vitamins A and B12 and some important fatty acids. Fatty acids help to reduce cardiovascular disease and improve cognitive function and vision in infants. Animal food products are the only available, non-supplemental sources of some fatty acids and vitamin B12.A plant-only diet also would require individuals to eat more food and more daily calories to meet their nutritional needs because the available foods from plants are not as nutrient dense as foods from animals, the researchers said.
Critics: Ohio's plan to cut Lake Erie algae lacks direction
ABC News | Posted on November 29, 2017Ohio's outline for sharply reducing what's making algae flourish in Lake Erie clearly shows that changes in farming methods are what's needed. The blueprint also has a long list of ways to do that, but some environmental groups say the state's updated plan still lacks clear direction about what should come next.The plan released Nov. 17 is designed to lay out how Ohio intends to reach its goal of making a 40 percent reduction of phosphorus that flows into the lake's western end within the next eight years.Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario along with Ohio signed a deal two years ago agreeing to make steep cuts of phosphorus, which mainly comes from farm fertilizers and livestock manure that winds up in streams and rivers and then feeds algae in the lake.Ohio's strategy calls for more than 50 steps to take or at least consider, including restoring wetlands along the lakeshore and looking at new limits on city wastewater plants.But critics say it lacks specifics.Gail Hesse, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes water program, compared the plan's list of actions with a grocery list. "They added more ingredients, but there's still no recipe," she said.The plan, for example, calls for continuing and expanding mostly voluntary farming practices — such as increasing soil testing and installing devices that control storm water — that are intended to slow fertilizer runoff. But what the plan doesn't get into is how much needs to be done or set goals to reach the 40 percent reduction, Hesse said.
Farm plans to appeal labor contract mediation decision to Supreme Court
The Packer | Posted on November 29, 2017Fresno, Calif.-based Gerawan Farming plans to appeal a recent ruling on labor contract mediation to the U,S. Supreme Court. On Nov. 27, the California Supreme Court upheld the Mandatory Mediation and Conciliation law, which allows state mediators to settle union contracts through binding mediation when parties can’t reach an agreement.“Today’s decision imposes the United Farm Workers on our employees, whether they want the UFW or not,” the company said in a statement. “In this case, since UFW had disappeared for almost two decades, 99% of the Gerawan employees never voted for UFW representation.” According to the statement, many Gerawan employees were not born in 1990 when the UFW last stood for election as their representatives.“Now, despite a history of earning the industry’s highest wages, the state wants to force these workers to pay three percent of their wages to the UFW or lose their jobs,” the statement said.The company noted that currently pending before the California Fifth District Court of Appeals is a petition filed by the Gerawan workers arguing that the ballots cast in a November 2013 union decertification election should be counted.
Monsanto Asks Judge to Overturn Arkansas Dicamba Ban
Hoosier Ag Today | Posted on November 28, 2017Monsanto went before an Arkansas judge on Friday to ask the court to stop the state’s plan to ban dicamba use from April through October. Dicamba has been a source of complaints from farmers across the state, who say the product has drifted to their fields and caused widespread damage. The state’s ban on dicamba is expected to go before a legislative panel for approval next month, but Monsanto says the action is necessary because farmers are already buying the product for the next growing season. The company said in its court filing that the ban severely limits Monsanto’s ability to sell its new dicamba-tolerant seed and low-volatility herbicide within the state. Monsanto says every day the ban remains in effect costs the company sales and customers.
Monsanto says Mexico revokes permit to market GMO soy in seven states
Reuters | Posted on November 28, 2017Monsanto Co said on Thursday that Mexico’s agriculture sanitation authority SENASICA had revoked its permit to commercialize genetically modified soy in seven states, criticizing the decision as unjustified.Monsanto said in a statement that the permit had been withdrawn on unwarranted legal and technical grounds. The company said it would take the necessary steps to safeguard its rights and those of farmers using the technology, but did not elaborate.SENASICA officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Mexican newspaper Reforma cited a document saying the permit had been withdrawn due to the detection of transgenic Monsanto soya in areas where it was not authorized.
Farmer preferences for conservation incentives that promote voluntary phosphorus abatement in agricultural watersheds
Journal of Soil and Water Conservation | Posted on November 28, 2017Financial incentives are commonly used to promote voluntary adoption of agricultural best management practices (BMPs), but little is known about farmer preferences among alternative incentives. Using experimental procurement auctions, we evaluate how different conservation incentives affect farmer willingness to adopt BMPs that reduce phosphorus (P) runoff, a major driver of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. We rank incentives (e.g., payment, BMP insurance, tax credit, and certification price premium) by the cost per pound of P runoff reduction. Payments and tax credits that target high impact areas of the watershed are more cost-effective than untargeted price premiums for product certification. Farmers demand higher payments for contracts offering BMP insurance (i.e., protection against yield loss from BMP use) due to uncertainty about how the program will be implemented and the reliability of indemnities, as well as anticipated transaction costs associated with the program. Understanding farmer preferences for different types of conservation incentives is critical to design agri-environmental programs that engage more farmers and cost-effectively enhance ecosystem services.