Agriculture News
JBS pork plant in Louisville agrees to new fines
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on August 17, 2017The JBS Louisville pork processing facility has agreed to pay the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District $60,000 in penalties resulting from records-keeping omissions and an inspection that found faulty equipment handling.
Editorial: How Iowa can save the family farm
Des Moines Register | Posted on August 17, 2017Could Iowa someday be a state of mega-farms and small acreages, with the traditional, midsized family farm a relic of the past? It’s possible, and our state would be poorer for it, economically and culturally. But that doesn’t have to be the future. The outlook for Iowa’s family farms isn’t good, but the continued decline isn’t inevitable.As reported in Sunday’s Register, midsized farms are getting squeezed. Profits are falling and debt levels are climbing. Their net on-farm income has fallen 44 percent from the farm economy’s peak in 2012 to 2015, according to a study by David Peters, a sociology professor at Iowa State University. And low grain prices likely mean more losses this year.These farms are important, in both number and economic impact. In Iowa, about 16,200 farms are considered midsized (farming 800 to 1,000 acres and making gross cash income between $350,000 and a $1 million.) Of the state’s 20,525 commercial farms, the midsized dominate with 52.6 percent of agricultural sales and 68.2 percent of farmland.But these farms are important for other reasons. Their decline is tied closely to the fates of small towns and school districts all over rural Iowa. The farmers’ labor and their spending help buoy county seats and even larger towns. Here are a few other smart policies federal and state officials can support: Funding rural development, indrreasing trade, helping beginning farmers.
Organic and Conventional Crops —Brought to You by Modern Agriculture
Huffington Post | Posted on August 17, 2017As a pioneer of genetically modified crop technology, I often get questions about what I really think about organic farming…or if I personally buy organic produce. My thoughts and answers might surprise you – number one, that being “pro-GMO” does not make me “anti-organic.” Allow me to explain.I believe that a real strength of our agricultural production system in the U.S. is the successful co-existence of conventional, biotech and organic farms to meet the different market opportunities and consumer product interests. We should all celebrate the fact that we get to enjoy incredible choice and the safest and most affordable food supply in the world!
Agriculture industry wants few changes to NAFTA
Washington Examiner | Posted on August 17, 2017The agricultural industries in the U.S., Canada and Mexico on Wednesday jointly urged the negotiators for the North American Free Trade Agreement to make as few changes as possible to the trade deal, warning that any change could severely disrupt the economies of all three nations. In a public letter, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, and Mexico's National Agricultural Council said their industries are integrated as a result of the 1993 trade deal, which has greatly improved efficiency. The letter was addressed to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his counterparts in Mexico, Secretary of the Economy Ildefonso Villarreal, and in Canada, Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland. The three began the first round of talks to renegotiate NAFTA on Wednesday.
Farm communities face contaminated water from manure, nitrates, records revea
Oregon Live | Posted on August 17, 2017Yakima County in Washington state, home to around 67 dairy farms, sits on aquifers contaminated by nitrates. In California's San Joaquin Valley, which grows nearly one-quarter of the nation's food, fertilizer and manure spread on farms' fields and orchards have contributed to unsafe nitrate levels in drinking water sources.The drinking water of millions of Americans living in or near farming communities across the country is contaminated by dangerous amounts of nitrates and coliform bacteria from fertilizer and manure widely used in agriculture, a News21 analysis of Environmental Protection Agency records shows. The records reveal that community water systems serving over 2 million people across the country were cited for excessive nitrate levels.Those records don't cover the millions of private wells that many Americans use, which are left vulnerable to pollution of shallow groundwater in agricultural areas.Many farmworkers who live in these communities still have to pay for the contaminated water coming from the faucet, as well as buying bottled water to drink. But the farmers who employ them don't agree with their concerns. "They say, 'Why are you complaining? You have jobs? We are giving you jobs. You eat because of us,' " said Irma Medellin, who works with Latino farmworkers in Tulare County to clean up the drinking water. "They contaminate our water, and we, the poor, are paying for water as if we were rich. And we are not rich. But we are paying the price of contaminated water."While the analysis shows 5,000 nitrate violations can largely be traced back to agricultural activity, 22,971 total coliform violations could be from either human or animal feces. However, in heavily farmed areas, much of the coliform bacteria can be attributed to manure.
Grain-free pet foods are no healthier, vets say.
The Washington Post | Posted on August 17, 2017These grain-free, all-meat and raw-food diets are inspired by the meals eaten by wild relatives of our fidos and felixes. But are these diets really better for our pets? Veterinarians and pet nutrition researchers say probably not.According to clinical veterinary nutritionists at Tufts University, grain-free foods were one of the fastest-growing sectors of the pet food market in 2016. “All I ever hear is, oh, on a good diet, it’s grain free,” said Dena Lock, a veterinarian in Texas. The majority of her pet patients are overweight. “Grain-free is marketing. It’s only marketing,” said Cailin Heinze, a small-animal nutritionist at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. “A lot of foods market themselves by what they’re not including,” and the implication is that the excluded ingredient must be bad. Some pet owners have a false impression that grains are more likely to cause an allergic reaction, but “it’s much more common for dogs to have allergies to meat than to grain,” Heinze said. Chicken, beef, eggs, dairy and wheat are the most common allergies in dogs. And it’s not that there’s anything particularly allergenic about these foods, she said, they’re just the most frequently used ingredients.
Photovoice for Agricultural Resilience: Farmers educate decision-makers through photos.
Snohomosh Conservation District | Posted on August 17, 2017Seven farms took part in the Photovoice Project hosted by the Snohomish Conservation District and The Nature Conservancy. Through a series of four workshops, participants responded to two questions - "Why is agriculture important to our community?" and "What are the major challenges facing agriculture?" - through photos and discussion. Farmers each selected three of their photos, including captions, that are now part of this exhibition. By sharing their story and thoughts with decision makers through this exhibit, these farmers hope to address some of the pressing issues facing agriculture in this County.
Modern farm families steeped in core values
Ottawa Herald | Posted on August 17, 2017Seems some people outside of agriculture routinely try to define the family farm. These same folks tend to question corporate farming whether family owned or not.Let’s look at a Kansas family farm. In our state, many are based on owner operation. This means the rights and responsibilities of ownership are vested in an entrepreneur who lives and works the farm for a living.The second key to defining the family farming system would include independence. Independence implies financing from within its own resources using family labor, management and intellect to build equity and cash flow that will retire the mortgage, preferably in the lifetime of the owner.Economic dispersion is the next important step in defining what a family farm should entail. Economic dispersion would include large numbers of efficient-sized farms operating with equal access to competitive markets worldwide.No family farm would be complete without a family core. This family centered operation must have a family who lives in harmony within the workplace. All family members share responsibilities, and the children learn the vocation of their parents.
U.S. lawsuit over farmworkers shines light on visa program
The Wall Street Journal | Posted on August 15, 2017For the last two seasons, G Farms has depended on legal migrant workers to harvest potatoes, onions and watermelons growing in its fields on the outskirts of Phoenix. Now the farm is bearing different fruit: a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit that federal officials and immigration activists say exemplifies the pitfalls of the nation’s agricultural visa program—as Congress proposes changes to it.This year the U.S. Labor Department took the farm to court, saying its owner, Santiago Gonzalez, underpaid some of its 69 workers by not offering a set, hourly wage and housed them in an “encampment” consisting of yellow school buses and semitrailers that “violated numerous safety, sanitation and fire code regulations.”Janet Herold, the regional solicitor in charge of the case for the Labor Department, called the living situations a “horror show” that could have led to many worker deaths.The case is the first time the department won a preliminary injunction against a farm using the temporary farmworker visa, known as the H2A. A federal judge barred the business from housing the workers in the encampment, forcing it to house them in an apartment complex and an extended-stay motel for the rest of the season.
Agriculture on front lines of immigrant worker shortage
Bloomberg | Posted on August 15, 2017How agriculture handles its diminishing supply of undocumented workers could be a bellwether for other industries that may need to cope with increased immigration enforcement.As the Trump administration continues to crack down on illegal immigration, industries that historically have been dependent on unauthorized immigrants are going to need a plan B. Agriculture is a “great case study in the adaptability of sectors of the economy, given demographic changes,” Michael Fix, president of the Migration Policy Institute, told Bloomberg BNA Aug. 10. Even though the number of immigrant farm workers is dwindling, “we haven’t seen disaster yet in agriculture,” he said.The industry’s ability to adapt could determine the future of meatpacking, construction, and other immigrant-dependent industries that are “finding their labor forces drying up,” he said.Between 2000 and 2014, the percentage of the farm labor force made up of undocumented immigrants dropped from 55 percent to 47 percent, according to an Aug. 10 report from the MPI. The report, which relied on data from the Labor Department’s National Agricultural Worker Survey, said the decrease is in large part the result of a drop in unauthorized migration from Mexico during the recession of 2008-2009.