Agriculture News
Maryland chicken CAFO can proceed
Delmarva Now | Posted on August 8, 2017A circuit court judge in Wicomico County, Maryland, on Thursday blocked an environmental group's attempt to stop a chicken farm west of Salisbury from becoming the area’s largest. The ruling upheld a Wicomico appeals board decision not to hear the case because the Salisbury-based Concerned Citizens Against Industrial CAFOs had failed to submit its initial paperwork on time.
Programs help Michigan food, agriculture companies to expand
Crains Detroit | Posted on August 8, 2017Steve Cooper recently added a butter production line at the dairy processing facility in Ottawa County where he is general manager, a $50 million project. He hired 10 people. To keep pace as Michigan farmers produce more milk each year, Cooper's company, Continental Dairy Facilities LLC, needed more wastewater treatment capacity to handle the increased volume. It can churn out 300,000 pounds of milk powder and 42,000 gallons of cream every day. Continental Dairy and neighboring Fairlife LLC, which share a 100-acre dairy campus on a former General Motors facility in Coopersville, sought funding for their business expansions through traditional means, which generally means applying for incentives from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. But their project got a boost from another source — the state Agriculture Department, which is piloting its own business development incentives program this year to help food-related companies achieve growth in smaller projects that won't create enough jobs to meet MEDC requirements. That boost is about to get bigger.The program will expand to $4.7 million starting Oct. 1 after funding was inserted into the department's 2018 budget.Most of it will go to companies wanting to expand their food and agriculture businesses, Holton said, Money also will be used to fund competitive grants for companies that want to add equipment or training, for instance, and to help companies export products.State agriculture administrators believe the new incentives will deliver a level of flexibility to help businesses that the department previously didn't have.
Assemblymen reach across aisle for agriculture
Lodi News | Posted on August 8, 2017On paper, Assemblymen Jim Cooper, a Democrat from Elk Grove representing California’s 9th District and Heath Flora, a Republican from Ripon representing the 12th District should be political adversaries. Despite their opposing party affiliations, the two found common ground in both their history as public safety employees and their commitment to advocating for California’s agriculture industry.Cooper, a second-term assemblyman, served in the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department for 30 years, reaching the rank of Captain, and spent 14 years as Elk Grove’s founding mayor and councilman before joining the Assembly in 2014.Flora, who is in his first term, is a small business owner from a farming family, served as a volunteer firefighter for 15 years in Ripon, where he lives to this day, before joining the assembly in 2016 with Cooper’s endorsement.“I met Heath and thought he was a good fit. His family is in farming, and he was a firefighter, so we have that bond from our histories working in public safety, where you get used to working with other folks. All that matters to cops and firefighters is getting the job done, (political) parties and race don’t matter” said Cooper.In addition to Cooper’s law enforcement background, Flora was impressed by the Elk Grove Democrat’s dedication to learning as much as possible about agriculture.“Jim didn’t know anything about agriculture when he first started, but nobody else in the Assembly educated themselves like he did. We want to take his model and educate other Democrats as well,” said Flora.The two were quick to work across party lines to represent the Central Valley’s needs, including water conservation and agriculture, which Cooper says are different from the rest of California.
Record heat, continued winter fallout flummox Calif. growers
Capital Press | Posted on August 8, 2017One of the wettest winters in California history is being followed by one of the hottest summers, causing growers to encounter damage and complications to crops from both weather extremes.
Amid farm-to-table movement, Colorado agriculture attempts to shape perceptions of farming
Denver Post | Posted on August 8, 2017Younger generations want to know where their food comes from, but communicating that information might be harder than it seems. Younger generations are leading the charge on demanding locally sourced food. They’re starting farm-to-table restaurants, making farmers markets trendy and paying a premium for locally sourced food. But getting the most accurate message out to consumers about where their food comes from and how it is grown is easier said than done.As part of Colorado Proud month – as proclaimed by Gov. John Hickenlooper and celebrated with a campaign theme each year – partners in Colorado’s agricultural industry will tour the state this month to show the faces of agriculture. The Colorado Proud program provides a guarantee to consumers that their food was grown, raised or processed in the state. The program started in 1999, but its purple-and-yellow mountain symbol is becoming more powerful. This year’s Colorado Proud survey results suggested that consumers want to “feel more connected” to farmers and food sources.
Dispelling GMO myths with Neil Degrasse Tyson and Bill Nye
inquisitr.com | Posted on August 6, 2017Rosanne Rust, a registered dietitian nutritionist and author from Northwest, Pennsylvania, had this to say about the definition of GMOs. “GMOs come from modifying the genes of a plant or animal by inserting one targeted gene that possesses a desired trait into the other organism.” She added, “This highly specific process can help an organism stay healthy by preventing disease or malformation, or it may enhance the organism’s positive traits.” Some say that the debate still lingers on, but for many, the debate is over when people are dealing with the facts and not belief systems. Much of the scientific community seems to agree that GMOs in and of themselves are not harmful and may even be beneficial to the economy and the environment, as well as having long term effects that will help the world.
PETA Begins New Hypocritical Ad Campaign
Center for Consumer Freedom | Posted on August 3, 2017Focusing on the Newark, NJ, area and looking to expand to the New York City suburbs on Long Island, PETA has begun a new campaign near fast-food restaurants that reads “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the individual. Go Vegan.” Known for its stunts like lettuce-bikini models and celebrity protests, PETA is perhaps the most well-known animal rights organization in the world. But its proclivity for rhetoric that equates rats to people flies in the face of the practice of its own “animal shelter.” Since 1998, PETA has killed over 36,000 animals at its Norfolk headquarters.What’s even grimmer, after being busted for dumping the bodies of dead animals in a strip mall dumpster, a veterinarian that turned the animals over to PETA testified that the dogs had been healthy and adoptable, directly refuting the popular claim by PETA that the animals it kills are “unadoptable.”
Potential increase in ICE presence raises concerns in Idaho
Capital Press | Posted on August 3, 2017The prospect of ICE leasing space at a county jail in the heart of Idaho dairy country is creating fear among Hispanic workers and worry among dairymen and processors.
Sugar companies to launch GMO education campaign
Capital Press | Posted on August 3, 2017Two of the nation’s sugar companies will launch a $4 million online campaign this fall aimed at educating consumers about GMO crops and changing their perceptions of the technology.
Machinery sales near ‘bottom of difficult cycle’
Capital Press | Posted on August 3, 2017Unit sales of larger tractors and combines have dropped at a slower rate in 2017 compared to last year, when they plunged more than 20 percent.