Agriculture News
Single beetle may have brought lethal tree disease now across Southeast
SFGate | Posted on July 13, 2017A lone female fungus-farming beetle inadvertently imported to Georgia may have been the source of a disease that has killed some 300 million redbay trees and threatens Florida's avocado groves, researchers from Mississippi and Florida say. Clones of the beetle and her fungus have spread west into Texas and north to North Carolina over the past 15 years
North-east dairy farmers rally together to safeguard future
edairynews | Posted on July 13, 2017Dairy farmers in the north-east have rallied together to form a new organisation with a view to potentially building a new milk processing plant for the region. The North-East Milk Producers Organisation comprises 26 farmers who produce a combined total of 54million litres of milk every year.The group’s chairman Roy Mitchell, who farms at Drimmies Farm near Inverurie, said the organisation was formed in response to dairy giant Muller’s decision to close its Aberdeen milk processing plant last summer. Mr Mitchell said the new farmer organisation was the natural next step on from work carried out by economic development agency Opportunity North East and Aberdeenshire Council into market options for north-east milk and the feasibility of building a new processing plant.“Now it’s time to see if the farmers are interested,” said Mr Mitchell.“All the farmers have put money in to help finalise the business plan. We want to look into the potential of building a new plant if the market is there for it.”
Where Are USDA’s Reports On Dairy Promotion Programs?
edairynews | Posted on July 13, 2017We’re now halfway through 2017, and this serves as a good reminder that the US Department of Agriculture is a tad late in submitting its annual report to Congress on the dairy and fluid milk promotion programs. Several years late, in fact. The Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983, which created the National Dairy Promotion and Research Program, requires USDA to submit an annual report to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees on the dairy promotion program. The enabling legislation for the Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Program, the Fluid Milk Promotion Act of 1990, also requires such a report.But the most recent report posted on the website of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (which has oversight responsibility for both dairy promotion programs as well as a number of other promotion and research programs covering everything from eggs and cotton to popcorn and softwood lumber) covers 2012 program activities. That’s practically ancient history.
Domino's Celebrates Cow Appreciation Week with 50 Percent off Online Pizza Orders
PR Newswire | Posted on July 13, 2017Domino's Pizza, the recognized world leader in pizza delivery and digital ordering platforms, realizes that Cow Appreciation Week may exist only in the minds of those who truly love cheese as much as we do, and that's OK. Domino's love of cheese runs deep – it takes thousands of cows and dairy farmers to offer the variety of cheeses that Domino's does. And now, Domino's is celebrating its appreciation of cows and all things dairy by offering customers 50 percent off menu-priced pizzas when ordered online, beginning today and running through Sunday, July 16.
Woman pleads guilty in probe of illegal labor at dairy farms
Fox 17 | Posted on July 13, 2017A judge has accepted a guilty plea in an investigation of illegal labor at dairies in Michigan’s Thumb region. Madeline Burke pleaded guilty to hiring people without verifying that they were eligible to work in the U.S. The government says the workers were in the U.S. illegally.Burke and her husband are natives of Ireland. They operate two dairies near the tip of the Thumb. Burke has agreed to pay a fine of $187,500, which adds up to $1,500 per illegal worker.
American farmers are facing a political paradox because of Republicans' hard line on immigration
Business Insider | Posted on July 13, 2017US dairy farmers tend to be conservatives, but many depend on immigrant workers to keep their operations running. Republicans' tough stance on immigration has created a political rift between some farmers and their representatives. This disconnect highlights the complicated place farmers hold in American politics.
Court denies rehearing on emissions reporting
Feedstuffs | Posted on July 12, 2017A federal court denied a request from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) seeking a rehearing following a recent ruling issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit requiring additional waste emissions reporting requirements for concentrated animal feeding operations. The court’s ruling rejected an exemption from reporting under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Emergency Planning Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), two programs that are meant to inform the National Response Center and local first responders of hazards that may call for emergency action.
Manitoba pork farmers scramble to contain virus that's fatal for piglets
CBC News | Posted on July 12, 2017Farmers in Manitoba, Canada's third-largest pork producing province, are scrambling to contain a mysterious outbreak of a rapidly spreading virus that's deadly to piglets and threatens to harm their industry.There are 51 pork operations dealing with porcine epidemic diarrhea, up from about 40 at the end of last month, said Andrew Dickson, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council."It caught us off-guard," Dickson said Monday. "We had a total of 10 cases in three years, so that's what's throwing us off for a loop ... What happened this year that we've suddenly got 50?" He said the virus has so far been contained to about a half-hour's drive radius surrounding Steinbach, southeast of Winnipeg, and farmers are doing what they can — including reviewing biosecurity measures, equipment and clothing — to stop it from spreading.
Editorial: To clean up our water, go 'nuts' like this Iowa farmer
Des Moines Register | Posted on July 12, 2017Seth Watkins has impressive Iowa agriculture bona fides: He’s a fourth-generation farmer. He raises 600 cows and tends 3,200 acres east of Clarinda in southwest Iowa. His grandmother, Jessie Field Shambaugh, founded 4-H. Yet some Iowans have called him “nuts” for sowing grass where he could plant more corn, he told the Register.Watkins has broken out of the two-crop cycle in which so many farmers are caught. He grows corn but also oats, alfalfa and cover crops. He grazes his cattle on pastureland, and about 400 acres of his land have been restored to prairie or set aside for ponds and protection of wildlife and streams. And he’s seen better financial returns as a result, he said, even if it comes at the cost of huge corn yields.“My job as farmer is not to produce; my job is to care for the land. And when I do this properly, this provides for all of us,” said Watkins.
Netflix film satirizes business via pork supply chain
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on July 12, 2017In late June, Netflix debuted a new film by eclectic Korean director Bong Joon-Ho, “Okja.” The main story line is about a girl, the pig she raised (the “Okja” of the title), and how that pig is taken over and mistreated by corporate interests. Much of the story line, according to early reviews, is about how the girl vows to rescue Okja, with the help of animal activists.Being a satire, the characters are largely represented in extreme caricature — completely evil or positively saintly. And Okja bears no resemblance to an actual pig, being a hippo-sized, genetically modified version of a swine.Reviewers describe the plot as taking aim at a host of agribusiness interests, including Monsanto and GMOs, as well as the process of harvesting animals for meat.