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SARL Members and Alumni News

Alaska:New ‘cottage food’ rules could make it easier for people to get into the business

Alaska DIspatch Publishing | Posted on May 25, 2017

More jams, jellies and baked goods could end up in farmers markets if an ordinance to reduce permit fees for "cottage food" vendors passes the Anchorage Assembly.Those producers, who typically are small in scale and sell items like baked goods, jams, jellies and fermented food made in home kitchens, pay $310 under current municipal rules to operate. The ordinance, scheduled to be considered by the Assembly Tuesday, would lower the fee to $50.The change is part of an overhaul of the city's rules for retail foods made in homes, according to DeeAnn Fetko, deputy director of the city's Department of Health and Human Services. With farmers markets growing in popularity, some cottage food vendors have run into conflict with the high permit price and confusing rules over what they can and cannot sell.Cottage food vendors under both existing rules and the new rules can make foods in home kitchens if their yearly sales are less than $25,000 and they produce "low risk" foods that are unlikely to cause illness. Most other foods must be prepared in commercial kitchens.The state food code, which covers all areas outside of Anchorage, allows for small-scale vendors to sell without a permit. The city requires a permit for all food sales except vendors selling fresh whole fruits and vegetables.


States try to reduce food waste with new laws

The Los Angeles Times | Posted on May 24, 2017

To protect the environment, relieve hunger and save money, states are trying to reduce those numbers. California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont already restrict the amount of food and other organic waste (such as soiled and compostable paper and yard waste) that can be dumped in landfills. Maryland, New Jersey and New York are considering similar laws.States are offering tax breaks to farmers and small businesses that donate food rather than throw it away, limiting the liability of food donors, and standardizing "use by" labels so consumers don't toss food that is still edible. New Jersey is considering an award to prompt people to come up with productive ideas for making use of "ugly produce," foods that are perfectly edible but shunned by retailers, processors and restaurants because of blemishes and other flaws.The issue also is attracting notice beyond state capitols. Some businesses are collecting farmers' imperfect produce and restaurant food that is on the verge of spoiling or has passed its "sell by" date and selling it to customers at a discount. Others have created apps that connect restaurants and stores that have surplus food to people who want it.The Food Waste Reduction Alliance, which represents the food industry and restaurant trade associations, recently worked with Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic to simplify and standardize "use by" and "sell by" labels, which befuddle many consumers. People throw away a lot of edible food because they misunderstand the difference between the two terms.


Ohio farmers given nutrient management tools

Farm and Dairy | Posted on May 24, 2017

The Ohio Department of Agriculture recently introduced two new nutrient management tools intended to help farmers track planting conditions, and conserve nutrients.The Ohio Applicator Forecast is a new online tool designed to help nutrient applicators identify times when the potential nutrient loss from a fertilizer or manure application is low.Secondly, the Ohio Agricultural Stewardship Verification Program is a pilot certification for farmers who protect farmland and natural resources by implementing best management practices on their farms.Both programs are voluntary. The Ohio Applicator Forecast takes data from the National Weather Service, predicting potential for runoff to occur in a given area. The forecast takes snow accumulation and melt, soil moisture content and forecast precipitation and temperatures into account, giving farmers timely information when they are making nutrient application decisions.The Ohio Agricultural Stewardship Verification Program will certify farmers in targeted watersheds in Henry and Wood counties who apply and meet criteria developed by ODA’s Division of Soil and Water Conservation.Criteria for the certification include developed nutrient management plans, accurate soil tests and documented best management practices, among others. The program will begin as a pilot with an intention to expand the program to all of Ohio.


Legislative efforts in Mo and TN leave broadband advocates hopeful

Daily Yonder | Posted on May 24, 2017

In Missouri, advocates quietly defeated another bill that would have created hurdles for municipal broadband providers. In Tennessee, a new law gives electric cooperatives the authority to go into the broadband business in their service areas.  Unlike battles occurring in Virginia and Tennessee between activists and large communication companies, the struggle in Missouri didn’t seem to attract a lot of attention. In fact, there seemed to be less local press coverage of groups attacking the bill this year compared with previous years, when similar proposals have been considered.Community broadband supporters are optimistic that Missouri’s governor inadvertently took the wind out of the sails of muni-network opponents for 2018. In April, Governor Eric Greitens announced that the state raised $45 million for broadband infrastructure, in large part thanks to an FCC E-Rate grant, part of the Universal Service Fund, which tries to make telecommunications services more affordable in hard-to-reach markets.


State milk regulators ask FDA to uphold dairy terminology

Feedstuffs | Posted on May 23, 2017

 

State milk regulators requested that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration work with them to enforce the proper use of milk and milk product labeling terms, especially those meant to distinguish between real dairy products and plant-based imitators – a development the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) hailed as “the strongest statement yet that the abuse of dairy terms has gone too far.”“It’s time for FDA to work with state agencies in defending standards of identity for dairy products,” said Beth Briczinski, NMPF vice president of dairy foods and nutrition.


Problems of rural Georgia easy to find, difficult to fix

Atlanta Journal Constitution | Posted on May 23, 2017

Whether it is the promise of industry that never materializes, the loss of existing factories and plants, or any of a number of other reasons, many of Georgia’s rural communities are suffering. The newest effort from state government to identify the challenges facing rural Georgia, and potential solutions, gets under way. The House Rural Development Council will have its first meeting. Its stated goal: “Work with rural communities to find ways to encourage economic growth.”in 2014, rural counties had just 22 percent of the state’s jobs, according to a landmark 2016 Georgia State University study called “Jobs in Georgia’s Urban and Rural Regions and Counties: Changes in Distribution, Type, and Quality from 2007 to 2014.”In it, authors Peter Bluestone and Mels de Zeeuw found that the Atlanta region and the state’s 13 “hub cities” saw 90 percent of all job growth from 2007 to 2014.The reasons are many. But a key is that urban areas were able to absorb the historical loss of manufacturing jobs by creating new service-industry positions. Rural Georgia simply lost jobs and never got them back. The state’s decision not to expand Medicaid precipitated the loss of rural hospitals, Bluestone said. The state has seen eight hospitals close in the past few years. All were in rural areas. The lack of broadband internet access is another.Automation and technology have killed manufacturing jobs as much as outsourcing and trade agreements have. Manufacturing output in the United States is actually higher than it was. There just aren’t as many humans needed to do it.By some accounts, the lack of jobs is not the problem. It’s the lack of trained and educated workers in some cases, Bluestone said.


Washington CAFO law attacked from all sides

Capital Press | Posted on May 23, 2017

The dairy industry and environmental groups have come up with 19 legal challenges to the Washington Department of Ecology’s new manure-control law.The Pollution Control Hearings Board, the forum for appealing Ecology actions, has scheduled a week-long hearing for Dec. 4-8 in Tumwater on the state’s Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permits. The appeals did not keep the rules from taking effect in March.“Ecology developed these permits with the best available science and broad stakeholder input,” department spokeswoman Jessica Payne wrote Monday in an email. “We believe they are protective of water quality and represent best practices for the facilities the permits will cover. Ecology stands by these permits.”CAFO permit terms are a major battleground for farm groups and environmental organizations in Washington. Provisions will dictate for at least the next five years how dairies keep manure from polluting groundwater and surface water.Previously, the state Department of Agriculture oversaw how dairies store and spread manure, and few dairies had CAFO permits issued by Ecology.The expanded permit will require more soil testing, put more limits on fertilizing with manure and place more scrutiny on manure lagoons, even ones built to Natural Resources Conservation Service standards.The Washington State Dairy Federation and Washington Farm Bureau dispute the science and economics behind the rules. A coalition of environmental groups allege Ecology has fallen short of upholding the federal Clean Water Act.The two sides agreed to combine their grievances into one appeal and also agreed on a list of legal issues to raise.


Ringling Bros. shuts down the big top after 146 years

ABC News | Posted on May 22, 2017

With laughter, hugs and tears — and the requisite death-defying stunts — the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus received its final standing ovation Sunday night as it performed its last show.  "We are, forevermore, the Greatest Show on Earth," boomed Johnathan Lee Iverson, who has been the ringmaster since 1999. His son, who also performed, stood by his side. It was an emotional 2 1/2 hours for those who worked on the circus. Many of Ringling's employees are second, third and even fourth-generation circus performers, while others met their spouses while touring. All spent months on the road, traveling from city to city in Ringling's train cars and describing themselves as a giant family, albeit one with many clowns.But it also was the fans who felt like family.Elaine Bario, a 57-year-old usher at the Nassau County Coliseum, said she's seen the circus every time it's been on Long Island — some years as a child with her father, who also was an usher at the same venue."The animals, this is where we fell in love with them," she said. "We got to see animals here and the Bronx Zoo. We don't go on safaris."Bario cried as she watched the final big cat act with its leopards, tigers and Alexander Lacey, the handsome animal trainer."I've always had a crush on the lion tamers," she said, laughing through tears.But it was those animal shows that led to the circus' eventual demise.Over the years, animal rights activists had targeted Ringling, saying that forcing animals to perform and transporting them around the country amounted to abuse. In May 2016, the company removed elephants from its shows, but ticket sales continued to decline. People, it seemed, didn't want to see a circus without elephants. Ringling's parent company, Feld Entertainment, announced in January it would close the show, citing declining attendance and high operating costs.A handful of protesters stood outside the venue on Sunday, with signs that said "compassion always wins," and "the future is animal free."Feld Entertainment CEO Kenneth Feld said that "we all have to embrace change."Feld's father and uncle bought the circus in 1967. It was sold to Mattel in 1971, but the Feld family continued to manage the shows. The Felds bought the circus back in 1982.Earlier Sunday, a group of retired and former circus performers sat across the street at a hotel bar, laughing and hugging and sharing memories of tours past.In the end, though, Feld executives said they knew the circus couldn't compete with iPhones, the internet, video games and massively branded and carefully marketed characters. Their other productions — Frozen on Ice, Marvel Live, Supercross, Monster Trucks, Disney on Ice — resonate better with younger generations. But that didn't stop the circus from giving the performance of their life, one last time, to one last crowd.


Rural development— and a burned out bridge

Insider Advantage | Posted on May 20, 2017

Before the ink was dry on a US Department of Transportation pledge to give $10 million for the replacement of a still smoldering collapsed portion of I-85 in Atlanta, metro legislators were criticizing a well-thought-out, hard-fought-for, and long overdue measure designed to help revitalize rural Georgia.The “Georgia Agribusiness and Rural Jobs Act” (GARJA), which passed minutes before the expiration of the 2017 legislative session, opens the door for small businesses in rural Georgia, approximately 130 counties, to have access to much needed growth capital. This need is just as immediate as are the repairs to Interstate 85.The idea is to make $60 million in tax credits available to companies willing to infuse $100 million of capital in designated rural counties for job creation in industries including, but not limited to, agribusiness and manufacturing.As James Salzer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution observed, it’s an idea that’s been around for decades– even put into practice in other states with varying degrees of success. The prior versions were found to create jobs and produce revenue for those states but since they didn’t produce at expected levels, some auditors suggested pulling the plug on the programs. This bill, crafted by Rep. Jason Show, R-Lakeland, is different. “This is the most tightly crafted bill of its kind in the country,” Shaw recently wrote.And Shaw’s right.Fees are strictly capped so that the available funds go to the intended recipient, not the fund managers. Where returns are realized on the invested sums, the state is allowed to share in those profits.Moreover, where the fund managers get out of line or the job creation targets are not met, the state– through the Department of Community Affairs– can recoup the tax credits.Those entities providing the funding are required to hold a Rural Small Business Investment Company or Small Business investment Company license. And the business must demonstrate that the benefit to Georgia’s General Fund must exceed the cost of the tax credits sought.In other words, somebody’s connected brother in law in need of a job won’t be able use smoke and mirrors claiming a qualified investment then reap the tax credits.There’s accountability as well since these growth funds must file annual reports showing “job creation and retention (a key buzz word here), average compensation and rural impact.”Contrary to its critics, Shaw’s bill is no “scheme”, it doesn’t allow a free ride where no jobs are created, the investment fund doesn’t reap an inordinate amount in fees, and the invested money has to stay in the state.


Veto saves Leopold Center, but maintains funding cut

Iowa Farmer Today | Posted on May 18, 2017

A line-item veto by Gov. Terry Branstad on May 12 means the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University remains alive, but it has no money. Officials at Iowa State University and at the Leopold Center were left scrambling to figure out what happens next and how the center will change in the coming months and years.“It’s better than what it was before (the veto),” says Doug Gronau, a farmer who represents the Iowa Farm Bureau on the Leopold Center’s advisory board. “I think there definitely is going to be a reorganization. I guess we’ll see what that means.”Branstad took action late on Friday, May 12, issuing a line item veto that cut wording passed by the legislature that would have repealed the Iowa Code sections authorizing the Leopold Center. The governor did not veto other changes that essentially eliminate funding for the center.Last year, the center received about $397,000 from the state’s general fund for staffing and administration as well as about 35 percent (or about $1.5 million) of the Agriculture Management Account, which was a pool of funds created by the 1987 Groundwater Protection Act. That money came from fees on fertilizer sales and pesticides.The legislature eliminated the general fund allocation and moved the money from the other fees to the Iowa Nutrient Research Center, which saw its funding from other sources cut.


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