AgClips
Recent AgClips
Washington state wants to add firefighters and training academy to beef up wildfire response
Seattle Times | Posted onJanuary 22, 2019 in Rural NewsCiting the devastation and expense of fighting Washington’s wildland blazes, state Public Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz proposed a “groundbreaking strategic plan” Thursday to prevent and respond to wildfires. Franz’s 10-year plan would add 30 full-time and 40 seasonal wildland firefighters to the agency and add two helicopters to the state’s aerial firefighting resources, with one to be assembled from parts the state already has on hand, a practice DNR has used in the past. The proposal would create a wildland fire-training academy for different agencies to use.
Judge eliminates Wisconsin early voting limits approved by GOP lawmakers during lame-duck session
Journal Sentinel | Posted onJanuary 22, 2019 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsMoving swiftly, a federal judge on Thursday struck down limits on early voting that Republican lawmakers approved last month in a lame-duck session. In a five-page ruling, U.S. District Judge James Peterson concluded the new limits on early voting are invalid because they so closely mirror ones he struck down as unconstitutional in 2016. His decision also threw out parts of the lame-duck laws affecting IDs and other credentials that can be used for voting.
Black Southerners Are Bearing the Brunt of America’s Eviction Epidemic
Pew Trust | Posted onJanuary 22, 2019 in Rural NewsA long understudied facet of the American housing market, evictions have hit no area of the country harder than the South, a region home to most of the top-evicting large and mid-sized U.S. cities, according to a list released by Princeton’s Eviction Lab. Last year Eviction Lab debuted what’s thought to be the nation’s largest eviction database, revealing that U.S. property owners had submitted at least 2.3 million eviction filings in 2016.
The Pain and Politics of Soy, Almond, Oat, and Cow’s Milks
Vine Pair | Posted onJanuary 22, 2019 in Food NewsLast year, demand for Oatly, a Swedish oat milk popular at third-wave American coffee shops, outpaced supply. National shortages ensued. Oatly superfans were devastated, and apparently willing to spend $25 per 32-ounce carton on Amazon. It’s tempting to write this off as a fluke or embarrassing display of disposable income.
PETA, Other Organizations Respond to Video of Local Farm Employee's Actions
We are Green Bay | Posted onJanuary 22, 2019 in Agriculture, Rural NewsA Marinette County farm is receiving backlash after a video surfaced of an employee using an electrically heated hot iron to burn the horn buds of the heads of calves. The video shows an employee using the hot iron on approximately 12-week-old calves without giving the calves an anesthetic or giving them pain relief afterwards. During the incident, the calves were kicking their legs, bellowing, flinching and attempting to pull their heads away from the hot irons. The employee also used metal restraints on them.
Free college tuition starts now for Cleveland students as Say Yes to Education arrives
Cleveland.com | Posted onJanuary 20, 2019 in Rural, SARL Members and Alumni NewsCollege will be free for virtually all Cleveland school district graduates starting with this year’s senior class, after the much-anticipated launch today of the Say Yes to Education college scholarship and student support program in the city. A team of city, county, philanthropic and Say Yes leaders announced the scholarships at a rally at John Marshall High School to cheering students this morning, pledging that the ever-increasing cost of tuition will no longer block Cleveland school district graduates from attending college.
What does 2019 hold for milk prices?
Edairy News | Posted onJanuary 20, 2019 in Agriculture NewsThe dairy market has been a tough market says Bryan Doherty, Vice President of Stewart-Peterson.Doherty relates that monthly increases in milk production and efficiency per cow still climbing have made the market difficult to turn around, largely because of the high supply of milk. However, things appear to be changing.“Prices are low enough where demand is on the grow,” Doherty says.Global dairy prices have continued to pick up steam through the New Year and beef prices are higher, too.
Virginia announces over $600,000 in farmland preservation grants
Aigista Free Press | Posted onJanuary 20, 2019 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsGov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday the recipients of fiscal year 2019 farmland preservation grants. Six localities have been awarded a total of $633,831 from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Office of Farmland Preservation. The funds will be used to permanently preserve working farmland through local Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) programs. PDR programs compensate landowners who work with localities to preserve their land permanently by voluntarily securing a perpetual conservation easement.
Tyson, nonprofit partner on sustainable land project
Meating Place (free registration required) | Posted onJanuary 20, 2019 in Agriculture NewsTyson Foods and the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) announced a partnership to develop initiatives aimed at accelerating sustainable food production. The partnership will focus first on helping Tyson meet its land stewardship goal, announced in April 2018, to work with farmers to improve practices across two million acres of corn production by 2020.
Farm Bureau Adopts Policies on Government Shutdown, Trade, Opioids, Cell-Based Food and Broadband
Farm Bureau | Posted onJanuary 20, 2019 in Agriculture NewsDelegates urged the administration and Congress to work together to end the government shutdown as soon as possible. The current shutdown means farmers and ranchers are being delayed in securing loans and crop insurance as well as disaster and trade assistance. Delegates voted to favor negotiations to resolve trade disputes, rather than the use of tariffs or withdrawal from agreements.