AgClips
Recent AgClips
Activist video targets Amick Farms, line speeds
Watt AgNet | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in Agriculture NewsAnimal rights group Compassion Over Killing (COK) is using an undercover video that was apparently filmed at the Amick Farms poultry processing plant in Hurlock, Maryland, as a platform to pressure the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lower the maximum allowable line speeds at U.S. poultry plants. The video was filmed by an animal rights activist who obtained employment at the plant.In the video, some scenes of animal mistreatment are shown.
TVA Seeks Input On Potential Coal Plant Closures
Solar Industry | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in NewsThe Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is asking for public input on a review of the potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts of closing the Bull Run and Paradise coal plants. Bull Run, located in Anderson County, Tenn., is a single-generator, coal-fired power plant. Paradise, located near Drakesboro, Ky., has one coal-fired generator still operating, Unit 3. Two other coal-fired units at Paradise were retired when a new natural gas plant began operating at the site in 2017, says TVA.
Mexico authorizes 26 Brazilian meat plants to export chicken
Reuters | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal NewsMexico has authorized 26 Brazilian meat plants to export chicken products into the country, Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry said on Monday, as the two nations seek to strengthen commercial ties amid a realignment of global trade partnerships.
Dairy Cow Prices Drop
Drovers | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in Agriculture NewsUSDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service surveys producers on dairy cow prices quarterly (published in their Agricultural Prices report). The latest release was for the third quarter. Data are collected only for cows sold to be used as dairy herd replacement purposes, the national number is calculated by weighting state values by cow inventory. Nationally, for the quarter ending October 1, 2018, the average cow price was $1230.00, a drop from the prior quarter of $90.00 (down 7%). Yearover-year the decline was $380.00 per cow (fell by 24%).
Bakersfield
Technical assistance grant money available for Climate Smart Ag programs | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe California Department of Food and Agriculture is soliciting applications for technical assistance grants for Climate Smart Agriculture programss.The grants are for organizations that can provide assistance to applicants to the CSA programs.Nonprofit organizations, California academic institutions and California Resource Conservation Districts are eligible to apply.The three CSA programs are: State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP), Healthy Soils Program (HSP), and Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP).
Judge blocks Trump administration from denying asylum claims to immigrants who cross border illegally
CNN | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in Agriculture NewsIn an order laced with language accusing President Donald Trump of attempting to rewrite immigration laws, a federal judge based in San Francisco temporarily blocked the government late Monday night from denying asylum to those crossing over the southern border between ports of entry.Judge Jon S. Tigar of the U.S.
Farmers Are Seeking More Temporary H-2A Workers, And Keeping Them Longer
Nebraska Public Radio | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe high-desert town of Palisade, Colorado, is synonymous with fresh, locally grown peaches. Years ago, thousands of migrant workers would flock here each year in October to harvest the fuzzy fruit. But today, on its narrow dirt roads, Bruce Talbott drives a truck loaded down with 9 tons of wine grapes.For more than 100 years and five generations, Talbott’s family has grown mostly peaches. But he’s diversified, he said, because in the early 2000s, that pool of labor began drying up.
Canada can enter trade deal with China, says agriculture minister
IPolitics | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in Federal NewsThe United States and Mexico can’t exclude Canada from entering formal trade negotiation with China, Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay says — despite an ongoing global trade war and questions about a clause in the trilateral trade deal. MacAulay was asked by reporters on Monday about a clause in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that allows any member of the trade pact to veto a free trade agreement with a “non-market economy” — including China.A non-market country is a country that doesn’t operate on free-market principles that go beyond traditional trade protections.
California to impose its elite food standards on farmers in other states
Farm Futures | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in NewsOn Nov. 7 California voters approved Proposition 12, which will set new minimums for cage size for breeding pigs and calves sold in California. The proposition passed by an overwhelming majority. California's Legislative Analyst’s Office claims Proposition 12 will cause increased prices for eggs, pork and veal. Even the California Department of Food and Agriculture indicates its added workload to enforce it will cost the department approximately $10 million annually. Proposition 12 will impact farmers in all other states exporting these products to the California consumer.
Bucksport, Maine: The Town That Refused to Die
Yankee Magazine | Posted onNovember 21, 2018 in Rural NewsWhen the paper mill that had defined Bucksport, Maine, for eight decades shut down just before Christmas 2014, the town, like others before it, could have withered away. Instead, something else happened.Over the decades Bucksport became known for producing the finest lightweight coated paper in the world, paper that was used in such magazines as Time and Sports Illustrated and Good Housekeeping andNewsweek and catalogs like L.L. Bean and Sears and Victoria’s Secret and Avon.