AgClips
Recent AgClips
Connecticut farm gets $244K for manure digester
The Hartford Courant | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Agriculture NewsA $244,000 USDA Rural Energy for America Program grant has been awarded to Fort Hill Farm AG-Grid LLC. The announcement followed a visit to Fort Hill Farms by US Sen. Richard Blumenthal on Oct. 30. The grant will be used for the purchase and installation of a 450kW anaerobic digester.The 850,000 gallon digester will process manure and food waste into biofuel to be converted into electricity. The project is expected to generate power for farm operations with about 90 percent sold to three municipalities. This will be Connecticut's first digester to convert waste to energy.
Family gets into dairy business after claiming donkey milk saved daughter's life
KOCO News | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Agriculture NewsFrom promises of beautiful skin to allergy relief and healthier digestion, it all comes from the prized producers at the Oklahoma Donkey Dairy. The Traywick family, from Luther, started the journey four years ago when their daughter, Hannah, started getting sick with no explanation. "One of the girls was sick. She actually got strep throat," Saundra Traywick said.
Illinois closely watching virus that has killed more than 400 deer
The Telegraph | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Rural NewsIllinois says a virus outbreak has claimed more than 400 deer this year and has spread to 49 counties, including Schuyler, Greene, Macoupin, Cass and Sangamon counties in west-central Illinois. While most of the deaths of white-tailed deer from Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease have been in Peoria, Lawrence and Fulton counties, the numbers as of this week were significant in Schuyler, Menard and Macoupin counties in the region. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has received reports of 432 suspected cases of the disease so far this year.
China battles to control African swine fever as it reports 50th case
Reuters | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Agriculture NewsChina confirmed a new case of African swine fever on Monday, in southern Hunan province, marking the 50th outbreak of the highly contagious disease in the world’s top pork producer. The disease, which can be deadly for pigs and has no vaccine, has reached 14 provinces and municipalities in China since it was first detected in early August. Most of the recent cases have been in the south, which has the country’s highest pork consumption per capita.
Court grants R-CALF’s motion to expand beef checkoff lawsuit
Meating Place (free registration required) | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe federal district court in Montana on Monday granted independent rancher group R-CALF USA’s motion to expand its lawsuit against the USDA and the beef checkoff program to include at least 13 states in addition to Montana, the group announced in a news release. R-CALF contends that funds collected from its cattle producer members through the checkoff have been used illegally to fund the private speech of the Montana Beef Council.
By 2050, more than half of meat, dairy, and eggs in high-income countries could be animal-free.
Fast Company | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Agriculture NewsBy the end of the year, you may be able to walk into a restaurant and order chicken grown from chicken cells in a bioreactor rather than from an animal. It’s already possible to buy plant-based burgers more realistic than anything available in the past. It raises a question: What would it take to fully replace meat from animals?
Meet Mestic, the company that makes fabric out of cow poop
The Next Web | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Agriculture NewsWould you wear a shirt if the label said it was made of shit? Chances are you’re currently wearing something made of cotton. Ever since the fifth millennium BC, people have used the natural fiber derived from the cotton plant in textile production, and it’s now an enormous industry. Currently, the plant is growing on about 2.5 percent of the world’s arable land to supply the world with 25 million tons it uses every year. Cows are famous for having four stomachs (in fact, they have one, consisting of four compartments, but whatever right) to be able to digest tough grass.
Mass. High Court Considers Whether Farm Workers Should've Gotten Overtime Pay
New England Public Radio | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Monday took up the definitions of farming and agriculture. And those two terms are central to whether some former workers should have received overtime pay at a Whatley, Massachusetts, company that produces bean sprouts.Farm workers in the state receive a lower minimum wage than others, and are not eligible for overtime pay.Attorney Susan Garcia Nofi represents the employees, and said they should have received overtime since they worked in the processing plant at Chang Enterprises.
Winnowing farm programs
Ag Policy | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal NewsThe 2018 Farm Bill is being written in an intensely partisan environment. We see it in the campaign rallies, we see it in the ads on television, we see the results of partisanship in day to day interactions when neighbors are afraid to talk to each other if they are on opposite sides of the divide. That partisanship is clearly evident when it comes to the nutrition title of the farm bill where some want to make critical changes in the Supplemental Nutrition Program and others don’t. But when it comes to the commodity title, no partisanship is evident.
Scientists may have found the key ingredient for a universal flu vaccine, and it comes from llamas
Los Angeles Times | Posted onNovember 8, 2018 in Agriculture NewsA team from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla and their international colleagues have taken a major step toward the long-sought goal of developing a universal vaccine against influenza.First, they vaccinated llamas against a number of A and B strains of influenza. Then they took blood samples to collect the antibodies the llamas produced in response.Among them were four uniquely small antibodies that showed an ability to destroy many different strains of influenza.