AgClips
Recent AgClips
Anthrax kills 13 bison on Fort. St. John farm
CBC | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Rural NewsThirteen farm animals are dead after coming into contact with dormant anthrax spores on a farm near Fort St. John. The Ministry of Agriculture says there is no public health risk and it is rare for the disease to spread from livestock to humans.
A Sense of Alarm as Rural Hospitals Keep Closing
The New York Times | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Rural News“Options are dwindling for many rural families, and remote communities are hardest hit,” said Katy Kozhimannil, an associate professor and health researcher at the University of Minnesota.
Why cows get a bad rap in lab-grown meat debate
The Daily Yonder | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Food NewsProponents of cultured meat - or whatever we wind up calling it --aren't painting an accurate picture of the impact the new food could have on the environment. For that matter, they aren't painting an accurate picture of the impact of real beef, either. A scientist says when it comes to weighing the effect of ruminants, there's a lot to chew over. A battle royal is brewing over what to call animal cells grown in cell culture for food. Should it be in-vitro meat, cellular meat, cultured meat or fermented meat?
Rural Americans are ok with 'outside' help to beat opioid crisis and boost economy
NPR | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Rural NewsRonald Reagan summed up the feeling when he was president: "I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.' "But rural Americans have come across scarier phrases since then, like "the opioid epidemic.""So what you have are some very serious problems — particularly around the economy and opioid and drug abuse — that really worry people," says Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Small towns face big problems.
Women farmers earn about $58,000 a year—but they still outearn their male counterparts
CNBC | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsAccording to the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture, the most recent data available, women make up 30 percent of all farm operators in the United States. While the number of principal farm owners decreased slightly from the 2007 to 2012 census, the trend has gone up over the last decade, driven by a few key shifts in farming. More women today are in leadership positions in farming and agriculture. In addition, there has been a surge of women starting their own small farms, which has likely tipped the scale in women's favor when it comes to compensation.
Tariffs could negate gains from new NAFTA, Farm Foundation says in report
Agri-Pulse | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe deals struck by the U.S., Mexico and Canada in renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement promise new trading opportunities for U.S. farmers, but the Trump administration’s trade wars and the tariffs that go with them more than negate the potential gains, according to a new study presented today by the Farm Foundation. The three-country pact - now dubbed the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement with the unwieldy acronym USMCA - is expected to eventually increase U.S. exports of mostly dairy and poultry by $450 million annually.
Perdue says no plan to extend farm aid to offset tariffs
Reuters | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal NewsThe U.S. Department of Agriculture is not planning to extend an up to $12 billion aid package for farmers into 2019, Secretary Sonny Perdue said, to mitigate farmer losses due to the imposition of tariffs on American exports. “Farmers are very resilient and adept in making their planning and marketing decisions based on the current market,” Perdue told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Washington.
The state of the heartland factbook 2018
| Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsPrepared to support the Walton Family Foundation’s inaugural Heartland Summit, the State of the Heartland: Factbook 2018 is intended to help Heartland leaders and citizens get on the same page about the region’s current condition and its trajectory at a crucial time. What do the indicators say about the region? Three major takeaways emerge clearly from the analysis:The Heartland economy is doing better than is sometimes portrayed.Serious deficits in the region’s human capital and innovation capacity pose the most serious challenges to improving future prosperity.
National Scorecard Reports How States Stack Up on Shared Renewable Energy Programs
Citizen Tribune | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Energy NewsA national scorecard released today by the independent Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) grades the nearly 20 state shared renewable energy programs (aka community solar).
CDC warns of poultry plant worker illnesses
Meat & Poultry | Posted onNovember 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 13 cases of psittacosis among poultry plant workers at two processing plants in Virginia and Georgia that are owned by the same company. Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of Chlamydia psittaci, the type of bacteria that causes psittacosis, which causes mild illness in people. Common symptoms include fever and chills, headache, muscle aches and a dry cough. The most common vector of infection is by breathing in dust containing dried secretions from infected birds.