AgClips
Recent AgClips
Subsidies prevent farmers from reaching their full potential
The Hill | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Agriculture NewsAmerican farmers and low-income families are understandably uneasy with the recent expiration of the farm bill, although the eventual passage of another iteration is all but assured. Regardless, we should take a moment to ask what would happen if we repealed farm bill agricultural subsidies instead. The idea may sound fanciful. We’ve had farm subsidies for over 80 years; it’s hard to conceive of an agriculture industry without extensive government intervention.
Work Requirements and Safety Net Programs
Hamilton Project | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Federal NewsBasic assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program) and Medicaid ensure families have access to food and medical care when they are low-income. Some policymakers at the federal and state levels intend to add new work requirements to SNAP and Medicaid. In this paper, we analyze those who would be impacted by an expansion of work requirements in SNAP and an introduction of work requirements into Medicaid.
Here’s How America Uses Its Land
Bloomberg | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Agriculture NewsWhat can be harder to decipher is how Americans use their land to create wealth. The 48 contiguous states alone are a 1.9 billion-acre jigsaw puzzle of cities, farms, forests and pastures that Americans use to feed themselves, power their economy and extract value for business and pleasure.Using surveys, satellite images and categorizations from various government agencies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture divides the U.S. into six major types of land. The data can’t be pinpointed to a city block—each square on the map represents 250,000 acres of land.
Have you seen these pictures of a silo collapse and barn damage?
Ag Web | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Agriculture NewsSilo collapse kills one cow and traps 13 calves. A silo containing large amounts of grain collapsed onto one of the main barns at Cherry Hill Farm in Lunenburg, Mass., Sunday morning, trapping 13 calves and killing one cow. The owner and his daughter were inside the barn as the silo began to collapse, however, the two were able to move some of the animals out before the silo crashed.
No vote on USMCA until next year, McConnell says
Washington Examiner | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Federal NewsSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that the Senate wasn't going to be able to vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade before the end of the year. Postponing the vote until next year means that President Trump may have to get it through a divided Congress, should Democrats regain majorities after the fall election.
USDA to grant license for African Swine Fever vaccine
Meating Place (free registration required) | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Agriculture NewsUSDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) published in the Federal Register a notice of intent to grant animal health company Zoetis LLC an exclusive license to two patents related to the company’s development of a vaccine to combat African Swine Fever (ASF). The move comes as ASF riddles China’s massive hog population and continues to move in Europe, threatening to hamper large pork exporting nations there, and as U.S. government, industry and health officials work to prevent its introduction in the United States.
Can a California town move back from the sea?
High Country News | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Rural NewsBroadly speaking, though, those practical things are limited. According to the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, or SPUR, a city can undertake one of several strategies: Build a barrier, armor the coast with levees and seawalls, elevate land, create “living shorelines” to absorb flooding and slow erosion, or retreat. This last strategy, “managed retreat,” SPUR warns, “is a political quagmire. It involves tremendous legal and equity issues, because not all property owners are willing sellers.
Try, try again: Advancing animal disease traceability
High Plains Journal | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Agriculture NewsGetting a nationwide group of notoriously independent and private people to voluntarily turn over information to the government can be a difficult obstacle to overcome. The U.S. Department of Agriculture made a major push to identify and track livestock in 2007, back when South Dakota native Bruce Knight was undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. The “primary emphasis is about supporting animal health,” and supporting producers, Knight said at the time. Some livestock producers jumped on board, but many did not.
Ocean temperatures rise, boosting odds of El Nino ahead
Capital Press | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Rural NewsPacific Ocean temperatures are rising along the equator, a signal that winter likely will be warmer than normal in the Northwest.Federal climatologists peg the odds that an El Nino will form in the next couple of months at 70 to 75 percent, a 5 percent increase since mid-September. The warm ocean should influence late winter weather, but El Ninos historically have had little effect on snow accumulation in Washington before Jan.
Neighbors sue to block planned Montana wind farm
The State | Posted onOctober 17, 2018 in Energy NewsNeighbors of a planned wind farm in southwestern Montana are suing to block the project. The Livingston Enterprise reports the Crazy Mountain Wind Farm would harvest 80 megawatts of electricity from 24 wind towers near the Sweet Grass and Park county line.Construction is scheduled to begin next spring.The lawsuit filed late last month in Park County is by four neighboring property owners with ranching and agricultural land.They allege the wind project will threaten wetlands, migratory birds, bald eagles, historic trails, businesses and the health of people living in the vicinity.