AgClips
Recent AgClips
USMCA Paves the Way for Biotech Innovation
Biotech Now | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Agriculture Newsfter more than a year of high-stakes drama, the U.S. has inked an updated trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, otherwise known as the USMCA, has achieved an important step in bringing our neighboring countries closer to high U.S. intellectual property standards that have made us the world leader in biotechnology innovation.“The USMCA sets important new standards for U.S.
Energy Companies In Alaska Fight Controversial Salmon Initiative
NPR | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Energy, Rural NewsIn Alaska, a ballot measure is cutting right to the heart of the state's identity. It's pitting Alaskans' love for salmon against another powerful force - the oil and mining industries. The ballot measure pits the state's love for salmon against its need for oil and mining revenue. The controversial measure has drawn more money than all three gubernatorial candidates combined.
Trump trade war delivers farm boom in Brazil, gloom in Iowa
Reuters | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal NewsThe Bella Vita luxury condominium tower rises 20 stories over the boomtown of Luís Eduardo Magalhaes in northeastern Brazil. Its private movie theater and helipad are symbols of how far this dusty farming community has come since it was founded just 18 years ago. Local soybean producers shell out upward of a half-million U.S. dollars to live in the complex. Nearby farm equipment sellers, car dealerships and construction supply stores are bustling.Nearly 5,000 miles to the north in Boone, Iowa, farmers are hunkering down.
‘I Got Stuck’: In Poor, Rural Communities, Fleeing Hurricane Michael Was Tough
The New York Times | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Rural NewsThe orders came down to mobile home residents as the menace of Hurricane Michael approached in the Gulf of Mexico: Get out. Get out now. The evacuation mandate reached Gene Bearden, 76, in this blink-and-you-miss-it town with an aspirational name south of Tallahassee and in an area where a storm surge of up to 13 feet had been forecast.Mr. Bearden wanted to leave.
5 ways drones will change agriculture
Knowable Magazine | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Agriculture NewsNot long ago, drones on a farm meant male bees, essential for a healthy hive. But like catfish, cloud and viral, drone has taken on a new meaning in the age of high tech. Drones — the small flying robot variety — are ushering in a new agricultural revolution, says information specialist Gerard Sylvester, editor of a new report on drones and farming by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union.
Migrant workers in Indiana: They harvest our food, but risk labor trafficking
Indianapolis Star | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe migrant workers, still soaked with sweat, lumber off an old school bus an hour before midnight and slowly file toward a cluster of mobile homes set back from the highway that cuts through this Knox County farm town.
Billionaire-Backed Fund Invests in Pivot Bio’s $70m Series B to Address ‘One of Largest Sources of GHGs on Planet’
Ag Funder News | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Agriculture NewsBreakthrough Energy Ventures, the $1 billion fund focused on accelerating the world’s transition to clean energy, has invested in the $70 million Series B round for Pivot Bio. Pivot Bio is an agtech startup producing microbes that are applied to crops to make nitrogen available to them and could reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers. Singapore state fund Temasek also joined the round as a new investor. Noticeably absent from the investor line-up was Bayer Growth Ventures, the post-merger version of Monsanto Growth Ventures, which invested in Pivot Bio at Series A.
SARL Alumni, TN Senator Mark Norris confirmed as Federal Judge
The Tennessean | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Federal, SARL Members and Alumni NewsSenate Majority Leader Mark Norris has been named as a federal judge in West Tennessee, leaving his position open in the state senate. The U.S. Senate voted Thursday evening to confirm Norris in a close vote 51-44 vote.“I recommended Senator Norris to the president, and I strongly supported Mark’s nomination,” U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said in a statement. “He is respected by his peers around the country, having been elected chairman of the Council of State Governments, and has been an advocate and a champion for federalism and for the separation of powers.”
Many Native IDs Won't Be Accepted At North Dakota Polling Places
NPR | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Rural, SARL Members and Alumni NewsNative American groups in North Dakota are scrambling to help members acquire new addresses, and new IDs, in the few weeks remaining before Election Day — the only way that some residents will be able to vote. This week, the Supreme Court declined to overturn North Dakota's controversial voter ID law, which requires residents to show identification with a current street address. A P.O. box does not qualify.Many Native American reservations, however, do not use physical street addresses. Native Americans are also overrepresented in the homeless population.
Why don’t anti-Indian groups count as hate groups?
High Country News | Posted onOctober 15, 2018 in Federal NewsThis weekend, anti-government activists will converge on Whitefish, Montana, for the “New Code of the West” conference — a symposium catering to Western conspiracy theorists and extremists. Speakers range from Ammon Bundy, leader of the 2016 Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation in Oregon, to state legislators Montana Rep. Kerry White and Washington Rep. Matt Shea.