AgClips
Recent AgClips
The narrative of renewal: If we can't mine coal, what are we going to do?
Daily Yonder | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in Energy News“EPA = Expanding Poverty in America.” This statement is written in three-foot-high letters on a banner stretched over a bandstand in a public park in Pikeville, Kentucky. It is June 2012 and I am just starting production of the After Coal documentary. The crowd around me is dressed in the reflective stripes of mining uniforms or in T-shirts reading Friends of Coal and Walker Heavy Machinery.
Opioid overdose rate by county 2012-2016
Daily Yonder | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in NewsIf you’ve got a couple minutes, Michael Meit has a favor to ask. He’ll try not to take up too much of your time. “What I want is for people to go to the online tool, click on their county, pull up that 8 ½-by-11 fact sheet, and send it to all their local elected officials, health department staff, medical personnel, and others,” Meit said. And? “Start a community dialog about drug overdose deaths in their community,” Meit said.
Could TV Whitespace Get Real With Microsoft Initiative
Daily Yonder | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in Rural NewsTerrain, demographics, trees, hills, politics, and low population density all conspire to block rural residents from getting easy internet access. Could that be changing? A year ago Microsoft announced its Airband Initiative, an effort to move TV whitespaces from a good idea to a working technology. The project coordinates smaller Internet service providers, manufacturers, and software vendors around the new technology. Some early signs hint at future successes.
Changing housing market, timber glut limit prices
Mississippi State | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in Agriculture, Rural NewsHousing start fluctuations and an abundance of timber are limiting the ceiling on stumpage prices in Mississippi now, but expect the market to improve when sawmills begin stocking up for winter. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau National, home construction dropped 13 percent from May to June, which is considered a significant decrease.
We'll regret bypassing local shops for sake of a few bucks
Madison | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in Agriculture NewsWe American consumers are a fickle lot.I was reminded of that again last week when a family-owned local grocery chain announced it is calling it quits after decades serving the Chicago market.The few giant national chains, the product of years of cutthroat consolidation, did them in, just as they have done in thousands of mom-and-pop stores across the land, including here in Wisconsin.All for the sake of saving a buck or two, shoppers unwittingly rush to the latest mega-store while the small businesses that have served as the bedrock of American commerce for centuries drop by the wayside.On
What would the loss of 2-4D impact?
24d.org | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in Agriculture News2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) was first marketed to control broadleaf weeds in 1945 and since that time has become one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. 2,4-D formulations include esters, acids, and several salts (WHO 1989). The dimethyl-amine salt (DMA) and 2-ethylhexyl ester (EHE) formulations account for approximately 90-95% of its total global use (Charles et al. 2001).The loss of access to 2,4-D would most certainly force applicators to switch to more expensive alternative herbicides and would likely result in decreased crop yields.
Why Oceanside’s Measure Y hurts farmers
San Diego Union Tribune | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsIt may not seem like it, but San Diego County is a farming community.That phrase, “farming community,” may conjure up images of old-timey black and white photos of tractors tilling up huge fields in what may now be a suburban neighborhood. Yet local agriculture continues to be important today.But our farming community is not without challenges. The most urgent challenge is Oceanside’s Measure Y, a ballot initiative that could spell the end of local farming.
Oil industry, green groups join to oppose Trump’s ethanol plan
The Hill | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in Energy, Federal NewsPresident Trump is creating strange bedfellows with his proposal to expand ethanol sales, with some environmental groups and the oil industry opposing the new rule. The groups have different reasons for pushing back against Trump’s plan to remove a key barrier to selling gasoline with 15 percent ethanol (E15), but both say it’s a bad policy and are contemplating suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if it is finalized.Trump on Tuesday directed the EPA to craft a regulation that would allow for sales of E15 year-round.
NY to invest $40M in solar energy storage technology
Miami Herald | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in Energy NewsNew York state is investing $40 million in technology that stores energy from solar power. The office of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the funding decision. The money will support solar power projects around the state that are designed to ensure energy derived from the sun can be stored for use when demand is greatest. That can reduce the need for other, less environmentally friendly forms of power.Cuomo has set a goal for the state to generate half of its power from renewable energy sources by 2030.
Trade and a frog
OFW law | Posted onOctober 11, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal NewsThe U.S. trade deficit rose in August to $53.2 billion. That’s up $3.2 billion. A decline in soybean and oil exports is what pulled us down. China is not buying our beans – at least, not now. Their companies don’t want to pay the 25% tariff imposed by China on our beans. There is some good news. USA Rice Chairman Charley Mathews, Jr. is cheering a big purchase – 90,000 metric tons of rice by Iraq. That is triple what they had been buying. The National Pork Producers Council is praising President Trump for announcing that the U.S. and Japan are to begin trade talks.