AgClips
Recent AgClips
Dire Climate Change Warnings Cut From Trump Power-Plant Proposal
Bloomberg | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Energy NewsWarnings about potentially severe consequences of climate change were deleted from a Trump administration plan to weaken curbs on power plant emissions during a White House review. Drafts had devoted more than 500 words to highlighting the impacts -- more heat waves, intense hurricanes, heavy rainfalls, floods and water pollution -- as part of the proposal to replace Obama-era restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.
Georgia's Lt Governor Candidate raises rural hospitals as campaign issue
Daily Yonder | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Rural, SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia, Sarah Riggs Amico, has raised rural hospital closures as a campaign issue. “There are 60 counties in Georgia without a pediatrician, half of our counties don’t have an OB/GYN, & rural hospitals are closing,” she stated in an Aug. 20 tweet.
Tennessee Senate candidates spar over broadband
The Tennessean | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in NewsThe Tennessee Valley Authority helped deliver electricity to large parts of the Southeast United States starting in the 1930s. Could it also be part of moving rural Tennessee into the internet age? Phil Bredesen, former governor of Tennessee and now Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, says TVA could do just that. TVA, which was one of FDR’s first New Deal programs, generates electricity and transmits the power wholesale to local utilities, which handle the last mile.
Tennessee Power Co-op and ISP use new state law to add broadband
Daily Yonder | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Rural NewsNew rules in Tennessee allow utility co-ops more leeway in providing internet service to their customers.
Bayer vague on lawsuit strategy
Daily Yonder | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Agriculture NewsIt’s been two weeks since the merger between Bayer AG and Monsanto officially began its integration, two months since the deal closed and nearly two years since the planned deal was announced. Despite that, newly appointed Bayer officials are vague on how they plan to handle the mountain of lawsuits inherited from Monsanto over pesticides such as glyphosate and dicamba. These lawsuits have plagued Monsanto, most recently in an August 10 court decision that ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages.
Million of acres of public land are not legally accessible
Daily Yonder | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Rural NewsPrivate holdings block public access to nearly 10 million acres of federal land in the West, hampering growth in the recreation economy, a new report says. The federal program that could help purchase access expires September 30. The inaccessibility of this federal property is slowing down rural economies that depend on income from the outdoor recreation industry, said a representative of the organization that commissioned the report.
Agriculture Uncertainty
OFW Law | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe agriculture industry in the U.S. is dealing with a lot of uncertainty. Falling prices and trade wars top the list. We expect our exports to grow faster than our imports. However, for 3 years in a row, that has not been happening. We are losing ground. Looking to 2019, pork exports are expected to decline by $300 million and beef by $100 million.A little bit of good news – poultry will be up slightly, and also wheat. Net farm income is forecast to drop $9.8 billion.
A rural town banded together to open a hospital. Its foe? A larger hospital.
The New York Times | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Rural NewsNot long after Beau Braden moved to southwest Florida to open a medical clinic, injured strangers started showing up at his house. A boy who had split open his head at the pool. People with gashes and broken bones. There was nowhere else to go after hours, they told him, so Dr. Braden stitched them up on his dining room table. They were 40 miles inland from the coral-white condos and beach villas of Naples, but Dr.
Bayer says more Americans are alleging Monsanto weedkillers cause cancer
Wall Street Journal | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Agriculture NewsBayer said the number of American plaintiffs alleging its recently acquired weedkillers cause cancer has risen sharply, adding to concerns about potentially lengthy and costly litigation stemming from its acquisition of Monsanto. The German chemicals company on Wednesday also lowered its full-year earnings outlook because of delays in closing its $63 billion purchase of Monsanto, which included a portfolio of herbicides that contain glyphosate, notably flagship product Roundup.Bayer said it faced some 8,700 plaintiffs across the U.S.
US dairy struggles to keep Chinese market under tariffs
Agri-Pulse | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Agriculture NewsU.S. dairy exporters are losing money as they try to maintain their hard-won footholds in the Chinese market amid the rising tariffs resulting from President Donald Trump’s trade war. Some U.S. exporters – sellers of relatively low-cost nonfat dry milk powder – have already had to give up, but many who depend on China to buy whey, cheese and other pricier products are hanging on for now, says U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) President and CEO Tom Vilsack.It’s a tough situation that’s only degrading as U.S. companies lose ground to competitors in Australia, Europe and New Zealand.