AgClips
Recent AgClips
Cloned pork is considered Kosher
Newsweek | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Agriculture NewsProminent Israeli Rabbi Yuval Cherlow says meat from a cloned pig would be considered kosher under Jewish dietary laws. Cherlow, who is a leading scholar on modern interpretations of Kashrut, is advocating for rabbinic approval of cloned meats in order to reduce animal suffering, decrease meat industry pollution and stamp out starvation. Rabbi Cherlow makes the case that transgenic or cloned meat would not be subject to the same Kashrut dietary laws that guide what is kosher, or “fit,” for consumption by Jews.
Bayer launches Care4Cattle grant program
Meat + Poultry | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsBayer AG announced a new initiative called Care4Cattle, a grant program intended to help livestock professionals advance the well-being of dairy and beef cattle. Farmers, veterinarians, researchers and graduate students in veterinary medicine or animal science are invited to submit their ideas to the Care4Cattle program. Bayer said projects should demonstrate innovative, practice-oriented ways to improve cattle well-being on the farm level.
Budgetary Restraints Force CDC to Downsize International Programs
Egg-News | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Federal NewsThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been forced to reduce international epidemic detection and prevention programs. For many decades, the CDC has maintained a presence in as many as 49 nations to work with local health officials and to monitor outbreaks of disease. According to Dr. Rebecca Martin, Director of the CDC Center for Global Health, the agency will have to scale back the Global Health Security portfolio to focus efforts based on existing resources. Addressing her colleagues in an internal CDC E-mail, Dr.
State officials let mega-dairy use loophole to tap endangered Oregon aquifer
Idaho Statesman Journal | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsA year after it opened, Oregon’s second-largest dairy has not secured rights to the nearly 1 million gallons of water per day it needs for its thousands of cows and to process milk. Instead, Lost Valley Farm near Boardman moved ahead without the necessary permits, using a loophole in Oregon law to pull water out of an underground aquifer that’s been off limits to new wells for 42 years, alarming neighboring farmers who say their water supplies are now at risk.Documents obtained by the Statesman Journal show Gov.
Congressional Spending Bill Allocates $600 Million in New Rural Broadband Funding
telecompetitor | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Federal NewsNew rural broadband funding is included in the $1.3 trillion congressional omnibus bill to fund the government this year. The bill calls for an additional $600 million to be distributed through the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). The funding authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to create a pilot program within RUS that distributes the new funding in the form of grants and loans. There are details to be worked out, but the authorization calls for “expedited” delivery of the program.A few conditions were mandated by the funding bill.
Congressional spending bill includes language for milk labeling standards
KTIC Radio | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe congressional spending bill approved Thursday in the House and awaiting final vote in the Senate directs the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action against mislabeled imitation dairy foods, representing a major victory for farmers and consumers alike, according to the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF). The massive omnibus spending bill to fund the government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2018 includes report language instructing FDA to enforce labeling standards affecting dairy imitators.
The Great Puerto Rico Doglift
Village Voice | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Rural NewsThe Sato Project is working to rescue Puerto Rico’s street dogs for U.S. adoptions — and to reunite them with their storm evacuee families. Puerto Rico has had a stray dog problem for so long that the animals have become part of the island’s cultural landscape. But while many of the dogs in the airlift were mixed-breed satos — rescued from the street, the beach, parking lots, or major roads — others had recently lost their homes when their owners fled the island after Hurricane Maria and were forced to leave their pets behind.
Wyoming Legislature approves funding for agricultural land conservation projects
High Plains Journal | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe Wyoming Legislature has approved an allocation of $1.95 million from the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust Fund, to the Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust to help conserve over 6,300 acres of agricultural land in the state. The funding was originally granted in 2017 by WWNRT’s Board of Directors. This grant funding at the state level is one of the first steps in the process to complete these conservation easements which are expected to close in late 2019 or early 2020.
New tariff sparks ag steel price increases
Capital Press | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Federal NewsAgricultural steel users are already seeing higher prices due to President Donald Trump’s proposed 25 percent tariff on imports. Mark De Kleine, an agricultural engineering consultant in Prosser, Wash., said he found big price jumps in just a few days when sourcing trellis wire for orchards.“A 25 percent increase in steel — that’s going to be passed down to the consumer and be difficult for the ag industry. There’s a lot of steel in one acre of trellis,” De Kleine said.
Oil companies not questioning climate science
Scientific American | Posted onMarch 26, 2018 in Energy NewsOil companies accused of raising ocean levelswon't question the existence of climate change in federal court today. Chevron Corp. is expected to take a lead role in a climate science “tutorial” at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.