AgClips
Recent AgClips
UW ag experts expect 2018 to be tough year
Wisconsin Agriculturalist | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsAccording to ag economists at the annual Wisconsin Agricultural Outlook Forum, dairy and crop farmers will be hit the hardest in the coming year.
Food distributors sue Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride and others alleging collusion on chicken prices
Wall Street Journal | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Food NewsThe two largest U.S. food distributors are accusing top poultry suppliers of conspiring to limit stocks and manipulate wholesale prices, fueling a legal battle that has pitted buyers and consumers against chicken processors. Sysco Corp. and US Foods, which sell food to hundreds of thousands of food-service customers, alleged in separate lawsuits that they overpaid for chicken meat for years due to collusion among Tyson Foods Inc.,Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., Sanderson Farms Inc. and other companies in the $60 billion U.S. chicken industry.
Why is pay lagging? Maybe too many mergers in the heartland
The New York Times | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Rural NewsA recent working paper by the economists José Azar, Ioana Marinescu and Marshall I. Steinbaum examined job listings on CareerBuilder.com from 2010 through 2013 and found that tens of millions of Americans lived in areas where a relatively small number of employers posted most of the listings. They showed that wages fell when fewer employers in a geographic area listed most of the jobs in an occupation. The phenomenon appears to hit workers hardest outside major cities — areas where voters’ economic frustrations helped carry Donald J. Trump to the White House in 2016. Mr. Trump won Mr.
TPP trade agreement passes with 11 member states
ZD net | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP 11) trade agreement has passed with its 11 remaining member nations despite the withdrawal of the United States a year ago, and will be signed in Chile in March, according to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. "We stuck with the TPP. There have been some hills and hollows and some twists and turns along the way since the APEC meeting in Lima in 2016, after it was known that President Trump would pull out," Turnbull told media.
Factors from Weather to Farm Income May Be Contributing to Opioid Epidemic, Penn State Study Says
State College | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Rural NewsA variety of factors that aren't often part of the discussion may be influencing the ongoing problem of opioid abuse and overdoses in rural areas, according to a study by a Penn State economist.
New California program to develop 5 dairy digester RNG projects
Biomass Magazine | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture, Energy NewsIn mid-December, the California Public Utilities Commission established a new program that aims to reduce methane emissions from manure generated at dairies. The CPUC said the pilot program will incentivize at least five projects where dairy digesters produce renewable natural gas (RNG) from manure. The program was adopted pursuant to SB 1383, which established a goal to reduce California’s methane emissions 40 percent by 2030. As part of this goal, the bill authorizes funding of the dairy biomethane pilot projects to demonstrate interconnection to the gas pipeline system.
Alaska officials want some areas out of drilling plan
Houston Chronicle | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Energy NewsAlaska's all-Republican congressional delegation three weeks ago praised Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke after he announced nearly all federal waters off the state's coast could be offered for oil and gas drilling. But after hearing from critics who do not want drilling in their home waters, U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young are backtracking.In a letter Friday to Zinke, the delegation requested that most Alaska waters from the state's Panhandle to the Bering Strait be removed from the proposed five-year drilling plan.
Russian gas defies U.S. sanctions to reach New England
Politico | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Energy NewsA tanker of liquefied natural gas from a Russian company on the Treasury Department’s sanctions list is scheduled to unload the fuel this weekend, making it the first shipment of gas from the country to ever reach the United States. It’s arriving just after the U.S. announced increased economic penalties Friday against Moscow-linked people and businesses because of Vladimir Putin’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
Missouri Senate bill preempts regulation of working animals
Missouri Senate | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsSB 918 - Under this act, the General Assembly preempts the control and regulation of working animals to the exclusion of any order, ordinance, policy, or regulation by any political subdivision. For purposes of this act, "working animal" means the use of any animal for the purpose of performing a specific duty or function in business, commerce, or service, including but not limited to, animals in entertainment.
A review of the White House infrastructure plan
Strong Towns | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Federal NewsHalf of the undisclosed amount of money (widely believed to be in the $200 billion range) would go into something called the Infrastructure Incentives Initiative. This has all the hallmarks of the worst of federal infrastructure spending: anything infrastructure-related is eligible, any government or public authority can apply, scoring is heavily weighted to induce local governments to take on lots of debt and there is only faint concern for long term maintenance costs or return on investment. Yuck!