AgClips
Recent AgClips
Michigan offers grants to county fairgrounds
The Detroit News | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is offering grants to help improve buildings and other facilities at county fairgrounds. Also available are grants for groups hosting other fairs or expositions where livestock and commodities are shown. Those awards would support premiums or promotional activities.
Vermont offers producer growers food safety improvement grants
Vermont Food and Market Agency | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (VAAFM) is pleased to offer a two-roud grant opportunity to improve on-farm produce safety. Approximately $74,000 in funding will be available in each round. This grant is to assist Vermont produce growers to make improvements that help prevent or reduce known produce safety risks on their farms. Applicants must grow, harvest, pack, or hold “covered produce” as defined by the U.S.
'Lancaster County is not going to be the same': Large numbers of dairy farmers may sell cows within next 6 months
Montrose Press | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe long, proud tradition of Lancaster County as the state’s dairy capital may take a hit in the next six months as milk farmers like Elmer K. King reluctantly empty their barn stalls. The Ronks-area dairyman recently began shopping for a buyer for his 48 milking cows, an unwilling step to exit the dairy business forced by a three-year-downward spiral in milk prices and a new projection that 2018 might be the worst yet.“I’d rather keep on going,” the longtime dairyman says, “but I don’t see any milk futures as being profitable, so there’s no sense in keeping cows. It’s not profitable.
These Kentuckians had no water for weeks. Now officials want to raise rates by half.
Kentucky.com | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Rural NewsThe Kentucky Public Service Commission, the state agency that regulates most utilities, will hold a hearing in Frankfort on Friday to consider arguments for and against the water district’s rate increase request. In the days following the hearing, the commission will determine how much the district can increase rates, if at all. The request comes as frustrations with the district run high.
USDA, FDA Announce Formal Agreement to Bolster Coordination and Collaboration
USDA | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Federal NewsU.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. announced at the White House today a formal agreement aimed at making the oversight of food more efficient and effective by bolstering coordination between the two agencies. The formal agreement outlines efforts to increase interagency collaboration, efficiency and effectiveness on produce safety and biotechnology activities, while providing clarity to manufacturers.
Minnesota's rural interests look to build on recent gains at the Legislature
Minnesota Post | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in NewsThe 2018 legislative session that begins next month will be a so-called short session, but it promises to include another strong push by rural organizations hoping to build on gains made in 2017. Last year, the Republican-led Legislature, buoyed by GOP gains in rural areas in the 2016 election, passed some favorable legislation for Greater Minnesota, such as a bonding bill that will pay for public works projects and an increase in funding for the Local Government Aid program. This year, lawmakers will meet for just three months – Feb.
Western Wisconsin Led Nation In Farm Bankruptcies In 2017
Wisconsin Public Radio | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe Western District had 28 Chapter 12 bankruptcy cases filed in 2017, a chapter specifically for family farmers or fishermen. The district includes 44 counties and covers more than half of the geographic area of the state. The Eastern District of Wisconsin had 17 cases and the Minnesota District had 19 cases.
Honeybees Help Farmers, But They Don't Help The Environment
NPR | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Agriculture NewsHoneybees are amazing and adorable, and they suffer when people spray pesticides or mow down wildflowers. We've heard plenty in recent years about collapsing bee colonies. So Jonas Geldmann, at the University of Cambridge, says he understands how the honeybee became a symbol of environmental conservation.But he still doesn't like it."Lots of conservation organizations are promoting local honey, and even promoting sponsorships of honeybees and that kind of stuff, and that increasingly annoyed me," he says.
The science of milk pasteurization
Elko Daily Free Press | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in Food NewsThe process of milk pasteurization was adopted in a time when millions of people became sick and died of diseases like tuberculosis, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, and other infections that were transmitted through raw milk. Since its widespread use in the dairy industry, pasteurization has prevented millions of people from becoming ill.The U.S. Center for Disease Control, our CDC, says improperly handled raw milk was (and still is) responsible for nearly three times more hospitalizations than any other food-borne disease source, making it one of the world’s most dangerous food products.
Scripps researcher developing vaccine to battle heroin addiction
Houston Chronicle | Posted onFebruary 1, 2018 in NewsWith vaccines against drugs of abuse, the drug itself does not cause an immune response. So if a virus attacks you, our immune system is alerted and tries to remove it. But with drugs that is not the case. The vaccines just train the immune system to recognize the drug as foreign and try to remove it. The antibodies are already basically in the body and when you take the drug into the bloodstream they bind to it and stop it from crossing over the blood-brain barrier to get to the reward and pleasure centers.