AgClips
Recent AgClips
NC officials reject environmental plan for Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Charlotte News Observer | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Energy NewsGov. Roy Cooper’s administration has rejected environmental plans by Duke Energy and three other energy companies to build an interstate pipeline to carry natural gas from West Virginia into North Carolina. The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality said the 600-mile underground pipeline, which would travel through eight North Carolina counties, including Johnston and Nash, does not meet the state’s standards for erosion and sediment control.
EPA to scrap clean power plan: What it means locally
ABC News | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Energy, Federal NewsKilbert says regardless of today's announcement, coal is being phased out by a lot of power companies, and it all comes down to money, "Coal irrespective of any environmental regulations is phasing out because of cheap natural gas along with solar and wind and other alternative energy sources." In spite of today's announcement, experts say abandoning the clean power plan probably won't change the long-term outlook for coal.
Droughts and wildfires: How global warming is drying up the North American monsoon
Science Daily | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Agriculture NewsPrevious researchers had concluded that global warming was simply delaying the North American monsoon, which brings summer rains to the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico. But a new, high-resolution climate model that corrects for persistent sea surface temperature (SST) biases now accurately reflects current rainfall conditions and demonstrates that the monsoon is not simply delayed, but that the region's total rainfall is facing a dramatic reduction.
Amazon farmers discovered the secret of domesticating wild rice 4,000 years ago
Science Daily | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Agriculture NewsAmazonian farmers discovered how to manipulate wild rice so the plants could provide more food 4,000 years ago, long before Europeans colonized America, archaeologists have discovered.
Genetically boosting the nutritional value of corn could benefit millions
Science Daily | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in NewsScientists have found an efficient way to enhance the nutritional value of corn -- the world's largest commodity crop -- by inserting a bacterial gene that causes it to produce a key nutrient called methionine, according to a new study.
Rethink the Ranch
NCBA | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Agriculture NewsMuch has changed since the days of cowboys, cattle drives and the Old West. Today, it's more about drones, apps and computers. Join us as we travel across the country talking to real, modern ranchers about how they care for the cattle, what inspires them and why they work so hard day after day.
Struggling Hastings, Potato Capital of Florida, might soon vote town out of existence
The Florida Times Union | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Rural NewsThe old town hall and community center, a once-vital building on a once-vital Main Street, dominates the downtown of this old potato- and cabbage-farming town. It’s two stories high and sprawling, and if you squint deeply you can imagine it in its heyday, many decades ago. Hastings was founded in 1890 when Florida railroad and hotel king Henry Flagler sent a relative, Thomas Horace Hastings, inland to grow vegetables for his Flagler’s resorts.
Huge multi-species slaughter facility proposed in Montana
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Agriculture NewsA Canadian livestock and animal nutrition company has proposed to build a large multi-species slaughtering facility in Cascade County, Montana, according to a report by the Great Falls Tribune. If local officials approve the project as proposed by Alberta-based Friesen Foods, the “Madison Food Park” would employ as many as 3,000 people in a state-of-the-art, robotically controlled, environmentally friendly, multi-species food processing plant for cattle, pigs and chickens and related further processing facilities for beef, pork and poultry, the newspaper reported.
Minnesota launches rural crisis helpline
edairynews | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Agriculture, Rural, SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe day illustrated that as a farmer herself, Moynihan understands about the need for a new state program she just planted at the Minnesota Agriculture Department: Farm and Rural Helpline. The line is a new service, replacing an earlier farm crisis line, that allows rural Minnesotans to call (833) 600-2670 to deal with all sorts of problems, even if they do not rise to crisis level, Moynihan said.“Farmers love to farm, but it is an extremely challenging profession,” she said on the dreary Friday.They have no control over costs such as for implements, seed and fertilizer.
Washington suspends license of raw milk dairy linked to salmonella
Capital Press | Posted onOctober 10, 2017 in Food NewsA strain of salmonella detected in raw milk from a Washington dairy was the same one that sickened two of the dairy’s customers in January. The Washington Department of Agriculture Friday suspended the processing license of a raw milk dairy, which had declined to voluntarily suspend production after the department detected salmonella last month in the dairy’s milk.