AgClips
Recent AgClips
‘Giving dogs a fighting chance’: Florida lawmakers seek hurricane lifeline for pets
Tampa Bay Times | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsSenate Bill 1738 would create a first-degree misdemeanor for leaving pets restrained or unattended during a natural or manmade disaster.
Piles of pigs: Swine fever outbreaks go unreported in rural China
Reuters | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in Agriculture NewsWhen pigs on the Xinda Husbandry Co.
Virginia Governor approves law requiring Dominion to excavate all coal ash
Utility Dive | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in Energy, SARL Members and Alumni NewsVirginia Gov. Ralph Northam, D, on Wednesday signed into law a bipartisan bill that would require Dominion Energy to excavate all the coal ash at their coal plants in the state, over 27 million cubic yards. The bill, first introduced in January, will also require that at least a quarter of the waste be recycled. The remaining ash would have to be moved into fully lined basins to prevent further groundwater contamination.
Minnesota House aims to hit drug companies for opioid crisis
LaCrosse Tribune | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in Agriculture NewsThe Minnesota House voted to hold drug manufacturers responsible for the state's growing costs for dealing with the opioid crisis.The bill passed 94-34 after around four hours of debate that split mostly along party lines. It would support a wide range of prevention, education, intervention, treatment and recovery strategies. The state would pay for them by sharply raising its currently low annual registration fees for pharmaceutical manufacturers and drug wholesalers that sell or distribute opioids in Minnesota.
DFA reports a $1.1 billion drop in dairy sales during 2018
Edairy News | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in Agriculture Newsuring Dairy Farmers of America’s (DFA) annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo., the cooperative reported that net sales fell by $1.1 billion, a decrease of 7.5% from 2017. For 2018, net sales were totaled at $13.6 billion. The previous year net sales equaled $14.7 billion. According to DFA, the decrease is largely attributed to lower milk prices. The all U.S. milk price was 8.2% lower than the previous year averaging $16.20/cwt paid in 2018 compared with $17.65/cwt in 2017.
The Fight to Tame a Swelling River With Dams That May Be Outmatched by Climate Change
The New York Times | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in Agriculture NewsThere were no good choices for John Remus, yet he had to choose. Should he try to hold back the surging Missouri River but risk destroying a major dam, potentially releasing a 45-foot wall of water? Or should he relieve the pressure by opening the spillway, purposely adding to the flooding of towns, homes and farmland for hundreds of miles.Mr. Remus controls an extraordinary machine — the dams built decades ago to tame a river system that drains parts of 10 states and two Canadian provinces.
Climate change has already started disrupting life in the Great Lakes region — and it's only going to get worse
Chicago Tribune | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in Agriculture NewsThursday's report said extreme precipitation could rise 10 to 40 percent in southern Wisconsin, the feeder system to many Illinois waterways. In Machesney Park, ducks swam past mailboxes nearly at eye level. Displaced residents returned to survey their homes with chest-high waders.
Great Lakes feeling effects of rapid climate warming
AP News | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in Agriculture NewsThe Great Lakes region is warming faster than the rest of the U.S., a trend likely to bring more extreme storms while also degrading water quality, worsening erosion and posing tougher challenges for farming, scientists reported. The annual mean air temperature in the region, which includes portions of the U.S. Midwest , Northeast and southern Canada, rose 1.6 degrees (0.9 Celsius) from 1901-60 and 1985-2016, according to the report commissioned by the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center. During the same periods, the mean temperature for the remainder of the contiguous U.S.
Oregon bills would end "right-to-farm" protections for large dairies
Capital Press | Posted onMarch 25, 2019 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsA defunct Oregon dairy with an extensive history of wastewater problems loomed large over a legislative hearing March 21 about proposals to overhaul state dairy regulations.
About 2.6 Billion Gallons of Biofuels Now Exempted From RFS Requirements
DTN | Posted onMarch 21, 2019 in Energy NewsThe EPA granted five additional 2017 small-refinery exemptions (SREs) to the Renewable Fuel Standard on Thursday, raising the agency total for that year to 34, according to an update posted to EPA's online dashboard. The dashboard also indicates it has two more waiver requests pending for that year. Ethanol industry interests, farmers and federal lawmakers were hopeful the agency would change the way it considered waivers under new Administrator Andrew Wheeler.