AgClips
Recent AgClips
The standoff between Big Oil and Big Corn
NYTimes | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Energy NewsA decade ago, lawmakers in Washington tried to address a trifecta of thorny challenges with one simple fix that has turned out to be anything but easy to assess. The problems: an overreliance on foreign oil, rising greenhouse gas emissions and tepid economic growth. A decade ago, lawmakers in Washington tried to address a trifecta of thorny challenges with one simple fix that has turned out to be anything but easy to assess. The problems: an overreliance on foreign oil, rising greenhouse gas emissions and tepid economic growth.
NMPF, dairy co-ops agree to settle milk-price lawsuit
Capital Press | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Agriculture NewsNational Milk Producers Federation and member dairy cooperatives have agreed to pay $52 million in a class action lawsuit alleging the Cooperatives Working Together herd-retirement program reduced the supply of milk, eliminated competition and artificially raised the price of milk and milk products to consumers.
Cooperation key to Idaho raw goat milk producers’ success
Capital Press | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Agriculture NewsKami Jenkins describes her regional competitors in the raw goat milk industry as a second family — and a key reason why her sales continues to grow. She’s among about 10 small-scale raw goat milk producers in Eastern Idaho who have banded together to find strength in greater numbers.
Iowa Supreme Court Mulls Water Works Farm Drainage Lawsuit
Ag Web | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Agriculture NewsThe Iowa Supreme Court heard arguments and must now decide whether to weigh in on a federal lawsuit that pits the water supplier to 500,000 central Iowa residents against upstream farmers accused of contaminating rivers with nitrates from crop fertilizer. The case was filed by Des Moines Water Works, which is asking the court to decide whether agriculture drainage districts have immunity from lawsuits and whether the water utility can seek monetary damages. Water Works says it spent $1.5 million last year alone to remove nitrate from water to meet federal health standards.
Food Critics Should Be More Transparent About Transparency
Huffington Post | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Food NewsCritics who intentionally disregard the progress toward greater transparency only serve to discourage it by refusing to give credit where credit is due. So, I encourage food system critics to be transparent about genuine progress among food producers just as I encourage producers who haven’t yet embraced transparency to build on the positive momentum. There is no denying the ability of transparency to increase consumer trust.
NRDC petitions FDA to withdraw approval of animal antibiotics
Agri-Pulse | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Agriculture NewsThe Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Earthjustice, Food Animal Concerns Trust, Public Citizen, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and California Public Interest Research Group submit this petition under section 512(e) of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360b(e), to request that the Commissioner of Food and Drugs withdraw approval of the use of medically important antibiotics in livestock and poultry for disease-prevention or growth-promotion purposes.
How Cities can Become Better Than the Next Silicon Valley
Kauffman Foundation | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Rural NewsStop trying to become the next Silicon Valley. While Alicia Keys may be the driving voice behind the “do you” mantra these days, there is truth in owning what is uniquely yours. Silicon Valley has a corner on the capital market, but money alone does not build strong companies. A strong business model is key, and more cities should be helping entrepreneurs to find gaps and see them as opportunities. Phoenix has a compelling case to make to solar innovators just as Sacramento does for sustainable agriculture.
The Relationship between Entrepreneurship and Inequality
Kauffman Foundation | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Rural NewsOne of the ways the inequality gap has widened is through a concentration of wealth among a small subset of the population. No matter how you look at it, whether it’s through income quintiles or the top 1%, gains have been made by those at the top and a greater percentage of overall wealth is now in their hands than was the case in the immediate post-World War II period.
Is It a GMO or Not?
Pacific Standard | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Food NewsA new generation of genetically modified organisms will be genetically indistinguishable from non-GMOs. There are many potentially useful genetic modifications that scientists can now make to crops and livestock that don’t involve adding foreign genes, however. An example of this kind of next-generation genetic engineering wasrecently published by the small, Minnesota-based biotechnology companyRecombinetics. Scientists at the company created hornless dairy cows by using genetic engineering to put a naturally occurring bovine mutation into a normally horned cattle breed.
FDA’s next focus: Antibiotics without defined duration of use
Bovine Vet Online | Posted onSeptember 19, 2016 in Federal NewsIn a notice published in the Federal Register, the agency requests information from the public about how to establish appropriately targeted durations of use for the approximately 32% of therapeutic products affected by GFI #213 with no defined duration of use in order to foster stewardship of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals and help preserve the effectiveness of these antimicrobials in animal and human medicine.