Agriculture

he ballot measure builds on the passage of Proposition 2 — a 2008 initiative that prohibited California farmers from housing pregnant pigs, calves raised for veal and egg-laying hens in cages or crates that don't allow them to turn around freely. The new initiative offers greater specificity by setting explicit standards for animal confinement. By 2022, egg-laying hens would need to be placed in cage-free housing. Breeding pigs and calves raised for veal would also be required to have at least 24 and 43 square feet of floor space, respectively. [node:read-more:link]

The University of Missouri Weed Science Department has compiled dicamba soybean injury reports this season from university weed scientists and acreage is higher than what state ag departments are reporting. [node:read-more:link]

This trade dispute is important to U.S. agriculture, because China has been the United States’ top agricultural export market outside of North America since 2009 with an annual sale of nearly $20 billion in 2017. In 2017, top U.S. agricultural exports to China included soybeans, cotton, hides and skins for leather products, fish, dairy, sorghum, wheat, nuts and pork. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. farmers are already hurting, thanks to Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs for U.S. import taxes on steel and aluminum, but the pain is expected to increase sharply in the weeks and months to come. U.S. exporters have become accustomed to the zero duties under the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the new tariffs are still equal to or below what Mexico charges most other major suppliers. That means the U.S. can still compete thanks to the closeness of the two countries, both geographically and in shared supply channels.“Trade is not going to stop right away,” said one U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A federal agency's justifications for killing coyotes and mountain lions and other predators in Idaho to protect livestock and other wildlife such as elk violate environmental laws because they lack a scientific review, a federal court has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the U.S. Department of Agriculture's reasons for not doing the scientific review "were not convincing or objective." The Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services kills and removes predators that kill livestock in many states, especially in the U.S. West. [node:read-more:link]

US-based agricultor processor Archer Daniels Midland Co and DuPont Industrial Biosciences, a division of DowDuPont Inc, are partnering to provide cellulase enzymes for grain-based ethanol plants. The companies said on Wednesday they will develop, produce and market the enzymes that help make ethanol from corn kernel fibre, allowing grain-based fuel ethanol producers to make better use of existing feedstocks. Ethanol produce from corn kernel fibre could qualify for D3 RINS under the US' Renewable Fuel Standard programme, the companies noted. [node:read-more:link]

A record fine levied against a northwest Washington blueberry farm for missed rest breaks and late meals has been cut in half by a judge. Whatcom County District Judge Pro Tem David Cottingham reduced Tuesday the amount Sarbanand Farms will pay in state and county fines to $74,825. The state Department of Labor and Industries originally imposed a penalty that totaled $149,650. [node:read-more:link]

Nitrogen pollution flowing out of Iowa to the Gulf of Mexico has grown by close to 50 percent over nearly two decades, a new report shows, despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent to stem nutrients entering the state's waterways.A University of Iowa study shows the state's contribution to the Gulf dead zone spiked 47 percent to 618 million pounds in 2016, based on five-year running annual averages."Just based on water quality data, I think we can say we’ve not made much progress over the past 20 years in terms of nitrogen," said Chris Jones, a research engineer at the UI's IIHR–Hydrosc [node:read-more:link]

Round two of President Donald Trump's trade assault on Beijing is expected by the end of this week, when the Treasury Department rolls out new restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States and on the technologies that can be sold to China.After an internal debate, the administration appears to have settled on more aggressive restrictions favored by U.S. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. producers of pork, already saddled with duties enacted in an earlier round of the escalating trade dispute with China, are bracing for further pain after Beijing hit the products with additional tariffs due to come into effect next month.  China implemented a 25 percent duty on most U.S. pork items on April 2, and a 15 percent tariff on a range of fruits and nuts, in response to U.S. tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum products. Last week it included both categories in a second round of tariffs to be imposed on July 6. [node:read-more:link]