Agriculture

Mountaire Farms and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) entered into a consent decree that addresses wastewater-related permit violations at its poultry processing operations in Millsboro, Delaware. Mountaire, in 2017, had been advised by DNREC that it had violated the conditions of its permits to treat and spary irrigate reclaimed wastewater onto nearby agricultural farmland. DNREC notified the company that it had exceeded allowable levels of nitrates, fecal coliform and chlorine. [node:read-more:link]

If a drink doesn't come from an animal with hooves, North Carolina legislators don't want you to call it "milk." Part of the General Assembly's 2018 Farm Billwould ban the marketing of milks made from plants, including almond, coconut and soy, from being labeled "milk" in North Carolina after Jan. 1. The products could still be sold, they just couldn't legally be labeled "milk" under the proposed law. That distinction would be reserved for dairy products like milk from animals, including cows and goats. [node:read-more:link]

Following criticism from commercial and recreational beekeepers in upstate New York, the New York Senate Agriculture Committee plans to amend a proposed beekeeper registry bill.  After the committee voted 11-0 earlier this week in favor of mandatory state registration of beekeepers and their hives, industry members criticized the bill, citing a lack of public awareness of the proposal prior to the vote.  On Thursday, Sen. [node:read-more:link]

President Trump wants to end the three-party talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, aiming instead to deal separately with Canada and Mexico to restructure the trade accord, a senior adviser said Tuesday. Trump does not intend to withdraw from NAFTA, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said on “Fox & Friends.” But after more than one year of multilateral discussions, he feels the current approach hasn’t been fruitful and a new one is needed, Kudlow said. [node:read-more:link]

William Wallace Cargill pioneered the modern agricultural trading industry in 1865 when he established a string of grain warehouses across the American Midwest. Having a deep-pocketed buyer that could take delivery locally gave farmers an easy way to quickly get cash for their crops, lest they rot in the field waiting on a sale or transport to a faraway market. The ability to store huge amounts of grain also gave Cargill the flexibility to time his own sales to maximize the spread between what he paid farmers and what he could get from distant food processors or exporters. [node:read-more:link]

The ag economy isn't great and many producers are struggling to break even. In the past, farmers accepted losses and even looked at them as opportunities. Having good and bad years is just part of the rollercoaster called farming. However, the new tax law changed how we look at farm losses. Under the old tax law and the 2014 Farm Bill, taxpayers who received a Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) loan were restricted in the deductibility of a farm loss (this rule didn't apply to C corporations). [node:read-more:link]

If a trade war is coming, the cheesemakers of Wisconsin are standing in the line of fire. So are the farmers of the Great Plains and the distillers of Kentucky. And the employees of iconic American brands like Harley-Davidson and Levi Strauss. The likelihood of a trade conflagration leapt closer to reality this week after the United States imposed tariff on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union. Infuriated, the jilted U.S. allies vowed to retaliate with tariffs of their own. And in a separate dispute, China is poised to penalize $50 billion in U.S. [node:read-more:link]

The Corn Utilization and Technology Conference is organized by NCGA or the National Corn Growers Association. It happens every two years and is dedicated to exploring future uses of corn. Vijay Singh is a regular. He works for the agricultural college at the University of Illinois and specializes in engineering ethanol processing plants. Singh sees them expanding to include biochemical production in the near future, “That’s the big thing right now and for that, we need large amounts of sugar. The U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A federal judge in Washington state has dismissed a lawsuit to reinstate country-of-origin labeling on beef and pork products from other countries. U.S. District Court Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson of Spokane agreed with ranchers in her Tuesday dismissal that the government’s decision has caused them financial harm. But she ultimately sided with the government, saying the legal clock had run out for the producers to challenge the underlying 1989 federal law, and that Congress had clearly intended to have the labeling end. [node:read-more:link]

The goal of the pilot made by Wyoming Certified Beef, LLC and Germany-based traceability solution provider TE-FOOD International is to showcase the premium living conditions of the cattle (grass-fed on an open range throughout their entire lives) thereby producing much higher quality cuts of beef to lucrative foreign markets. The verified ranch-to-table traceability of the cattle through RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) ear tags and anchored by blockchain technology has never been done before. [node:read-more:link]