Agriculture

The study by the trade group WineAmerica notes that while California accounts for the bulk of the revenue in wine, there are wineries in all 50 states generating jobs and income for their communities. The figure includes $84.5 billion in economic contributions directly attributed to the wine industry and its nearly 1 million jobs, plus the ancillary benefits from supplies, investment, tourism, taxes and other transactions that come as a result of the wine businesses being there, the report states. [node:read-more:link]

The study by the trade group WineAmerica notes that while California accounts for the bulk of the revenue in wine, there are wineries in all 50 states generating jobs and income for their communities. The figure includes $84.5 billion in economic contributions directly attributed to the wine industry and its nearly 1 million jobs, plus the ancillary benefits from supplies, investment, tourism, taxes and other transactions that come as a result of the wine businesses being there, the report states. [node:read-more:link]

Kroger, Wal-Mart and Albertsons spend millions of dollars on dairy processing plants in effort to expand their foothold in the industry. Food retailers are becoming big players in the milk processing and bottling business, a development that threatens to squeeze a longstanding network of dairy processors and farmer-owned plants. [node:read-more:link]

Residents and tourists driving around Southeastern Pennsylvania are frequently impressed with the beauty of the area’s pastures and horses, but many do not realize the full contribution of the equine industry on the region’s economy. The equine industry spends $546 million on goods, services, wages, and salaries in Southeastern Pennsylvania. [node:read-more:link]

Wolf administration officials today introduced a new apprenticeship program to prepare agriculture equipment service technicians for “jobs that pay” by developing hands-on skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Pennsylvania will face more than 1,000 job openings by 2027 as current farm equipment mechanics and service technicians retire. [node:read-more:link]

Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Land Preservation Board permanently preserved 3,620 acres on 44 farms for agricultural production as part of the Wolf administration’s continued commitment to the future of agriculture in the state. [node:read-more:link]

To an American farmer or rancher, notions of gluten-free corn, non-genetically modified marshmallows and cows only finding happiness in California seem ludicrous.  To the American consumer, however, they’re perceived as natural solution to unnatural modern agriculture. At the Rural Agriculture Expo in Columbus, Kansas, extension and university professionals met with local farmers, ranchers and consumers to discuss hot topics and strategies for finding truth amidst the misinformation age. [node:read-more:link]

Inside a cavernous steel warehouse built in the 1910s for the Port of Los Angeles’ then-booming fishing industry, Catalina Sea Ranch’s unique aquaculture labs are blazing a trail for a budding new U.S. industry. A Cryolab nurtures bunches of genetically diverse breeding mussels growing in baths infused with phytoplankton. Many of their shiny black-shelled progenies, hanging on lines in federal waters 10 miles offshore, are awaiting the ranch’s first harvest in December.And ranch founder Phil Cruver just began work to produce his newest crop: giant sea kelp.The U.S. [node:read-more:link]

In their ongoing efforts to make drugs cheaper, Japanese researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have genetically engineered chickens to lay eggs containing drugs that can fight diseases like hepatitis and cancer. According to Phys.org, the unique drug creation technique uses gene-editing technology to make the …er, cocks produce interferon beta, a protein related to the immune system that is a powerful tool in treating of skin cancer and hepatitis. Those cells were then used to fertilize eggs and create hens, which inherited those genes. [node:read-more:link]

Has a slow exodus of Plain Sect farmers from the dairy business in Lancaster County already begun? [node:read-more:link]