Beef producers in the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement enjoyed a surge in sales to Japan in January, as ranchers benefited from lower tariffs than their U.S. competitors. Beef imports from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico, all of which have approved the trade pact, surged to 33,000 metric tons in January, up 56% from the previous year, according to Japan's Finance Ministry. [node:read-more:link]
A new study published Thursday in the journal Science outlines the impacts warming waters are having on commercially important fish species.The world's fishing industry relies on what's called fisheries, the clusters of regional fish populations that people can catch economically. And on average, the researchers found that the numbers of fish in critical fisheries around the world have decreased by four percent since 1930.Fisheries located in the Sea of Japan and the North Sea were the worst off. They experienced as much as a 35 percent drop in their numbers. [node:read-more:link]
The price Litkea gets for his milk is 43 percent off from its 2014 high. For all his work, Litkea said he's earning about $650 a month. A few years ago, he dropped his health insurance, a $1,100-a-month expense. Then he got rid of his crop insurance, farm insurance, even his car insurance.“I pay out more than I make,” he said. “I have an $800 loan payment, electric bills and feed bills and fuel bills.”Through the years, he scraped out a comfortable living and raised a family. [node:read-more:link]
The Vancouver port saw record cargo numbers in 2018, driven by hunger for grain and potash overseas and a thirst for consumer products in Canada. [node:read-more:link]
The Vancouver port saw record cargo numbers in 2018, driven by hunger for grain and potash overseas and a thirst for consumer products in Canada. [node:read-more:link]
Over 9,000 farmers came to Commodity Classic in Orlando last week to get a look at the future of agriculture, but they left seeing little progress on some of the most important issues facing the industry for the 2019 season. Tariffs remain in place, no trade agreement has been reached with China, the USMCA has not been ratified by any of the countries involved, and immigration continues to be a political issue too hot to handle. Mary Kay Thatcher, with Syngenta Government Relations, is not optimistic much progress will be made before planters roll this spring. [node:read-more:link]
Loggers in snowy forests are cutting down ash like there's no tomorrow, seeking to stay one step ahead of a fast-spreading beetle killing the tree in dozens of states. The emerald ash borer has been chewing its way through trees from Maine to Colorado for about two decades, devastating a species prized for yielding a light-grained hardwood attractive enough for furniture and resilient enough for baseball bats. Many hard-hit areas are east of the Mississippi River and north of the Mason-Dixon Line. [node:read-more:link]
It is the battle we are facing in agriculture. People who are working hard every day to produce food to feed a growing population, being met by people who want to tear down those efforts and paint farmers as evil. Activists are a mounting threat to producers, and they have a new movement; “Fear Your Food”. To farmers, it seems counter-productive to want to protest about those who are trying to feed the world. However, this is the case. [node:read-more:link]
The Organic Trade Association on Thursday hailed the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the association has presented solid arguments that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s failure to put into effect new organic livestock standards has caused harm to the organic sector, and that the association has the legal standing to contest the agency’s withdrawal of the rule. [node:read-more:link]
Washington lawmakers and the state Department of Agriculture are taking down barriers to growing hemp in time for spring planting, though how much farmers will pay in the future for the privilege has not yet been decided. The House Appropriations Committee unanimously endorsed a bill Tuesday that lifts a ban on moving harvested hemp across state lines. The bill also would allow hemp to be grown for CBD, an oil extract marketed for a wide range of ailments.Meanwhile, the agriculture department plans to abolish two rules by April 23. [node:read-more:link]
