A lone female fungus-farming beetle inadvertently imported to Georgia may have been the source of a disease that has killed some 300 million redbay trees and threatens Florida's avocado groves, researchers from Mississippi and Florida say. Clones of the beetle and her fungus have spread west into Texas and north to North Carolina over the past 15 years [node:read-more:link]
Dairy farmers in the north-east have rallied together to form a new organisation with a view to potentially building a new milk processing plant for the region. The North-East Milk Producers Organisation comprises 26 farmers who produce a combined total of 54million litres of milk every year.The group’s chairman Roy Mitchell, who farms at Drimmies Farm near Inverurie, said the organisation was formed in response to dairy giant Muller’s decision to close its Aberdeen milk processing plant last summer. [node:read-more:link]
We’re now halfway through 2017, and this serves as a good reminder that the US Department of Agriculture is a tad late in submitting its annual report to Congress on the dairy and fluid milk promotion programs. Several years late, in fact. The Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983, which created the National Dairy Promotion and Research Program, requires USDA to submit an annual report to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees on the dairy promotion program. [node:read-more:link]
Domino's Pizza, the recognized world leader in pizza delivery and digital ordering platforms, realizes that Cow Appreciation Week may exist only in the minds of those who truly love cheese as much as we do, and that's OK. Domino's love of cheese runs deep – it takes thousands of cows and dairy farmers to offer the variety of cheeses that Domino's does. And now, Domino's is celebrating its appreciation of cows and all things dairy by offering customers 50 percent off menu-priced pizzas when ordered online, beginning today and running through Sunday, July 16. [node:read-more:link]
A judge has accepted a guilty plea in an investigation of illegal labor at dairies in Michigan’s Thumb region. Madeline Burke pleaded guilty to hiring people without verifying that they were eligible to work in the U.S. The government says the workers were in the U.S. illegally.Burke and her husband are natives of Ireland. They operate two dairies near the tip of the Thumb. Burke has agreed to pay a fine of $187,500, which adds up to $1,500 per illegal worker. [node:read-more:link]
US dairy farmers tend to be conservatives, but many depend on immigrant workers to keep their operations running. Republicans' tough stance on immigration has created a political rift between some farmers and their representatives. This disconnect highlights the complicated place farmers hold in American politics. [node:read-more:link]
A federal court denied a request from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) seeking a rehearing following a recent ruling issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit requiring additional waste emissions reporting requirements for concentrated animal feeding operations. [node:read-more:link]
Farmers in Manitoba, Canada's third-largest pork producing province, are scrambling to contain a mysterious outbreak of a rapidly spreading virus that's deadly to piglets and threatens to harm their industry.There are 51 pork operations dealing with porcine epidemic diarrhea, up from about 40 at the end of last month, said Andrew Dickson, general manager of the Manitoba Pork Council."It caught us off-guard," Dickson said Monday. "We had a total of 10 cases in three years, so that's what's throwing us off for a loop ... [node:read-more:link]
Seth Watkins has impressive Iowa agriculture bona fides: He’s a fourth-generation farmer. He raises 600 cows and tends 3,200 acres east of Clarinda in southwest Iowa. His grandmother, Jessie Field Shambaugh, founded 4-H. Yet some Iowans have called him “nuts” for sowing grass where he could plant more corn, he told the Register.Watkins has broken out of the two-crop cycle in which so many farmers are caught. He grows corn but also oats, alfalfa and cover crops. [node:read-more:link]
In late June, Netflix debuted a new film by eclectic Korean director Bong Joon-Ho, “Okja.” The main story line is about a girl, the pig she raised (the “Okja” of the title), and how that pig is taken over and mistreated by corporate interests. Much of the story line, according to early reviews, is about how the girl vows to rescue Okja, with the help of animal activists.Being a satire, the characters are largely represented in extreme caricature — completely evil or positively saintly. [node:read-more:link]
