Agriculture

For minimum-wage earners, port truckers, farm laborers, sexual harassment victims, nursing mothers, high-powered female executives and workers injured on the job, 2019 offers reason to celebrate.A score of new state laws took effect on Jan. 1, expanding the rights of many employees while placing fresh restrictions on businesses.For workers, “2018 was a stellar year” for protections passed into law, said Steve Smith, a spokesman for the California Labor Federation, the umbrella group for more than 1,200 unions and a powerful force in state politics. [node:read-more:link]

Teske said he sees the impact of climate change on his farm and has worked on the issue as president of the Kansas Farmers Union. He worries about what’s been reported for years – that the Corn Belt is moving northeast because of hotter weather. He gave up growing corn two years ago, switching to sorghum, which is more drought tolerant, so more profitable. [node:read-more:link]

On a recent rainy day, farmer Allen Druffel stands outside a silo shuffling his feet in the gravel. This co-op bin is where he stores his dried garbanzo beans in the tiny town of Colton, Wash. The place should be busy; trucks should be loading and hauling this year's crop to markets and international ports. But midafternoon, there's just the rain. Since farmers like Druffel brought in this year's crops, hardly any garbanzos — or chickpeas — have moved."Thirty to 40 percent of our total revenue is in the bin," Druffel says. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S.-China trade war resulted in billions of dollars of losses for both sides in 2018, hitting industries including autos, technology - and above all, agriculture.Broad pain from trade tariffs outlined by several economists shows that, while specialized industries including U.S. soybean crushing benefited from the dispute, it had an overall detrimental impact on both of the world’s two largest economies.The losses may give U.S. [node:read-more:link]

As the trade war escalated between the United States and China this spring, American cherry exporters in Washington state unexpectedly found their customs processing slowed at the Chinese border.Unannounced, increased inspections began in late May and in early June. The extra time the inspections took backed up shipments into mainland China, leading to some shipments rotting on the docks and forcing exporters to divert their produce so it could be sold before it spoiled. Data on such disruptions is hard to come by. [node:read-more:link]

The 2018 farm bill is a huge victory for U.S. farmers. The bipartisan legislation improves food security, strengthens crop insurance and reinvests in America’s rural economy. It is especially critical for Arkansas, where agriculture accounts for about one in every six jobs and adds nearly $16 billion to the state’s economy. Expanding markets has long been a priority for our agricultural producers. A historic provision in this legislation gives them a much-needed win in their desire to trade with Cuba. [node:read-more:link]

Many people are opposed to the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and believe they are dangerous for your health. Many also are opposed to the use of pesticides, and believe that there are ‘natural’ alternatives to their use in farming. Both of these beliefs are not just wrong: they are dangerous.As the population of the world is set to grow to 10 billion by 2050, we urgently need to recognise that many of the commonly-held views in Europe on agriculture are simply not based on fact. For most of human history, hunger and starvation were facts of life in Europe. [node:read-more:link]

Researchers from Europe and Israel have built a robot that can pick ripe peppers in a greenhouse. The prototype, called Sweeper, is backed by the European Union as part of its Horizon 2020 innovation program. To do its job, Sweeper uses a camera that can recognize the color of a pepper. Computer vision then helps the robot decide if the fruit is ripe for picking. If it is, Sweeper uses a small razor to cut the stem before catching the fruit in its “claws” and dropping it into a collection basket below. [node:read-more:link]

Three years ago, I wrote about antibiotic use in raising livestock, which was a problem — and still is, although much progress has been made. But when someone recently said to me, “I switched to almond milk because I heard that dairy milk contains antibiotics,” I realized there’s still some myth-busting to do. It would indeed be bad if we were getting antibiotics in our milk — but we’re not. Tens of thousands of retail samples of pasteurized milk, cream, yogurt and sour cream are tested annually. [node:read-more:link]

Animal drug companies are being asked to revise the labels of medicine made to treat certain internal parasites in livestock and horses. The goal is to add information that will spread awareness of antiparasitic resistance.The U.S. [node:read-more:link]