Agriculture

U.S. soybeans can still make it to China without paying the 25 percent tariff -- they just have to take a 5,500-mile (8,850-kilometer) diversion via Argentina. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how the trade would happen. An unusual flood of U.S. beans to Argentina could be processed by that nation’s huge crushing industry and sent to China as soy meal. Argentina is the world’s biggest exporter of meal, made from the crushed oilseed and used as animal feed.Beans from the U.S. are going to Argentina after one of the worst droughts in decades crippled production on the Argentine Pampas. [node:read-more:link]

As the U.S. economy continues to grow and unemployment dwindles, labor scarcity and wage inflation threaten the rural economy and put additional stress on profitability of the agriculture industry at a time of depressed commodity prices. Manual laborers are chasing higher wages offered in industries like transportation, construction, hospitality and mining, forcing agriculture employers to increase wages at a faster rate to compete, according to a new study from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Division. [node:read-more:link]

New York is vital for farming; far from its national reputation as merely an urban center, the state has seven million acres of farmland and is one of the biggest producers of dairy and apples. It also faces many of the same issues that face farmers around the country, with perhaps the biggest being simply holding onto, or gaining new, farmland. The National Young Farmers Coalition’s new paper has some concrete suggestions for how to combat these issues.  The difficulty existing farmers face keeping farmland, and the difficulty new farmers face finding farmland, are not unique to New York. [node:read-more:link]

A Wisconsin family is turning to crowdfunding to save their dairy farm, which dates all the way back to 1873.Dale Cihlar, a fourth generation dairy farmer and grandfather of nine grandkids, had reached a new low – with several prized dairy cows dying, the price of milk plummeting, and another $1,600 monthly payment for the manure storage system the county required them to install. [node:read-more:link]

Last fall, as Bayer AG was completing its $66 billion mergerwith Monsanto Co., Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann visited the concrete-slab Berlin complex where company scientists develop disease-fighting drugs. At an employee town hall meeting, Baumann asked whether staffers believed environmentalists’ claims that the Monsanto weed killer Roundup causes cancer. Despite the CEO’s obvious interest in the acquisition, some raised their hands. On Aug. [node:read-more:link]

By sequencing the genome of the yellow-banded bumblebee, researchers have found that inbreeding and disease are likely culprits in their rapid decline in North America. This is believed to be the first time the genome of an at-risk bumblebee has been sequenced and it allows researchers to take a deeper look into the potential reason for their diminishing numbers. What they found surprised them.By sequencing the genome of the yellow-banded bumblebee, York University researchers have found that inbreeding and disease are likely culprits in their rapid decline in North America. [node:read-more:link]

Historic, torrential April rains on the island of Kauai wiped out much of Hawaii’s taro crops — the main ingredient in poi and a staple carb of the island diet. The next month, one of the state’s most active volcanoes spewed ash and lava throughout the eastern end of the Big Island, decimating more than 50 percent of the state’s papaya production and tropical flower industry.Then came Hurricane Lane.As Hawaii begins to recover from the tropical cyclone that dumped more than three feet of rain onto the Big Island last week, farmers here are just starting to assess the damage to their crops. [node:read-more:link]

Dry conditions are making it challenging for producers to feed cattle in parts of the United States. In addition to already stressful conditions, farmers are concerned about what they will feed cattle this winter as drought conditions in some areas haven’t allowed for normal hay growth, limiting stockpiles that are used to get cows, bulls and yearlings through the winter when forage is scarce.The U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Shipping agri-food products out of an intermodal facility in containers offered our province a final, decisive chance to access a massive, increasingly diverse overseas market for food. The scandal jeopardizes the entire GTH project. The government said as much.  "No matter what happens to it, [the GTH] will be under such intense public scrutiny it would be difficult for a private business or private tenant to want to become a partner to move into that. [node:read-more:link]

The Swiss government urged voters to reject more help for farmers and other proposals for agriculture in a referendum next month, saying they would send food prices rocketing and hurt the economy.Switzerland will two hold referendums on Sept. 23 - one on giving more state support to farmers and another on introducing more sustainable and animal-friendly agricultural practices.

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