SARL Members and Alumni

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is pleased to announce a competitive grant application process for the Healthy Stores Refrigeration Grant Program. CDFA will fund energy efficient refrigeration units in corner stores and small businesses in food deserts throughout the state to stock California-grown fresh produce, nuts and minimally processed foods. The purpose of the program is to improve access to healthy food choices in the small retail environment for underserved communities, while promoting CA-grown agriculture. [node:read-more:link]

Lawmakers voted Wednesday to prohibit sale of “almond milk” in Arizona for the reason that almonds do not lactate.Consumers could still buy that product. [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]

The new dredge material facility in Conneaut will be unlike anything else in the state, officials said at a public meeting about the project. State Rep. John Patterson said the state banned open lake dumping of dredged material because 10 percent of all harmful algae blooms in Lake Erie have been traced to the practice. Patterson supported one of two bills establishing the fund used to finance the Conneaut dredge material project, and he attempted to pass another bill to fund Lake Erie cleanup by putting a ballot initiative before Ohio voters to approve $1 billion over 10 years. [node:read-more:link]

Negative impacts from non-farm developments can’t be offset by making payments to surrounding farmers, according to the Oregon Supreme Court. [node:read-more:link]

Small-scale processing on Oregon farmland would be subject to fewer county restrictions under legislation favored by both agriculture and property rights advocates. However, one provision in the proposal has become a point of debate: whether the exemption should apply to on-farm processing of cannabis.Oregon’s land use laws currently allow crop processing on farmland in facilities smaller than 10,000 square feet, but the buildings are still subject to county siting standards, such as landscaping and parking requirements. [node:read-more:link]

While it might be some time before the direct impacts of the trade war with China has affected Iowa’s economy, a group of eight economists and agriculture development experts at Iowa State University attempted to make exactly those projections this past September. [node:read-more:link]

The dogs, loaded onto a Dodge cargo van marked “Mississippi Mutts On the Move,” like at least tens of thousands of others making the trip northward might once have died for lack of shelter space. Before the Oktibbeha County Humane Society shelter started shipping puppies and dogs north a decade ago, half the dogs and cats in its care were put down — a “kill rate” of 50 percent. Last year, when the humane society transported 3,000 dogs north, 93 percent of its animals left the shelter alive.“We are the epitome of the Southern shelter. [node:read-more:link]

 Oklahoma residents will be able to openly carry firearms without a background check or training under a bill given final legislative approval hat quickly became the first signed into law by the new Republican governor. Dubbed “constitutional carry” by its supporters, the bill passed the Senate on a 40-6 vote with every Republican and one Democrat voting in favor. It already sailed through the GOP-controlled House .

  [node:read-more:link]

Natural farming is a popular concept right now.  The "eat local" movement only added to a standing desire for food that is grown in natural conditions, and not far from the table where it is served.  Uproot Meats appears to check those boxes, but it has run into controversy over its hog-and-chicken operation on the south end of Ashland.  Opponents are not happy with the business model of growing animals--and their wastes--on a sloping hillside above other agriculture operations.  [node:read-more:link]