Agriculture News
In 2019, California workers gain on pay and working conditions.
Los Angeles Times | Posted on January 2, 2019For 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. “California continues to be on the leading edge of delivering economic justice to working people.”The business community is markedly less exuberant.“We have some major new laws to contend with that will impact the costs for California businesses,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, which represents senior executives at the state’s largest companies.The new statutes will spur litigation, he predicted. “We are in a climate where employers are getting sued on so many fronts. That is one of the biggest concerns and I don’t think it is going to change.”
In the age of climate change, farmers weigh their options for the future
Marketplace | Posted on January 2, 2019Teske 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. “The frequency and intensity of the heat waves in the summers are expected to increase by mid-century,” explained Jim Angel, the Illinois state climatologist and lead author of the chapter on the Midwest in the national climate change study. “And I have to keep reminding myself that when I say mid-century, that's not that far off.”The report predicts that heat and poor air quality will take a toll on livestock and rising humidity will make it harder to grow crops, so yields will be reduced. But farmer Blake Hurst said he has a hard time believing that.“We've had six years in a row above-trend corn yields in the Midwest,” Hurst said. “That's never happened before.” Hurst, president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, lives about 100 miles east of Teske. Hurst’s reaction to climate change is different – he wonders if lowering carbon emissions is worth the economic cost.Hurst said there are always bad weather years, but farmers manage, in part because technology has improved seeds, which also means it costs a lot more than when he started farming in 1978.
Chickpeas sit in silos as Trump's trade wars wage on
NPR | Posted on January 2, 2019On 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. "And we're not sure what we want to do with it."And it's bad times for lentils and peas, too. In the agriculture industry, these are all called pulse crops. The largest importers of U.S. pulse crops have slapped tariffs on them, and they've been sitting in silos ever since.
Trade wars cost U.S., China billions of dollars each in 2018
Reuters | Posted on January 2, 2019The 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. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, motivation to resolve their trade differences before a March 2 deadline, although talks between the economic superpowers could still devolve.The U.S. and Chinese economies each lose about $2.9 billion annually due to Beijing’s tariffs on soybeans, corn, wheat and sorghum alone, said Purdue University agricultural economist Wally Tyner.Disrupted agricultural trade hurt both sides particularly hard because China is the world’s biggest soybean importer and last year relied on the United States for $12 billion worth of the oilseed.China has mostly been buying soy from Brazil since imposing a 25 percent tariff on American soybeans in July in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. The surge in demand pushed Brazilian soy premiums to a record over U.S. soy futures in Chicago, in an example of the trade war reducing sales for U.S. exporters and raising costs for Chinese importers.
China is finding new ways to hurt U.S. businesses
Politico | Posted on January 2, 2019As 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. But more than one in four businesses that responded to a recent U.S.-China Business Council survey said they have been subject to increased scrutiny from Chinese regulators as a result of the increasing trade tensions.Those companies also ranked political risk associated with the U.S.-China relationship as their top challenge for the first time since the survey began 10 years ago.Disparate American goods such as oranges, logs, calf skins and even Lincoln vehicles have encountered heightened customs reviews at Chinese ports this year. Multinational companies already accustomed to the sometimes difficult environment have reported an uptick in the number of hurdles they must jump through in order to do business in the increasingly lucrative market.
Farm bill’s expansion of trade opportunities between the US and Cuba historic and mutually beneficial
The Hill | Posted on January 2, 2019The 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. With strong bipartisan support, this year’s farm bill takes an important step in providing our farmers with more opportunities for trade and helping to alleviate food shortages for everyday Cubans. The farm bill’s Cuba trade provision allows U.S. commodity exporters to use Department of Agriculture market promotion funding in Cuba, meaning our farmers will now be able to advertise their products on the ground where we know there is demand for American goods. These federal programs, which offset the high cost of market promotion, will no longer treat Cuba differently from other foreign markets.
By banning pesticides and GMOs, the EU is sleepwalking into a food security crisis
Euronews | Posted on January 2, 2019Many 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. Famines caused by crop failures would periodically wipe out hundreds of thousands of people on the continent. Each year, families would pray for the right weather which would allow them to survive to the next.Thanks to modern agricultural techniques, this experience is today a memory. Modern pest and weed control technologies protect crops from blight and disease. Scientific innovations make more resilient crops, meaning farmers are not defenceless against capricious weather systems. These techniques allow us to grow enough food to feed half a billion people (and counting) in Europe.
This robot picks a pepper in 24 seconds using a tiny saw, and could help combat a shortage of farm labor
CNBC | Posted on January 2, 2019Researchers 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.
Worried about antibiotics in livestock? Here are the facts
Seattle Times | Posted on January 2, 2019Three 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. Since 2010, none have tested positive for antibiotic residues (traces of leftover antibiotics), because there are multiple layers of safeguards to make sure that doesn’t happen. On dairy farms, if a sick cow must receive antibiotics, that cow’s milk will be dumped until the antibiotics have cleared her system. In organic dairy production, the rules are even stricter — if a cow needs antibiotics, her milk can’t be sold as organic, even once she’s in the clear. When a milk truck comes to pick up a dairy’s milk, the driver takes a sample of the milk. Once the driver arrives at the milk plant, another sample is taken and tested. Any batch of milk — no matter how large — that tests positive for traces of antibiotics at any point is thrown out.What about meat and poultry? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), strict rules mandate that no antibiotics be in an animal’s system when it is slaughtered. This further ensures there are no antibiotic residues in the meat or poultry you eat in a restaurant or buy at the grocery store.
FDA requests preventative labels on dewormers to combat antiparasitic resistance
Veterinary Practice News | Posted on January 2, 2019Animal 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. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is asking these changes be made to help veterinarians, livestock producers, and animal owners better understand the proper use of dewormers and ways to monitor and slow down the development of antiparasitic resistance at farm level.The requested labeling alterations specifically affect anthelmintics for livestock (such as cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, and swine) and horses. Anthelmintics are animal drugs for treating helminths, a term referring to several groups of internal parasites known as worms. Tapeworms and roundworms are common types of helminths.