AgClips
Recent AgClips
Criminal case brought against egg farmer
Farm Futures | Posted onFebruary 22, 2017 in Agriculture News"On or about February 10, 2016, in the above named judicial district, the crime of FARM ANIMAL CRUELTY, in violation of HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTION 25990, a misdemeanor, was committed by Robert Allen Hohberg, Hohberg's Poultry Ranches and Hohberg Properties, L.P., who unlawfully confined a covered animal, on a farm, for all or the majority of any day, in a manner that prevents such animal from lying down, standing up, and fully extending her limbs and turning around freely, to wit, egg laying hens, cage #B54." This criminal count and 55 others are now being faced by a California egg farm
Dairy farmers eager for Trump to ease milk glut
Farm Futures | Posted onFebruary 22, 2017 in Federal NewsBlame Canada. That’s what U.S. farmers say about some of the bubbling gluts weighing on the milk market, and they are eager for President Donald Trump to do something about it. While growers and exporters of U.S. crops and food products have expressed anxiety over Trump’s restrictive immigration policies and determination to renegotiate trade deals, dairies see him as an opportunity to crack what they see as Canada’s protectionist milk practices and to help ease oversupply in some regions.
America's Rural Opportunity: Supporting Entrepreneurial Economies
Aspen Institute | Posted onFebruary 20, 2017 in Rural NewsAmerica’s Rural Opportunity is a six-part series that invites policymakers, economic and community development practitioners, and business and philanthropic leaders to engage in real dialogue around advancing a rural opportunity agenda. This second America’s Rural Opportunity panel will focus on a group of innovators that drive the American economy – entrepreneurs and the organizations that support them.
The Death of the All-American Town
The Wall Street Journal | Posted onFebruary 20, 2017 in Rural NewsLancaster, Ohio, was once a thriving city of glass-makers, shoe factories, natural gas operations and more. By way of culture, it had a music festival, a county fair and the Sherman House (birthplace of the Civil War general). Cozily nestled just west of the Appalachian foothills, it had something in addition to its churches, parks, taverns and bowling alleys.
Environment Will Hawaii Restrict Pesticides, Require More Disclosure From Big Ag?
Civil Beat | Posted onFebruary 20, 2017 in Agriculture NewsAfter a federal court shot down the efforts of individual counties, advocates of more regulation have only the Legislature to turn to. A week ago, two legislative committees approved a slew of bills aimed at banning certain pesticides, funding studies and requiring large agricultural companies to disclose when and where they apply the chemicals. But activists pushing for more regulation of large farms aren’t celebrating yet. Some lawmakers on other committees aren’t planning to call hearings for the bills or say that they haven’t made up their minds.
Gene editing made simple
Agrinews | Posted onFebruary 20, 2017 in Agriculture NewsMarshall, along with representatives and members of the American Seed Trade Association, are working with gene editing to edit out and edit in traits and qualities in plants and beyond. Long-form, CRISPR is Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Cas9 is a nuclease that is used with another element to “cut” a cell’s genome and allow the editing, consisting of the addition of or deletion of specific genes.
Perceptions of genetically modified food are informed by more than just science
The Conversation | Posted onFebruary 20, 2017 in Food NewsWhen people don’t seem to use science to make decisions, it is tempting to assume that it’s because they don’t understand the underlying science. In response, scientists and science communicators often just try harder to explain the science in the hope that eventually the facts will persuade people to change their behaviours or beliefs.
Iowa farmers getting squeezed out by land preservation tax credits, Farm Bureau says
Des Moines Register | Posted onFebruary 20, 2017 in Agriculture NewsBetween 2008 and 2013, Iowa landowners received $6.3 million in tax credits for donating $19.4 million in land or conservation easements. In all, they gave away 9,200 acres. Even with those donations, Iowa ranks second-to-last nationally in the amount of publicly owned land, experts say. But that's still too much for the tax credit's opponents. The state's largest agriculture group contends that the land donations shrink local property taxes and idle acreage in a state where competition for farmland is intense.
Minnesota Senate approves Becker power plant
Minneapolis Star Tribune | Posted onFebruary 20, 2017 in Energy NewsThe Legislature moved to sidestep utility regulators and approve a new Xcel Energy power plant in central Minnesota. The natural gas-fired plant in Becker is meant to offset losses from two coal-fired generators when they close in 2023 and 2026. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission sidelined Xcel's proposal in October. However, bills passed in both chambers of the Legislature mean the plant can move forward without fulfilling the regulator's request to research renewable energy options.
Indiana Senate panel OKs bill to reduce solar incentives
Sioux City Journal | Posted onFebruary 20, 2017 in Energy NewsAn Indiana Senate panel gave preliminary approval Thursday to a bill backed by the state's investor-owned power utilities that critics contend is an effort to muscle out smaller companies from the emerging solar energy market. The measure by Republican state Sen. Brandt Hershman was approved by thte Senate Utilities committee.Currently, solar panel owners who feed surplus energy into the power grid are compensated at a retail market rate, which supporters say enables them to pay off the expensive investment in solar within its useful life.