AgClips
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Pact opens doors for U.S. turkey exports to New Zealand
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted onJanuary 4, 2017 in Rural NewsA new veterinary certificate approved by New Zealand authorities will open that nation’s market to cooked turkey products from U.S. sources, according to a news release from the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC). New Zealand’s Ministry of Primary Industries approved the agreement after two years of direct negotiations between the regulators and USDA after new import health standards were approved there in 2015. The process of opening the pathway for U.S.
Nevada Regulators Restore Retail-Rate Net Metering in Sierra Pacific Territory
Green Tech Media | Posted onJanuary 4, 2017 in Energy NewsThe Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) has voted to restore favorable rates for residential solar customers in NV Energy’s Sierra Pacific Power Company’s service territory -- exactly one year after the commission passed a controversial fee increase that brought the state’s residential solar market to a halt. In the draft order approved Thursday, Chairman Joseph Reynolds wrote: “Abraham Lincoln once said that ‘Bad promises are better broken than kept.’ The PUCN’s prior decisions on [net energy metering], in several respects, maybe best viewed as a promise better left unkept.
Cheaper to buy than grow
Daily Yonder | Posted onJanuary 4, 2017 in Agriculture NewsThe trouble with farming has always been that it is cheaper to buy what we produce from other farmers like us than it is to produce those things ourselves. That’s why industries serving agriculture always seem to do better than farmers themselves. For example, Iowa State University published tables of annual average corn and soybean prices and average annual production costs per bushel of corn and soybeans on Iowa’s farms from 1968 to 2016. What the tables clearly show is that it is cheaper to buy those crops than to grow them. That’s why keeping the kids down on the farm is so hard.
This Small Town Refused to Settle for Wal-Mart When Its Last Local Grocery Store Closed
Yes magazine | Posted onJanuary 4, 2017 in Rural NewsFor two months in 2012, longtime Iola, Kansas, resident Mary Ross trudged through the sweltering heat, waving gnats from her view as she walked door to door with a petition. It was the hottest summer since moving there with her family about 30 years ago, but Ross was determined to gather signatures requesting a grocery store be established in the small rural town of fewer than 6,000 people.
Rural residents pool cash to save last bars, gathering sites
Sioux City Journal | Posted onJanuary 4, 2017 in Rural NewsOnce-bustling Renwick, Iowa, lost its grocery, hardware store, school and Ford dealership years ago, but when its sole bar closed last June, it seemed to some residents there wasn't much of a town left. So a group of seven friends and spouses who had met for beers at the bar for decades took matters into their own hands. One of them bought the place and the others pooled their money to fix it up, showing up after work to replace floors and walls on steamy summer nights before reopening in September as the Blue Moose Saloon.
Electric car sales pass half a million in US
Newsweek | Posted onJanuary 3, 2017 in Energy NewsMore than 500,000 electric cars have been sold in the United States, according to a report from an electric vehicle charger operator. The sale of more than 130,000 plug-in hybrid or battery-powered electric vehicles between November 2015 and November 2016 pushed the total number of electric cars sold in the U.S. to 542,000. The milestone was highlighted in a report by Chargepoint, first seen by the technology news website Recode, which also ranked the U.S. with the highest electric vehicle adoption.
Ohio Governor Vetoes Bill to Extend Freeze on Renewable Energy
Bloomberg | Posted onJanuary 3, 2017 in Energy NewsOhio Governor John Kasich rejected a bill to extend a freeze on a law that requires utilities in the state to buy more electricity from renewable sources including wind and solar power. The bill would have extended for two years a delay on the state’s requirement that utilities get 12.5 percent of their power from renewables by 2027, slowing development of the clean energy technologies and threatening investment and jobs, Kasich said Tuesday in a statement.
Gov. Rick Snyder on Michigan’s energy future
Midwest Energy News | Posted onJanuary 3, 2017 in Energy NewsIn the waning hours of the Michigan legislature’s 2016 lame-duck session, Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration played a key role in ensuring that major energy reforms that were two years in the making crossed the finish line. In fact, Snyder helped broker a deal which initially might have narrowly passed in his view, but ended up gaining widespread support in the Republican-controlled legislature. “This was one of the finest illustrations of good, bipartisan and broad-based work I’ve seen in my time as governor,” Snyder, also a Republican, said
WTO ruling helps U.S. ag exports to Indonesia
Capital Press | Posted onJanuary 3, 2017 in Federal NewsThe World Trade Organization has ruled in favor of the U.S. and New Zealand against Indonesia’s restrictions on its imports of fruits, vegetables and meats.
Top 10 antibiotic-free chicken, pork articles of 2016
Watt Ag Net | Posted onJanuary 3, 2017 in Agriculture NewsAntibiotic-free chicken and pig production news was a popular topic in 2016. These 10 articles drew the most attention from WATT AgNet readers during the past year, ranked by the number of times readers viewed the stories. 1. Tyson eager to meet antibiotic-free chicken demand. The demand for chicken raised with no antibiotics ever (NAE) continues to grow, and Tyson Foods President Tom Hayes says the company is poised to meet that demand.2. 7 antibiotic-free feeding practices beyond additives, Additives are not the only area that require attention when antibiotics are removed from feeds.3.