AgClips
Recent AgClips
Cuban Connection: The journey of one rice farmer
KATC | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Agriculture NewsLouisiana Agricultural commissioner Mike Strain presented the Cuban government with a memorandum of understanding. "It's a pledge of mutual support, working together to grow agricultural trade, industrial trade." In upcoming months, Cuban officials will revise the memorandum, and on a state visit in October, Governor Edwards is scheduled to sign it. But for Guillory, there's no deeper understanding than talking rice farmer to rice farmer... "Farmers everywhere have a fraternity that no one else understands." ...and there's no substitute for a shared cigar-and a handshake.
Judge Puts Hold on Plan to Open California Lands to Fracking
ABC News | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Energy NewsA federal judge on Tuesday tentatively rejected a plan by the federal Bureau of Land Management to open more than 1,500 square miles of lands in central California to oil drilling and fracking. The BLM failed to take a "hard look" at the environmental effects of the estimated 25 percent of new wells that would be devoted to fracking, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald wrote in the ruling.
USDOT proposes requiring speed limiting devices on heavy haulers
Equipment World | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Federal NewsThe U.S. Department of Transportation has released a proposed rule that would require trucks weighing more than 26,000 pounds to be equipped with speed limiting devices (also known as speed governors or speed limiters), but the regulatory body did not propose a speed to which trucks would be limited.
Migrant farmworkers on 1,500-kilometre caravan to Ottawa
Windsor Star | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Agriculture NewsFifty years after Canada began flying in seasonal workers to help out on the farm, a group is rallying to have the program’s participants granted permanent immigration status. “These are the workers putting food on our tables, but they’re not being treated the same as other workers,” said Elizabeth Ha, a member of Harvesting Freedom, a migrant farmworker caravan travelling over the next several weeks from Windsor to Ottawa to highlight issues facing those seasonal visitors. Facing unemployment at home on the Caribbean island of St.
Developing a workforce from the ground up
The Californian | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Rural NewsRecognizing these pathways to promotion, the California Strawberry Commission created a program that exists nowhere else. More than 3,000 employees are trained annually through regular workshops and field days for ranch managers, crew supervisors and farmers. These workshops provide continuing education and skills development for strawberry farming’s mid-level management workers: nearly all promoted from harvest worker positions. California has the most comprehensive farm labor protections in the country.
Social Sustainability: the good, the bad and the ugly
Meatingplace (registration required) | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Agriculture NewsFor those who believe the phrase “social sustainability” and the ideas it represents are an overblown waste of time, I have to say that you need to wake up and smell the coffee along with the bacon! The primary pillar of economic sustainability depends upon the corollary of social sustainability. Our incomes are ultimately sourced from the society we serve. To the extent that we allow a willful ignorance to unnecessarily alienate our ever-changing consumer base, we shoot ourselves in the foot. This era of social media is an era requiring deeper transparency.
Ohio University receives $2 million grant for coal-impacted communities
Morgan County Herald | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Energy NewsOhio University has received a $2 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Partnerships for Opportunities and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) program to create a 28-county regional innovation network in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. The goal of the program is to create 125 new businesses and 1,110 jobs and raise $25 million in company investments from public and private sources over the next six years.
Ohio Supreme Court strikes down challenge to wind-farm approval
The Columbus Dispatch | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Energy NewsThe Ohio Supreme Court has rejected a challenge of the way state officials approved a wind farm in Champaign County. In a unanimous ruling released on Wednesday, the court found that the Ohio Power Siting Board was proper in the way it approved revisions to a proposal for the Buckeye I wind farm. But there remains a separate pending appeal that is delaying construction of the project.
Activist investor buys Chipotle stake, seeks more value
Meatingplace (registration required) | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Food NewsThe hedge fund run by activist investor Bill Ackman has taken a 9.9-percent stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill, saying the fast-casual restaurant chain is undervalued. Pershing Square Capital Management said in a regulatory filing it intends to have discussions with Chipotle’s management and board that may relate to the Denver-based company’s governance, board composition, operations, cost structure, assets, financial condition and strategic plans.
U of I lab could provide boost to regional economy
Herald Review | Posted onSeptember 8, 2016 in Rural NewsWith funding available for a new bioprocessing research lab at the University of Illinois, officials in Decatur see an opportunity to provide an economic boost across Central Illinois.State Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said Tuesday the state is investing $26 million in the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Lab, which will complement the production and transportation capacity of Decatur and the surrounding area's corn and soybean production.