Agriculture

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hold public meetings to offer opportunity for discussion on the proposed recommendations for reauthorization of the Animal Drug User Fee Act (ADUFA) and Animal Generic Drug User Fee Act (AGDUFA). The recommendations will be published and posted online when available, prior to the meeting on November 2, 2017. Interested parties can share their comments at the meeting or by submitting them to the public docket electronically or by mail as described below. [node:read-more:link]

For decades, agriculture’s adversaries have said “no” to almost any policy that helped farmers. When farm policy was reformed to be more free-market oriented, critics said it wasn’t enough. When the agricultural sector stood alone and volunteered funding cuts to help close America’s budget deficit, critics said it wasn’t enough. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering a major change to the Renewable Fuel Standard that could include offering biofuel credits attached to gallons of ethanol exported from the United States. Already this week, the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

The Kansas Department of Agriculture announced that the State Conservation Commission has approved the creation of the Kansas Wildfire Cost Share Initiative which will provide funding in the amount of $200,000 for specific recovery expenses following recent wildfires in Kansas. [node:read-more:link]

Mark Shanklin thinks he was well within his rights in June 2016 when a police officer knocked on his door after noting unusually high power usage at the St. Louis man's home.  Shanklin "...was covered in dirt or potting soil and reeked of marijuana" when Detective Gregory Klipsch asked him to talk, and he consented to a search after consulting with his wife, according to court documents. [node:read-more:link]

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife won’t kill any more wolves from the Smackout Pack, because the predators haven’t attacked any cattle for two months. Under the state’s wolf plan and protocols, department director Jim Unsworth can authorize “an incremental removal of wolves,” said Donny Martorello, wolf policy lead for WDFW. [node:read-more:link]

New Zealand’s egg producers have branded as “unfair” the recent decision by two of the country’s leading supermarkets to sell only cage-free eggs in future. Producers face financial ruin, and consumers will lose their preferred option for eggs.Around six months ago, national retailer, Countdown, announced plans to sell only cage-free eggs by the end of 2024 in the North Island and by a year later across the rest of the country. The move followed criticism that it’s undertaking to sell only its own egg brand as cage-free from 2022 did not go far enough. [node:read-more:link]

In order for broiler producers to become GAP certified, one area the producer must address is the flock’s stocking density. While all five steps of certification for stocking density call for chickens to have enough space to express natural behaviors – including standing, turning around and preening – without touching another chicken, the requirements differ at different steps.For purposes related to the GAP 5-Step certification program, stocking densities are calculated based on the final target weight of all chickens per flock per area at the time of catching. [node:read-more:link]

A stagnant farm economy that has slowed Nebraska and Iowa's income growth to the lowest levels in the nation is also contributing to state budget problems that could linger through next year, officials said. Key lawmakers from both states said they're concerned the agricultural downturn will persist, ripping through other sectors and putting additional strain on their budgets.Declining farm income was the leading cause of the slowdown in many states, including Iowa and Nebraska, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. [node:read-more:link]

The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has held that the First Amendment is applicable to a Wyoming statute that prohibits crossing private property to collect resource data.  The statute, which would prohibit a variety of acts such as photographing, videoing, sampling, or otherwise gathering data on water, soil, and animals, was challenged by several plaintiffs who claimed it violated their free speech rights.  The trial court dismissed the case, finding that the collection of data was not “speech” such that the First Amendment was implicated.  The Tenth Circuit reversed, [node:read-more:link]