Agriculture

Today, we filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against Whole Foods Market, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and Global Animal Partnership (GAP) for what we believe is an improper profit-driven effort to benefit Whole Foods. HSUS and surrogate animal-liberation allies are currently engaging in campaigns threatening restaurants and other companies to switch to GAP-certified meat. GAP was created by Whole Foods (its first address was the Whole Foods corporate HQ) and has been funded predominately by Whole Foods since its inception. [node:read-more:link]

ChemChina [CNCC.UL] has won around 82 percent support from Syngenta shareholders for its $43 billion takeover of the Swiss pesticides and seeds group, China's biggest foreign acquisition to date. [node:read-more:link]

The Environmental Protection Agency may have to assess the effects on endangered species of 59 products containing clothianidin and thiamethoxam, two neonicotinoid insecticides. A federal judge has found that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by registering the products without complying with Endangered Species Act consultation requirements, said Center for Food Safety attorney George Kimbrell, who represents his group and other plaintiffs in the case, including four beekeepers, Beyond Pesticides, the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Health.U.S. [node:read-more:link]

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its first survey-based forecast of the year, projected 2017 winter wheat production at 1,246,392,000 bus, down 425,140,000 bus, or 25%, from 1,671,532,000 bus in 2016. If the forecast is realized, the 2017 winter wheat crop would be the smallest since 1,137,001,000 bus in 2002. The forecast was based on a projected harvested area of 25,564,000 acres, down 15% from 30,222,000 acres in 2016, and a projected average yield of 48.8 bus per acre, down 6.5 bus per acre from the record 55.3 bus per acre in 2016. The U.S.D.A. [node:read-more:link]

Under a settlement with state officials, Western Milling, LLC, will stop producing horse and specialty feeds at its Goshen manufacturing plant and pay $526,500 in fines after feed produced there killed and sickened dozens of horses and cows.  In addition, the company will invest more than $200,000 to buy new manufacturing equipment to elevate its food-safety measures above industry standards, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Feed and Livestock Drugs Inspection Program announced [node:read-more:link]

U.S. exporters see double-digit gains in first quarter of the year. U.S. dairy exports in the first quarter of 2017 were up 14 percent by volume and 17 percent by value compared with a year ago—the best Q1 result since 2014. Exporters realized gains to nearly all markets and across nearly all product categories, with only butterfat and whole milk powder lagging.During the quarter, exporters shipped 461,898 tons of milk powder, cheese, butterfat, whey and lactose. Total dairy exports were valued at $1.32 billion. [node:read-more:link]

In the fast-growing Triangle, farmland is often lost to development and the price of the arable land that remains has skyrocketed, putting it out of reach of young farmers. [node:read-more:link]

“Consumers care about this issue,” says Angie Siemens, vice president of food safety, quality and regulatory at Cargill. “You will continue to see the marketplace move, no matter what the science is, no matter what the metrics are, no matter what the regulations are.”  Siemens participated in a NIAA antibiotics roundtable last summer that included stakeholders from across the spectrum. [node:read-more:link]

America's dairy farmers have been having a tough couple of years. There's a glut of milk on the market, and prices are low.Wisconsin's dairypeople seem especially put out. They've persuaded one of their U.S. [node:read-more:link]