Although the Texas Supreme Court decision in Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas, LLC v. Texas Rice Land Partners, Ltd. has put an end to the litigation, there are a number of unanswered questions and potential issues that remain in the opinion’s aftermath. [node:read-more:link]
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller announced earlier today that he has been invited to Israel to meet with regional and national officials, including Uri Ariel, the Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development, to discuss vital agricultural issues, including trade and jobs. The trip will take place in March and the itinerary is still being finalized. I am going to deliver the message to our trade partners in Israel that Texas is open for business and that we are looking forward to strengthening the bond between Texas and Israel,” Miller said. [node:read-more:link]
The Texas Department of Agriculture on Friday announced Texas grain producers have voted against the establishment of a producer assessment to self-insure against financial risks associated with selling or storing grain. TDA certified all the ballots, and the final results were 148 in favor of establishing the fund and 665 against. The referendum provided grain producers the opportunity to decide, through an impartial, electoral process, whether the risk of financial loss from placing grain on storage deposit with a grain warehouse warranted the establishment of an indemnity fund. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. ethanol industry ended 2016 on a high note. Ethanol production for the week ending December 30 set a new ethanol production record with an average of 1.043 million barrels per day. The March futures price for corn moved higher last week to close at $3.58 in large part due to strength in the ethanol sector. Ethanol production and exports returned strong numbers over the first quarter of the marketing year. Currently, the WASDE forecast for corn consumption for ethanol production is 5.3 billion bushels. [node:read-more:link]
More than 30 interstate compacts govern the use of water from shared lakes and rivers in the United States. However, there is not a single legal agreement in place between states to guide the apportionment of groundwater that crosses state lines. In 2013, Nevada and Utah appeared poised to be the first two states to reach such an agreement, but ultimately they failed. Now, with a longstanding groundwater dispute between Mississippi and Tennessee headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, a legal precedent governing the apportionment of interstate groundwater is imminent. [node:read-more:link]
In the U.S., gene-editing technologies have already allowed more than 30 types of engineered crops to entirely bypass regulation by the USDA. One such crop is the CRISPR/Cas9-edited white button mushroom. [node:read-more:link]
As traditional commercial fishing is threatening fish populations worldwide, U.S. officials are working on a plan to expand fish farming into federal waters around the Pacific Ocean. The government sees the move toward aquaculture as a promising solution to feeding a hungry planet. But some environmentalists say the industrial-scale farms could do more harm than good to overall fish stocks and ocean health. [node:read-more:link]
A new report from the national laboratories examined states’ renewable energy goals and found that, while renewables add costs, they more than make up for it in avoiding pollution and saving water. For the first time, researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory took a look at state renewable energy portfolios and projected their costs and benefits decades into the future, as far as 2050. Today, 29 states and Washington, D.C., have a renewable portfolio standard. [node:read-more:link]
Bankers responding to the fourth quarter survey continue to report concern for producers financial positions and profitability due to low commodity prices. More specifically, the Fed report stated that, “Loan renewals and extensions continued to increase, albeit at a slower pace, as loan repayment rates declined for the second year in a row. Overall, the volume of non-real-estate farm loans was lower than a year ago. Operating loan volume increased year over year, while all other loan categories’ volumes fell [node:read-more:link]
Seven northwest Washington dairies have pledged to step up efforts to keep manure from spoiling Lummi Nation shellfish beds, while the tribe has agreed to pull back on plans to sue. Dairies also will compensate the tribe with nearly $1.2 million for beds closed by bacteria since 2014 in Portage Bay in Whatcom County. Over the next several months, the tribe and dairies will try to out work water-quality improvement plans for the farms. [node:read-more:link]
