Agriculture

Those opposed to the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement say trade deals like this cost jobs in America. But the facts do not back that up. When managing plants in Indiana, Ohio, and other Midwestern states close and relocate their operations to Mexico or China, trade deals like TPP and NAFTA get the blame. But the actual figures do not back up that claim, according to John Hardin, Indiana farmer and member of the U.S. Meat Export Federation. “For every three jobs that are lost to foreign trade competition, 7 jobs are lost to automation. [node:read-more:link]

Farmers should be concerned about a recent decision (Duarte Opinion) from the United States District Court of the Eastern District of California involving the federal Clean Water Act.  Generally, the CWA provides that a landowner may not discharge a point-source pollutant (Section 402) or dredge and fill material (Section 404) into a “water of the United States” [node:read-more:link]

Recent reports by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and our institute mostly confirm bad news for the farm sector: Commodity prices and farm income are down, and a quick recovery appears unlikely. Grain prices for crops harvested in 2016 are projected to drop to the lowest level in a decade. [node:read-more:link]

Lower milk prices resulted in negative economic returns for Illinois dairy producers in 2015, according to figures summarized by University of Illinois agricultural economists in cooperation with the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Association.  The average net price received per 100 pounds of milk was $17.35, which was less than total economic costs of $19.17. The price received for milk in 2015 was the lowest since 2010. On a per cow basis, total returns from milk were $4,053 compared to the total cost to produce milk of $4,463 per cow. [node:read-more:link]

USDA lowered its forecast for total red meat and poultry production for 2016 from last month, projecting lower beef, pork, and broiler production. Turkey production was raised. Corn production was lowered and soybean production raised in its latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report. [node:read-more:link]

The adoption of new technologies, including GM, may be crucial in making agriculture more sustainable, a leading food policy expert has claimed. Jack Bobo, chief communications officer for US biotech company Intrexon, said agriculture is having the most negative impact on the planet and yet there is nothing more critical to human survival. Resolving this contradiction was perhaps the greatest challenge of the age, he said. [node:read-more:link]

Not all the data are in just yet, but California is already banking on a lower gross value of its agricultural output for 2015. The California Department of Food and Agriculture collects reports from each of the county agricultural commissioners on crop output during the previous year. Several, but not all of the major crop-producing counties have submitted their reports. Of those that have, the numbers are disappointing and predictable. Citing U.S. [node:read-more:link]

At first, Sebastopol area resident Nancy Martin and her husband did not know what to make of the frequent booming noises they suddenly started hearing in mid-August.  Neither did their neighbors. “We were walking around the neighborhood and we’d run into people, and they’d say, ‘What’s that noise we’re hearing?’ ” Martin said. “And we would say, ‘I don’t know, maybe hunting.’ ” But the sounds were going off at very frequent intervals — sometimes as much as 20 per minute — and could last for 13 hours a day, Martin estimated. [node:read-more:link]

While the U.S. egg industry surges toward what looks like a cage-free future, individual egg producers and the organization that represents more than 90 percent of them, the United Egg Producers (UEP), find themselves at a crossroads. [node:read-more:link]

On Sunday morning, the South Carolina honey bees began to die in massive numbers. Death came suddenly to Dorchester County, S.C. Stressed insects tried to flee their nests, only to surrender in little clumps at hive entrances. The dead worker bees littering the farms suggested that colony collapse disorder was not the culprit — in that odd phenomenon, workers vanish as though raptured, leaving a living queen and young bees behind. Instead, the dead heaps signaled the killer was less mysterious, but no less devastating. The pattern matched acute pesticide poisoning. [node:read-more:link]