Agriculture

Perdue plans sweeping changes in how it breeds, raises and slaughters its chickens as consumers demand to know more about their food sources and animal-rights activists have stepped up efforts to uncover abuses in the poultry industry. Perdue, the nation's fourth-largest poultry producer, and its contract farmers will stop raising chickens in crammed, windowless sheds, and instead install windows and increase space to encourage resting, playing and other natural behaviors. [node:read-more:link]

The price of corn was about $3.25 Friday as agricultural lenders huddled to discuss the industry in today's low-price environment. National estimates are calling for an average price of $4.20 for wheat planted this year, a 16 percent decrease from last year, and soybeans are expected to bring an average of $8.50.Ed Schafer, former North Dakota governor and U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Biotechnology, including the ability to alter living organisms at the genetic level, may be the only answer to the fatal citrus greening disease that threatens the future of the Florida citrus industry.That’s what a leading industry official, Ricke Kress, told about 375 citrus growers and colleagues Thursday morning at the Florida Citrus Industry Annual Conference in Bonita Springs. Kress is president of Southern Gardens Citrus Processing Corp. [node:read-more:link]

The genome of the corn plant – or maize, as it’s called almost everywhere except the US – “is a lot more exciting” than scientists have previously believed. So says the lead scientist in a new effort to analyze and annotate the depth of the plant’s genetic resources. “Our new research establishes the amazing diversity of maize, even beyond what we already knew was there,” says Doreen Ware, Ph.D., of the US Department of Agriculture and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) in New York. [node:read-more:link]

There is a troubling discrepancy between the large number of harmful invasive plant species and the number of invasive plant species that are actually regulated.[1] At the federal level, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection service (APHIS) includes 112 plant species on the Federal Noxious Weed List.Scientific estimates, however, put the actual number of introduced invasive species at around 5,000. It is estimated that annual costs attributed to invasive plant species in the U.S. approach $25 billion. [node:read-more:link]

Bayer AG’s $62 billion offer for Monsanto Co., which would be the largest corporate takeover ever by a German company, is also Chief Executive Werner Baumann’s risky power play after a 28-year ascent. [node:read-more:link]

Governor Terry McAuliffe announced two new projects. One doubles the amount of funding for the Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development. Some of the money will be used for a new office and four new staffers. The second is a new program called the Virginia Farmers Development Fund. The fund will give out grants to help farmers grow their businesses domestically and abroad. His initial plan is to put a couple hundred thousand dollars into that grant. [node:read-more:link]

For Zach Lester, co-owner of Tree and Leaf Farm in Va., farmers markets have traditionally been a gathering of the tribe as much as a collection of freshly harvested fruits and vegetables. They’ve been a place where true believers could make their weekly investment in the future of local and sustainable agriculture.  But in recent years, Lester has noticed a shift in the markets, where he once could expect to generate $200,000 or more a year in gross sales. “The customers have changed,” says Lester, who runs Tree and Leaf with his wife, Georgia O’Neal. [node:read-more:link]

An Idaho law that discourages undercover investigations at large-scale livestock farms is headed for a showdown in federal court, in a case that could have implications across the West.  Last summer, a district court struck down Idaho's so-called "ag-gag" law. [node:read-more:link]

A federal court had denied a motion by Hanor Co. of Wisconsin to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States over ammonia emissions.  HSUS and Sound Rivers Inc. contend in the complaint that Hanor had refused to report its ammonia emissions, harming animals, the public and the environment. [node:read-more:link]