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Agriculture News

Rural Mainstreet Begins Year Weak: One-Third Indicate Loan Defaults Biggest Banking Threat

Creighton University Economic Outlook | Posted on February 22, 2017

For a 17th straight month, the Rural Mainstreet Index remained below growth neutral. • Almost one-third of bank CEOs indicated that soaring loan defaults represented the greatest Rural Mainstreet banking threat for 2017. • Almost nine often bankersreported thatlow agriculture commodity represented the biggest threat to the rural economic for 2017. • Eighty percent of bankers expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in the first half of 2017. States with January Rural Mainstreet expansions: Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota; States with January Rural Mainstreet contractions: Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wyoming.


Video counters HSUS stance on antibiotic use

Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on February 22, 2017

HumaneWatch, a project of the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, released a video rebutting Humane Society of the United States CEO Wayne Pacelle’s assertions on antibiotic use in animal agriculture. The video addresses Pacelle’s claim that overuse of antibiotics on farms is a public health menace, pointing to recent findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that show nearly one-third of antibiotics prescribed to humans are unnecessary. A second study, by researchers at King’s College in London, found that about half of patients were inappropriately prescribed antibiotics by general practitioners, HumaneWatch noted. Pacelle’s statement that antibiotics are being given preventively on  farms is false, pointing out that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) controls the use of antibiotics on farms, and the drugs can only be prescribed by a veterinarian for a specific illness.


Washington orchardists take pay muddle to lawmakers

Capital Press | Posted on February 22, 2017

Washington tree fruit growers are asking legislators to set rules for paying piece-rate workers, effectively intervening in pending federal lawsuits spawned by a 2015 state Supreme Court decision. The ruling in Lopez v. Sakuma required growers to pay piece-rate workers separately for 10-minute rest breaks. The decision upset longstanding practice, left unresolved key questions and exposed growers to more lawsuits. The suits seek back pay for rest breaks for up to three years. The suits also seek separate compensation for time piece-rate workers spend on activities such as traveling between fields, attending meetings and storing equipment. U.S. District Court Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. in Richland this month said workers were eligible for back pay for rest breaks. He referred the question about compensation for other activities to the state high court.


Absent Federal Policy, States Take Lead on Animal Welfare

Civil Eats | Posted on February 22, 2017

In the opening weeks of the Trump administration, the state of animal welfare—as with so much other policy—is in upheaval. On February 9, the administration froze the implementation of the just-passed Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP)—the only comprehensive federal law that regulates the welfare of animals raised for food.  The freeze comes on the heels of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) removing Animal Welfare Act inspection reports from its website. These cover compliance (and violations) of facilities that raise animals commercially for sale as pets, for biomedical research, and for zoos and circuses—but not those raised for food. In fact, only animals on the way to slaughter and in the slaughterhouse are covered under existing national law. The USDA says it removed the data for privacy reasons and because of ongoing litigation. In response, PETA and half a dozen other animal rights groups have filed suit against the USDA, charging the agency with violating the Freedom of Information Act. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is also taking steps toward legal action, and Senator Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), calling it a “transparency issue,” has demanded that the USDA immediately restore this data. In a press release, the USDA explained that the Trump administration is delaying the OLPP rule “to ensure the new policy team has an opportunity to review the rules.” But organic food producers and animal welfare and food safety advocates point to the long process of developing the updated rule and its significance to growing consumer interest in farm animal welfare. “The rule has been fully vetted and has undergone the public comment process and scrutiny of federal budget watchdogs,” said the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in a statement.


Georgia nixes new poultry price discovery system

Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on February 22, 2017

The Georgia Premium Poultry Price Index (GPPPI) will not be published due to a lack of available data, the Georgia Department of Agriculture said. The GPPPI was the department’s answer to the suspended Georgia Dock poultry price discovery system, which had come under scrutiny due to how high its prices have been compared with other pricing indexes amid federal litigation accusing the industry of price fixing.


Missouri AG shouldn’t make Proposition 2 partisan issue

Watt Ag Net | Posted on February 22, 2017

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley should be commended for his efforts to keep California’s Proposition 2 egg law from burdening Missouri egg farmers and egg consumers. At the same time, he should be chastised for trying to make it a partisan issue.  Hawley’s office last week issued a press release that announced he would challenge the law -- that requires that eggs produced and sold in the state are laid by hens that have adequate room to stand up, sit down, turn around and extend their limbs without touching another bird or the sides of the cage -- “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.”But the Republican attorney general was also quoted as saying: “Make no mistake, this is an attempt by big-government liberals to impose job-killing regulation on Missouri.” Come again? Democrats also oppose Proposition 2. It would appear that Hawley is choosing to ignore that his predecessor, Chris Koster, was the first to challenge the California egg law. Koster is a Democrat.  It’s also worth noting that five other states have joined Missouri in its fight to keep California’s law from affecting the egg industry outside of the Sunshine State. Those states are Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Alabama. All five joined Koster’s fight before Hawley was even elected.  Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear are also both Democrats. Meanwhile, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, and then-Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt [who has since been confirmed to head the Environmental Protection Agency] are all Republicans. With that in mind, it should be pretty apparent that this not an issue of one political party trying to impose its beliefs onto the others, but rather an issue of one state trying to impose its regulations onto others.


Criminal case brought against egg farmer

Farm Futures | Posted on February 22, 2017

"On or about February 10, 2016, in the above named judicial district, the crime of FARM ANIMAL CRUELTY, in violation of HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTION 25990, a misdemeanor, was committed by Robert Allen Hohberg, Hohberg's Poultry Ranches and Hohberg Properties, L.P., who unlawfully confined a covered animal, on a farm, for all or the majority of any day, in a manner that prevents such animal from lying down, standing up, and fully extending her limbs and turning around freely, to wit, egg laying hens, cage #B54." This criminal count and 55 others are now being faced by a California egg farmer. It is being brought in the Superior Court of California in the county of San Bernadino. Specifically there are 39 counts of violating California's Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act and 16 additional criminal counts of violating the state's cruelty code. You may remember California passed Proposition 2 in 2008. California's legislature subsequently passed a law that each egg laying hen be able to fully spread her wings without touching another hen.

 


Environment Will Hawaii Restrict Pesticides, Require More Disclosure From Big Ag?

Civil Beat | Posted on February 20, 2017

After a federal court shot down the efforts of individual counties, advocates of more regulation have only the Legislature to turn to. A week ago, two legislative committees approved a slew of bills aimed at banning certain pesticides, funding studies and requiring large agricultural companies to disclose when and where they apply the chemicals. But activists pushing for more regulation of large farms aren’t celebrating yet. Some lawmakers on other committees aren’t planning to call hearings for the bills or say that they haven’t made up their minds. Others won’t answer questions about the measures.


Gene editing made simple

Agrinews | Posted on February 20, 2017

Marshall, along with representatives and members of the American Seed Trade Association, are working with gene editing to edit out and edit in traits and qualities in plants and beyond. Long-form, CRISPR is Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats. Cas9 is a nuclease that is used with another element to “cut” a cell’s genome and allow the editing, consisting of the addition of or deletion of specific genes. Gene editing is the hot topic for scientists in fields ranging from agriculture to medicine.In agriculture, the technology holds promise for doing everything from fighting potentially devastating crop diseases to improving the flavor and yield of vegetables.But for the industry involved in using the technology, making sure that it and the crops it’s used in will be accepted around the globe is a priority.


Iowa farmers getting squeezed out by land preservation tax credits, Farm Bureau says

Des Moines Register | Posted on February 20, 2017

Between 2008 and 2013, Iowa landowners received $6.3 million in tax credits for donating $19.4 million in land or conservation easements. In all, they gave away 9,200 acres. Even with those donations, Iowa ranks second-to-last nationally in the amount of publicly owned land, experts say.  But that's still too much for the tax credit's opponents. The state's largest agriculture group contends that the land donations shrink local property taxes and idle acreage in a state where competition for farmland is intense. Craig Hill, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, said if property owners want to give land for parks and preserves, they should do so without tax cuts, which are expected to grow to $12.1 million by 2021, based on revenue department projections. "Government incentives for donations eliminates opportunities for young farmers," Hill said. "A lot of our young farmers think it’s wrong."


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