Agriculture News
Rhode Island House and Senate Pass Industrial Hemp Bill
Yahoo.com | Posted on June 27, 2016Rhode Island's legislature has passed a bill to "legalize the production and processing of industrial hemp for commercial purposes in the state." According to the Rhode Island General Assembly HB 8232, which may also be cited as Rhode Island's "Hemp Growth Act", would take effect on January 1, 2017 and would permit the growth of hemp by properly licensed individuals that have applied and met the requirements and would also allow higher educational institutions to grow hemp for educational and research purposes pending approval from the Department of Health.
Reducing Antibiotic Use in Animal Production Systems
Iowa State CARD | Posted on June 27, 2016Antimicrobial drugs are commonly used for animals raised in food production for treatment, control, and prevention of disease as well as growth promotion or increased feed efficiency in many production systems. A recent report from the USDA Economic Research Service (Sneeringer et al. 2015) indicates that the share of hogs, broilers, and beef cattle that have been raised without the use of antibiotics has increased, although a significant share of animals do receive antibiotics for growth promotion or disease prevention (e.g., 59 percent of finishing hogs in 2009 and 52 percent of broilers in 2011). Furthermore, many producers reported that they did not know about their use of antibiotics, particularly those producing under contract (based on data from the USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey, Sneeringer et al. 2015). The advantages of using antimicrobials in production include prevention of mortality and morbidity especially for young animals (e.g., weaning pigs), reduced input costs (improved feed efficiency), and reduced variation in growth and final product. However, concerns have been raised that the extent of antibiotic use in animal production has the potential to promote the development of antibiotic-resistant pathogens that can affect human health through exposure in food and the environment and limit the important and critical benefits of drugs used to treat and protect human health. Consumer groups and public health proponents have pushed for the food animal production industry to restrict antimicrobial use.
Massachusetts: Questions on marijuana, farm animals likely to make November ballot
Masslive.com | Posted on June 27, 2016An effort to legalize recreational marijuana collected more than 25,000 signatures, said spokesman Jim Borghesani. "(Voters) made it clear that this is something that they're interested in and they think should be on the ballot," Borghesani said. "We're very happy with the signature collection, and we're very happy to be able to, we think, be on the ballot in November." The marijuana legalization effort faces opposition from a well organizes campaign committee that includes Gov. Charlie Baker and House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop.
A spokesman for the animal rights ballot committee Citizens for Farm Animal Protection said the group submitted 40,000 signatures to ban confinement of farm animals, by requiring that breeding pigs, calves raised for veal and egg-laying hens have room to turn around, lie down and stretch their limbs. Businesses would be prohibited from selling meat or eggs from farms that do not meet these standards. Only one farm raising hens currently uses confinement in Massachusetts, and no farms raising pigs or calves do. The biggest impact would be on prohibiting the sale of eggs or meat from out of state, which opponents say would raise prices on those foods.
Oregon slaughter facilities face challenges
Capital Press | Posted on June 27, 2016After roughly four decades in operation, the Custom Meat Co. of Eugene, Ore., shut down on June 17. While employees and clients still hope the mobile custom slaughter and meat processing company will be bought and re-opened, they acknowledge the business fell into disarray after owner Victor Hastings succumbed to cancer in January. Unless an investor takes over the company, Keith Cooper, who raises hogs at nearby Sweetbriar Farms, is worried about traveling much greater distances to process carcasses. “I probably couldn’t have existed or grown my business to the extent I had without the assistance of Custom Meat or Vic Hastings,” he said. The problems encountered by the Custom Meat Co. provide an example of the pressures faced by Oregon’s slaughter and meat processing facilities. As the owners of such companies retire or die, finding replacements is difficult — both because their skills are rare and because fewer people are willing to do such work, said Lauren Gwin, an Oregon State University professor and director of the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network. “It is a brutal job to go out and kill things all day long,” Gwin said. “It’s not the kind of thing younger people are interested in doing.”
Mysterious ‘zombie bee’ scourge reaches southern U.S.
Capital Press | Posted on June 27, 2016The mysterious “zombie bee” parasite that kills honeybees has reached the southern United States after scientists confirmed a case in Virginia about an hour outside Roanoke, researchers announced this week. The discovery suggests the phenomenon is more widespread than previously thought, although researchers still know little about how many bees it actually kills. Flies attach themselves to the bees and inject their eggs, causing erratic “zombie-like” behavior in the bees such as flying at night and toward light. The bees often die within hours. Fly larvae burst out of their carcasses days later.
Washington Ecology to write guide to ‘best’ ag practices
Capital Press | Posted on June 27, 2016The Washington Department of Ecology will develop voluntary “best management practices” for agricultural activities, responding to what federal regulators say is a shortcoming in the state’s plan to protect waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency last year demanded Ecology undertake the initiative to continue to qualify for federal funding for water-quality projects. The EPA, along with conservation groups and tribes, accused the state of being too vague about how it will prevent pollution from agriculture. In response, Ecology has hired a Seattle consultant, Ross Strategic, to interview farmers and ranchers to begin identifying ways to prevent pollution. Ecology officials say they plan to spend several months contacting interested parties and likely won’t get down to actually writing what they are calling a technical guide until early next year. The officials say the practices described in the guide won’t be mandatory, but following them would shield producers from being fined for an event that caused pollution. That is the benefit the producer would receive for using the guidance, according to an agency spokeswoman.
Agriculture will be affected by Britain's brexit vote
UK Farmers Weekly | Posted on June 24, 2016For more than 40 years, UK farmers have relied on subsidies from the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) and significant export markets in Europe with free access to 500 million consumers. But the dramatic outcome of the referendum has created huge uncertainty about the future of farm support, regulation and access to the single market and migrant labour, which UK agriculture heavily depends on. Polls carried out by Farmers Weekly have consistently shown strong farmer support for the “leave” campaign. In April, a poll of 577 farmers found 58% said they wanted to leave, while just 31% said they wanted the UK to remain in the trade bloc. Mr Murray called on government to offer an early guarantee that CAP support to UK farmers would continue “unbroken and unchanged” until at least the end of December 2020. And he said UK government must lobby for a “barrier and tariff-free” trading relationship with the EU. “Whatever happens, the UK government must not allow a poor trade dynamic that leaves UK agriculture at a disadvantage.”
EU regulators to rule on $130 billion Dow, DuPont deal by July 28
Reuters | Posted on June 24, 2016EU antitrust authorities will decide by July 28 whether to allow the $130 billion merger of U.S. chemical company Dow Chemical Co and its rival DuPont, one of several large agribusiness deals. The EU competition enforcer can approve the deal with or without concessions or it can open a full-scale investigation of about five months should it have serious concerns about the merger's impact on consumers and rivals.
Farm Bureau president says labor rights would disrupt NY agriculture
North Country Public Radio | Posted on June 24, 2016New York's Farm Bureau announced this week it will fight to block bargaining rights for tens of thousands of agricultural workers. The group hopes to intervene in a court battle over the issue sparked by a labor dispute here in the North Country. Farm Bureau president Dean Norton argued farming is different from other industries that have unions and collective bargaining. "Mother Nature decides our schedule for us," Norton said on the public radio program Capital Pressroom. "When we have to get our crop in the ground, we may have only a certain window of time to get it in. We could be facing a strike or a shutdown or a labor shortage at an inopportune time when we're trying to put crops in the ground or we're trying to harvest our crops." The New York Civil Liberties Union is suing to overturn a state law that prevents farm workers from organizing. Governor Andrew Cuomo and the State's Attorney General have announced they won't defend the law. Norton described their decision as "disappointing."
Plowing is polluting? Wheat farmer loses clean water case
Farm Futures | Posted on June 23, 2016Judge Kimberly Mueller on June 10, 2016 in the U.S. Eastern District Court of California found that John Duarte, a nursery operator and wheat farmer, plowed wetlands, four to six inches deep, and therefore violated the Clean Water Act. The Judge found Mr. Duarte, by chiseling a pasture, discharged fill material into a water (vernal pool) of the United States. Get this! The Court wrote “In sum, soil is a pollutant. And here, plaintiffs instructed [a contractor] to till and loosen soil on the property.” This plowing, according to the Court, caused “…the material in this case soil, to move horizontally, creating furrows and ridges.” You will not believe this. The Court wrote, “This movement of the soil resulted in its being redeposited into waters of the United States at least in areas of the wetlands as delineated...” In sum, the Judge found that chiseling no more than a few inches of soil constituted an addition of a pollutant to a wetland.