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The Mississippi River has been flooding for 41 days now

NPR | Posted on May 9, 2019

The Mississippi River has been at major flood stage for 41 days and counting, and this week a temporary wall failed, sending water rushing into several blocks of downtown Davenport, Iowa. In that same area — the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois — the river crested at a new record height. The National Weather Service says a new record appears to have been set at Rock Island, Ill.The previous area record was set during the Great Flood of 1993 — and as NPR's Rebecca Hersher has reported, that flood caused some $15 billion in damage.Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch says the city had placed temporary barriers to protect against rising water, and a small section of those barriers eventually was breached on Tuesday after holding for weeks."We evacuated about 30 to 40 residents in that area who lived in some condo areas there," he tells NPR's Here & Now. "We deal with [flooding] every year, but this was an unexpected breach and a lot of water got into that area."The upper Mississippi was inundated with massive amounts of rain earlier this week, exacerbating the already high river level. "The state of Iowa has received more precipitation in the last 12 months than any recorded period in 124 years of data," Bob Gallagher, the mayor of the upriver town of Bettendorf, told reporters Friday. "When you get as much rain as we have this year there's just no way to avoid this situation.


America's farmworkers are aging, not being replaced

UPI | Posted on May 9, 2019

The average age of America's hired farm laborers is steadily increasing, threatening the future of the nation's farming industry. The reason is the foreign-born workers, who comprise more than half the workforce, are getting older. At least half those workers are unauthorized. And because the United States is cracking down on illegal immigration, younger immigrants are not arriving to replace them.Between 2007 and 2016, the estimated number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico dropped about 22 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. During roughly that same time period, the average age of migrant and immigrant farmworkers in the United States rose from just under 36 in 2006 to nearly 42 in 2017, according to the report, released last week by the USDA Economic Research Service."This is a pretty big concern," said Michael Langemeier, an agricultural economics professor at Purdue University. "If that group is aging, farmers are going to have more problems finding workers. Their bottom lines will be under pressure."The issue mainly impacts fruit and vegetable growers and dairy farmers -- operations that require human labor to pick ripe produce and milk cows. Commodity crop growers require far fewer hands, as they can use machines to plant, tend and harvest their crops.National farming organizations like the American Farm Bureau Federation warn that unless something is done to address the impending labor shortage, produce and dairy farms across the country will struggle to stay in business. As these farms cease operating, the United States instead will import produce, mostly from Mexico and other Latin American countries."We can import workers, or we can import food," said Will Rodger, a Farm Bureau spokesman. "It's really that simple."But addressing the labor shortage is no simple matter.


California to ban controversial pesticide blamed for harming child brain development

CBS News | Posted on May 8, 2019

The nation's most productive agricultural state will ban a widely used toxic pesticide blamed for harming brain development in babies, California officials said. The move would outlaw chlorpyrifos after scientists deemed it a toxic air contaminant and discovered it to be more dangerous than previously thought. State Environmental Secretary Jared Blumenfeld said it's the first time the state has sought to ban a pesticide and the move was overdue."This pesticide is a neurotoxin and it was first put on the market in 1965," Blumenfeld said. "So it's been on the shelf a long time and it's past its sell-by date."


For Flood-Hit Farmers on Missouri River, Sand Is the Next Big Challenge

Wall Street Journal | Posted on May 7, 2019

In areas where floodwaters have receded, farmers are left to deal with piles of sand, debris on their fields


Some horse advocates buck at new plan to save wild mustangs

Capital Press | Posted on May 7, 2019

Animal welfare groups have reached a milestone agreement with ranching interests they say would save wild  mustangs from slaughter but the compromise has opened a nasty split among horse protection advocates.The Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals say their proposal backed by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation would eliminate the threat of slaughter for thousands of free-roaming horses primarily by spending millions of dollars on expanding fertility controls on the range.As part of the deal presented to the Bureau of Land Management, they're willing to drop long-held opposition to controversial roundups of the horses — fighting words for the largest mustang advocacy groups that have been in court for years defending the animals' ability to forage with cattle and sheep in 10 western states.


'Forever Chemicals' Ruin Dairies

DTN | Posted on May 7, 2019

Food may be the next frontier in research on a wide array of potentially toxic chemicals increasingly showing up in drinking water and groundwater nationally. Art Schaap and Fred Stone milk dairy cows more than 2,000 miles from each other, but right now, neither one of them can sell their milk. Both farmers have been dumping their milk for months, and their cows also might never become beef, depending on how federal agencies determine safe or low-risk levels of chemicals in their cows.Their farms are in limbo because of contamination from a collection of roughly 5,000 chemicals in the environment that were made to use in a broad array of products, ranging from non-stick pans to foam used to fight fires. The family of synthetic chemicals, known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, collectively known as "PFAS" chemicals, have been around since the 1940s. But only in recent years have they been dubbed as "emerging contaminants" because these fluorochemicals -- also called PFOA or PFOS -- are not only toxic, but they just don't go away. PFAS chemicals will move with water and remain in it. They are sometimes called "forever chemicals."


Farmers are milking an appetite for American hay

Heated Medium | Posted on May 2, 2019

Today, China accounts for almost half of Oregon Hay’s sales, with manager Vic Follen traveling to China three to six times a year for the company that exports for 50 or more U.S. hay farmers.Follen, who quit his construction job after the 2008 economic downturn to join the family business, says the hay sales are the result of the uptick in Chinese dairy consumption which includes milk powders and yogurts in addition to just plain milk.Follen is one of many American hay merchants turning their sights to Asia, as Chinese dairy farms, eager to satisfy the Westernized tastes of a booming middle class, have ramped up orders for American hay, specifically dried and cut alfalfa, the cream of the hay crop.They are taking advantage of the lower shipping costs afforded by all the empty containers heading back to Asia following deliveries of iPhones, sneakers, and furniture to the U.S. Last April, the hay business was so high profile it made the list of goods Beijing chose for retaliatory tariffs in its trade war with President Donald Trump.


Grassley warns Trump that tariffs on Mexico and Canada will kill his NAFTA replacement

Washington Examiner | Posted on May 1, 2019

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has warned President Trump that his U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement on trade can't pass Congress if he retains steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico. "If these tariffs aren’t lifted, USMCA is dead. There is no appetite in Congress to debate USMCA with these tariffs in place," Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said


Trump administration eyes more aid to farmers if necessary: White House aide

Reuters | Posted on May 1, 2019

The Trump administration is ready to provide more federal aid to farmers if required, a White House adviser said on Monday, after rolling out up to $12 billion since last year to offset agricultural losses from the trade dispute with China. “We have allocated $12 billion, some such, to farm assistance. And we stand ready to do more if necessary,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters.The U.S. Department of Agriculture had previously ruled out a new round of aid for 2019. As of March, more than $8 billion was paid out as part of last year’s program. On Monday, the department said it had extended the deadline to apply to Ma


Farmers go organic in search of millennial dollars

Bloomberg | Posted on May 1, 2019

Organic farm product value doubles from 2012 to 2017: USDA Turn to organic comes as overall number of farms declines


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