Featured

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is pleased to announce a competitive grant application process for the Healthy Stores Refrigeration Grant Program. CDFA will fund energy efficient refrigeration units in corner stores and small businesses in food deserts throughout the state to stock California-grown fresh produce, nuts and minimally processed foods. The purpose of the program is to improve access to healthy food choices in the small retail environment for underserved communities, while promoting CA-grown agriculture. [node:read-more:link]

In early February, Martin County, Kentucky Sheriff John Kirk took to Facebook to announce that his office was unable to continue providing law enforcement, warning residents to protect themselves instead. “I have had to operate the last little bit with just myself and one other paid deputy. There are volunteers that help when they can,” he wrote. “I am going to have to cut even more tomorrow. I have no choice. [node:read-more:link]

Lawmakers voted Wednesday to prohibit sale of “almond milk” in Arizona for the reason that almonds do not lactate.Consumers could still buy that product. [node:read-more:link]

Washington lawmakers and the state Department of Agriculture are taking down barriers to growing hemp in time for spring planting, though how much farmers will pay in the future for the privilege has not yet been decided. The House Appropriations Committee unanimously endorsed a bill Tuesday that lifts a ban on moving harvested hemp across state lines. The bill also would allow hemp to be grown for CBD, an oil extract marketed for a wide range of ailments.Meanwhile, the agriculture department plans to abolish two rules by April 23. [node:read-more:link]

The 54-year-old second-generation dairy farmer learned last August that his water, his land, his crops — even the blood in his body — were contaminated with chemicals that migrated to his property from nearby Cannon Air Force Base. The toxins, collectively known as PFAS, have caused rampant pollution on military installations, something the Department of Defense has known about for decades but routinely failed to disclose. Now the state’s dairy industry is ground zero in an unprecedented crisis. For the first time ever, PFAS is threatening the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Farmers are struggling to pay back their loans after years of low crop prices, with farm delinquencies rates in Kansas and the nation the highest they have been in at least nine years. [node:read-more:link]

The new dredge material facility in Conneaut will be unlike anything else in the state, officials said at a public meeting about the project. State Rep. John Patterson said the state banned open lake dumping of dredged material because 10 percent of all harmful algae blooms in Lake Erie have been traced to the practice. Patterson supported one of two bills establishing the fund used to finance the Conneaut dredge material project, and he attempted to pass another bill to fund Lake Erie cleanup by putting a ballot initiative before Ohio voters to approve $1 billion over 10 years. [node:read-more:link]

Negative impacts from non-farm developments can’t be offset by making payments to surrounding farmers, according to the Oregon Supreme Court. [node:read-more:link]

Small-scale processing on Oregon farmland would be subject to fewer county restrictions under legislation favored by both agriculture and property rights advocates. However, one provision in the proposal has become a point of debate: whether the exemption should apply to on-farm processing of cannabis.Oregon’s land use laws currently allow crop processing on farmland in facilities smaller than 10,000 square feet, but the buildings are still subject to county siting standards, such as landscaping and parking requirements. [node:read-more:link]

While it might be some time before the direct impacts of the trade war with China has affected Iowa’s economy, a group of eight economists and agriculture development experts at Iowa State University attempted to make exactly those projections this past September. [node:read-more:link]