Chronic wasting disease already is a problem in the 24 states (including all but Indiana and Ohio in the Midwest) and two Canadian provinces where it has been detected in free-ranging deer, elk or moose.
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Minnesota dairy farmers Amanda and Derek Zigan are still paying for a bold bet they made when dairy prices were flying high. The couple built a new barn equipped with state-of-the-art milking equipment, hoping to reduce their dependence on hired help, lower their vet bills and keep their cows healthier and more productive. Back in 2014, a local paper dubbed them Todd County, Minnesota’s first robotic farm.Then the bottom fell out of the dairy market. [node:read-more:link]
Land conservation modestly increases employment rates, a traditional indicator of economic growth, according to an analysis of New England cities and towns, led by scientists at Amherst College, Harvard Forest, the Highstead Foundation, and Boston University. [node:read-more:link]
A new study shows that agriculture plays a big role in the success of the overall U.S. economy. More than one-fourth of the nation’s job total and more than one-fifth of the nation’s economy are tied, either directly or indirectly, to the food and agriculture sectors. A coalition of 23 agriculture groups commissioned the economic impact study that came out last week. It’s the foundation of a new website called Feeding the Economy. [node:read-more:link]
Faced with reservoirs less than half full along the Colorado River, federal authorities and negotiators for Colorado and six other Western states finalized a landmark plan to share the burden of voluntarily using less water as growing cities and warming temperatures deplete the supply for 40 million people. This “drought contingency” plan completed by the seven Western states to meet an extended federal deadline is “meant to avoid a crisis on the river,” said U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Say you’re a politician running for office, and you want to call out your opponent’s votes against education or guns. If you’re in Montana, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has a new demand: Prove it. Legislators in Big Sky Country want candidates or political groups who attack a voting record to back up the charge with specifics. [node:read-more:link]
Median farm income in 2018 was $26,055, down 8 percent from 2017, capping off a half-decade run of poor years for farming after the boom of the early 2010s, according to a new report from the University of Minnesota Extension. [node:read-more:link]
In 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted 622 current good manufacturing practice inspections related to the Food Safety Modernization Act. Those inspections were conducted in 47 states, Puerto Rico and four foreign countries – Canada, India, Indonesia and Mexico – that do business in the U.S. and therefore must be in compliance with FSMA. [node:read-more:link]
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed landmark legislation that will mandate more solar panels and wind turbines as the state sets ambitious new renewable energy goals. The measure requires that investor-owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives get at least half of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. That would jump to 80 percent by 2040.A 100 percent carbon-free mandate would kick in five years later for utilities. Electric co-ops would have until 2050 to meet that goal. [node:read-more:link]
Nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48 states face an elevated risk for flooding through May, with the potential for major or moderate flooding in 25 states, according to NOAA’s U.S. Spring Outlook issued today. The majority of the country is favored to experience above-average precipitation this spring, increasing the flood risk. Portions of the United States – especially in the upper Mississippi and Missouri River basins including Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa – have already experienced record flooding this year. [node:read-more:link]
