World milk production is projected to increase by 22 percent by 2027, with the majority of that production increase (80 percent) expected to come from developing countries according to an annual report by the Organization for Ecoomic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  Pakistan and India are expected to jointly account for 32 percent of total milk production by 2027, compared to 26 percent in the base period of 2015-17, said the report, OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2018-2027.

The House version of the food-stamp-to-work program Congress is considering this week would require recipients to enroll in job training programs if they can’t find work — but in many states, those programs won’t be fully available for at least another decade. This will have a big impact on the people who depend on food stamps, some 42 million in 2017. The average beneficiary receives about $125 a month, and a family of four must have an annual income of about $25,000 or less to qualify.

President Trump has railed against Canada for taking advantage of the U.S. when it comes to trade. Trump may not like it, but those tariffs are part of a politically sensitive, decades-old policy to protect Canada's dairy farmers. The system is called "supply management" and it sets production quotas for the country's dairy, poultry products and eggs.Murray Sherk, the owner of the family-run Pinehill Dairy in Plattsville, Ontario, says supply management helps keep prices stable, gives farmers a steady income and has succeeded in avoiding a milk surplus in Canada.

When Bill West drives his weed sprayer over wheat and hay fields at his ranch northwest of Gillette, Wyoming, he bumps into the occasional debris from the more than a hundred defunct natural gas wells on his 10,000-acre property. The company that owned the wells went out of business four years ago, leaving behind fuse boxes, internet boxes and thousands of feet of underground pipe. “They just walked away and left everything sitting,” said West, 85.

Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt managed to fire a Parthian shot on his final day in office when he cemented a massive loophole for some of the dirtiest, most polluting trucks on the road, allowing manufacturers to build even more them.

Riparian zones are a very important part of our everyday life. They serve many purposes along streams and rivers to support a biodiversity ecosystem. A riparian zone is an area of land on or adjacent to a river or stream, normally dominated by herbaceous cover that acts as a buffer from the upland. These areas are tolerant to flooding or saturated soils normally in the floodplain.

The Land Commissioner is charged with jurisdiction over state trust lands to generate support for public schools and other state institutions.  In the Complaint, filed in the First Judicial District Court, the Commissioner asserts that he has “an interest in the appropriation of water on and off of state trust lands because the use of water in connection with activities on state trust lands often is essential to the lands’ highest and best use.”  The State Engineer is vested with authority to manage the state’s water resources, including issuing permits for groundwater wells.

Following a steep decline in agricultural commodity prices, the past several years have seen a weaker market for farmland and an uptick in interest rates. At the same time, farm sector income has declined and farm interest expenses have increased. How vulnerable might the farm sector be to a further decline in commodity prices or a rise in interest rates? Inflation-adjusted net cash farm income for the sector is forecast in 2018 to be 38 percent lower than its peak in 2012 and 7 percent below its 1970-2016 average.

Because California produces almost a fifth of the nation’s milk, the impact of the order will cause ripples in the surface of milk prices from Los Angeles to Minneapolis and from Boston to Miami. Whether those ripples grow into waves remains to be seen. California’s new Federal Order will be implemented at the same time world markets continue to churn and trade wars potentially disrupt U.S. exports.  For starters, California processors will have to learn how to move milk around the state without the millions of dollars in transportation credits California’s state order provided.

Lancaster County residents and farmers have taken state agriculture officials up on their appeal for ideas to address Pennsylvania’s dairy crisis. They offered strong advice and plenty of ideas, such as allowing whole milk back in public schools and eliminating the minimum retail price that milk can be sold for in stores. Multiple commenters expressed strong criticism of Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board policies and the practices of large dairy cooperatives.