Anyone who walked through the produce section of their local grocery in the week before Thanksgiving could not help but be aware that all romaine lettuce and salad mixes that contained romaine lettuce had been removed from the shelves. The stores took this action in response to a November 20, 2018 warning from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that a multi-state outbreak of the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157:H7 (STEC) had been traced to the eating of romaine lettuce. [node:read-more:link]

Democratic Lieutenant Governor-elect Lynn Rogers says he’s encouraged that the Kansas House has formed a new Rural Revitalization Committee and looks forward to working with its Republican chairman. [node:read-more:link]

But the new Farm Bill also has a lot of other good attributes. They include: — Reform of the failed insurance program for dairy farmers. The old system is known as the Margin Protection Program and it was a failure. A lot of dairy farmers facing difficult markets and prices couldn’t get relief from the program despite contributions to it. [node:read-more:link]

Teske said he sees the impact of climate change on his farm and has worked on the issue as president of the Kansas Farmers Union. He worries about what’s been reported for years – that the Corn Belt is moving northeast because of hotter weather. He gave up growing corn two years ago, switching to sorghum, which is more drought tolerant, so more profitable. [node:read-more:link]

On a recent rainy day, farmer Allen Druffel stands outside a silo shuffling his feet in the gravel. This co-op bin is where he stores his dried garbanzo beans in the tiny town of Colton, Wash. The place should be busy; trucks should be loading and hauling this year's crop to markets and international ports. But midafternoon, there's just the rain. Since farmers like Druffel brought in this year's crops, hardly any garbanzos — or chickpeas — have moved."Thirty to 40 percent of our total revenue is in the bin," Druffel says. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S.-China trade war resulted in billions of dollars of losses for both sides in 2018, hitting industries including autos, technology - and above all, agriculture.Broad pain from trade tariffs outlined by several economists shows that, while specialized industries including U.S. soybean crushing benefited from the dispute, it had an overall detrimental impact on both of the world’s two largest economies.The losses may give U.S. [node:read-more:link]

As the trade war escalated between the United States and China this spring, American cherry exporters in Washington state unexpectedly found their customs processing slowed at the Chinese border.Unannounced, increased inspections began in late May and in early June. The extra time the inspections took backed up shipments into mainland China, leading to some shipments rotting on the docks and forcing exporters to divert their produce so it could be sold before it spoiled. Data on such disruptions is hard to come by. [node:read-more:link]

The end of 2018 seemed to signal good things to come for America’s farmers. Fresh off the passage of the farm bill, which reauthorized agriculture, conservation and safety net programs, the Agriculture Department last week announced a second round of direct payments to growers hardest hit by President Donald Trump’s trade war with China.Then parts of the government shut down.The USDA in a statement issued last week assured farmers that checks would continue to go out during the first week of the shutdown. [node:read-more:link]

The 2018 farm bill is a huge victory for U.S. farmers. The bipartisan legislation improves food security, strengthens crop insurance and reinvests in America’s rural economy. It is especially critical for Arkansas, where agriculture accounts for about one in every six jobs and adds nearly $16 billion to the state’s economy. Expanding markets has long been a priority for our agricultural producers. A historic provision in this legislation gives them a much-needed win in their desire to trade with Cuba. [node:read-more:link]

Many people are opposed to the cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and believe they are dangerous for your health. Many also are opposed to the use of pesticides, and believe that there are ‘natural’ alternatives to their use in farming. Both of these beliefs are not just wrong: they are dangerous.As the population of the world is set to grow to 10 billion by 2050, we urgently need to recognise that many of the commonly-held views in Europe on agriculture are simply not based on fact. For most of human history, hunger and starvation were facts of life in Europe. [node:read-more:link]