The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said Tuesday it has taken the unusual step of denying denied a permit for a large hog farm proposed for Fillmore County in southeastern Minnesota because of the threat of adding to groundwater nitrate pollution in the geologically porous region. MPCA Commissioner John Linc Stine said at a news conference that he denied the general permit for Waukon, Iowa-based Catalpa Ag's proposed 4,890-sow facility near Mabel because of the threat to public health. [node:read-more:link]

A year ago, Dale and Karen Cihlar faced a bleak Christmas. Their 145-year-old dairy farm was failing and bankruptcy loomed in their future. Fast forward to December, 2018, and the picture is much different  — thanks to the generosity of family, community and people across the nation.The couple's dairy farm dilemma echoes the plight of farmers across the state: Years of stagnant milk prices, growing piles of bills and depleted savings accounts are forcing the demise of dairy farms, small and large. [node:read-more:link]

A Missouri farmer is accused of marketing $140 million worth of non-organic corn, soybeans and wheat as organic over 7½ years.The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, charged Randy Constant with fraud on Wednesday. He is expected to appear in court Thursday.Constant owned and operated two companies that grew and sold organics. He’s accused of saying his grains were certified organic because some of them came from organic farms he operated in Nebraska and Missouri. But prosecutors say more than 90 percent of his product was non-organic grain purchased from other farmers. [node:read-more:link]

A team of researchers who first proposed studying the effect a global trade war could have on the Midwest never imagined there would be an actual trade war underway as they conducted their research. [node:read-more:link]

The resumption of soybean sales to China this week is encouraging to American farmers who have seen the value of their crop plummet amid a trade war with the world's second-largest economy, but producers see it only as a small step and say they need more federal aid. Private exporters reported sales of 1.13 million metric tons of soybeans to China on Thursday and another 300,000 metric tons on Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. [node:read-more:link]

DuPont Pioneer will lay off 35 workers as parent company DuPont continues work on its merger with Dow Chemical. Company spokesman Gregg Schmidt said DuPont notified Iowa Workforce Development on Nov. 30 of its intent to eliminate the Iowa positions on Jan. 31, 2019.DuPont and Dow Chemical closed on their $150 billion merger in fall 2017. Since then, the firms have announced plans to rename Iowa-based DuPont Pioneer to Corteva Agriscience after it spins out of DowDuPont next year and becomes part of a new standalone ag business. [node:read-more:link]

President Donald Trump in a closed-door meeting with House Republican leaders on Thursday reiterated that he would not sign a short-term spending bill passed by the Senate to keep the government open past the midnight Friday deadline if it does not include funding for his proposed border wall. [node:read-more:link]

The nation is not keeping pace with repairing and replacing more than 400,000 affordable rental units that serve low-income rural residents. Without action, a cascade of rentals will age out of the program, creating a housing gap that could contribute to rural population loss, according to the Housing Assistance Council. Rural America faces an affordable-housing crisis that, if left unchecked, could raise rents for low-income residents and contribute to rural population loss in coming years, a national nonprofit organization says. [node:read-more:link]

New Jersey has become the first state in the country to ban elephants and other exotic animals from traveling performances, in a move praised by animal rights advocates, who are lobbying other states to enact similar measures.“Nosey’s Law,” signed by Gov. Murphy on Friday, is named after an African elephant once owned by a Florida-based operator. [node:read-more:link]

The first majority-female legislature in the country will convene in Carson City in February after a series of recent appointments. The Nevada Legislature will have 32 women and 31 men, with 23 women in the 42-member Assembly and nine in the 21-member Senate. [node:read-more:link]