Local dairy farmers say they’re under attack by animal rights activists and have been warned of planned protesters. “We’ve been told that they are planning something or that they could be planning something, so to be vigilant,” said Hank Van Exel of Lodi. Van Exel is a third-generation dairyman, his cows are his life.“That’s my deal. I love cattle,” he said.But over the years he’s been harassed, terrorized, and even threatened. One major reason Exel has been called these names is based on how animal rights activists believe these calves are being treated. [node:read-more:link]

Wisconsin has lost six-hundred dairy farms in the past twelve months, including 584 since January first. University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Profitability Director Mark Stephenson says we continue to see more efficient larger dairy farms.  “Our attrition rate has been higher than in modern times for sure.  You know, it’s up north of seven percent right now and that’s big.  Usually, it’s between four to maybe five percent, but we aren’t producing any less milk.  We’re losing farms but there’s still a lot of milk production.” [node:read-more:link]

Visiting the family farm, which still uses 1960s-era technology in its plant, is a decidedly old-school way for people to learn more about where their Thanksgiving meal comes from. But many people don’t have the time or stomach for the on-the-farm experience. For those who don’t, there are an increasing number of options. [node:read-more:link]

“Everybody brags on my stuff,” said Joyce, 58, a wistful pride crossing his bronzed, weathered face. But now, he has nothing to sell.Joyce leans against the greenhouse he’s building, hands in the pockets of his overalls, peering at the field where he started nearly 800 tomato plants in the spring. It was early August when the telltale signs of trouble emerged. The plants’ broad, flat leaves shriveled and curled, their branches twisted and buckled. Then blossom rot set in. Joyce knew they couldn’t be saved. [node:read-more:link]

Long-term exposure to a chemical compound currently used for making nonstick coatings appears to be dangerous, even in minute amounts, according to draft findings released Wednesday by the Environmental Protection Agency. It was the first time EPA weighed in on newer, supposedly safer versions of an increasingly scrutinized family of stick- and stain-resistant compounds. [node:read-more:link]

Farm incomes and agrarian credit conditions continued to erode in the third quarter of 2018, as economic pressure from the U.S.-China trade war has bankers seeing loan repayment rates fall, according to separate reports released on Thursday by the Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City and St. Louis. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. Department of Agriculture has paid out nearly $840 million to farmers to date as part of a promised $12 billion aid program rolled out by President Donald Trump last July to offset losses from the imposition of tariffs on American exports. A total of $837.8 million to date has been paid out with the top five commodities being soybeans, wheat, corn, dairy and hogs, USDA told Reuters. [node:read-more:link]

Farm bill negotiators are struggling to work out deals on forestry regulations, commodity program eligibility rules and other issues with a goal of finalizing an agreement that Congress can vote on before adjourning in December. Conaway said he was gearing up to pitch the final bill to his fellow Republicans, who will lose control of the House in January. [node:read-more:link]

Jurors found that Monsanto, now owned by Bayer in a $66 billion merger, had acted with malice and negligence in failing to warn Johnson, a former school groundskeeper, about the cancer risks associated with Roundup and its key ingredient, glyphosate. Johnson is now suffering from late-stage non-Hodgkins lymphoma.The German-based company Bayer merged with Monsanto in June 2018, just two months before the California jury ruled unanimously in favor of Mr. Johnson. [node:read-more:link]

In the uncertain years after Mao’s death, long before China became an industrial juggernaut, before the Communist Party went on a winning streak that would reshape the world, a group of economics students gathered at a mountain retreat outside Shanghai. There, in the bamboo forests of Moganshan, the young scholars grappled with a pressing question: How could China catch up with the West? It was the autumn of 1984, and on the other side of the world, Ronald Reagan was promising “morning again in America.” China, meanwhile, was just recovering from decades of political and economic turmoil. [node:read-more:link]