Water has been a major focus of Dayton's tenure in office. He pushed for Minnesota's first buffer law and held town hall meetings across the state to talk about how to improve water quality. But finding agreement on solutions hasn't been easy.The governor set an ambitious goal of improving Minnesota's water quality 25 percent by 2025. But consensus on how to achieve that goal has been elusive."I think the 25 by 25 initiative is a great example of how people's desires and their intentions are not yet matched up," said John Linc Stine, commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. [node:read-more:link]

Hundreds of residents in Great Falls, Mont., gathered on Saturday night to voice concerns about a proposal to build a large multi-species slaughter facility in the area. Canadian company Friesen Foods, having purchased 3,000 acres of undeveloped farmland in the area, has proposed to build the “Madison Food Park.” The facility, as the company has described, would be a state-of-the-art, robotically controlled, environmentally friendly, multi-species food processing plant for cattle, pigs and chickens and related further processing facilities for beef, pork and poultry. [node:read-more:link]

California imposes its poultry cage rules on states hoping to sell to California consumers. In requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to accept its complaint in the California cage size case, Missouri’s Attorney General states, “Unless this Court acts, California will continue to impose new agricultural regulations on other states in violation of federal law and those States’ sovereign, quasi-sovereign, and economic interests…”. [node:read-more:link]

ERS research in this topic area focuses on the economic, social, spatial, temporal, and demographic factors that affect the poverty status of rural residents. Sections in this topic include the following: Poverty over time, including a historical look at metro/nonmetro poverty rates and deep poverty. The geography of poverty, including analysis of poverty in a regional context, maps of the incidence/severity of poverty, and the geographic persistence of poverty over decades. The demographics of poverty, including the breakdown of rural/urban poverty by race, family structure, and age. [node:read-more:link]

Giving laying hens access to a litter area for dustbathing, scratching and foraging helps minimize aggressive behavior, but it can result in dust and ammonia problems. Dust, which can serve as a carrier of microorganisms and endotoxins, is a significant health risk for both farm workers and the birds as fine particulate matter can enter into the respiratory system. Ammonia, likewise, can cause respiratory tract irritation or damage. Recent studies have shown that cage-free housing results in six to nine times higher dust in the house environment than cage systems with manure belts. [node:read-more:link]

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry told a House committee hearing on Thursday his agency is likely to take some action to keep retiring coal and nuclear plants online, though he stopped short from committing to a particular policy.  When a House member called on Perry to "use whatever legal power you have" to save at-risk generators, Perry said that is "exactly what has to happen." Allowing the plants to retire could threaten national security, the DOE head said. Perry's comments come two weeks after utility FirstEnergy asked DOE to invoke emergency cost supports for coal and nuclear plants in [node:read-more:link]

Conventional thinking surrounding animal welfare suggests creating an environment more similar to the nature leads to happier birds and better performance. But are the environmental enrichments and changes currently used in the broiler industry really helping?  hepard said he was optimistic about the use of engagements at Wayne Farms. Ninety percent of what the company does in the name of animal welfare – including the engagements – comes back in the form of profits. The other 10 percent, he said, is done because it’s the right thing for the bird. [node:read-more:link]

HSUS’s front group, Arizonans for Wildlife, quietly put out a statement that it is suspending its campaign this year to place a measure on the ballot in Arizona to ban hunting of predators such as mountain lions. The measure likely would have faced significant opposition from professional wildlife biologists. Hunting is an important tool for managing wildlife populations, and HSUS doesn’t offer any realistic alternative to managed hunting. [node:read-more:link]

With the expectation that new water quality rules are coming to Ohio’s large rivers, the Ohio EPA is holding informational meetings to discuss the indicators of polluted rivers, and potential targets for nutrient loading. In March, the Ohio EPA released a draft report of the state’s latest list of impaired water bodies, which included the western basin of the open waters of Lake Erie. The state has battled water quality concerns over the past decade related to harmful algal blooms in the lake, and nutrient overloading in its rivers. [node:read-more:link]

While most of the focus on the House farm bill is on changes to nutrition programs, a new kerfuffle has cropped up over changes to farm programs that would benefit LLCs, S corporations and farmers who want to enroll cousins, nieces and nephews for commodity payments. The changes, if they become law, would expand the eligibility of pass-through entities for farm-program payments to include limited-liability corporations and S-corps, as a way to avoid adjusted gross income caps for commodity payments. [node:read-more:link]