Officials in at least two counties in Kansas are expected to send formal letters seeking to attract Tyson Foods to build its embattled chicken complex in their communities, according to published reports. The Saline County Commission sent a letter to Tyson officials supporting efforts of nearby Cloud County to bring the $320 million project – and the anticipated 1,600 jobs – to north central Kansas. [node:read-more:link]

In his trademark measured fashion, the film’s narrator Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is known for his science “mic drops,” showed up to intervene.Fascinated by the in [node:read-more:link]

The Patriots quarterback uses fruits and vegetables as an example saying that apples, bananas, and tomatoes are ripened by ethylene gas to make them available all year round. “But are those real?” Brady adds. “Moreover, a lot of studies show that the mineral content of our soil has declined steadily since the 1950’s, along with the nutritional value of the fruits and vegetables that grow in that soil.” Brady goes on to criticize the industry’s use of genetically modified organisms or GMOs, which currently make up around 75% of processed foods on grocery store shelves in the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Then again, who is Tom Brady to tell me how to farm? In “The TB12 Method,” the bestselling book he released last week, Brady offers a lot of opinions about farming and food production. He’d do well to learn a few facts, which I’d be glad to teach him. Tom, I want to personally invite you to visit my family farm so we can talk about your food and farming concerns.I happen to be a fan of Brady and his team. I was born in Massachusetts and grew up watching the Patriots.  I was a Patriots fan before Brady was ever on the team. [node:read-more:link]

“Their eyes tell their sad stories as ghostly white irises give way to vacant stares. We can look at them but they can’t look back at us. They’ve gone blind because of malnutrition.,” V. Ravichandran, a farmer in Tamil Nadu, India, describing children suffering from vitamin A deficiency. [node:read-more:link]

People forced to avoid gluten could soon have their bread (and cake) and eat it. Now there are strains of wheat that do not produce the forms of gluten that trigger a dangerous immune reaction in as many as 1 in 100 people. Because the new strains still contain some kinds of gluten, though, the wheat can still be used to bake bread. “It’s regarded as being pretty good, certainly better than anything on the gluten-free shelves,” says Jan Chojecki of PBL-Ventures in the UK, who is working with investors in North America to market products made with this wheat. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say genetically modified mosquitoes are not "drugs" and should be regulated by environmental authorities. According to guidelines posted online Wednesday, federal officials have decided that mosquitoes engineered by the biotech firm Oxitec will be regulated from now on by the Environmental Protection Agency.The guidelines clarify that products intended to function as pesticides to control mosquito populations should fall under the EPA. [node:read-more:link]

The Trump administration will repeal the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s effort to fight climate change, and will ask the public to recommend ways it could be replaced, according to an internal Environmental Protection Agency document. The draft proposal represents the administration’s first substantive step toward rolling back the plan, which was designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, after months of presidential tweets and condemnations of Obama’s efforts to reduce climate-warming pollution. [node:read-more:link]

The Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission has issued a request for proposals for an entity to develop, manage and operate a meat processing facility for the region's farming community. The facility is planned to be a public-private partnership with minimum processing capability of 500 bovines and 2,000 sheep/goats/hogs and an optional ability to process additional livestock species including poultry. The ideal capacity is 3,000 animals per year, the group said. The contract will be awarded for a term of up to 9 years. [node:read-more:link]