It’s nothing new to read about animal rights extremistsremoving animals from a farm because they believe they are rescuing them from a life of mistreatment. But a group of young people from an organization called Denver Baby Animal Save have entered territory that is at least new to me.Not only did they apparently steal three chickens from a farm, but they also admitted to doing so with a post on Facebook. Sadly, they see what they did as noble. Fortunately, it appears most people disagree. [node:read-more:link]

Decades ago, the United States and Portugal both struggled with illicit drugs and took decisive action — in diametrically opposite directions. The U.S. cracked down vigorously, spending billions of dollars incarcerating drug users. In contrast, Portugal undertook a monumental experiment: It decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001, even heroin and cocaine, and unleashed a major public health campaign to tackle addiction. Ever since in Portugal, drug addiction has been treated more as a medical challenge than as a criminal justice issue. [node:read-more:link]

The Environmental Protection Agency has not held up its end of an agreement with the livestock industry to develop methods for estimating airborne emissions, particularly odors, from farms, EPA’s Office of the Inspector General said in a report. The agreement, reached in 2005, was intended to provide livestock operations with guidelines for complying with the Clean Air Act and environmental emergency response rules. [node:read-more:link]

"[A]fter Monday’s reversal of support by the Leavenworth County commissioners, we will put our plans in your community on hold. [node:read-more:link]

Cereal maker Post Holdings announced it will acquire Bob Evans Farms Inc. in a $1.5 billion deal to gain a presence in the breakfast sausage category and strengthen its position overall in the higher-growth packaged foods market. [node:read-more:link]

Ontario is putting up C$5.3 million to help Conestoga Meat Packers boost productivity and expand its pork processing capacity by 86 percent, while creating 170 new jobs at the company’s Breslau plant, the provincial government announced today in a news release. Conestoga Meat Packers is Ontario's second-largest pork processor and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Progressive Pork Producers Co-operative Inc., a co-operative of 157 southwestern Ontario hog producers.  [node:read-more:link]

A law requiring foreign investors to report transactions of farmland to the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been on the books for almost 40 years.  But as the amount of foreign-controlled farmland doubled in millions of acres between 2004 and 2014, the USDA has lapsed in enforcing the law, a review of USDA documents has found. [node:read-more:link]

The pickers range in age from 21 to 65, and all of them are Mexican. As in the rest of the country, growers in heavily agricultural northern Michigan rely overwhelmingly on migrant laborers to work the fields and orchards. According to the farm owners, the workers either came from Mexico on temporary H2A visas or they have paperwork showing they are in the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A notice from the Environmental Protection Agency has the biofuels community up in arms as they face the prospect of a potential hit to renewable fuel blending levels.  the EPA released a Notice of Data Availability (NODA) giving public notice and inviting comment on “potential options for reductions in the 2018 biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel volumes, and/or the 2019 biomass-based diesel volume under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.” A 15-day comment period will be triggered when the NODA is published in the Federal Register.  In July, the EPA ann [node:read-more:link]

Popular alternatives to cow’s milk such as soya or almond milk may leave consumers at risk of iodine deficiency, a study has found. UK researchers examined the iodine contents of 47 milk-alternative drinks including soya, almond, coconut, oat, rice, hazelnut and hemp, but excluding those marketed specifically at infants and children, and compared them with that of cows’ milk.Popular alternatives to cow’s milk such as soya or almond milk may leave consumers at risk of iodine deficiency, a study has found. 

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