At a Manatee County dairy farm, the toll from Irma is causing about $30,000 to go down the drain each day. Workers say they're throwing away thousands of gallons of milk. "The milk that is produced now, there's just no stores open. All of our milk usually goes south of us," said Jerry Dakin. In the 16 years he has owned the business, he has never seen so much milk go to waste. Stores aren't taking it because the milk needs to be refrigerated.Even though the farm can't sell most of its milk, the cows need to continue pumping for their health. [node:read-more:link]

The four-person legislative delegation representing the Tonganoxie area didn't have to brood long about a proposed $320 million Tyson Foods Inc. poultry complex before coming out against it Friday evening. Surrounded by a Chieftain Park town hall crowd roughly half the size of Tonganoxie's 5,500 population, the lawmakers initially pledged to remain neutral on the proposal until more facts were known. [node:read-more:link]

Artificial intelligence seems to be everywhere nowadays and not just in high tech labs, science centers, or nerdy dark basements. They are now in our agriculture industry and on our farms, and even in our yards with John Deere’s new robotic lawnmower.  In fact, the Mr. Roboto’s song lyrics eerily said “Thank you very much, Mr. [node:read-more:link]

Of all the cartons of organic eggs sold in the United States, more than 1 in 10 originates from a complex here that houses more than 1.6 million hens. They’re sold under the Eggland’s Best label.“The entire process is organic,” Greg Herbruck, president of Herbruck's Poultry Ranch says in a promotional video. The USDA allows Herbruck's and other large operations to sell their eggs as organic because officials have interpreted the word “outdoors” in such a way that farms that confine their hens to barns but add “porches” are deemed eligible for the valuable “USDA Organic” label. [node:read-more:link]

Bogus “organic” products may be reaching the United States because of lax enforcement at U.S. ports, according to a new audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General, a finding that helps explain previous reports that millions of pounds of fraudulent “organic” corn and soybeans had reached American ports. The USDA lacks procedures to check that a shipment meets organic standards, the report found.The USDA “was unable to provide reasonable assurance that … required documents were reviewed at U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Illinois utilities and regulators are putting into motion plans for community solar programs under the state’s Future Energy Jobs Act that passed last year. In filings with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) last month, ComEd outlined proposed terms and conditions for “Community Supply,” also referred to as community solar. [node:read-more:link]

Residents in Crisfield, Md., have persuaded local officials to table discussion on a proposal for a plant that will convert chicken manure into reusable energy, according to local media reports. City officials voted to table the discussion Wednesday after having heard many residents’ concerns, which include potential odor problems, increased traffic, flooding issues and its location in a town whose economy relies on tourism.   [node:read-more:link]

n a news release, officials from SIREN announced that six weeks into a second phase of solar panel installations, they were already oversubscribed. [node:read-more:link]

Last year, Mars, the world’s biggest chocolate maker and the corporate home to brands like M&Ms, Twix, and Snickers, pledged $1 billion to fight climate change through investments in renewable energy, sustainable food sourcing, and more. Beyond the two wind farms it currently operates in Scotland and Texas, the company also promised to add wind and solar farms to another nine countries by 2018 and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 27% by 2025, and 67% by 2050. Now, a couple of the company’s most popular mascots are getting in on it. [node:read-more:link]