Miles McEvoy, USDA deputy administrator of the National Organic Program, is stepping down after eight years at the helm to return to his home in Olympia, Wash. [node:read-more:link]

Advocates for service dogs for the disabled were at the State House Tuesday, lobbying for a bill that would penalize those who say their animals are service dogs when they’re not. Kaitlyn Steinke of Falmouth and her dog Jones were among those in favor of what’s been called the fake service dog bill. The bill’s sponsor, Republican State Rep. Kim Ferguson of Holden, says misrepresenting dogs as service animals is a growing problem. A dozen other states have laws on the books making “fake service dogs” a crime.The measure has wide support in the House. [node:read-more:link]

Against the backdrop of wind-farm construction in Hardin County, state Sen. Cliff Hite, R-Findlay, sought to build support for his proposal that would allow more wind turbines to be built in upcoming projects. “I think we can make this happen,” he said during the event Thursday. “The groundswell of support is increasing as we speak.”Senate Bill 188 would partially undo changes that lawmakers made in 2013 addressing where turbines can be built. [node:read-more:link]

The chairs of the Idaho Legislature’s House and Senate ag committees are encouraging the directors of the state’s commodity commissions to do a better job talking about the issues and challenges their industries face when speaking to lawmakers. Some of the presentations are more on the “here’s what we did last year” side and not enough on the “here are the issues our industry is struggling with” side, said Sen. [node:read-more:link]

The Wisconsin Rollover Protective Structure rebate program has been funded for a sixth consecutive year, enabling Wisconsin farmers to retrofit rollbars onto their tractors at a reduced cost. The program is run by the National Farm Medicine Center at Marshfield Clinic Research Institute with financial support from the Auction of Champions. A ROPS is an operator compartment structure (usually cab or rollbar) intended to protect farmers from injuries caused by overturns or rollovers. More than half the tractors in Wisconsin do not have ROPS protection. [node:read-more:link]

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]