The average price has dropped to $1.33 a dozen, down 48% from two years ago, but demand hasn’t rebounded since avian-flu bout. A glut of eggs is putting pressure on suppliers and farmers who are struggling to win back business two years after the worst bout of avian influenza in U.S. history devastated egg-laying flocks. Poultry farms in the U.S. have fully restocked and rebuilt egg supplies since the outbreak but demand hasn’t kept up. Some buyers who found alternatives during the outbreak haven't returned. [node:read-more:link]

Thirteen agricultural economists put together short papers describing issues that will surface during the writing of the next farm bill. For each issue, the author describes the "policy setting" and details "farm bill issues" that likely will arise during negotiations. Each issue then has a "what to watch for" summary. These papers, along with an overview, are presented in this article.

Central Maine Power Co. submitted a plan Thursday to build a high-voltage transmission line through western Maine to bring large amounts of hydroelectricity from Quebec to Massachusetts, joining a multibillion-dollar regional competition to develop the next phase of clean-energy projects in New England and eastern Canada. [node:read-more:link]

 U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced that he will embark on a five-state RV tour, titled the “Back to Our Roots” Tour, to gather input on the 2018 Farm Bill and increasing rural prosperity.  Along the way, Perdue will meet with farmers, ranchers, foresters, producers, students, governors, Members of Congress, U.S. [node:read-more:link]

SMS database shows top 10% of the farms have a favorable trend line for death loss while the database as a whole has an unfavorable trend line. Overall death loss was actually lowered each year from 2006 to 2010 before it was steady until 2014 and then jumping up in 2015 to 8.6% and finishing 2016 at 10.2%. [node:read-more:link]

For three years, Leon and Donita Brush struggled to help their son Brian beat his opioid addiction. What began with a pill quickly spiraled out of control. A 20-year-old college student, Brian was reeling from a breakup when someone offered him Percocet to ease the emotional pain, his father said.“He just said, ‘Dad, there was no turning back. Once I started down that path, I wanted more,’” Mr. Brush said.The owner of a carpet and flooring store in this small city in southern West Virginia — in the heart of the opioid epidemic that kills hundreds annually in the state — Mr. [node:read-more:link]

The government of Japan has announced that rising imports of frozen beef in the first quarter of the Japanese fiscal year (April-June) have triggered a safeguard, resulting in an automatic increase to Japan's tariff rate under the WTO on imports of frozen beef from the United States.  The increase, from 38.5 percent to 50 percent, will begin August 1, 2017 and last through March 31, 2018.  The tariff would affect only exporters from countries, including the United States, which do not have free trade agreements with Japan currently in force. [node:read-more:link]

California’s almond boom has hit 1 million acres, covering a total area bigger than the state of Rhode Island. The Almond Board of California reported the state’s almond harvest is expected to hit a record 2.2 billion pounds this year.Surging demand for almond snacks in Asia has helped make almonds California’s richest agricultural export, passing wine grapes and other crops.The doubling of the state’s almond acreage since 2000 is controversial because the state has frequent droughts, and nut trees can’t be fallowed in a dry year.

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Members of the Georgia House Rural Development Council said they were overwhelmed during a meeting at Bainbridge State College where they heard from rural health care leaders.  Jimmy Lewis wanted a group of rural Georgia lawmakers to feel for themselves how he said rural hospital CEOs feel every day. [node:read-more:link]

Poultry farms in India are dosing their chickens with antibiotics at such high rates that 94 percent of meat chickens and 60 percent of laying hens tested in a new study harbored multi-drug-resistant bacteria that can cause grave human infections. In the study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers from Washington, D.C., New Jersey, Minnesota and several institutions in India interviewed farmers and collected samples on 18 farms in northern India. [node:read-more:link]