Microsoft bought carbon offsets from rice farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi and California who had worked for the better part of the last 10 years to implement conservation measures on their farms. Through a complicated measurement and verification process, these conservation steps ultimately translated to carbon offsets purchased by the software giant. [node:read-more:link]

The key to all of the preparations, she said, was transparency. “This is what I tell all my producers in Illinois: We cannot go around in blinders. We have to move forward. We raise our animals indoors, but we need to tell our consumers why. We have biosecurity issues so we can’t bring a whole busload of people into our barns, but there’s the internet, people,” Tirey said. [node:read-more:link]

Mountaire Farms has entered an agreement to purchase the grain elevators and operating assets of Lansing Trade Group LLC in Pocomoke, Maryland; and Eastville and Painter, Virginia. [node:read-more:link]

Buffalo-based Upstate Niagara Cooperative has agreed to buy Kraft Heinz's cheese plant in the Southern Tier, staving off the threat of a shutdown and saving a portion of its jobs.The deal for the plant in Campbell, in Steuben County, is expected to be completed within the next 30 to 60 days. The two companies said the deal guarantees at least 125 jobs will be kept at the Campbell plant, with that total expected to rise by 50 jobs within a year. [node:read-more:link]

A network of unpaid experts are giving up their time to debunk the many myths about GM crops.GMO Answers – backed by The Council for Biotechnology – is an online platform where people can find out more about an issue which is often misunderstood.“GMO Answers is an initiative committed to responding to your questions about how food is grown. [node:read-more:link]

On Sunday, Gov. [node:read-more:link]

Silver has been used as an antimicrobial agent for more than 100 years. Today, silver in the form of nanoparticles is incorporated in such products as plastic food containers, medical materials, and clothing. In textiles, however, preventing the nanoparticles’ antimicrobial properties from washing away has always been a problem. [node:read-more:link]

Proponents of food sovereignty in Maine hope a new law, based on exchanging locally produced and grown food, will bring back some of that community-based commerce. On June 16 Gov. Paul LePage signed LD 725, An Act to Recognize Local Control Regarding Food Systems, June 16, legitimizing the authority of towns and communities to enact ordinances regulating local food distribution free from state regulatory control.“This is huge,” said Heather Retberg, who has helped craft ordinance language. [node:read-more:link]

A report released recently by Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the University of North Carolina Rural Health Research Project, Medicaid in Small Town America: A Lifeline for Children, Families and Communities, confirms what many of us who care for patients in rural areas suspected: Children and families in small towns and rural areas rely on Medicaid for health coverage, and cuts to Medicaid could be devastating for rural America.In Texas, 46 percent of children in rural areas and small towns are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP [node:read-more:link]

In just 20 years as a publicly traded company, Amazon has become a retailing colossus, decimating traditional brick-and-mortar stores on its way to a market valuation of nearly half a trillion dollars.So since Amazon announced plans this month to buy high-end grocer Whole Foods, consumer groups have lined up against the deal.Their concern is understandable. The $13.7 billion purchase has the feel of something big, something that could mark the beginning of a downward spiral for grocery stores, not unlike what has happened to department stores. But for federal authorities to block t [node:read-more:link]