The Washington Department of Ecology will appoint an advisory group to evaluate ways farmers and ranchers can prevent water pollution, an exercise viewed warily by the state Farm Bureau. Ecology is seeking experts for the group, which is expected over the next year to help the department develop a set of best management practices. [node:read-more:link]

In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, commentators focused on the political polarization separating residents of urban and rural America. Certainly rural–urban differences are only one of several factors that contributed to the surprising 2016 outcome, but rural voters are rightly acknowledged as one key factor in Donald Trump’s electoral success. Yet, defining 2016 as the tale of two Americas—one urban, one rural—hinders a nuanced understanding of the country’s political geography. [node:read-more:link]

The animal entertainment industry took another hit last week when the New York City Council voted to ban the use of wild or exotic animals in circus performances. The pricey lawsuits and emotional rhetoric are very familiar to those of us in animal agriculture and the meat industry. The New York Daily News posted an editorial expressing concerns with the ban, pointing out that zoos could be next on the chopping block. Unsurprisingly, the move was applauded by the usual suspects – PETA, HSUS, Direct Action Everywhere, etc. [node:read-more:link]

Higher farm-gate prices and more favorable weather conditions are providing much-needed relief for the world’s dairy farmers after a three-year decline in milk values, according to the “Rabobank Dairy Quarterly Q2 2017” report. [node:read-more:link]

Two decades-old rules – called by policymakers the “main studio rule” and the “UHF discount” – come from different eras of broadcasting, one when the only electronic media was radio and the other from the days before the dominance of cable television. They also come from a different era of government, when policymakers promoted the principle of localism – the belief that local broadcasters should serve their communities.  By 1987, it was clear that people didn’t often visit stations, but rather called or sent letters. [node:read-more:link]

Called the Coalfield Development Corporation, Dennison’s organization trains and employs young people and former mine workers across five social enterprises, which focus on construction (especially affordable housing), minefield remediation, arts and culture projects, sustainable agriculture, and solar energy initiatives. [node:read-more:link]

Governor Steve Bullock Friday visited the Missouri River Medical Center in Fort Benton and announced that the Critical Access Hospital will receive $800,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds for mechanical system upgrades to its aging facility.As a Critical Access Hospital, the Missouri River Medical Center must have emergency staff on hand at any given time. [node:read-more:link]

A UK-based startup called BioCarbon Engineering thinks they have an answer. CEO Lauren Fletcher and his team have a plan for using fixed-wing and multiple-rotor drones to plant 1 billion trees per year. [node:read-more:link]

BPI sued ABC, correspondent Jim Avila, who reported many of the stories, and several others who were later dismissed from the suit in September 2012, claiming that ABC knowingly used false information about LFTB during a series of reports in March and April 2012. Those reports regularly referred to the product as "pink slime," an unflattering moniker BPI said led consumers to believe the product was unsafe and low in nutritional value. [node:read-more:link]

Imagine a future where you go into a grocery store to buy some fresh basil, and, as you traverse the aisle, instead of polythene bags containing mass-produced snippets of the herb that have been flown in from thousands of miles away, in front of you are a stack of illuminated containers, each housing a mini basil farm. The plants themselves are being monitored by multiple sensors and fed by an internet-controlled irrigation and nutrition system. [node:read-more:link]