The numbers are out — and they confirm what we've been hearing from farmers and immigration lawyers. More and more farmers are turning to foreign "guest workers" to plant and harvest the country's crops.Farmers have to get permission from the U.S. Department of Labor to bring in foreign workers using a category of visa called H-2A. During the first three months of 2017, the Department of Labor approved applications to fill 69,272 farm jobs with workers on H-2A visas. [node:read-more:link]

Tyson Foods Inc.’s value-added chicken business combined with the acquisition of Hillshire Brands has created a prepared foods powerhouse. It has also given the company a diverse portfolio of businesses. On one side is the branded, value-added Chicken and Prepared Foods business units focused on innovation and brand building. On the other side is the more traditional commodity-oriented Beef and Pork businesses, which are committed to adding value to products, but also stocking the fresh meat cases of retailers with traditional cuts of beef and pork. [node:read-more:link]

The US Food and Drug Administration will be spending a few million dollars to ‘inform’ consumers about genetically modified food. It may not be long before Jane Doe from Indianapolis appears on a government funded billboard proclaiming to the world, “I just ate a healthful pork chop produced with patented soybeans genetically modified to withstand at least three non selective herbicides. [node:read-more:link]

Legislation boosting the value of a rural hospital tax credit gained final passage in the General Assembly on Thursday. The House and Senate agreed on a compromise to House Bill 180 that increases from 70 percent to 90 percent the value of the credit taxpayers can earn from contributions to qualifying rural hospitals.  Rep. Geoff Duncan, R-Cumming, in 2016 championed a plan to create the tax credit program at 90 percent, but the Senate balked. A 70 percent compromise was signed into law, but the reduced value of the credit has limited their popularity.   [node:read-more:link]

Before the ink was dry on a US Department of Transportation pledge to give $10 million for the replacement of a still smoldering collapsed portion of I-85 in Atlanta, metro legislators were criticizing a well-thought-out, hard-fought-for, and long overdue measure designed to help revitalize rural Georgia.The “Georgia Agribusiness and Rural Jobs Act” (GARJA), which passed minutes before the expiration of the 2017 legislative session, opens the door for small businesses in rural Georgia, approximately 130 counties, to have access to much needed growth capital. [node:read-more:link]

“I like to call this the cathedral.” So says Matt Barnard, CEO and cofounder of the vertical farming startup Plenty. We’re standing in a room at the company’s headquarters in a former electronics distribution center in South San Francisco, staring up at glowing, 20-foot high towers filled with perfectly formed kale and herbs. The company isn’t the first to build an indoor urban farm in a warehouse. Aerofarms, for example, grows greens in a 70,000-square foot former steel factory in Newark, New Jersey. [node:read-more:link]

Every day, power plants and industries across the globe emit nearly 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — an effect that has pushed our climate into a dangerous zone, causing the Arctic to melt at an alarming rate, sea levels to rise, and weather patterns to shift across the world. But change is brewing and our best shot at reducing those emissions might be right under our feet. Projects are now being developed that capture the harmful gas before it's released into the atmosphere and bury it deep in the Earth. [node:read-more:link]

Farm Loans Rise to Record Level.Survey Results at a Glance:  The overall index fell below growth neutral for the 20th straight month. Loan volume soars to record level as banks reject fewer loan applications.Almost one-third of bankers indicate no change in lending practices stemming from the downturn in the farm economy.  For 2017, bank CEOs expect approximate cash expenses to exceed cash revenues for 17.1 percent of grain farmers, down from 19.5 percent in 2016. Farmland prices declined for the 41st straight month, but the percent of cash farmland sales remained steady from 2015 [node:read-more:link]

Butterball plans to close the former Gusto Packing pork processing plant in Montgomery, Ill., it purchased in 2013, eliminating about 600 jobs, and ending production of the Gusto-branded bacon and ham products the plant was making. “With this closure, the company will be exiting the pork business both branded and private label by July 17, 2017.” [node:read-more:link]

More than 124,000 acres of Delaware farmland are now permanently preserved for future generations, with 3,039 acres of easements selected into the state’s preservation program in the 21st year of selections made by the Delaware Agricultural Lands Preservation Foundation. The farms in this round would not have been preserved without matching funds from multiple sources, including the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, New Castle County and Kent County Levy Court. [node:read-more:link]