Organic milk is widely available these days, but what does that label really mean? A new investigation from The Washington Post found that there are considerable differences between the organic milk you can buy in a grocery store and the kind you can buy straight from farmers. Peter Whoriskey investigated the Aurora Organic Dairy, which supplies house-brand organic milk to many large retailers and other large dairy operations. He joined NPR's Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday to talk about what he found out from his investigation. [node:read-more:link]

Iowa farmers got their chance to hear firsthand from USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue about his intent to preserve the U.S. ethanol industry and promote trade. Secretary Perdue told a crowd of farmers, lawmakers, and members of the agricultural industry that the Trump administration will not mess with the Renewable Fuels Standard. [node:read-more:link]

The presence of fentanyl in the illicit drug supply has put law enforcement officials and the medical community on high alert in more than a dozen states, accelerating the battle against opioids on all fronts. States, counties and cities are responding to this latest crisis by doing more of what they already were doing: stockpiling the overdose reversal drug naloxone, funding more drug treatment, and ramping up police surveillance of drug trafficking. In addition, a handful of states are stiffening penalties for selling the lethal drug. [node:read-more:link]

Eight Democratic Senators on Tuesday asked U.S. regulators to launch an investigation into billionaire Carl Icahn's activities in the U.S. biofuels blending credit market, saying the activist investor may have violated securities trading laws. [node:read-more:link]

A long-awaited livestock research facility got the go-ahead in a new feasibility study commissioned by the University of Idaho. A large focus of the Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment will be sustainable milk production. It would include a 2,000-cow dairy with robotic milking machines and 1,000 acres of associate cropland and employ wastewater treatment and nutrient recovery systems.It would also allow for a food processing facility, offer laboratory space and provide housing for faculty, staff and students.“It would be the most modern and largest research dairy in the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

The Legislature is expected to votes on an $83 billion state budget. Its only allocation for land conservation targets working ranch lands especially in central Florida. The budget puts $10 million toward the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program, aimed at protecting ranch lands from future development through conservation easements. The allocation is paltry but important given the budget allocates no money for Florida Forever, the state’s land acquisition program. [node:read-more:link]

Tyson Foods said the company’s entire line of retail chicken products will be sourced from birds raised with no antibiotics ever (NAE), making Tyson a leading provider of chickens raised with no antibiotics. [node:read-more:link]

Recent stricter implementation of immigrant control policies has resulted in the deportation of some undocumented immigrants (Escalante, Yu, and Li, 2016). At the same time, employment verification systems and monitored hiring procedures have been established and enforced, as have harsher sanctions (involving higher civil fines and criminal penalties) for employers who violate the law (Smith and Sugimori, 2015). [node:read-more:link]

U.S. exporters see double-digit gains in first quarter of the year. U.S. dairy exports in the first quarter of 2017 were up 14 percent by volume and 17 percent by value compared with a year ago—the best Q1 result since 2014. Exporters realized gains to nearly all markets and across nearly all product categories, with only butterfat and whole milk powder lagging.During the quarter, exporters shipped 461,898 tons of milk powder, cheese, butterfat, whey and lactose. Total dairy exports were valued at $1.32 billion. [node:read-more:link]

Animal rights groups have been successful in pressuring many of the top food companies and restaurant chains to adopt stricter animal welfare policies, such as cage-free eggs and gestation stall-free pork.One notable exception is Domino’s Pizza, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which has stood its ground in the face of extreme pressure from animal activists.Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre tells Brownfield their philosophy is simple:  Farmers know best.“We will never tell a farmer how to farm. We will never tell a rancher how to raise his or her animals,” McIntyre says. [node:read-more:link]