As agriculture enters a new era, farmers on Kauai’s North Shore want to weave technology and food hubs into their daily routines. And Kilauea Ag Park has applied for a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to try and make it happen. “Why food hubs? Because the only thing that will drive the success of farming is demand,” said Yoshito L’Hote, director of Kauai’s non-profit ‘Aina Ho’okupu O Kilauea. USDA food hubs are a business model where various ag producers team up for things like distribution and marketing, and work together to access larger-volume markets. [node:read-more:link]

Despite the ongoing rollout of E15 fuel nationwide, a handful of bills introduced in legislatures in D.C. and elsewhere aim to put a halt to sale of the fuel blamed for causing damage to older vehicles. The most extreme of those bills, H.R. 1314, which Virginia Representative Robert Goodlatte introduced, calls for the elimination of the Renewable Fuel Standard, the portion of the Clean Air Act enacted in 2005 that provides for minimum volumes of renewable fuels to be blended into the country’s fuel supply. At the same time, Goodlatte introduced H.R. [node:read-more:link]

President Donald Trump’s White House has said his plans to slash environmental regulations will trigger a new energy boom and help the United States drill its way to independence from foreign oil. But the top U.S. oil and gas companies have been telling their shareholders that regulations have little impact on their business, according to a Reuters review of U.S. securities filings from the top producers.In annual reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 13 of the 15 biggest U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Unprecedented summer warmth and flooding, forest fires, drought and torrential rain -- extreme weather events are occurring more and more often, but now an international team of climate scientists has found a connection between many extreme weather events and the impact climate change is having on the jet stream. [node:read-more:link]

The Iowa Legislature approved a bill Wednesday that caps some damages associated with "nuisance" livestock lawsuits. The bill's floor manager, Rep. Chip Baltimore, R-Boone, said Senate File 447 would reward the good actors by limiting the risk that comes with running farms and animal feeding operations. The limits on lawsuit, which include a cap on some damages, wouldn't apply to habitual offenders or to farms that violate environmental regulations. “This is an agricultural state," Baltimore said. [node:read-more:link]

JBS S.A. decided to suspend operations in 33 out of 36 beef slaughter plants in Brazil for three days, after more than a dozen countries temporarily banned Brazilian meat imports this week. The company aims to adjust production to demand as a consequence of the embargoes imposed by importers, after the country's Federal Police announced an operation to dismantle an alleged bribery scheme involving 33 federal sanitary inspectors and 21 meat processing plants. [node:read-more:link]

A bill moving through the Minnesota Legislature would help beginning farmers overcome one of the biggest barriers they face when trying to launch an agricultural business: access to land. According to farmer-members of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP), such legislation is long overdue in a state where an increasing number of beginning farmers are seeking opportunities in agriculture. The legislation would provide tax credits to Minnesota landowners who rent or sell land to a beginning farmer. [node:read-more:link]

America is a nation of part-time farmers. According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture, over 52 percent of farmers have a primary occupation other than farming. Sixty-one percent worked some days off the farm. Part-time farming doesn’t mean farming fewer than 40 hours a week. It means putting in long, hard hours of farm labor around 9-to-5 jobs. For many of us, it means getting up extra early to do chores before work, and heading back to the barn after a day at the office. Part-time farming is challenging but offers big benefits, especially for young farmers beginning a farm business. [node:read-more:link]

Princess Anne has said genetically-modified crops have important benefits for providing food and she would be open to growing them on her own land. Her brother, the Prince of Wales, has previously warned GM crops could cause an environmental disaster.But Princess Anne said: "To say we mustn't go there 'just in case' is probably not a practical argument." In an interview with the rural affairs programme to be broadcast on Thursday, the 66-year-old Princess Royal said she saw no problem with modifying crops if it improved their ability to grow. [node:read-more:link]

The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld a $1.5 million judgment against Land O’Lakes Purina Feed for selling defective feed to an Oregon dairy. [node:read-more:link]