The S.C. House voted 97-18 Wednesday to increase the state’s gas tax and other driving fees to raise about $600 million a year to repair the state’s crumbling roads and bridges.  Under the plan, the state’s gas tax would increase by 2 cents a gallon each year for the next five years. When fully phased in, the 10-cent-a-gallon increase would cost the average S.C. driver $60 a year.  The state Department of Transportation estimates it needs an added $1 billion a year to repair and maintain S.C. [node:read-more:link]

Vermont, with a population more rural and less diverse than the country as a whole, is embarking on an experiment that could transform the delivery of health care nationwide. Traditionally, doctors and hospitals are paid for each procedure, treatment or test they provide. But critics say this “fee for service” system drives up costs and harms patients by pushing providers to do as much as possible, regardless of whether it benefits patients. [node:read-more:link]

Federal officials are investigating after a city banned a small horse a man says is his service animal needed on walks to improve his health.The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development tells KING-TV (http://kng5.tv/2lYAjTL) that it is investigating Benton City's actions as a possible fair housing violation.Tim Fulton said that his horse, Fred, senses when Fulton is about to fall, gets in front and lets Fulton lean on him for support."I fall down from time to time," Fulton said. [node:read-more:link]

Hawaii locavores are pushing for more options, including the sale of raw milk.  Currently, raw milk is legal in 42 states in some form or another.  Hawaii law prohibits the sale of it, but advocates like Monique Vanderstroom, owner of Naked Cow Dairy Farm in Waianae, say it's long over due. "There's enough people here that want it," she said. "Anytime we can produce our own food here, I think it adds to the sustainability of the islands  as a whole." Vanderstroom said when she first opened her farm in 2008, she wanted to sell milk. [node:read-more:link]

The Federal Circuit upheld a $455 million award to Bayer CropScience NV after an arbitration panel found that Dow Agrosciences LLC infringed its patents on weed control technology, finding that Dow failed to meet the high bar for overturning such an award. The appeals court ruled that Judge Raymond Jackson of the Eastern District of Virginia correctly affirmed the award last year, although it agreed with Dow that the amount of interest on the award must be modified. [node:read-more:link]

An Outlook dairy has unleashed a flood of hazardous water into and around nearby homes. According to the Department of Agriculture, a small levee broke Wednesday in a nearby field owned by Deruyter Brothers Dairy. A mix of water and dairy waste then moved across another farm's compost piles, traveling further downhill toward a cluster of homes. At least four homes were damaged, with dairy waste flooding the living space of at least one of them. The Department of Health is working to test drinking water, but is alerting residents not to drink it. [node:read-more:link]

Few topics in agriculture are as controversial in the public eye as GMOs. For more than two years, the labeling of GMO ingredients on food packaging has been a hot topic. As consumers continue to buy more non-GMO products, one major food company has become a champion of the need for labeling: Campbell Soup Company.   “We decided to embrace it,” says Kelly Johnston, the company’s vice president of government affairs, who spoke from the mainstage at the 2017 Top Producer Seminar. [node:read-more:link]

Dr. Johansson noted that, “Farm income has fallen dramatically since 2013, falling almost 30 percent in real terms. That is the largest 4-year drop in farm income in 40 years, when real farm income fell more than 45 percent between 1973 and 1977.  We have seen record production in major commodities over the past few years, and as a result prices are down significantly.  Baseline projections show flat farm income throughout the 10-year forecast period.” [node:read-more:link]

A $10 million commercial biotech plant laboratory in Middleton, Wisconsin, first opened in 1982 with the help of University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists, will soon become part of UW–Madison following a donation from Monsanto Co. The facility, a labyrinth of greenhouses and laboratories where some of plant biotechnology’s first critical steps were taken, was officially donated to UW–Madison’s University Research Park by Monsanto last month (December 2016) to become the hub of the new Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center (WCIC). [node:read-more:link]