A new audit that potato growers some growers will complete this season seeks to provide a common standard for sustainability. A small number of U.S. growers were picked last season for a trial run with the new Potato Sustainability Audit. This season, the Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America will roll out the audit on a large scale. Growers doing business with major potato buyers — including Lamb Weston, J.R. [node:read-more:link]

Russia plans to ban temporarily imports of beef and beef products from New Zealand from Feb. 6 after finding the feed additive ractopamine in some samples, Russia's agriculture safety watchdog said.  The watchdog, known as Rosselkhoznadzor in Russian, said it was also considering banning fish imports from New Zealand due to traces of mercury in some supplies. New Zealand is not covered by a wider ban on most Western food imports which Moscow introduced in 2014 in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis. [node:read-more:link]

If it hadn’t been for state cost-share money, Ronnie Nuckols said, he wouldn’t have been able to install 14 fences to keep his cattle out of streams.  Nuckols, who farms in Goochland County, is one of countless Virginia farmers who are doing their part to protect the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways by using environment-friendly farming practices. [node:read-more:link]

Vermont agriculture officials are meeting to discuss concerns about how the Trump administration's immigration policy could affect the state's immigrant farm workers who are key to the success of the state's dairy farms.  The University of Vermont Extension Service told the state's agriculture secretary that the state has about 1,000 Latino farm workers, many of whom are living in the country illegally.  Extension employees say a total of 177 out of the state's 818 dairy farms use Latino workers. Republican Gov. [node:read-more:link]

Despite vigorous opposition from the popular Republican governor, the Maryland Senate voted 32 to 13 on Thursday to override Hogan’s veto of a bill to boost the state’s use of renewable energy.  The House of Delegates voted to reverse the veto earlier this week. That means the measure — which requires Maryland to obtain 25 percent of its energy from wind, solar and other renewable sources by 2020, instead of ­20 percent by 2022 — will become law. [node:read-more:link]

Eight states lost population between 2015 and 2016, and 12 others recorded their lowest population increase of the decade, as economic woes and lower birth rates hit some states harder than others.  Connecticut, Illinois, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming lost population. The last time so many states registered a drop in population was from 1986 to 1987, when oil prices collapsed. [node:read-more:link]

North Dakota dairy producers are taking aim at attracting a specialty dairy products plant in hopes of saving the declining industry. North Dakota has seen a reduction of 350 dairy farms in 2002 to 86 dairy farms today, losing five since the last legislative session. The number of cows is down to 16,000 compared to 40,000 in 2002. Aimed at helping struggling dairy enterprises, a joint study between the North Dakota Dairy Coalition and the South Dakota Department of Agriculture identified the industry’s best options for getting a new processing plant in the area. [node:read-more:link]

Strong gains in its beef and pork segments fueled record-setting results for Tyson Foods in the first quarter of 2017, the processor announced this morning.  Tyson said earnings per share hit a record $1.59, a 38-percent improvement on year-ago results. Operating income rose 27 percent to a record $982 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2017, while net income in the period reached $594 million, up 29 percent from profits in the same period one year ago. [node:read-more:link]

In the three years since the Affordable Care Act took effect, its federally funded expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults has become the states’ most powerful weapon in the battle against the nation’s worsening opioid epidemic.  Now, as Congress and President Donald Trump debate potential replacements for the law, governors, health care professionals and advocates for the poor are cautioning that any cut in federal funding for addiction treatment could reverse much of the progress states have made. [node:read-more:link]

Antiparasitic medicine for endangered Key deer and an abundance of sterile New World screwworm flies continue to help fight the screwworm situation in South Florida. More than 101 million sterile screwworm flies have been released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Marathon and the Lower Keys since October. In Homestead, where a stray dog was found with a screwworm infestation in December, nearly 2 million have been released. They help to drive down the number of fertile flies by mating with wild flies to produce eggs that never hatch. [node:read-more:link]