BNSF Railway Co will start offering discounts to ethanol shippers this April if they agree to use new, safer train cars, as it pushes to scrub puncture-prone ones from its rail lines at a faster pace than required by U.S. regulations.  The move by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway rail company comes even as ethanol shippers have been slow to embrace the new train cars mandated by sweeping new regulations enacted in 2015 after a series of fiery crude oil derailments. [node:read-more:link]

Exxon Mobil Corp., the U.S. oil giant that’s facing investigations over what it knew and when about climate change, sees the Paris agreement to mitigate global warming as a “monumental” achievement, according to a top executive.  The company supports the December 2015 Paris accord as a “very meaningful and constructive process,” William M. Colton, Exxon’s vice president for corporate strategic planning, said in an interview in Berlin. Adhering to the accord’s commitments are achievable and compatible with Exxon’s business strategy, he said. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. bacon reserves have hit a 50 year low. The non-profit Ohio Pork Council said that demand for frozen pork belly, often made into bacon, has far outpaced supply, USA Today reports. “Today’s pig farmers are setting historic records by producing more pigs than ever. Yet our reserves are still depleting,” said Rich Deaton, the group's president.  With low reserve levels, prices have increased; the cost of pork belly rose by 20% in January, according to the council. [node:read-more:link]

Maine is the most rural state in the country, but it doesn’t have an organization devoted solely to helping rural communities. There are various groups focused on particular aspects of rural development but not one to tie all the efforts together, even as rural parts of the state continue to struggle with population and job losses. Maine could look to a neighbor and nearly equally rural state, Vermont, to see what a centralized body dedicated to tackling uniquely rural challenges has done for the state’s communities. [node:read-more:link]

Attorneys representing Broward County homeowners are demanding the state pay a $20 million judgment for tearing down healthy citrus trees in a failed attempt to eradicate citrus canker. The legal battle could set a precedent that might spread to four other counties and increase the final bill to $200 million. [node:read-more:link]

Hawkes Company is a family-owned business in Minnesota that sought to harvest peat moss, for landscaping, in nearby bogs. The Corps claimed jurisdiction over the property as regulated wetlands, even though a Corps reviewing officer found the Jurisdictional Determination invalid. This put Hawkes in an untenable position: Hawkes could (1) abandon all use of the land at great loss; (2) seek an unnecessary federal permit for a few hundred thousand dollars; or (3), proceed to use the land without federal approval subjecting Hawkes to fines of $37,500 a day and criminal prosecution. [node:read-more:link]

Without a stable, legal workforce to pick their fruit, the future of Sirles’ Rendleman Orchards in Alto Pass — and many other orchards — is in danger. “We need help to harvest our crops. It is a huge issue for specialty growers,” Sirles said at the recent Illinois Specialty Crops, Agritourism and Organic Conference in Springfield. Rendleman Orchards has been in business for almost a 150 years, but it may have to reduce the size of its operation to keep going if family members can’t find workers. “Our biggest limitation is labor. It’s expensive and restrictive,” Sirles explained. [node:read-more:link]

In recent years, a global network of alternative farms have pushed the edges of Western society’s “natural food” obsession by incorporating elements of environmental justice, climate activism, and urban planning.  They include the creation of seedbanks to help hedge against the spread of habitat destruction and impoverished sharecropping communities reclaiming land from corporate control to provide living-wage jobs in farm cooperatives and a more diverse, healthier vegetable selection than the dominant monocultures crowding the cereal aisle. [node:read-more:link]

“The Maschhoffs has a zero-tolerance policy for any abuse or mistreatment of its pigs,” the company said in a statement. The company added that it is reinforcing the animal care policy with its employees and production partners, in addition to making sure that “every farm manager” reviews the video and “fully understands the responsibility that comes with proper animal care.” For its part, Hormel released a statement suspending all of the Oklahoma sow operations of the Maschhoffs until “a thorough investigation” is completed. [node:read-more:link]