Almost three-quarters (73 percent) of companies have published farm animal welfare policies, up from 46 percent in 2012, according to the findings compiled by Compassion in World Farming, World Animal Protection and investment firm Coller Capital. Cargill and McDonald’s Corp. were among companies that received a Tier 2 ranking for making animal welfare integral to their business strategy. Tier 3 companies that have established policies but still have work to be done included Hormel Foods, JBS, Subway, Sysco Corp., Tyson Foods, Walmart and Wendy’s. [node:read-more:link]

Like many small communities, Keota, Iowa, faces some challenges. But the idea that they aren’t big enough to take on large projects isn’t one of them. At least not any more. Business operator Melinda Eakins describes what it took for her community to “Get It Done.” [node:read-more:link]

Chronic wasting disease, a fatal brain condition, has been detected in Texas free-ranging white-tailed deer for the first time.  The white-tailed buck that tested positive for the disease was found in Medina County, Texas - just west San Antonio. [node:read-more:link]

Americans are killing themselves at an alarming rate. Nationwide, the mortality rate from drug poisoning, alcohol poisoning, and suicide increased by 52 percent between 2000 and 2014. Most of this increase was driven by a surge in prescription opioid and heroin overdoses, but overdoses from other drugs, suicides by means other than drugs, and alcohol-induced deaths also increased over this period. Between 2010 and 2014, drugs, alcohol, or suicide were the underlying cause of death for 537,000 people and were contributing factors in an additional 133,000 deaths. [node:read-more:link]

As dozens of states consider adopting fees and less-favorable rates to tilt the scales against net metering, advocates say a proposal in Indiana would offer rooftop solar customers the worst deal in the country.  Senate Bill 309, would end net metering by 2027 at the latest, and earlier than that for new panel installations by customers of utilities that hit caps on net metering capacity. The new rules would require customers to buy all the electricity they consume from the utility at a retail rate while selling everything they generate to the utility at a lower wholesale rate. [node:read-more:link]

A pair of bills now before the Nebraska legislature would provide a new potential funding source for community solar projects, and mandate that utilities allow community solar projects initiated by their customers. LB 610 would explicitly allow the Nebraska Environmental Trust to consider issuing grants to community solar projects. The trust’s funds, coming from a portion of the state’s lottery proceeds, amount to roughly $16 million yearly. [node:read-more:link]

“All of a sudden, rural is on everyone’s mind,” said Kai A. Schafft, director of the Center on Rural Education and Communities at Penn State, adding that November’s vote amplified the plight of people who had heretofore been “pretty systematically ignored, dismissed or passed over.” That’s partly because, while the federal government labels 72 percent of the nation’s land area “rural,” it is home to only 14 percent of the population, and rural schools educate just 18 percent of the nation’s public school students. [node:read-more:link]

"We were able to reduce the numbers of bird fatalities on communications towers by simply extinguishing those nonflashing lights," she says. "Those fatalities were reduced by as much as 70 percent."  Exactly why isn't yet clear, but she has a theory.  "Some research has documented that when birds are exposed to long wavelengths of light such as red or white that it actually interferes with their ability to use magnetic fields for navigation," Gehring says.  She says that's especially true on cloudy nights when birds can't navigate by the stars. [node:read-more:link]

Dr. Eunsung Kan sees his concept of a closed-loop dairy farm, which reuses wastewater, emits zero waste and powers itself on manure, as the future of sustainable animal farming. Kan's research would utilize existing technology – biochar, a carbon material similar to charcoal, created from animal manure and agricultural waste, such as corn stubble or rice straw – that would be used to filter solid waste and effluent. [node:read-more:link]

Don't expect any quick action on a Farm Bill that's due in 2018. That's the view of federal agricultural policy analysts who were panelists on a “Food Policy and Farm Bill” program at the 2017 Dairy Forum sponsored by the International Dairy Foods Association. Approving a new Farm Bill in 2017 would be “a heavy lift” and even doing so in 2018 could be “a long shot,” according to Krysta Harden, who was chief of staff for Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack during the Barack Obama administration. [node:read-more:link]