Michigan became the first state in the U.S. to develop a full list of infrastructure recommendations when Gov. Rick Snyder unveiled that report. More than 100 recommendations across four areas - water, transportation, energy and communications - resulted from months of work by the 21st Century Infrastructure Commission. "This is not an answer by itself, but a road map," Snyder told a crowd gathered at Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, in addition to viewers at satellite locations in the state. [node:read-more:link]

Counties and states with large shares of uninsured risk having to contend with a range of health and economic impacts, such as reduced workplace productivity, unsustainable demands on emergency departments, higher tax burdens resulting from uncompensated care costs, and deteriorating health care quality due to reductions in public spending. In 2013, before the implementation of major provisions of the Affordable Care Act, 41 million U.S. adults age 19–64 had no health insurance. Coverage varies considerably by geographic location. [node:read-more:link]

It is interesting to be an observer of agricultural price movements. However, for many producers of agricultural commodities, prices are a key driver of their financial wellbeing. Wide ranging price movements over time can vastly alter their financial conditions. It is clear that the financial impacts of price movements affect many agricultural input businesses as well. What can happen to prices of agricultural commodities in a decade, and why look at the last decade? [node:read-more:link]

In its latest poultry industry report, the Rabobank International Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory’s Q4 Poultry Quarterly report signalled challenges to an otherwise positive global poultry outlook in the year, due to global reports of avian influenza (AI) outbreaks reminiscent of  similar incidents in 2015. Trade of meat and breeding stock are at risk during a period when tailwinds for poultry were resulting in  positive momentum at a time when seasonal vulnerability for AI outbreaks are more likely given the onset of the winter season.                 [node:read-more:link]

At century's end, the number of summertime storms that produce extreme downpours could increase by more than 400 percent across parts of the United States — including sections of the Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast, and the Southwest — according to a new study. [node:read-more:link]

The Indiana Board of Animal Health has issued an advisory after one bull on a southern Indiana beef cattle farm was infected with anthrax. A veterinarian collected tissue samples for laboratory testing after the animal died unexpectedly. Only a single, mixed-breed bull died; other animals in the herd have not shown signs of infection, Fox59 reported.The infected animal was incinerated on-site, and the farm was placed under a 30-day quarantine and observation order by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) [node:read-more:link]

The Michigan State University Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center (UPREC) is home to an exciting program designed for those interested in starting a small farm business. The North Farm, located on the state’s oldest operating research station, was reopened in 2014 as an education and research facility focused on northern climate organic vegetable and fruit production. The flagship program for this facility is the Apprentice Farmer Program (AFP), which serves as a business incubator for farming entrepreneurs. [node:read-more:link]

Hampshire’s struggling dairy farmers may soon get some help from a relief program in the works at the Statehouse.  Backed by the majority leaders in both the New Hampshire House and Senate, the Joint Dairy Farmers Task Force moved Monday to aid farmers affected by this year’s drought.The program is aimed at dairy farmers who have suffered financial losses from “unreasonably low” milk prices, and meager feed crops.Nineteen of New Hampshire’s 120 dairy farms stopped producing milk this year.This isn’t the first time the state has helped out the dairy industry. [node:read-more:link]

In the early 2000s, no one in Jacksboro, Texas thought much of Faith Community Hospital, the fifty-year-old hospital in the center of town. The building was substandard. Staff morale was low. Patients preferred to drive thirty miles or more to Fort Worth or Wichita Falls for care. And when the hospital flunked a Medicare inspection due to mold and asbestos, voters rejected a bond issue to build a new hospital by a 3-to-1 margin.Then, in 2010, Frank Beaman came to town, taking on the role of Faith’s CEO with a keen understanding of what was at stake. [node:read-more:link]

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is aiming to improve the infrastructure and boost industry in some of the state’s more isolated communities.  The DOA is offering grants for projects that would promote sustainability and expand industries that use a lot of land, such as farming, mining, oil production, tourism, and rural industry projects.  The department has $1.5 million available, and projects will be awarded portions of that through a competitive process, where the applicants will have to explain how their proposal will improve rural areas. [node:read-more:link]