When President-elect Donald J. Trump met with the British politician Nigel Farage in recent days, he encouraged Mr. Farage and his entourage to oppose the kind of offshore wind farms that Mr. Trump believes will mar the pristine view from one of his two Scottish golf courses, according to one person present. The meeting, held shortly after the presidential election, raises new questions about Mr. [node:read-more:link]
Farms are getting bigger and the smallest farms aren’t real farms — that’s what I told you last week in a story about how the official definition of “farm” in the national Agricultural Census obscures the consolidation that the farming industry has experienced over the last 30 years. But there’s another important part to this story: Consolidation isn’t the same thing as the loss of family farms. Ninety-seven percent of US farms are family-owned, according the most recent Agricultural Census. Even big farms are usually family owned. [node:read-more:link]
As Virginia declares opioid addiction a public health emergency, the state is making a popular overdose antidote available without a prescription. State Health Commissioner Marissa Levine issued a standing order that lets Virginians purchase the drug Naloxone over the counter. Essentially, she issued a prescription to everyone in the state so they can access the drug. The state government expects a 77 percent increase in fatal opioid overdoses from five years ago by the end of the year. Fatal drug overdoses are the number one cause of unnatural death in Virginia. [node:read-more:link]
Twenty years from now, the most important tool for putting food on your table won’t be a harvester, combine or a plow. It will be a piece of software. Agriculture is in the process of transitioning into a fully high-tech enterprise. This is a long-overdue revolution in the way things have been done for centuries. To put it in perspective, if we keep doing farming the old-fashioned way, two billion more people will go hungry by the year 2050. World population growth is driving the urgent need for a radical boost in farm productivity. Incremental advances in output simply won’t cut it. [node:read-more:link]
For decades, marine chemists have faced an elusive paradox. The surface waters of the world's oceans are supersaturated with the greenhouse gas methane, yet most species of microbes that can generate the gas can't survive in oxygen-rich surface waters. So where exactly does all the methane come from? This longstanding riddle, known as the "marine methane paradox," may have finally been cracked, thanks to a new study. [node:read-more:link]
This blog post will focus on the rules related to Open Space Valuation (“OSV”). Passed in 1978, more than a decade after Agricultural Use Valuation, this method is governed by Article VIII, Section 1(d)(1) of the Texas Property Code and Sections 23.51-59 of the Texas Tax Code. This valuation method may also frequently be referred to as “1(d)(1) valuation.” A one-time application must be filed with the County Appraisal District. [node:read-more:link]
An invasive snail is being blamed for killing hundreds of waterfowl on the Upper Mississippi River this fall. Field workers have found almost 1,000 dead coot and lesser scaup washed up on the shores near Genoa since early October, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The birds are believed to be the victims of an intestinal parasite found in faucet snails, which the birds eat during stopovers on their fall migration. Die-offs have become an annual event during the past 15 years, since the arrival of the faucet snail. [node:read-more:link]
A Florida man has been arrested in connection with illegal horse slaughtering in an unlicensed rural slaughterhouse in western Miami-Dade County. [node:read-more:link]
Judges in Maryland would not be able to set bail that is too high for a poor defendant to pay unless the defendant is considered a flight risk or a danger to society, under a rule change that a key judiciary committee voted to recommend to the state’s highest court. The Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Maryland Court of Appeals voted 18 to 5 to recommend an overhaul of the state’s money-based bail system, which critics say is unfair to poor and minority defendants. [node:read-more:link]
A new study to be released on Monday by the Children’s Health Fund, a nonprofit based in New York City that expands access to health care for disadvantaged children, found that one in four children in the United States did not have access to essential health care, though a record number of young people now have health insurance. The report found that 20.3 million people in the nation under the age of 18 lack “access to care that meets modern pediatric standards.” [node:read-more:link]
