A Trump administration and new leadership of the Senate’s environment committee may breathe new life into efforts to roll back the Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable fuel standard, lawmakers and advocates say.  House members are continuing to build momentum around bipartisan legislation (H.R. 5180) to limit EPA ethanol requirements in total transportation fuel at 9.7 percent.Opponents of the mandate also are happy about the likely selection of Sen. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has launched its annual “Get Smart About Antibiotics Week” program, designed to provide information on progress to help the industry promote responsible use of antibiotics in pigs. The agency has set a goal of slowing the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant infections through improving the way antibiotics are prescribed and used, according Dr. Lauri Hicks, director of the CDC’s Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, in a news release. To that end, the CDC is using a $160-million allocation from the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Not since then has the cultural chasm between urban and non-urban America shaped the struggle over the country’s direction as much as today. Of all the overlapping generational, racial, and educational divides that explained Trump’s stunning upset over Hillary Clinton last week, none proved more powerful than the distance between the Democrats’ continued dominance of the largest metropolitan areas, and the stampede toward the GOP almost everywhere else. [node:read-more:link]

Cattle and timber industry representatives say the proposed expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument will lead to lost grazing lands and timber production and injure the area’s economy.  In October, Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, both Democrats, asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to expand the monument’s border by about 50,000 acres, much of which would involve Bureau of Land Management lands. [node:read-more:link]

A working group at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has finalized its report on proposed changes to improve the efficiency of approvals for the use of multiple new animals drugs in combination drug medicated feeds, while still protecting public health. These proposed changes are consistent with a performance goal in the Animal Drug User Fee Amendments of 2013 (ADUFA III) goals letter and are based on public comment. [node:read-more:link]

Several senators criticized Tuesday a recent Washington Supreme Court decision that threatens to halt home building in farm communities and said they will try to counteract the decision in the upcoming legislative session. “It’s totally ridiculous, what’s going on. It’s killing rural America,” said Republican Sen. Brian Dansel, who represents the state’s sparsely populated northeastern corner.  The 6-3 ruling in Hirst v. Whatcom County in October struck down the routine approval of new domestic wells. [node:read-more:link]

Seafood mislabelling can actually lead consumers to eat more sustainably, concluded scientists from the University of Washington (UW) broadly examining the ecological and financial impacts of the issue. These scientists found that the substituted fish is often more plentiful and of a better conservation status than the fish on the label or in the restaurant menu. [node:read-more:link]

The streak continues for the Colorado cannabis industry.  Colorado marijuana shops in September reeled in $127.8 million in sales of medical and recreational cannabis, notching a new revenue record for the third consecutive month, according to newly released data from the Colorado Department of Revenue.  So far this year, sales have topped $974.3 million in nine months, about $22 million shy of the $996.2 million revenue totaled for the entirety of 2015. [node:read-more:link]

South Dakota’s sheep population peaked in 1943 at 2.4 million head. Now there are only 255,000 sheep in the state, a 89 percent drop, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s South Dakota office of ag statistics.The reasons for the decrease are several, but key ones have to do with U.S. trade policies that have given other countries more access to America’s meat-loving consumers, says Bryan Hanson. [node:read-more:link]