The US District Court for the District of Columbia recently granted the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) intervenor status in a lawsuit over the release of documents related to an audit of the beef checkoff program. NCBA is now a defendant-intervenor in the case. [node:read-more:link]
About 30 southeastern Alberta ranches are being quarantined after bovine tuberculosis was reported in a single cow from the province that was slaughtered in the United States. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday its veterinarians and inspectors are making contact with cattle producers in five Alberta agricultural zones and are working with provincial authorities to investigate the report. "The investigation is ongoing and it is not yet known how many animals will require testing," said agency spokesperson Denis Schryburt. "The number of animals requiring testing will depend o [node:read-more:link]
As more jurisdictions legalize marijuana, veterinarians across the country say they are seeing a sharp increase in cases of pets accidentally getting high. Tasty “edibles” such as muffins and cookies that people consume for a buzz are also appealing to animals, who can’t read warning labels, and, in the case of dogs, rarely stop at just one pot brownie. [node:read-more:link]
Some farmers loaded up on easy credit when grain prices were high - and kept borrowing after they crashed. Now debt and delinquencies are rising fast, raising fears of broader turmoil in U.S. agriculture. Their distress could foreshadow broader economic turmoil in the grain sector, which includes corn, soybeans and wheat. “We’re in for a very, very rough time,” said Jim Mintert, director of Purdue University's Center for Commercial Agriculture. [node:read-more:link]
Just maybe, a few of the legislators were praying for the next oil boom, the way their fathers and grandfathers did. But this oil bust could be different. [node:read-more:link]
In recent years, researchers have documented the changing demographics of rural areas, with a specific focus on changes in racial-ethnic composition and immigration patterns,1 particularly the increased migration of Hispanics to rural places.2 In spite of this attention to the changing demographics of rural America, surprisingly little is known about how rural immigrants compare to both their urban peers and native-born counterparts. [node:read-more:link]
Bovine tuberculosis was found in a 2-year-old steer in the state's thumb region. United States Department of Agriculture's food safety inspection service identified the Huron County steer as possibly diseased during inspection and removed the animal from the human food chain, according to a statement from Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development. [node:read-more:link]
On both sides of the Atlantic, many of the people who are most upset about the new free trade deal between Canada and the European Union are dairy farmers. But they have opposite worries. The deal was nearly derailed by enraged farmers in the Wallonia region of Belgium because of how much they had been struggling. In Canada, by contrast, farmers are anxious because they have been doing so well. The way the country’s “supply management” system works now, Canadian dairy farms are almost guaranteed to prosper. [node:read-more:link]
Miller, who graduated from The University of Iowa in 2009, heard about a program in North Dakota that was financing grants for telepharmacies, a business model that blends traditional pharmacy services with telemedicine technology. Miller was inspired and intrigued by the program. "I began building a similar platform for my family's business," he said. Even so, the family was forced to close one of its pharmacies and sell another. The remaining four the family owned were at risk, and Miller knew he needed a solution to save them. [node:read-more:link]
Despite his misgivings, von Lossberg couldn’t stop thinking about the data he’d received from local members of Moms Demand Action, comparing states that have passed gun safety measures to those that have not. In the eight states that require background checks on all gun transfers, there were 38 percent fewer deaths of women shot by intimate partners, as well as lower rates of gun suicides and aggravated assaults with firearms. By contrast, Montana ranks fifth in gun deaths per capita and received an “F” from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in 2015. [node:read-more:link]
