North Dakota continues to see bleaker-than-expected state tax revenue collections from declining slumping oil and crop prices in the state.Office of Management and Budget Director Pam Sharp says revenues for August totaled $139.3 million. That's $9.2 million less than what had been projected. [node:read-more:link]

The five company executives were literally elbow to elbow, but they all fit at the narrow table where they sat facing a stern semi-circle of U.S. senators. They were in D.C. representing five of the "Big Six" agricultural companies and testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in defense of the two massive mergers and a key corporate purchase underway. Squeezed in next to them were four other representatives from the American Antitrust Institute, the American Farm Bureau, the National Corn Growers Association and the National Farmers Union. [node:read-more:link]

At the end of a week that saw China send mixed signals on agriculture trade, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the time has come for federal lawmakers to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Those in favor of the TPP say it is important for the U.S. to move quickly, so as not to allow China to take the lead on trade in Southeast Asia. This week, China agreed to re-open beef imports from the United States and made an agreement with Canada to import more canola, while also moving forward with an anti-dumping case against U.S. distillers grains. [node:read-more:link]

When Massachusetts voters head to the polls in November, supporters of a pro-farm animal ballot question want them to have one question in their minds: What would it feel like to spend their entire lives without enough room to stand up, turn around, stretch their arms and legs and lay down again. Opponents hope voters will have their eyes on their wallets instead, arguing that approving the ballot question will drive up the costs of eggs and meat. [node:read-more:link]

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has renewed a cooperative agreement with the FDA related to the implementation of the Produce Safety Rule under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).   NASDA says the “expanded scope” of the cooperative agreement will let its members provide leadership and support for the On-Farm Readiness Review Project, a concept that NASDA developed with FDA that allows growers to receive a pre-assessment of how they stand in terms of produce safety rule compliance. [node:read-more:link]

Nebraska farm leaders hailed a ruling from D.C. [node:read-more:link]

Drive through rural Tulare County and you’ll hear it soon enough, a roar from one of the hundreds of agricultural pumps pulling water from beneath the soil to keep the nut and fruit orchards and vast fields of corn and alfalfa lush and green under the scorching San Joaquin Valley sun. Well water is keeping agriculture alive in Tulare County – and much of the rest of the San Joaquin Valley – through five years of California’s historic drought. [node:read-more:link]

But some scientists have been questioning whether some of the methods -- collectively known as best management practices or BMPs -- actually reduce pollution as much as estimated. "They're being put in all over the place, but no one ever checks to see how well they work," said Thomas Fisher, an environmental scientist at the Horn Point Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Fisher and his colleagues are working to change that. [node:read-more:link]

Liberals and conservatives don’t only disagree on presidential candidates; they also differ on their views about food, according to the International Food Information Council Foundation’s 2016 Food and Health Survey: Consumer Attitudes Toward Food Safety, Nutrition & Health. The survey shows while more liberals (38 percent) name pesticides as their top food safety concern, more conservatives (40 percent) are most concerned about cancer-causing chemicals in food. [node:read-more:link]

Adams Farm Slaughterhouse, LLC, an Athol, Mass., establishment, is recalling beef, veal, and Bison products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. [node:read-more:link]