The West Virginia Farm Bureau and the state Department of Agriculture are in a fight over cows and potatoes. Their argument spans genetics, market economies and state pride. It also crosses into politics.  In the upcoming Agriculture Commissioner race, the Farm Bureau has endorsed Republican Kent Leonhardt over incumbent Democrat Walt Helmick, just as it did in 2012. In the current spat, the Farm Bureau claims the Agriculture Department’s purchase of four breeding cows from Oklahoma for $33,000 presents unfair competition for West Virginia’s existing beef cattle farmers. [node:read-more:link]

A water war is brewing in California's Central Valley, pitting residents, farmers and even conservation groups against the state.  The proposed plan would take even more water away from the region's residents and crops; new plans call for40 percent of the San Joaquin River's water to be sent out to the ocean so threatened species of fish, like salmon and steelhead, can have a chance to thrive again.  But that plan would double the amount of water used to save these fish, and local officials are disgusted to think that this much water could be sent out to the sea, flowing right past a parche [node:read-more:link]

 As thousands of commercial drones take to the skies under new Federal Aviation Administration rules, some small operators are pursuing a coveted exemption that would allow them to fly their drones where they can't be seen by the pilot.  The companies who want them say the so-called line-of-sight exemptions are essential to someday use drones for such tasks as cleanup and repair after storm damage and monitoring widespread crop conditions.  But thus far, the FAA has only given exemptions to three companies that participated in a year-long FAA pilot program: CNN, BNSF Railway and the drone d [node:read-more:link]

U.S. wheat farmers, struggling to make money as prices sink and global supplies swell, could be the main beneficiaries if Washington wins a case it brought last week against China over an estimated $100 billion in domestic grain market supports.  On Tuesday, U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A new national nonprofit group is spending $375,000 on advertising in Kansas over the next two months to make the case for wind energy production, a purchase that hints at future electoral influence.  American Wind Action, founded three months ago, already has a seven-figure budget. Its largest advertising purchase to date is in Kansas, where it will roll out television, radio and digital ads across the state in September and October. [node:read-more:link]

A class-action antitrust lawsuit charges that U.S. broiler companies conspired to reduce chicken production to cause chicken prices to rise to “unprecedented” levels during the period from 2008-2014. [node:read-more:link]

The Agricultural Development Bank of China [AGDBC.UL], one of the country's main policy lenders, agreed to loan at least 3 trillion yuan ($450 billion) by 2020 for the modernization of China's agriculture industry, state media said on Sunday.  The Ministry of Agriculture and the bank, which lends in line with government policy, signed an agreement to protect national food security, support the sector doing business overseas and develop China's seed industry, according to the official Xinhua news agency.  It was not immediately clear whether this commitment is separate from the bank's plan a [node:read-more:link]

Animal rights activists are facing little organized opposition as they push a ballot question that would ban the sale of eggs and other food products in Massachusetts that come from farms where animals are confined to overly restrictive cages.  Supporters of the question have reported raising $1.6 million so far in direct contributions and another $525,000 in in-kind contributions, like donated staff times.  The state's latest campaign finance deadline passed without any opposition group filing a fundraising report with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.  The single biggest sourc [node:read-more:link]

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Robert Bonnie today announced a new three-year, $328 million restoration strategy to improve water quality and help coastal ecosystems heal following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The strategy will guide how USDA will steer conservation efforts on private lands in priority areas of the Gulf of Mexico region. [node:read-more:link]

When it comes to farming, it seems the critics always have the easy answer. They portray this line of work as if every day brings blue skies and no worries. The reality is the farming business comes with a fair share of challenges; chief among them is the unpredictability of weather and markets. Anything can and will happen. Most kids don't return to the farm, which is evident by the average age of the American farmer. It's 58 years old and it keeps creeping upward. This is not a good trend for American agriculture and something that should worry all of us. [node:read-more:link]