After analyzing data from Weather Energy, the environmental group WWF Scotland announced that wind turbines generated more than 100 percent of the total amount of electricity used in the country on Aug. 7. [node:read-more:link]
The vacant storefronts on Main Street make it clear that the town is no longer in its prime. Like many rural towns, Brookfield's top moneymakers in decades past were agriculture, transportation and manufacturing. While those industries still exist today, each has taken a hit. The town lost an auto plant. The railroad station is no longer bustling. And farming isn't bringing in as much as it used to. This story is a familiar one for thousands of towns across rural America. [node:read-more:link]
The deeper problem facing the United States is how to provide meaningful work and good wages for the tens of millions of truck drivers, accountants, factory workers and office clerks whose jobs will disappear in coming years because of robots, driverless vehicles and “machine learning” systems. The political debate needs to engage the taboo topic of guaranteeing economic security to families — through a universal basic income, or a greatly expanded earned-income tax credit, or a 1930s-style plan for public-works employment. Ranting about bad trade deals won’t begin to address the problem. [node:read-more:link]
Spam, more than any other product, defines Hormel. Through its 125-year history, the company’s strategy has been simple: protein, preferably with a long shelf life. Its other brands—Dinty Moore beef stew, Mary Kitchen hash, Real Bacon toppings, Herb-Ox bouillon cubes and its eponymous chili—sound like the shopping list for a Cold War fallout shelter. But around 2007, Hormel quietly embarked on a venture that would take it deeper than it had ever been into the cupboards and kitchens of Americans, many of them immigrants, many of them young. [node:read-more:link]
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service announced a final rule amending swine and lamb reporting provisions related to the reauthorization of the Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting program. The final rule, which becomes effective on Oct. 11, amends two swine reporting requirements and one lamb reporting requirement. For swine, packers are required to report purchases on a negotiated formula basis as a separate purchase category. Second, packers must report all barrow and gilt purchases made after 1:30 p.m. Central time in their morning submission on the next reporting day. [node:read-more:link]
armers want the city to cap the value of agricultural land so property taxes don’t get out of control when crop prices are doing well. Over the past seven years, the value of an acre jumped by $1,820. Land values rise and fall based on the price of corn, wheat and soybeans. When crop prices were up, those increases were passed on to farmers. “If you owned, your tax costs went up,” Agriculture Director David Trimmer said. [node:read-more:link]
Four human infections with influenza viruses that normally circulate in swine (swine influenza) were reported by CDC this week. When swine influenza viruses are detected in people they are called “variant” viruses and are designated with a letter v at the end of the virus subtype. The four human infections were caused by H3N2v viruses in Ohio (2) and Michigan (2). All four patients reported attending fairs where they had exposure to pigs during the week preceding illness onset. Pigs at the fairs have reportedly tested positive for swine influenza A (H3N2) infection. [node:read-more:link]
Designed to help ensure timelier processing of Michigan farmers' applications and tax credit payments through the Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program (PA-116), the legislation saw overwhelming support earlier this year in both the state House of Representatives (109-0) and Senate (36-1). Sponsored by Dist. 81 Rep. Dan Lauwers and Dist. 65 Rep. [node:read-more:link]
Cal-Maine president says potential US retail egg market conversion to cage-free eggs has already caused losses for egg producers. The number of non-organic cage-free layers housed in the U.S. rose to 16.6 million head in April of 2016, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures. This is roughly double the 8.7 million head housed in 2014. With all the pledges made by retailers, foodservice outlets and food manufacturers to purchase cage-free eggs, it would seem cage-free eggs would be flying off the grocery store shelves in the U.S. But, that doesn’t seem to be the case. [node:read-more:link]
Locals in the Florida Keys are concerned about the prospect of their community becoming a testing ground for the release of thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes marketed as a solution to the Zika virus, and plan to protest the potential experiment.Ultimately, however, the decision will be up to the five-member mosquito control board. [node:read-more:link]
