On July 13, 2016, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed into law Act 84 which amends the Pennsylvania Tax Reform Code of 1971 and includes three changes relevant to agriculture. First, Act 84 amends the inheritance tax exemption available to family farms engaged in the business of agriculture. Previously, if certain conditions were met, Pennsylvania exempted from state inheritance tax the "transfer of real estate devoted to the business of agriculture between members of the same family" (emphasis added). [node:read-more:link]

Nearly two-thirds of domestic sugar production comes from sugar beets, which are grown with genetically modified seeds.  A few big food manufacturers, including Hershey’s, are now saying they will use non-GMO cane sugar instead of beet sugar in products. The moves come as firms await the specifics of a new law requiring that they make clear the presence of genetically modified ingredients. Congress recently passed a compromise bill giving firms a host of options as to how they would do so, with options including a barcode that consumers would scan. [node:read-more:link]

The Vermont Attorney General will no longer be enforcing Act 120, Vermont’s first-in-the-nation law requiring the labeling of food produced with genetic engineering. “We successfully defended our law for two years, and as a result many companies are now disclosing that their products are produced with genetic engineering,” said Attorney General William H. Sorrell. “We hope they will continue to do so going forward, not because our law requires it, but because it is the right thing to do,” he continued. [node:read-more:link]

Oxitec, the British subsidiary of Germantown, Maryland-based Intrexon, received a green light from the Food and Drug Administration on Friday to release the GMO mosquitoes as part of an investigational field trial in Key Haven in the Florida Keys. Residents of Key Haven will vote on the trial in a nonbinding referendum scheduled for November, with final approval to reside with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board. "It couldn't have come at a better time," Oxitec CEO Hadyn Parry told reporters. [node:read-more:link]

A post on the Food Science Institute blog details how anti-GMO activist Jeffrey Smith admits that his goal was never to give consumers more information about GMOs through a mandatory labeling program. Smith says "although this is clearly a defeat in our campaign to get mandatory labeling in the United States, we are still winning the bigger, more important effort to eliminate gmos from the market all together."

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A unique community-owned broadband cooperative will free dozens of tiny towns and farms from reliance on slower corporate providers. Today, in this sparsely populated swath of Minnesota, a grassroots, member-owned cooperative spanning more than 700 square miles and four counties is poised to expand high-speed broadband access—without relying on federal funding. After seven years of development led by local leaders and volunteers, RS Fiber, now in its first phase of construction, is expected to deliver high-speed broadband internet to more than 6,000 rural households by 2021. [node:read-more:link]

he FDA has completed the environmental review for a proposed field trial to determine whether the release of Oxitec Ltd.’s genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes (OX513A) will suppress the local Aedes aegypti mosquito population in the release area at Key Haven, Florida. After considering thousands of public comments, the FDA has published a final environmental assessment (EA) and finding of no significant impact that agrees with the EA’s conclusion that the proposed field trial will not have significant impacts on the environment. [node:read-more:link]

The Department of Natural Resources took the first steps in a state rule-making process aimed at safeguarding manure-spreading practices in areas prone to water contamination.  But environmental groups pushed for a faster response by the agency and complained the measure was weakened from an initial draft under pressure from farm groups. DNR officials initially took a stronger measure to Gov. Scott Walker for approval. But after objections by farm groups, the agency re-worked the regulations and removed some specific requirements for the state’s largest farms. [node:read-more:link]

Over the past four years, Iowa farmers have enrolled 127,005 acres in a federal conservation reserve program designed to sustain butterflies, bees, wasps, birds and bats — with all but 15,000 acres being added in the past year, according to the Iowa Farm Service Agency.  In fact, Iowa has about 40 percent of the nation's total acres of pollinator habitat, the agency said. The federal contracts require the land to be set aside for habitat for 10 or 15 years, with penalties for ending them sooner.  Part of Iowa's adoption comes from a big state and national habitat push. [node:read-more:link]

A report released by the state says immigration boosts Michigan's economy, helping the state emerge from a lengthy recession, and suggests many of the estimated 126,000 undocumented immigrants in Michigan should be made legal.The report "Contributions of New Americans in Michigan" was released by the Michigan Office for New Americans, which Republican Gov. Rick Snyder created in the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. [node:read-more:link]