Disciplinary action taken against Jan Pol, DVM, star of Nat Geo Wild'sThe Incredible Dr. Pol, by the Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Association (LARA), in regard to an administrative complaint filed against him in 2014, has been overturned on appeal. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced five Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DLT) grant awards to help provide treatment for the growing opioid epidemic in rural central Appalachia. Vilsack made the announcement as he hosted a town hall in Abingdon to address the opioid crisis in rural America, the first in a series. In January, President Obama tasked Secretary Vilsack, who is chair of the White House Rural Council, with leading a federal interagency effort focused on rural opioid use. [node:read-more:link]

Vets are calling for a ban on homeopathy for pets claiming animals cannot benefit from the placebo effect because they are unaware they are being treated. [node:read-more:link]

Prestage Foods of Iowa LLC named Wright County for its new, state-of-the-art pork processing facility. Construction is set to begin in the fall of 2016, pending finalization of county and state approvals, with completion and first shift operations beginning in mid-2018. Initially operating one shift, the plant will employ more than 900 people with a total capital investment of more than $240 million. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture technology is no longer a niche that no one’s heard about. Agriculture has confirmed its place as an industry of interest for the venture capital community after investment in agtech broke records for the past three years in a row, reaching $4.6 billion in 2015. the opportunity to bring agriculture, a $7.8 trillion industry representing 10% of global GDP, into the modern age has caught the attention of a growing number of investors globally. In our 2015 annual report, we recorded 503 individual companies raising funding. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide by June 2019 whether to protect Monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act, per a court settlement reached with conservation groups.The settlement is the result of a federal complaint filed by the Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity and other groups, which have petitioned the agency to protect Monarch butterflies. [node:read-more:link]

This story is part of Divided America, AP's ongoing exploration of the economic, social and political divisions in American society. [node:read-more:link]

Refineries across the nation are operating full-out and imports are pouring into the East Coast, boosting gasoline supplies to a record. At the same time, consumption has turned out to be less robust than thought. That’s weighed on prices, threatening to stem oil’s rebound from a 12-year low. The Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report on June 30 that demand in April was 9.21 million barrels a day, down from 9.49 million seen in weekly data. [node:read-more:link]

HSUS has ruled out a cage-free system they consider unacceptable.  Big Dutchman's Natura 60 cage-free system is not acceptable says HSUS.  While the Humane Society of the United States generally recognizes this as one possible cage-free system, that hinges on the system actually being used properly—something that may be hard for a producer or retailer to guarantee. Some producers may want to confine birds for longer lay periods in the morning; some may extend “training times” beyond what is actually needed. [node:read-more:link]

Three Lower Yakima Valley dairies have made progress in controlling sources of nitrogen to a drinking water aquifer in the three years since reaching a legal agreement with the U.S. [node:read-more:link]