More meat: It’s what’s for dinner
Americans are going to eat a lot of meat in 2018 — 222.2 pounds per person, according to USDA projections that are based on the expectation of a comparatively strong economy that will give people more disposable income.
Cuba’s first generation of organic farmers wants to feed the island
In Cuba, a movement of rural, organic farms is trying to both feed the island's people and heal its soil, writes Roger Atwood in FERN’s new story with The Guardian. In recent years, Cuba has been romanticized as an island full of urban farms, but in reality the government imports 60-80 percent of the nation's food and farmers make abundant use of agro-industrial chemicals and synthetic fertilizers on their farms. Yet, an increasing number of growers are realizing the virtues of organic.
North Dakota is fourth state to write tougher dicamba rules
State agriculture commissioner Doug Goehring announced “North Dakota-specific” rules on use of the weedkiller dicamba on GE soybeans in the new crop year. They include a ban on spraying when temperatures top 85 degrees and a total cutoff of dicamba use after June 30.
Leave NAFTA nuclear option on the shelf, say U.S. ag groups
Commodity prices will fall and export sales will be lost if the Trump administration withdraws from NAFTA, which generates one-third of U.S. agricultural trade, said U.S. farm and agribusiness groups in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. With farm income down sharply, "2018 would be an especially damaging time to lose America's two largest food and agriculture product markets."
USDA kicks off twice-a-decade Census of Agriculture
The USDA will begin mailing questionnaires for the 2017 Census of Agriculture to producers this week, the first step in a survey conducted every five years to create what is the most complete USDA picture of the farm and ranch sector.
Lawsuit challenges rehab labor in chicken plants
A class-action lawsuit in Arkansas challenges as unconstitutional two drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation programs that require participants to work for free at chicken processing plants and a plastic manufacturing plant, reports Reveal, from the Center from Investigative Reporting. The programs are populated by defendants who are sent to rehab as an alternative to imprisonment.
Brazil meatpacker believes U.S. will allow imports soon
The chief executive of a large Brazilian meatpacking company says the United States is expected to re-open its borders to fresh beef from Brazil in early 2018, reported Reuters. Shipments were shut off in June.
Trump plans to reduce size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase monuments
When President Trump visits Utah in December, he will announce reductions in the size of the 1.35-million-acre Bears Ears and the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, "a move that is likely to spur an instant court battle," said the Salt Lake Tribune. Trump told Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, "I'm approving the Bears Ears recommendation for you ... " according to the senator's office.
For higher protein, try cricket bread, available in Finland
Finnish bakery Fazer is marketing loaves of bread made with crickets as an ingredient in the flour, says Food Navigator. The company says the bread has “a crunchy dough to enhance taste and increase mouthfeel.”
Some Montana ranchers try to coexist with grizzlies
In Montana's Tom Miner Basin, just outside the protected wilds of Yellowstone National Park, ranchers are embracing a variety of non-lethal strategies to deal with an influx of grizzlies, reports Ensia in a story done in partnership with the Food & Environment Reporting Network. It's an experiment that could have broad implications for how the livestock industry manages these and other top predators as climate change restricts their traditional food supply.
Perdue’s grade after six months as agriculture secretary: A*
On his first day at work, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told employees, "I don't cage too well." So it was apt that the peripatetic Perdue was on the road this week, speaking at the FFA convention in Indianapolis and touring the prairie pothole region of the northern Plains, when he reached his six-month mark at USDA. Ag leaders rate Perdue highly as an ambassador for agriculture and agree with his policy decisions.
Does rising rural poverty signal a longer-term decline?
One-third of rural counties have a poverty rate above 20 percent, a dramatic increase since 2000 that is unlikely to cured by the slow, post-recession economic recovery, says a report by the Carsey School of Public Policy. "The consistent increases in poverty rates in rural counties suggest that rural areas are facing a longer-term decline in economic conditions."
Monsanto takes aim at researchers who question dicamba
Monsanto is fighting back as agricultural scientists accuse the company of misleading farmers about the safety of its weedkiller dicamba. The chemical has been blamed for millions of dollars in crop damage this year.
EU extends glyphosate for five years, with Germany’s vote
Ending a year-and-a-half of indecision, EU nations voted for a five-year extension of its license of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world. Germany was pivotal in reaching the qualified majority – 55 percent of EU nations with at least 65 percent of EU population – for passage with France, the largest EU agricultural producer, opposing the extension, said online newspaper EU Observer.
The farm bill problem: More ideas than money to pay for them
Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, says there is a recurring challenge as committee leaders draft an outline of the 2018 farm bill: "The big problem is we haven't got any money." The Agriculture Committee appealed for additional funding early this year but the budget plan approved by Congress kept funding steady.
Minnesota soybean task force suggests a temperature cut-off for dicamba
State officials should set a cut-off date for spraying dicamba on genetically engineered soybeans as well as a temperature cut-off of 85 degrees to reduce greatly the chance of damage to neighboring crops, says a task force of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association. The state restrictions would be in addition to the more stringent rules recently adopted by the EPA.
Commerce orders anti-dumping duties on biodiesel imports
Argentina has requested negotiations with the United States on a "suspension" agreement that would avoid imposition of stiff U.S. anti-dumping duties on its biodiesel exports, said the Commerce Department. The negotiations were announced at the same time the department ordered anti-dumping duties of up to 70 percent on the fuel.
What beginning farmers want from the USDA
In a survey, beginning farmers say some of their biggest headaches are USDA paperwork and uncooperative staff at their local USDA office. "These challenges are solvable," said the National Young Farmers Coalition, which recommends USDA train some of the county office staff in dealing with new farmers and also asks USDA to "go small" in fitting its programs to the needs of young farmers, who usually have small operations.
China jolts world corn supplies with huge appetite
The International Grains Council sharply boosted its estimate of corn consumption in China, pointing to government measures expected to drive up industrial use of the grain 14 percent during 2017/18. The shift in Chinese consumption will affect grain stockpiles worldwide, said the IGC in its monthly Grain Market Report, with the first reduction in five years in the grain "carryover" at the end of the marketing year.
California court upholds mediation law for farmworker contracts
The California Supreme Court unanimously upheld a 2002 state law that allows mediation of deadlocked contract negotiations between growers and farmworker unions, including the power of mediators to set the contract terms, reported the Associated Press. The decision was a victory for "the union launched by iconic labor leader Cesar Chavez against one of the largest U.S. fruit farms," said AP.