Iowa State names agriculture dean as its new president
Wendy Wintersteen is two days into her new job: president of Iowa State University. Wintersteen, who had been ISU’s dean of agriculture and life sciences, is the first woman to head the university of nearly 37,000 students in Ames, Iowa.
The food chain is looking threadbare, say scientists studying dolphins
The food chain off the coast of California is starting too look shorter and less diverse thanks to environmental events like El Niño and potentially climate change, say scientists who tracked the diets of dolphins.
Senate bill includes $507 million in emergency funds for wildfires
Following the most expensive year ever for fighting wildfires, the Senate Appropriations Committee included $507 million in emergency wildfire funds in a funding bill for the Interior Department and related agencies.
House panel to vote on guestworker and E-Verify bills today
The United Farm Workers union likened legislation for a new guestworker program, scheduled for a vote today in the House Judiciary Committee, to the post-war bracero program in that it would "undermine the wages and working conditions of all agricultural workers." The bill, by Judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte, will be considered at the same session as a bill to require all employers to use the E-Verify system to check if applicants can work legally.
Drug-abuse deaths contribute to shrinking rural population
Rural mortality rates are up, spurred by drug abuse, and it's dragging down the rural population and draining rural America of its workforce, according to a USDA report that listed grim conditions in a portion of the country perennially coping with lower wages and higher poverty rates than in cities. "Long-term population loss continued in counties dependent on agriculture, in the Great Plains, Midwest and southern Coastal Plains," said the annual "Rural America at a Glance."
Biofuels groups say EPA has to do more for biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt quelled midwestern protests over a potential change in course by the Trump administration, saying there would be no additional cuts in the biofuels mandate proposed for 2018. But two groups, the National Biodiesel Board and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, said the government ought to raise the target for biodiesel.
U.S. says new NAFTA must end Canadian protection of dairy, poultry, eggs
At the top of the Trump administration's list of agricultural goals for the new NAFTA is elimination of Canadian tariffs on imports of U.S. dairy, poultry, and egg products — meaning a dismantling of the nation's supply-management system. Canada balked at that demand in the previous round of negotiation, and the current round of talks in Mexico City made little progress over the weekend.
‘Big Chicken’ shows government regulators were slow to act on ABX resistance
Antibiotic-resistant infections — everything from gastrointestinal illnesses to recurring urinary tract infections and staph — are among the most menacing issues in public health today, sickening 2 million people a year and killing at least 23,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So perhaps it’s not surprising that government has begun to take steps to limit antibiotics in animal agriculture, where many of these infections arise, before they wreak further havoc in humans.
Lowest cost in four years for traditional Thanksgiving dinner
A spot check of grocery prices in 39 states found that the ingredients for a traditional Thanksgiving meal will cost 1.5-percent less than last year, and, at $49.12 for a dinner for 10, are the lowest since 2013, said the American Farm Bureau Federation. The biggest item for the meal, in weight and dollars — 16-pound turkey — costs $1.40 a pound, or 1.4-percent less than last year.
EPA official regulating chemicals used to work for chemical lobby
A Trump administration appointee at EPA has taken an influential role in federal assessment of the risk posed by hazardous chemicals, "making it more aligned with the industry's wishes," reports the New York Times. The new approach includes the EPA decision in March to allow continued agriculture use of chlorpyrifos, an insecticide criticized as a risk to children and farmworkers.
Fungicides may be factor in bee population decline
Scientists at Cornell University "found a shocker" when they analyzed two dozen environmental factors that may be at play in the decline in bumblebee populations: "Fungicides," says a Cornell release. "The scientists discovered what they call 'landscape-scale' connections between fungicide usage, pathogen prevalence and declines of endangered U.S. bumblebees."
16 percent of global population dies early because of pollution
Nine million people died prematurely in 2015 because of air, water and soil pollution — three times the number that died of tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria combined, says a study published in The Lancet. The exact cause of death ranged from lung cancer to heart disease, but the total amounted to 16 percent of all deaths globally.
Big Florida operator is out of cattle and into citrus
One of the largest cow-calf operations in the country, Alico Inc., created in 1898 as a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, is getting out of the cattle business so it can focus on citrus, reports Drovers. Alico has some 9,000 head on a huge ranch in southern Florida, "but even when profitable, ranch operations generated a minimal rate of return on capital," said the company.
Farm bill could be used to double forest-restoration work
The national forests are frequently judged on two criteria: How many board feet of timber they produce and how much the government spends to fight wildfires, says the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute. In a report, it says the 2018 farm bill could create rural jobs, protect drinking water and wildlife, and reduce fire risks by doubling forest restoration work.
California congressman backs organic-ag research bill
Congressman Doug LaMalfa, a Republican representing Northern California's first district, joined a bipartisan effort to increase funding for the USDA Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI). The bill, originally sponsored by Reps. Chellie Pingree of Maine, Dan Newhouse of Washington, and Jimmy Panetta of California, seeks to renew OREI and increase its funding to $50 million per year.
Pruitt promises no more than a six-month wait for new permits
The EPA will soon cut the wait time for permit requests to six months or less, in an effort to trim regulations generally for industry, says Reuters.
Farm bill critics propose a food bill that reduces subsidies, enhances public nutrition
A road bump, maybe a roadblock, for USDA reorganization
Some of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue's sweeping changes to USDA's organizational chart will need a congressional green light, the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee said in a letter asserting the Senate's advise-and-consent role in federal appointments. The committee leaders said Perdue cannot change the duties of his senior policymakers until Congress passes a law that codifies their new titles and responsibilities.
Montana Senator helps Chinese win $200-million sweetheart deal for cattle
During President Donald Trump’s recent trip to China, Montana's Republican Senator Steve Daines negotiated a $300 million beef cattle deal between the Montana Stockgrowers Association and the Chinese e-retailer JD.com. The deal calls for the retailer to buy $200 million of cattle between 2018 and 2020, and invest $100 million in a new feedlot and packing plant in Montana. Some ranchers are concerned that this unusual deal will favor certain ranchers over others, and further concentrate power over the American livestock sector in the hands of Chinese companies.
NorCal marijuana growers face steep losses as wildfires subside
The wildfires that swept across Mendocino, Sonoma and Napa counties in Northern California last week devastated the region’s legal cannabis growers, torching their crops and facilities at peak harvest time and leaving smaller farmers at risk of collapse.