To reduce food waste, harness the maggot
Research ecologist Phil Taylor says Americans are great at the farm-to-table side of the food equation "but we're really bad at table to farm" – converting food waste into material that will produce a new round of food. Maggots are the answer, the University of Colorado researcher told Harvest Public Media.
Growers embrace some GMO crops, but only give GMO alfalfa a handshake
Two decades after the first GMO crops were approved for cultivation, nearly half of U.S. cropland is planted with genetically engineered seeds, chiefly corn, soybeans and cotton. Farmers have greeted GE canola and sugarbeets with ardor, but alfalfa is the wallflower at the GMO party, says a USDA report.
Former USDA official Tonsager is new Farm Credit chief
Dallas Tonsager, the undersecretary in charge of USDA rural development programs during President Obama's first term, was appointed chairman of the Farm Credit Administration for a term that expires in May 2020. Tonsager has been a member of the FCA board since March 2013.
Renters are three times more likely to be food insecure
Some 10.5 million households lack the money or other resources to have an adequate food supply, says a Census Bureau housing survey that included questions about food security for the first time. Renters were three times more likely than homeowners to be food insecure.
Drought brings alarming levels of hunger in Madagascar
After three years of drought and crop failures, nearly 850,000 people in Madagascar are experiencing alarming levels of hunger, with 330,000 of them on the brink of famine, says the Guardian. The outlet reported huge funding shortfalls for hunger relief work in seven countries across southern Africa.
Trump says he wants ‘a better deal’ with Cuba
President-elect Donald Trump says he will stop recent steps toward reconciliation between the U.S. and Cuba unless the island makes "a better deal," says the Los Angeles Times. U.S. farm and food exports to Cuba flow under a 2000 law, separate from the executive orders used by President Obama to normalize relations with Cuba.
Scientists try to create kale 2.0
Anxiety among farm groups as battle lines harden on immigration reform
When Donald Trump announced his campaign for president, he promised to deport all undocumented workers if elected. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best ...[T]hey’re sending people that have lots of problems,” Trump told reporters at Trump Tower in New York City. U.S. farmers might have noted that Mexico also sends the majority of the workforce on American farms, a workforce that dropped more than 20 percent between 2002 and 2014.
Long or short? Waiting season for the agriculture secretary nominee
Presidents-elect tend to nominate their cabinet members before Christmas, giving the Senate the opportunity, almost always exercised in the spirit of comity, to confirm them in time for the Jan. 20 change of administration. The selection of the incoming agriculture secretary typically is announced in the final round — but not always.
Low meat prices to hold down grocery costs in 2017
Grocery prices will virtually stand still in 2017, the second year in a row of unusually low food-price inflation with lower beef and pork prices a factor, says the government. Retail food prices are estimated to rise 1 percent in the new year after falling 0.75 percent this year; typically grocery prices rise 2.5 percent a year.
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Donald Trump has several ways he can outmaneuver greens
If Donald Trump pushes ahead with his promises to dismantle President Obama’s climate-change policies, he’ll face tough fights from environmental groups. But Trump has a few tactics he can use to outmaneuver the opposition, reports The New York Times.
New EU data on antibiotics contain warning for U.S.
New data on antibiotic resistance in agriculture, released Friday by agencies of the European Union, demonstrate how complicated it is to control all the uses of antibiotics on farms and to prevent all the side effects of antibiotic use.
EPA opens spigot for corn ethanol, faces reality on advanced biofuels
The fuel industry will be obliged to use 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol in 2017, said the EPA. It was the first time the agency has set the target for the biofuel at the maximum allowed by the 2007 energy law. The 500-million-gallon increase in the ethanol mandate comes at a time when U.S. gasoline consumption is rising and making it easier to consume larger volumes of biofuels.
Heading into winter, drought forecast to spread in southern Plains
Drought will persist into the winter in the South and expand in the wheat-growing southern Plains, says the National Weather Service in a forecast running through Feb. 28. Some 30 percent of the nation already is in drought, and the past month has been very warm and dry east of the Rocky Mountains.
U.S. prods China on ag-biotech reviews
At an annual bi-national meeting, senior U.S. trade officials pushed their counterparts from China for "a predictable, transparent and scientific" system for deciding whether to approve the import of genetically engineered crops. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that despite U.S. disappointment that more progress was not made at the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade discussions, the United States expects a Chinese agency to approve eight biotech strains at a meeting in December.
Trump wavers over pulling out of Paris climate deal
Donald Trump now says he has an “open mind” about the Paris Agreement, an international deal to curb greenhouse-gas emissions that was signed by more than 190 countries, including the U.S. During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly pledged to cancel U.S. involvement in the agreement, calling climate change a hoax.
Sheltering bees in the age of Zika
Public-health officials know that the insecticides that kill mosquitoes, in order to prevent Zika and other diseases, also are fatal to honeybees, butterflies and imperiled species, says Ensia in describing an emerging interest in minimizing environmental harm. "We're just at the beginning stages, trying to figure out what we need to focus on," said Patricia Bright, senior science adviser for the U.S. Geological Survey.
Green groups doubt Sessions will enforce environmental law
President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, is "one of the most outspoken critics of environmental sciences" and "a proven opponent of environmental protection," say environmental groups, who fear Sessions will go slow on enforcement of clean air and clean water laws. The Alabama Republican also is an unwavering foe of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
To spur healthy diets, doctors advise grocery shoppers
It's called "Shop with Your Doc," an initiative that stations doctors and nutritionists at supermarkets in Orange County, Calif, "to answer questions and offer advice about healthy eating — all for free," says the Los Angeles Times. Health economic professor Glenn Melnick, of USC, says it's part of an evolution of the healthcare system to try to improve community health.