10 states selected for job-training pilot for food-stamp recipients
In a pilot project that includes urbanized Maryland and heavily rural Arkansas, 10 states will experiment with ways to improve employment and training programs for food-stamp recipients.
Cotton growers can use certificates to boost USDA payments
As directed by Congress, USDA is giving cotton growers the chance to use so-called commodity certificates to retire crop support loans, a step estimated to funnel an additional $40 million to farmers facing the lowest market prices since 2009.
Washington State Legislature OKs industrial hemp project
Washington State legislators sent to the governor a bill that would allow licensed farmers to grow industrial hemp as part of a research program to be run by Washington State University, reports the Associated Press.
Biggest U.S. ag company picks Delaware for HQ
Delaware "beat out Iowa and Indianapolis to land the corporate headquarters for what will be the largest agriculture company in the nation, a spin-off that will be created after the merger of DuPont and Dow later this year," reports the Wilmington News Journal.
Kroger says it will sell only cage-free eggs by 2025
The supermarket chain Kroger says 15 percent of the eggs it sold in 2015 were cage-free. "As our customer base has been moving to cage-free at an increasing rate, Kroger’s goal is to transition to a 100% cage-free egg supply chain by 2025," the grocer said in an announcement.
Californians support warning labels and soda taxes
By a 2-to-1 margin, registered voters in California support a tax on soda and other sugary drinks with the revenue used to finance nutrition and physical activity programs in schools, the results of a Field Poll show.
Former No. 2 USDA official becomes DuPont executive
EPA writes softer rules for Bt corn and rootworms
Seed companies will be required to encourage corn growers to take steps to keep rootworms from developing resistance to the the biopesticide known as Bt, reports DTN.
Urban farming — a way of life rather than a way to make a living?
Two of three urban farmers "have a social mission that goes beyond food production and profits," says the NYU Steinhart School, citing research by associate professor Carolyn Dimitri and colleagues.
Deadly bee disease spread by global pollinator trade
A devastating virus that has infected bees worldwide spread through global trade in pollinators used in commercial farming, a study in the journal Science finds. “Deformed wing virus,” spread by the Varroa mite, leads to significant mortality in overwintering colonies of honeybees, which pollinate fruits, nuts and other crops.
Young farmers out west say water is biggest challenge
A survey of over 400 young farmers and ranchers in the western United States found that finding water was even more of an issue than access to land and capital, says Civil Eats.
Satellite monitoring tracks forest loss, says green group
A new satellite-based monitoring system can spot logging of endangered forests in as little time as a week, depending on cloud cover, says the environmental group World Resources Institute.
Northeast fisheries to be hit by climate change, study says
In the northeast United States, scallops, eastern oysters, the quahog clam and Atlantic salmon will be the most vulnerable to changing ocean conditions associated with climate change, a federal study says.
Roberts aims to recruit Democratic votes for GMO pre-emption
To win Senate passage of his bill to pre-empt state GMO food-labeling laws, Agriculture Committee chairman Pat Roberts says he'll need 60 votes -- enough to quash a filibuster -- and that means recruiting a substantial number of Democratic votes.
Large operators take a bigger share of U.S. farming
The largest U.S. farming operations, those with more than $500,000 in annual sales, control a seemingly ever-growing portion of the country's farmland. The annual Farms and Land in Farms report by USDA says big farmers operated 41.2 percent, or 376 million acres, of the 913 million acres of land in farms in 2015.
Modest increase in world cotton crop likely
"Poor returns for competing crops and relatively stable cotton prices may encourage farmers to plant more cotton" this crop year and boost production 3 percent, to 23 million tonnes, from the 2015/16 level, according to the International Cotton Advisory Committee.
USDA finalizes rules to reduce bacteria in ground poultry meat
New federal standards are in effect to reduce illnesses caused by campylobacter and salmonella bacteria in ground chicken and turkey meat, said the USDA.
Americans are slow to change meat-eating habits
Americans have one of the highest per-capita rates of meat consumption in the world, says the NPR blog The Salt, pegging red meat consumption at 71 pounds a year.
Senate Ag chairman Roberts endorses Rubio
Two days before the South Carolina primary, Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts endorsed Marco Rubio for the Republican presidential nomination. The Topeka Capital-Journal said Roberts described Rubio as inspirational, "just the antithesis" of businessman Donald Trump.
El Niño falls short of snowfall hopes in California
The California snowpack is only 83 percent of the average for March 1, "the result of moderate precipitation since last October and relatively warm temperatures," said the state Department of Water Resources.