White paper calls for organic, IPM partnership
Organic farmers and producers who use integrated pest management to control weeds, disease and insect have overlapping interests, says a white paper that calls for collaboration between the groups.
Groups ask Supreme Court to review Chesapeake Bay pollution rules
The largest U.S. farm group asked for Supreme Court review of the EPA's "pollution diet" designed to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff into the Chesapeake Bay.
Reformers eye popular, expensive crop-insurance plan
Farm-policy reformers in Congress want to rein in the costs of the most popular, and most expensive, part of the federally subsidized crop insurance program: revenue policies with the so-called Harvest Price Option (HPO).
White House releases TPP text, critics pounce
The White House faced immediate criticism with its release of the text of the proposed 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
Biggest rise in world food prices in three years
World food prices rose 3.9 percent in October, said the FAO, reporting "the sharpest increase since July 2012" in its Food Price Index.
South Africa threatened with loss of ag-trade benefits
If South Africa fails to make a concerted effort to eliminate barriers to poultry, pork and beef imports, it could lose agricultural trade benefits with the United States, reports The Hill newspaper.
Soil health recovering after acid-rain controls
Thanks to anti-pollution regulations in the United States and Canada, acid rain levels are significantly lower than they were decades ago, says the Christian Science Monitor, and scientists are finding lower acidity in the soils in the U.S. Northeast and eastern Canada.
Experts ask BMJ to retract Dietary Guidelines article
An array of cardiovascular and nutrition scientists from 19 countries signed a letter asking the journal BMJ to retract an article that faulted the scientific rigor that went into recommendations from an advisory committee for updating the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Senate tries legislative veto of Clean Water rule
On a party line vote of 53-44, the Senate passed a resolution to ditch an EPA regulation that defines the upstream reach of the Clean Water Act. The resolution, the first step in a so-called legislative veto, now goes to the Republican-controlled House. To succeed, it must be passed by the House and signed by the White House, which threatened a veto. The vote on the SJR 22 was little different from the 55-43 vote on Tuesday to open debate on the resolution, sponsored by Iowa Sen Joni Ernst. Only one Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, voted against the resolution and three Democrats - Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia - voted for it.
Lawmakers propose $24 billion in crop insurance cuts
Days after Republican leaders agreed to reverse $3 billion in cuts in the crop insurance program, lawmakers proposed reforms that would cut federal spending on the program by one-fourth. The reformers would deny premium subsidies to large operators and would ban premium subsidies for the Harvest Price Option.
California dairy farms try nuts
A handful of dairy farms have sold their cattle and converted to tree nuts, such as almonds, and many other California dairy producers are diversifying into orchards to improve their revenue, says Capital Press. It quotes Rabobank senior analyst Vernon Crowder as saying, "Most of our customers have diversified and are growing some type of nut."
China revamps seed law, keeps controls on major crops
In the first change to China’s Seed Law since enactment in 2000, the top legislature relaxed regulation over nearly two dozen crops but said new varieties of five major crops - rice, corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton - will still need regulatory approval before they go on the market, said Xinhua.
Canada’s new ag minister is former potato, dairy farmer
Lawrence MacAuley, a former seed potato and dairy farmer, is Canada's new agriculture minister. A former solicitor general and minister of labor, MacAuley has represented a district on Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence and north of the Nova Scotia peninsula, says CBC. Agriculture is an important industry on the island, which grows a quarter of the country's potatoes.
Cosmic Crisp, ready to be a rock star among apples
"Americans have been falling hard for new apples," says the New York Times. Three recently developed varieties - Ambrosia, Honeycrisp and Jazz - are in the top 10 for sales and were the only ones to record a sales increase in 2014. Mainstays such as Red Delicious and McIntosh slumped. Fruit breeders are creating new varieties with names such as SweeTango, SnapDragon and Cosmic Crisp.
Sales to save wild horses sent them to slaughter instead
From 2008 to 2012, the Interior Department sold 1,794 wild horses for $10 apiece through a program intended to find homes for the animals and prevent overgrazing of federal rangeland. Colorado rancher Tom Davis was required by law to promise that he would not sell the horses for slaughter, says the Washington Post.
Full compliance with biofuels mandate difficult, says CBO
The EPA "is much more likely" to relax the so-called Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) than to demand full compliance with the 2007 law that guarantees biofuels a share of the gasoline market, said the Congressional Budget Office. The 2007 energy law sets a target of using 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels annually from 2022, more than double the EPA proposal of 17.4 billion gallons for 2016. Meeting the target for 2022 "would require a large and rapid increase in the use of advanced biofuels and would cause the total percentage of ethanol in the nation's gasoline supply to rise to levels that would require significant changes in the infrastructure of fueling stations," said CBO senior analyst Terry Dinan at a joint hearing of two House Science subcommittees.
Foes try new route after WOTUS attack fails
The Senate could vote as early as today on a "legislative veto" of the Obama administration's "waters of the United States" regulation after Democrats thwarted a bill calling for EPA to rewrite the rule. Farm groups have taken the lead in attacking WOTUS, which defines the upstream reach of the Clean Water Act, as a power grab wrapped in the guise of federal jurisdiction of navigable waters. With 60 votes needed, an attempt failed, 57-41, to bring the WOTUS bill to debate. Sponsored by Wyoming Republican John Barrasso, the bill would instruct EPA to start over on WOTUS and give it instructions on how to write the new version.
Deere buys two makers of “precision” planters
The world's largest farm-equipment manufacturer is buying two companies that make so-called precision planters, which are vital tools in the integration of Big Data into agriculture. Deere and Co announced a deal to buy Precision Planting from Monsanto a day after it said it would acquire Monosem, a European maker of precision planting equipment.
Big salaries but Los Angeles County Fair Assn loses money
The Los Angeles County Fair Assn formed in 1940 "to promote the region's then-booming agriculture industry," says the Los Angeles Times. "But over the years, it morphed into something resembling a conglomerate with little connection to farming or livestock. And its managers have become richly compensated even as the association loses money."
Virus identified as cause of “dancing pigs”
Researchers at Iowa State University have pinpointed the virus that causes a mysterious trembling in piglets that in severe cases prevents them from nursing and can lead to starvation, said Feedstuffs. The affliction, sometimes called "shaker pigs" or "dancing pigs," dates back more than 90 years and is uncommon. The virus that causes the ailment comes from a family known as pestiviruses. Veterinary researchers used a new type of DNA sequencing to identify the virus causing the involuntary tremors. The next step is to develop a vaccine against the virus. The research team says the virus is not known to infect humans and does not affect the safety of pork from animals with the virus.