US-Cuba normalization expected to bring larger farm exports
Normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations, announced by President Obama, will include easier terms for selling U.S. food and agricultural equipment to the island nation, long viewed by farm groups as a natural and nearby market.
Beef and dairy prices – one will go up, one down, in 2015
The record-high beef prices of 2014, averaging nearly $6 per pound, are the starting point for increases this year, says USDA - "Average annual retail beef prices in 2015 are expected to be slightly higher than they were in 2014."
Midwest tries to lure dairy farms out of California
While California dairy farms cope with a three-year drought, "states like Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa are pitching themselves as a dairy heaven," says Harvest Public Media.
USDA research imposes “a steep cost” on animal welfare
USDA's Meat Animal Research Center in the Nebraska plains is re-engineering cattle, pigs and sheep "to fit the needs of the 21st Century...animals that produce more offspring, yield more meat and cost less to raise," says a front-page New York Times story.
Murmurs of China action on Syngenta corn, no official word
Based on comments from industry officials, two news outlets said China has approved Syngenta's biotech MIR 162 corn but Reuters says there was no official word to the U.S. government.
US corn crop down 7 percent this year, KSU estimates
After back-to-back record crops, U.S. corn production will drop to 13.2 billion bushels this year, says an estimate by Kansas State University. That would be down 7 percent from, and 1 billion bushels smaller than, the 2014 crop but still the third-largest on record. KSU forecasts corn plantings will shrink by 2 percent and yields by 5 percent. The corn yield was a record 171 bushels an acre in 2014. Low commodity prices make soybeans more attractive to plant this year.
Virginia nutrient-trading program is praised and panned
A nutrient trading program has saved the state of Virginia more than $1 million while constraining runoff of phosphorus, a fertilizer, into the Chesapeake Bay, said EPA.
Land rental rates to drop 16 percent in Midwest and Plains
Bankers in a 10-state swath from Illinois and Iowa to Colorado and Wyoming "expect 2015 cash rents for farmland to decline to $214 per acre, down significantly from last year's $254," said Creighton University's Rural Mainstreet Index.
EPA to issue Waters of United States rule despite controversy
EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said the agency will complete its Waters of the United States rule and is "still looking at spring" as the likely release date, says DTN.
Low-income children now a majority in public schools-Study
"Low income students are now a majority of the schoolchildren attending the nation's public schools," said the Southern Education Foundation in a research bulletin. "In 40 of the 50 states, low income students comprised no less than 40 percent of all public schoolchildren. In 21 states, children eligible for free or reduced-price lunches were a majority of the students in 2013." The South and the West accounted for most of the states where low-income children were the majority of school enrollment.
Rajiv Shah says he will leave USAID in early 2015
The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah, announced he will leave the agency early next year, said the New York Times. Shah served briefly as an agriculture undersecretary before becoming USAID administrator in 2010.
Bird flu found again in Pacific Northwest states
All the birds in a non-commercial flock in Port Angeles, Wash, were killed to prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, said Capital Press, which said bird flu also was reported in a backyard flock in Idaho.
“The new food police”
In a long-form story, Modern Farmer describes the evolution of food safety operations at FDA. "Over the last century, there’d been a shift toward large, centralized food distribution systems.
Obama calls for higher capital gains tax rate
President Obama will call for a higher tax rate on capital gains during the State of the Union speech, according to the White House. It rolled out tax-reform proposals over the weekend.
Senate sends $41 billion tax extenders bill to White House
The Senate passed, 76-16, and sent to President Obama a retroactive one-year revival of four dozen tax incentives that expired at the start of this year.
Genetic diversity is a tool for climate change, says FAO
Genetic resources in crops and livestock can play a crucial role in feeding the world and "much more needs to be done to study, preserve and utilize the biological diversity that underpins world food production," said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization...
US proposes 15 steps against “pirate fishing”
The White House unveiled 15 recommendations against so-called pirate fishing - seafood fraud and the illegal, unreported and unregulated catch of fish - as a way to protect fishery stocks and bolster the income of legal harvesters.
U.S. relaxes trade regulations with Cuba, may aid ag exports
The Obama administration relaxed trade rules with Cuba, changes that were promised when President Obama announced normalization of relations on Dec 17. The Treasury and Commerce departments published regulations in the Federal Register to facilitate trade. "These changes will immediately enable the American people to provide more resources to empower the Cuban population to become less dependent upon the state-driven economy, and help facilitate our growing relationship with the Cuban people," said the White House.
Biomass program thins national forest of dead, diseased trees
More than 200,000 tons of dead or diseased trees were removed from national forests this summer through a program that offsets the harvest and transport cost for delivering plant materials to biomass refineries, said USDA.
USDA conservation program “misses the mark”-farm groups
The biggest USDA conservation program, the Conservation Stewardship Program, slights ongoing work by farmers in favor of operators who are new to the program or agree to take on additional land, water and wildlife work, say two small-farm groups.