Dicamba cases sprout like weeds (Arkansas Times): Two county courts have ruled that Arkansas farmers can use the weedkiller dicamba on their cotton and soybeans despite a state ban on doing so. Two more judges are to hear similar cases on Friday.
Sucking carbon out of the sky (New York Times): The cover story in the paper’s Sunday magazine explores a big-picture idea: carbon farming, which uses plants to pull greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and return carbon to the soil.
Amazon, a food stamp employer (The Intercept): The mammoth online retailer pays its warehouse workers so little that in five states that responded to a public records query on the largest employers of SNAP recipients, “Amazon cracked the top 20 in four [states].”
Warmer, finally, in the Farm Belt (National Weather Service): The forecast for May is for warmer-than-usual temperatures across most of the nation, ending the cold, late spring. Above-normal precipitation is expected east of the Mississippi.
Not on his dime (Associated Press): When the government paid for EPA chief Scott Pruitt’s travel, he flew first class for security reasons. But when he paid for airline tickets with his own money, he flew coach.
Dairy crisis hammers Pennsylvania (The Morning Call): As milk prices stay low, Amish farmers in the state are selling off their herds and moving into tobacco or vegetable production.
ABI expands into spirits (Brewbound): ZX Ventures, the “growth and innovation team” of Anheuser-Busch InBev, has acquired Atom Group, a UK-based spirits company.