Pork exports hit record, beef dips (USMEF): Exports of U.S. pork set records in 2019 for both value, $6.95 billion, and volume, 2.67 million tonnes, while beef exports, at $8.1 billion, were down 3 percent from the record set in 2018. Lamb exports in 2019 were 15,732 tonnes, the second-highest total ever.
Senator questions USDA on climate references (Stabenow): Debbie Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, asked the USDA to respond to published reports that a Forest Service official directed the removal of references to climate change and greenhouse gases in a Federal Register notice filed by the service.
Beer gases feed pot plants (Washington Post): In a test of technology transfer, a craft brewer in Denver is capturing the carbon dioxide released during the beer-fermentation process and shipping it to an indoor marijuana farm to speed the growth of its plants.
Hemp for horses? (TAMU): A decade ago, Toby Keith and Willie Nelson sang “Beer for My Horses,” but now a researcher at Texas A&M is testing whether industrial hemp is effective in treating horses for anxiety or arthritis.
Closing arguments next in dicamba trial (Investigate Midwest): At around midday on Friday, following closing arguments, a federal lawsuit alleging Monsanto and BASF irresponsibly sold a weedkiller that could vaporize and harm neighboring fields will be in the hands of the jury.
Greenhouse gases from Amazon deforestation (BBC): An unpublished study says that about one-fifth of the Amazon basin appears to have become a net source of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and that deforestation is one of the main causes.