Covid-19 in ‘America’s salad bowl’: One in six residents of Yuma County, Arizona, known for winter vegetable crops and as a destination for “snow bird” tourists, has come down with the coronavirus. (New York Times)
Moratorium on big dairies proposed: Companion bills in the Oregon legislature would enact a temporary moratorium on construction or expansion of dairy farms with more than 2,500 cows while regulators study the environmental and social impacts of the big farms. (The Counter)
Dropping out of land stewardship: Farmers are dropping out of the long-term Conservation Reserve in Oklahoma because the government is reducing the rental rates it will pay to idle fragile land. (Harvest Public Media)
Iowa ethanol output plunges: Ethanol plants in the leading corn and ethanol state produced 3.7 billion gallons of the biofuel in 2020, a 12-percent decline from the previous year due to the pandemic and trade disputes. (Iowa Renewable Fuels Association)
Aldicarb and streptomycin for citrus: In the final days of the Trump administration, the EPA okayed use of the antibiotic streptomycin on citrus trees nationwide, and the pesticide aldicarb on up to 100,000 acres of citrus in Florida, to fight citrus greening and canker. (Chemical and Engineering News)