Battle over bottled water (Desert Sun): Nestlé pumped 45 million gallons of water from California’s San Bernardino National Forest last year for its Arrowhead bottled water line, and now state officials are investigating whether the company has rights to that water.
Tyson joins the fake-meat game (New Food Economy): Tyson rolled out its own line of plant-based meat alternatives just a month after it sold its stake in faux-meat darling Beyond Meat.
A ‘no-brainer’ for dairy (USDA): Enrollment in the Dairy Margin Coverage subsidy begins Monday, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says, “For many smaller dairies, the choice is a no-brainer” because payments to farmers are retroactive to Jan. 1 and will exceed the cost of premiums.
Year-round jobs on H-2A visas (House Appropriations): On a voice vote, members of the House Appropriations Committee approved an amendment authorizing H-2A visas that would allow agricultural guestworkers to be employed year-round on farms and ranches.
Scramble for cover-crop seed (Agri-Pulse): While millions of acres of cropland may go unplanted to row crops because of this spring’s extraordinarily wet weather, farmers may have trouble finding seed for the cover crops that would take their place.
How Monsanto manipulated coverage (The Guardian): Lawyer Tim Litzenburg says internal Monsanto documents show that the company, the maker of Roundup, tried to shape public opinion by discrediting critical journalists, funding front groups to amplify pro-Monsanto messages, and planting favorable stories in traditional news outlets.