USDA agencies to collaborate on preservation of wildlife corridors
From the Forest Service to the Farm Service Agency, USDA agencies will work in concert to preserve wildlife corridors on public and privately owned land, said three senior officials on Monday. The collaboration would extend to state and tribal governments.
Rural areas feel migration pressures the most, says FAO leader
With migration at a high level worldwide, rural areas feel the greatest burden related to forced displacement, whether in loss of population or influx of newcomers, said the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday. Food security, along with climate change and armed conflict, is a main driver of human migration.
In California, rice farms become a home for wildlife
In California's Sacramento Valley, farmers and conservationists are working together to create habitat for wildlife, trying to mimic wetlands that were once plentiful in the state but have shrunk to one-tenth of their historic size. The focus of their work is the rice industry, which ranks second in production after the Mississippi Delta. The effort is paying off. One farmer pointed out "egrets and herons, Sandhill Cranes, curlews, ibis, and countless ducks and geese filling whole sections of rice fields," reports Lisa Morehouse in her latest story for FERN, in collaboration with KQED's California Report. No paywall
Trump meets with his ‘friend,’ Mexican President Nieto, for the first time
While in Hamburg, Germany, for the G20 summit, President Trump met with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, for the first time since the start of the American leader’s term. Nieto’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, predicted that NAFTA talks with begin August 16.
U.S. must step up global campaign against hunger, says Chicago Council
For its own security as well as global welfare, the United States must strengthen its commitment to ending hunger and malnutrition, says a report issued by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs at its annual food security conference. The think tank's call for U.S. leadership contrasted with the Trump administration's proposal to focus on "the highest-priority areas" of food, disaster and refugee aid "while asking the world to pay their fair share."