Michigan moves to expand ag renaissance zones
Michigan Rep. Mike Simpson hailed the House passage of his plan, H.B. 5086, to increase the number of Agriculture Renaissance Zones. The move, which will expand the Agricultural Processing Renaissance Zones program, will bring additional jobs and economic development to one of Michigan’s largest industries, said Simpson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the program has generated 1,749 jobs and more than $750 million in new private capital investment since its inception. The zones are aimed at retaining or attracting food and agriculture processing operations, such as Kellogg’s, to the state by exempting businesses from state and local taxes for a specified time frame.
Farm and Dairy   

Farm milk prices less than half of a year ago
Just one more example of just how far things have fallen for dairy producers.
Brownfield

Monthly national pet legislative report available
Listing of state legislative efforts related to pets and links to lots of organizations.

Vermont Supreme Court Denies Attempt to Expand Non-Economic Damages in Pet Litigation
On May 8, 2009 the Vermont Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision holding that non-economic damages are not available in lawsuits for the wrongful death of pets. In its ruling, the Court stated, “plaintiffs fail to demonstrate a compelling reason why, as a matter of public policy, the law should offer broader compensation for the loss of a pet than would be available for the loss of a friend, relative, work animal, heirloom or memento – all of which can be prized beyond measure, but for which this state's law does not recognize recovery for sentimental loss."
AVMA

CO:Democratic Sen. Isgar takes job
Senate Ag Leader Senator Jim Isgar is resigning his seat to become the Colorado state director for USDA rural development.  Isgar was the longest serving state senator in the Colorado senate, having been appointed in 2001. He has long made rural issues, especially water, his issues. He resigns as the chair of the Agriculture Committee and is a former chair of the Natural Resources & Energy Committee.
Telluride News, CO

Another campaign by PETA against Wisconsin dairies
Wisconsin's license plate slogan "America's Dairyland" would be changed to "America's Cow Hell" if the animal-rights group PETA had its way. "Today's factory farms are hell on Earth for animals and shouldn't be celebrated on Wisconsin license plates," says PETA campaign coordinator Lindsay Rajt. "People who care about cows shouldn't be forced to use their cars as free advertising for an industry that forcibly impregnates cows and then tears their babies away and locks them up in veal crates for the remainder of their short lives."
Dairy Herd

No Relief in Pig Crop Report
Last Friday’s quarterly Hogs and Pigs report did little to allay fears that the North American pork industry is in for another year of economic difficulty. As has been the story in most recent reports, any reductions of productive capacity being made by U.S. producers are being almost simultaneously offset by rising productivity.
National Hog Farmer

Things keep getting cheaper in the grocery store
Things keep getting cheaper in the grocery store.
Brownfield

Open Season: Firing back at the critics
I get hate mail on the average of once a week, and I don't know why. My column shouldn't be controversial. Hunting has been around since the caveman, and guns have been around shorty after the Chinese invented gunpowder. Why make them — and my column — a controversy? The Humane Society of the United States, threw another of its hissy-fits recently because I wrote about how the wealthy animal rights group has been investigated after soliciting donations to reunite pets with their owners during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They took in $34 million for that purpose but only spent $7 million on it. So, a whopping $27 million of solicited funds were used for something else.
Southcoast Today

Slowdown in once-booming organics troubles farmers
The organic dairy industry was thriving when Allen and Jean Moody bought a 200-acre Wisconsin dairy farm in 2006 and joined the ranks of farmers churning out milk raised without growth hormones, pesticides or other chemicals.Three years later, the good days are gone and the Moodys aren't alone in wanting out.A growing number of farmers who went all-natural in the years when organic food sales were growing at a double-digit pace are giving up their organic certifications. Organic farming is costly and labor-intensive, and many consumers are no longer willing to pay the price in a recession.Sales in the U.S. of organic foods sold mostly at supermarkets are expected to drop 1.1 percent to $5.07 billion this year, according to the Chicago-based research firm Mintel. While the drop is small, it is the first in an industry that has seen annual growth of 12 percent to 23 percent since 2003.
The Associated Press

Agriculture is Not a Dirty Word  
Science magazine recently published an article titled “Agriculture is not a dirty word.”  I’m amazed and delighted! I am amazed because stories like this are rare in main stream scientific publications as they are usually focused on answering very basic questions and looking for the next great discovery while those of us in the agricultural sciences are more focused on the problems of today and the next decade.  Issues like feeding people economically and safely are the primary drivers rather than a cure for disease or new method of communication.  The average person does not think of agriculture as “science” but rather relates to it as an established enterprise that just happens.  The result is complete ignorance of the importance and the need to support it rather than destroy it.  Even land grant universities which were established, in part, to support agriculture are dropping the word and using names like “life sciences” to encourage financial support and attract students.
Meatingplace.com

California tax officials target breeders via Internet
California tax officials are surfing — the Internet, that is. According to a letter from the California Board of Equalization, board officials visited the American Kennel Club Web site and linked to individual dog clubs to identify potential breeders living in the state. Board officials are not sure if these dog club members are breeders, but they could be. Tax board spokeswoman Anita Gore confirmed that 361 individuals will receive the letter. She would not say how or why those particular individuals were identified, however. Gore also said the board was unapologetic about using the Internet to identify potential breeders. The Internet is a research tool, like any other, and a fairly popular one, she said. Breeders are in the spotlight because "quite often people who sell animals are not aware of this tax obligation,” Gore said. According to California tax law, anyone who sells more than two animals a year must have a seller’s permit and pay the state a sales tax.
VIN New Service

OVMA backs Ohio livestock housing-standards board
The Ohio Veterinary Medical Association is  backing a ballot issue that would create a statewide board to  standardize livestock housing.  The November ballot issue is a pre-emptive move meant to block a  ballot initiative the Humane Society of the United States hinted it would push, if conditions in Ohio didn't change.
Veterinary News

Campaign promotes animal testing as 'backbone of biomedical research'
A Foundation for Biomedical Research billboard promotes the use of animal research in the fight against diseases that can kill humans. Ever had malaria? How about tuberculosis or elephantiasis? These diseases have become "poster illnesses" in a new pro-animal testing campaign. Billboards plastered with words such as rabies and leprosy have popped up and alos appeared on radio stations and in The Press of Atlantic City. The ads are created by The Foundation for Biomedical Research, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit dedicated to promoting "humane and responsible animal research" for human and veterinary health, according to its Web site. Paul McKellips, the foundation's executive vice president, said it is a part of a nationwide outreach program "to help the public understand that animal research is the backbone of biomedical research."
Press of Atlantic City

Canadian Chefs Serve Seal, With a Side of Controversy
Restaurants in Canada that serve seal have been thrust into the spotlight now that the European Union has banned imports of Canadian seal products.
NYTimes.com

JBS signs sustainability pact with Wal-Mart
JBS S.A. has signed a deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. requiring that the world's largest beef producer will not source beef from cattle raised in deforested areas of the Amazon region. The deal also prescribes that JBS will trace, identify and control the cattle herd in the Amazon biome to ensure no illegal logging or deforestation can be associated with cattle production in the region.
Meatingplace.com

1600 horse racing fans 'ask' New York legislature.
Thoroughbred horse racing and breeding accounts for 55 percent of New York's equine industry – the number one agricultural sector of the state's economy. “We, the undersigned, call upon the NYS Legislature and Governor Paterson to finally approve the efforts to make video lottery terminals at Aqueduct Racetrack a reality. Fulfilling the state’s promise from nearly eight years ago to bring VLTs to Aqueduct will result in much needed revenue for the horse racing and breeding industry and the state of New York”
Examiner.com

Dark Days Continue for California Dairies
California's 1,700 dairies have cut milk production for eight consecutive months, underscoring what some call the worst economic climate ever seen.
Ag web

Profitability ticks lower
Mixed signals in the cheese market, but milk futures were lower in the 2009 months, up slightly in the 2010 contracts. On-farm profitability continued to wane in June, as the All-Milk price fell to a six-year low of $11.40 while feed costs remain elevated, according to USDA’s “Ag Prices” report.
Daily Dairy Report

OH:Agencies combine efforts in animal welfare
Agencies in Wayne County are doing their part to make sure they're prepared to properly investigate allegations of animal cruelty and to care for animals in general. The Ohio Farm Bureau and the Ohio State University Extension held an inaugural seminar on training law enforcement officers, humane society workers and anyone else who regularly deals with animal care. Dave White, senior director of the Ohio Farm Bureau, discussed the importance of biosecurity and appropriate interaction among farms and farmers. White said at the very minimum, humane society workers, law enforcement and others who visit farms should keep a box of plastic boot covers in their vehicles, which protect against bacteria carried on the bottoms of shoes. Even the tires of vehicles can carry harmful bacteria, he said, especially if frequenting multiple farms. While the public perception is often to protect themselves from diseases and bacteria the animals may have, "it's actually the other way around," he said, noting there's a greater risk for bacteria being carried from human to animal.
The Daily Record, Wooster, OH

Pacelle interview with Agri-talk available
Re-cap of the AgriTalk interview with Wayne Pacelle, and some of observations (in red). There is a link on there to the full written transcript, or you can also listen to the podcast on AgriTalk's site.
Bovinevetonline.com

Prop 2: What has HSUS brought?  
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the ballot initiative that was carried to the ballot and promoted in California last year by the Humane Society of the United States was either poorly thought through or had other purposes, prosing its language so vaguely that compliance with the law will be a crapshoot. There is a catch -cage free hens do not take advantage of the ability to “extend wings without touching other hens.” Therefore, Prop 2 not only outlaws cage production systems but cage-free systems.California authorities, in writing regulations for the enforcement of Prop 2, cannot say it's humane for a hen in a barn to touch another hen but it's not okay for a hen in a cage. Furthermore, as it's natural behavior for poultry to want social contact with other poultry, what happens when chickens or turkeys touch each other when standing up or turning around in California poultry barns, which also are cage-free environments? These are questions on which Prop 2 is silent. An egg producer could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build aviary or cage-free houses and find out later that they do not qualify.
Feedstuffs FoodLink

Center for Food Integrity hosts National Animal Agriculture Industry Strategy Conference
To be held at Hamburger University located on the McDonald’s campus in Oak Brook, Illinois on August 11 and 12, 2009.  This annual two-day event brings leaders from local, state and national producer organizations and livestock coalitions, along with supporters from allied industry, branded food companies and government organizations, together to create a national network of well-informed, well-prepared and highly motivated organizations and individuals collaborating to support animal agriculture in the U.S.
Center for Food Integrity

Projected Food, Energy Demands Seen To Outpace Production
With the caloric needs of the planet expected to soar by 50 percent in the next 40 years, planning and investment in global agriculture will become critically important, according a new report.
Science Daily

Raw milk helps skim high production cost for local farmer
When Stan Johnson, DVM was a child, he loved meeting the people who came to the family family farm northeast of Grove to buy milk out of the bulk-cooling tank. He is now re-living that memory. His dairy farm, Lomah Dairy, which is located not far down the road from where he grew up, recently received approval and licensing from the state of Oklahoma to sell retail raw milk.
Grove Sun, OK

Farmers to rally in Fresno over water
Farmers, farmworkers and water activists plan to rally in Fresno on Wednesday to call attention to water shortages.  Comedian Paul Rodriguez, head of the Latino Water Coalition, will lead a march from City Hall to the federal building. It comes two days after six busloads of farmers marched in downtown San Francisco over the water issue, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar visited the state with a promise to expedite solutions.  Farmers in their third year of drought have seen their water supplies cut, causing unemployment and idled fields across the San Joaquin Valley.
The San Jose Mercury News  

PETA Wants to Use Michael Jackson Tune to Help Rodents
PETA is truly going to the rats! In an attempt to cash in on the recent death of megastar singer Michael Jackson, PETA is asking to use one of his songs in an effort to raise awareness about the plight of rodents.
USSportsmen.org

Wal-Mart backs health benefits mandate
The nation's largest employer has broken from the business community with Wal-Mart's endorsement of a legal requirement that all employers provide health benefits to their workers.
The Hill

Legislature failed to help horse industry
But it is a sad day in Kentucky. For whatever reason there will be no funding for the horse industry. This is like a pebble that has been dropped into a pool that will ripple out into a wave, and will have far reaching effects on everyone who has some income from the horse industry in Kentucky. I am not sure everyone realizes the economic impact that has, the taxes that are paid in Kentucky related to the horse industry. The other thing that breaks my heart is that the 4-H equine project is no longer going to be assisted by the Department of Agriculture in Kentucky. I have long been involved in 4-H and it is a great program that assists youths to be involved and learn more about horses. If you do not have youths involved in horses where is the future of the horse industry?
Bowling Green Daily News, KY

Rural Physicians Work Side-by-Side With UA Medical Students  
Every summer for the past 13 years, a select group of physicians in rural communities throughout the state has volunteered to mentor medical students from The University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson to help increase the number of physicians practicing in rural Arizona. For four to six weeks in June and July, the physicians volunteer as preceptors – or mentors – to UA medical students between their first and second years of medical school. The students work at the physicians' practice sites and reside in their communities.
The University of Arizona  

Fishermen turn to community sales
Alice and Larry Hatch always bring a cooler filled with ice when they shop for seafood each week. They don't go to a supermarket or even a seafood shop. This summer they're getting their fish – whole, with eyes staring up – directly from the fishermen who caught it. The seafood comes from the nearby fishing port of Port Clyde and the sale is at what might be the nation's first "community-supported fishery" venture.
Brattleboro Reformer

Country Life Movement -- Miles to Go
'Sustainable development' is the new name for an old idea; a group commissioned by Teddy Roosevelt tied rural prosperity to conservation a century ago.
Daily Yonder 

Buyers Win, Sellers Win
One sliver-sized sector of the U.S. economy is going strong: flea markets. You want to get rid of it and I've got to have it.
Daily Yonder 

Growing With the Crops, Nearby Property Values
Developers are trying to make lots on inactive farmland and even industrial land more attractive by putting crops in the ground.
NYTimes.com

Deere accepts 800 employee buyouts
Deere & Company says approximately 800 salaried employees will leave the company as part of a voluntary separation program.
Brownfield

Just because it's organic doesn't mean it's the best. Let flavor dictate.
I don't believe in organic. There, I've said it and I feel better. It's something that's been on my mind for years. Now, don't get me wrong: I've got nothing against organic farmers. In fact, some of my favorite farmers are organic. I really admire them: Growing delicious food and doing it according to organic standards is adding a degree of difficulty that I wouldn't wish on anyone. But a lot of my favorite farmers aren't organic, and therein lies the rub. This may shock some people, and for that I guess I ought to apologize. But really, if I'm honest, I think the ones who need to do the apologizing are the often-well-meaning organic advocates who paint such a black-and-white picture of the way farming works that it seems there should be no choice at all.
LATimes

Safe Food Inc
New website counters negative information. Welcome! America’s food supply is a modern miracle and one in which we as a society can take pride. American consumers deserve all the facts – just what this web site aims to deliver. We produce America’s meat and poultry. We are proud of our safe, affordable and abundant products and we aren’t afraid to stand up and say so. Check out the facts and if you need more, just contact us. We are in the business of meeting consumer demand whether for food – or facts.
Safefoodinc.org

Rural Internet: a work in progress
Chris Clampitt and his family do a lot of living online. As with many families in America, it’s where life happens. His kids rely on it to get a lot of learning done. For work or for play, it’s a communication tool for the whole family. Chris, a Missouri Farm Bureau Agent based in Richmond, is one of the many rural businessmen for whom, as American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman said, “Broadband Internet access is a necessity, not a luxury.” Yet for the Clampitt family and others in rural areas, how to go about getting that high-speed access can become a hit-or-miss proposition.
The Richmond (Missouri) Daily News       

Chicken Farms Hatching in Suburbia
But listen closely and you may think twice about whether you're in suburbia or on the farm. Farm animals that double as pets in the brave new world of backyard farming.
WCAX - Burlington,VT,

It’s Now Legal to Catch a Raindrop in Colorado
New laws allow residents to begin rainwater harvesting, a practice that water rights laws once prohibited.
NYTimes.com

Feds propose ending Florida's fresh citrus shipping ban
Agriculture officials are ready to allow Florida citrus to be shipped for fresh fruit use anywhere, effectively reopening markets blocked for the past three years after canker spread throughout the state's citrus industry. Florida citrus growers have not been permitted to ship fruit to California and other citrus-producing states and territories since 2006. Now, the Agriculture Department has reversed its stance in a proposed rule, which is now open to a 60-day comment period, and the department could revise it after that. Florida is the only state known to have citrus canker, a bacterial disease that can cause lesions on fruit. An end to federal inspections could save $9 million, the department said.
The St. Petersburg Times     

Sales tax cash will keep Minn. forest wild
Hunters and hikers have lost access to swaths of the northern Minnesota forest in recent years, but taxpayers are stepping in to keep nearly 300 square miles near the Mississippi headwaters as is: Wooded and open to the public.The $45 million conservation deal with UPM Blandin Paper is one of the 10 largest such projects in the country. The project gives the state permanent land rights and ensures public access. It means no development and no subdividing land thick with aspen, spruce, maples and wildlife, from the ovenbird to the gray wolf. Logging will continue under conditions designed to mimic the forest's natural life cycle. And people will have access for activities like snowmobiling and fishing the lakes and streams that drain into the Mississippi River.
Belleville News Democrat, IL

When Pondering the Future, Coos County Teens Listen to their Parents
When it comes to deciding whether to stay in New Hampshire's rural Coos County or leave for other opportunities, young people - even teenagers - are listening to their parents. That's the finding of a new brief from Corinna Tucker for Carsey Institute, Surveying seventh- and 11th-graders in public schools in Coos County, New Hampshire's northernmost and most rural county, researchers found that young peoples' future intention to migrate from Coos in search of economic or educational opportunities or to remain in Coos to pursue a future close to home are closely aligned with the messages their parents deliver to them.
Carsey Institute

Consumer confidence in food manufacturers plunges
New research suggests that consumer confidence in food companies has plummeted after less than one in five said they trusted firms to develop and sell healthy products. The survey, conducted by IBM, also found that 60 per cent of people are actively concerned about the safety of food they purchase, while trust in food manufacturers to handle food recalls properly has fallen.
Beef magazine

Natural sugar vs high-fructose corn syrup
Scientists see little dietary benefit in food companies' scramble to swap out processed sweeteners for natural ones. The bright red label on a bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice cocktail boasts that it contains no high-fructose corn syrup. Its sweet replacement: sugar.Other juice producers also have replaced the sweetener with cane or beet sugar. Big-name products including Log Cabin syrup, some Kraft Foods dressings and certain Pepsi products have gone the same route. Starbucks has undertaken a switch from high-fructose corn syrup to sugar in its bakery goods.But most scientists and nutritionists agree sugar is no better than high-fructose corn syrup for a healthy diet. Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at Harvard University's School of Public Health and author of "Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy," called the recent spate of product reformulations away from high-fructose corn syrup a "marketing distraction."
Chicago Tribune

Percentage of rural children in cohabitating homes nearly doubled since 2000
Increase more rapid than any other family form. As cohabiting - opposite-sex unmarried partners living together in households - increases nationwide, new data show that the growing rate of children in cohabiting households is most pronounced in rural areas. A new brief from Carsey Institute finds that the share of rural children living in cohabiting households has nearly doubled since 2000, from four to seven percent. During the same period, the share of urban children living in cohabiting households rose only slightly, from three to four percent. This pattern runs counter to the normal flow of social trends, which start in urban areas then spread to rural areas.
Carsey Institute

Amazon Conservation Policy Working In Brazil, Study Finds
Contrary to common belief, Brazil's policy of protecting portions of the Amazonian forest from development is capable of buffering the Amazon from climate change, according to a new study.
Science Daily

Times dark for horses
“The world is full of unwanted horses right now because of the economy,” says Vuanetta Barnhill, founder of Chocolate Box Horse Rescue outside of Spencerville, which specializes in taking in elderly or medically needy horses. Jamie Price, a horse-population researcher at Purdue University, says that while prices of hay and grain, medical care and boarding have all posted increases over the past few years, many people believe a 2006 federal law is also influencing the number of today’s horse rescues. The law banned the slaughter of horses for meat for human consumption in the United States, and while the measure was applauded by horse lovers and pushed by humane societies, it has changed the economics of horse ownership, she says. Instead of being able to recoup a few hundred dollars at the end of a horse’s life by selling it to the meat market, owners are now faced with the expense of euthanizing their animal and disposing of the remains – usually at a cost of hundreds of dollars.
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne,IN

Michael Jackson tribute in butter at Iowa State Fair
The world famous Iowa State Fair butter cow will share the spotlight this year with a salute to the late Michael Jackson. Both pieces will be on display in the Agriculture Building’s 40-degree cooler throughout the fair, August 13 to 23. Fair officials announced on Tuesday that Butter sculptor Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines plans to honor Jackson’s extensive contributions to the music and dance industries through a butter sculpture of the pop icon. This year’s butter bovine will be a Jersey.
Brownfield Network  

AFBF says USDA Numbers Could Lead to Higher Ethanol Blend Rate
Two reports released by the Agriculture Department show a big jump in both planted acreage and stocks for corn, pointing to greater corn supplies this year, which could encourage the Environmental Protection Agency to increase its ethanol blend rate, according to Terry Francl, senior economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation.“For the 2009/2010, the greater availability of corn supplies makes it more likely that the EPA will increase the ethanol blend rate from the current 10 percent to 12 percent or 13 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2010,” Francl said.
Hoosier Ag Today

Algae Farm Aims to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel
Dow Chemical’s long-term interest in the ethanol produced by the algae is as a replacement for natural gas to make plastic.
NYTimes.com

Power Line Frenzy Hits Rural America
To get power from wind turbines to customers in the cities will require thousands of miles of new transmission lines. Wind is the easy part. Building the lines is tougher.
Daily Yonder  

Dow Chemical joins algae-based biofuel project 
Dow announced plans to join Algenol Biofuels in a pilot-scale project to use algae and carbon dioxide to produce ethanol fuel located at Dow's Freeport, Texas site.
AFP

Slowing winds could have big implications on the farm
If you're full of hot air, some might say, you're windy. But, new research findings prove that analogy may not be true. Declining wind speeds in parts of the United States could impact more than the wind power industry, say Iowa State University climate researchers who recently contributed their expertise in modeling North America's climate to a study to be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research -- Atmospheres. The study -- led by Sara C. Pryor, a professor of atmospheric science at Indiana University Bloomington -- found that wind speeds across the country have decreased by an average of .5% to 1% per year since 1973.
Agriculture Online

Concerns mount over biofuel rules
All along, our issue has been with expanding that to include international effects for which there is very little data, no modeling and no real way to link a farmer's decision to grow grain in the United States for ethanol production and a farmer's decision in the Amazon to cut down a tree for the lumber industry." With hearings on biofuels coming fast and furious, the Renewable Fuels Association has offered a preview of its approach to the EPA proposed rulemaking for the Renewable Fuel Standard. During a press conference in early June, the biofuel advocacy group outlined a host of objections including a claim the agency has over-stepped its bounds by incorporating international indirect land use changes into its calculations.
Southeast Farm Press  

Ag industry should respond to Chambliss
Chambliss blocks regulatory pick over animal lawsuits
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has blocked President Obama’s candidate for regulation czar, Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, because Sunstein has argued that animals should have the right to sue humans in court. Obama has picked Sunstein, his adviser and longtime friend, to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an office that has power to review and assess all draft regulations proposed within the administration. Chambliss said that he has blocked Sunstein’s nomination because the law professor “has said that animals ought to have the right to sue folks.”In his 2004 book, Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions, Sunstein wrote: “I will suggest that animals should be permitted to bring suit, with human beings as their representatives, to prevent violations of current law.” In a 2002 paper, "The Rights of Animals: A Very Short Primer," Sunstein wrote: “On reflection, the spotlight should be placed squarely on the issue of suffering and well-being.”He went on to state that this position “strongly suggests” that “there should be extensive regulation of the use of animals in entertainment, in scientific experiments, and in agriculture.”
The Hill

And maybe a few more congressmen need to hear…
Congressman John Conyers (MI) and JimMoran (VA)  to Keynote HSUS Conference
The Humane Society of the United States knows how to pull out all the stops when it comes to flexing their legislative muscles.  The nation’s leading animal rights group announced that the powerful Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee will be the group’s keynote speaker at its “Taking Action for Animals” conference at the end of July. Representatives John Conyers and Jim Moran are slated to speak at the conference being held July 24-27 in Arlington, Virginia.
USSportsmen.org

Animal Research Facilities Must Disclose More
Animal research facilities will be required to disclose more information online about their experiments under a court settlement signed by the Humane Society of the United States and the Agriculture Department. According to the Humane Society, the settlement, which was confirmed by the Agriculture Department, will require the department to post annual reports from those facilities, including what they call “pain and distress information,” on its Web site. The two parties settled in a lawsuit filed by the advocacy group after it was unable to obtain information it had requested.
NYTimes.com

Oppose Criminalizing Horse Meat
An electronic petition to send to your congressional representatives. Just takes a minute to record your views.
United Organization of the Horse

Climate change bill alters 'indirect land use' rule
The American Clean Energy and Security Act-the climate change bill passed by the House-includes language that would alter the "indirect land use change" penalty provisions of the 2007 energy law.
Brownfield Network

Obama says Rural Tour begins Wednesday
The Obama administration begins a Rural Tour tomorrow, July 1st, focusing on existing government programs and those newly put in place. Over the coming weeks and months - the President says top administration officials - including Cabinet Secretaries - will fan out across the country to hold a series of discussions on how to strengthen rural America. “We recognize that there’s not going to be any one-size-fits-all to strengthening rural communities because they’re vastly different across the country. And that’s why we want to hear directly from people so we can start tailoring things to particular communities,” says President Obama.The President says his administration wants to hear about programs that are working and those that aren’t working in rural areas.
Brownfield Network

Senator seeks MILC boost.
If the government pays dairy farmers more, will they ultimately make less? That may be the sticking point Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand faces as she pushes legislation this week to double the subsidy farmers are paid when milk prices sink. Mrs. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., highlighted the proposal as one way to address record-low milk prices hurting farmers in Northern New York and around the country.
Watertown Daily News

Budget proposal is a threat to farmers across the U.S.
Obama’s proposed budget would cut hundreds of millions of dollars from conservation programs that was promised under the 2008 farm bill. The President’s budget would cut $30 million in funding in 2010, and $175 million over the next three years.Another program under-the-gun from the President’s proposed cuts is the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, which is earmarked for a $250 million cut.
Southeast Farm Press 

Turning concerns into compliance: Grinding the details of FDA’s feed ban rule
Concerns about the Food and Drug Administration's new rule prohibiting high-risk cattle materials from being processed into feed for any animals are still looming as stakeholders such as cattle producers and small processors work to comply
Meatingplace.com

Milk producers ask for USDA help
Just one day after getting a request to help pork producers, U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack is getting a plea for help for dairy farmers.
Brownfield

Farmers say catfish are catfish
They change their tune on Vietnamese variety to force inspections. But to U.S. catfish farmers, the whiskered, bottom-feeding fish from Vietnam is something else: a cheap variety that's usurping the humble catfish's place on Americans' tables and threatening their livelihoods. So after years of arguing that the Vietnamese fish isn't catfish the U.S. farmers now want to have it both ways. Under their latest lobbying strategy, they want the Vietnamese imports considered catfish so that they will be covered by a new inspections regime that they pushed through Congress last year.
The (Raleigh, North Carolina) News and Observer

Differing views on climate bill's future  
Expensive fuel and fertilizer, or the salvation of the biofuels industry? In a nutshell, that's how two different agricultural leaders view a climate bill that heads to the U.S. Senate after narrow passage in the House of Representatives last week. A lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation thinks the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate. The Senate will soon begin to consider President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, as well as continue to work on health care reform. With an already full agenda, and opposition from rural areas, Thatcher thinks a vote on climate change legislation is unlikely this year.
Agriculture Online  

Concerns: Water quality policy
Recent actions by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seem to signal a move away from locally-led, cooperative approaches to controlling nonpoint source pollution from agriculture and toward greater federal regulation, said Trey Lam, president of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts in a letter sent to the members of the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation.
Southwest Farm Press

Federal judge halts reversal of immigrant worker rules
A federal judge in North Carolina has issued a preliminary injunction nationwide which blocks the Obama Administration's reversal of an immigrant labor policy.
Brownfield

Tuesday’s USDA Acreage report contained a few surprises
Weather challenges in the eastern Cornbelt had everyone thinking that planted acreage would be significantly below both March projections. USDA’s estimate of 87+ million acres was higher than both of those and was 3.4% above the average of analysts’ pre-report estimates. The old adage was “If the weather is good, farmers will plant corn” appears to not need the weather qualifier — at lest in the eastern Cornbelt. There is still a good amount of skepticism about these numbers and some believe there are still 500k to 1 million corn acres that did not get planted. Jerry Gidel of North American Risk Management pointed out today that last year’s June report included 1.5 million more acres than were anticipated in March — and those acres eventually disappeared in USDA’s final crop update. Corn futures were sharply lower.
Daily Livestock Report

Midwest wolves back under federal protection
Grey wolves in the upper Midwest are back under Federal Protection for the time being. In May, the wolves were taken off the Endangered Species List and management of the population in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota was turned over to state agencies by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Brownfield Network

What Tuesday's Reports Mean to Your Farm
USDA released its June acreage and quarterly grain stocks reports. Listen to Jerry Gulke, Strategic Marketing Services owner and Top Producer columnist, and Jim Bower, president of Bower Trading, provide analysis of what all these report numbers mean to farmers.
Ag Web

Rethink Approach to National Animal ID
A less centralized system with greater state involvement may be easier for producers to accept.
Ag Web

Public Policy: For the Public Good or Private Profit?
At critical juncture points in public policy, stakeholders with the most power (read biggest and most effective lobbying organizations) go all out to tilt public policy in their favor. No surprise there. The amazing thing is how little flack they get when they openly contradict the very purpose of the policy or policy change. In the case of agriculture, agribusiness tries—often successfully—to convince one-and-all that agricultural policy should be designed with them in mind, even if it means turning the reasons for farm policy on their heads.
AG Policy

Chambliss, Isakson introduce measure to protect hunting on public lands
U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Ranking Republican Member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) introduced the Hunting Heritage Protection Act, which aims to recognize the heritage of hunting and provide opportunities for continued hunting on federal public land. 
Dalton Daily Citizen

The farm lobby vs. the global warming bill
The farm lobby demonstrates its awesome might every few years with the passage of a new farm bill, which invariably shovels billions in corporate welfare to agribusiness while damaging U.S. trade relationships and in many cases raising consumer prices for agricultural goods. But its power goes beyond the farm bill; it's hard to pass any legislation even tangentially related to farming without the support of a bipartisan bloc of lawmakers from Midwestern states. Which is why, when congressional Democrats bring their sweeping 1,200-page bill to fight climate change to the House floor today, the farm lobby's loamy thumbprints will be all over it.
Los Angeles Times

Monthly milk cost of production
Monthly milk cost of production estimates are available by State from January 2003 to the previous month.
USDA

Report to congress:Access to affordable and nutritious food-measuring and understanding food deserts and their consequences:
A study of food deserts—areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food—summarizes findings of a national-level assessment of the extent and characteristics of food deserts, analysis of the consequences of food deserts, lessons learned from related Federal programs, and a discussion of policy options for alleviating the effects of food deserts. Overall, findings show that a small percentage of consumers are constrained in their ability to access affordable nutritious food because they live far from a supermarket or large grocery store and do not have easy access to transportation.
USDA

Report to Congress:Manure use for fertilizer and for energy: report to congress
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to evaluate the role of animal manure as a source of fertilizer, and its other uses. About 5 percent of all U.S. cropland is currently fertilized with livestock manure, and corn accounts for over half of the acreage to which manure is applied. Expanded environmental regulation through nutrient management plans will likely lead to wider use of manure on cropland, at higher production costs, but with only modest impacts on production costs, commodity demand, or farm structure. There is widespread interest in using manure as a feedstock for energy production. While current use is quite limited, expanded government support, either direct or indirectly, could lead to a substantial increase in manure use as a feedstock. However, current energy processes are unlikely to compete with fertilizer uses of manure, because they leave fertilizer nutrients as residues, in more marketable form, and because manure-to-energy projects will be most profitable in regions where raw manure is in excess supply, with the least value as fertilizer.
USDA

Ag cutbacks threaten no-till
Recent legislation supported by President Obama is a threat to farmers across the U.S., but none more so than grain and cotton growers in the upper Southeast.
Southeast Farm Press

USDA launches new recovery act website
Website highlights USDA efforts to create jobs and stimulate economic growth. Interactive features on www.usda.gov/recovery and functionality that will allow people to learn about, share, and discuss American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding in states and communities throughout the country. USDA

Confidentiality is major NAIS concern
The 14th and final National Animal Identification System (NAIS) listening session was held just outside of Omaha.  As with previous sessions, there was very little support for a mandatory program. One of the major objections to NAIS is confidentiality.   Ken Pruismann of Rock Valley, Iowa, president of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, says it’s a big concern with his group’s members. Michael Kelsey, executive vice president of the Nebraska Cattlemen’s organization, says his group supports having disease surveillance held and controlled by private industry, for the protection of producer information.
Brownfield Network  

AQHA and Forest Service reach understanding for land conservation
The American Quarter Horse Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service recently signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on national land conservation projects.By partnering together, AQHA and the Forest Service will actively promote public-private partnerships that encourage responsible use of federal lands by visitors participating in equestrian activities. 
American Quarter Horse Journal 

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