The recent heatwave and drought could be having a deeper, more negative effect on soil than we first realized say scientists. That's because organisms in soil are highly diverse and are responsible not only for producing the soil we need to grow crops, but also provide humans with many other benefits, such as cleaning water and regulating greenhouse gas emissions. [node:read-more:link]

Saying it “hide(s) the ball” and calling it “outright ‘trickeration,’ ” a Tallahassee judge has ruled that a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at ending dog racing shouldn’t go on the November ballot. [node:read-more:link]

The West Virginia Agriculture Advisory Board announced the first step in developing a five-year, strategic plan for agriculture. A statewide survey, as well as market analysis will be conducted to address the challenges and opportunities facing the industry. Commissioner of Agriculture Kent Leonhardt relaunched the board in July of 2017 which includes Governor Jim Justice and the Dean of WVU Extension Service Steve Bonanno. [node:read-more:link]

Energy suppliers are taking cyber threats seriously by shoring up physical infrastructure and hardening against cyber warfare. But they are competing with one arm tied behind their backs because they are using decades-old private radio systems to control these facilities, as opposed to the advanced broadband technology available today.  That's because historically, most policymakers have been primarily focused on protecting consumers from rate hikes. That's an important objective. [node:read-more:link]

Hawaii regulators took a step toward performance incentives for its dominant electric utility, but transitioning to true performance-based regulation (PBR) will be contentious, judging from the stakeholder response. The cost of importing expensive fuel oil for power generation in the state has led to many debates over the best way to align utility incentives with customer interests — such as using a sharing mechanism to split fuel price volatility risks between the utility's shareholders and its ratepayers. [node:read-more:link]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Friday ordered a stop to construction of the 300-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline after a federal appeals court threw out permits that allowed the project to build through less than four miles of national forest land. On July 27, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed permits granted by the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service in response to a challenge from environmental groups. [node:read-more:link]

But there is a glimmer of hope now as Congressional leaders on a bipartisan basis are pushing a major reform in the Farm Bill to wire rural communities with broadband – especially those places universally believed to be impossible to wire because of their relatively small population and the huge land masses and distances between users.  The Senate version of the Farm Bill pending now in Congress has a plan to solve this problem. [node:read-more:link]

A trial in which a school groundskeeper alleged that his use of Monsanto's Roundup weed killer caused his terminal cancer will go to a California jury after lawyers for both sides delivered their closing arguments on Tuesday. Groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson is one of more than 5,000 plaintiffs across the United States who claim Monsanto's glyphosate-containing herbicides, including the widely-used Roundup, cause cancer. [node:read-more:link]

Sign-ups for the new Dairy Revenue Protection plan (Dairy-RP) begins Oct. 9, with the first available coverage starting the first quarter of 2019. Dairy-RP was developed by American Farm Bureau Federation, American Farm Bureau Insurance Services and other collaborators and was approved by the Federal Crop Insurance Corp., John Newton, AFBF director of market intelligence told Capital Press in a recent interview.The insurance plan is different from other USDA risk programs for dairy, which focus on income over the cost of feed and don’t directly manage revenue risk. [node:read-more:link]

Since 2014 the annual average U.S. all-milk price has fallen by more than 30 percent. This year, it is projected to be at the lowest level since 2009, at $16.10 per hundredweight. Milk prices are projected to improve slightly in 2019 to $16.75 per hundredweight, but ongoing trade tensions in July compelled USDA to push its 2019 milk price projection down by 45 cents per hundredweight. [node:read-more:link]