Behind a row of sealed red incubator doors in a new facility in northern China, about 400,000 chicks are hatched every day, part of the rapidly modernizing supply chain in China’s $37 billion egg industry, the world’s biggest. [node:read-more:link]
The pork industry appears to be headed for a period of large losses in which excess pork supplies force prices below costs of production. In addition, demand will likely be weakened by reduced exports with tariffs in place on U.S. pork exports to China and Mexico. On a positive note, Chinese tariffs on U.S. grains and soybeans are helping to erode feed prices along with favorable growing season weather. The industry has expanded the breeding herd by three percent according to a recent producer survey by USDA. [node:read-more:link]
The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota has enjoined Todd & Patty Meech Dairy Farm and its co-owners from introducing adulterated meat into interstate commerce pending required remedial action. According to the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
World milk production is projected to increase by 22 percent by 2027, with the majority of that production increase (80 percent) expected to come from developing countries according to an annual report by the Organization for Ecoomic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Pakistan and India are expected to jointly account for 32 percent of total milk production by 2027, compared to 26 percent in the base period of 2015-17, said the report, OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2018-2027.
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The House version of the food-stamp-to-work program Congress is considering this week would require recipients to enroll in job training programs if they can’t find work — but in many states, those programs won’t be fully available for at least another decade. This will have a big impact on the people who depend on food stamps, some 42 million in 2017. The average beneficiary receives about $125 a month, and a family of four must have an annual income of about $25,000 or less to qualify. [node:read-more:link]
President Trump has railed against Canada for taking advantage of the U.S. when it comes to trade. Trump may not like it, but those tariffs are part of a politically sensitive, decades-old policy to protect Canada's dairy farmers. The system is called "supply management" and it sets production quotas for the country's dairy, poultry products and eggs.Murray Sherk, the owner of the family-run Pinehill Dairy in Plattsville, Ontario, says supply management helps keep prices stable, gives farmers a steady income and has succeeded in avoiding a milk surplus in Canada. [node:read-more:link]
When Bill West drives his weed sprayer over wheat and hay fields at his ranch northwest of Gillette, Wyoming, he bumps into the occasional debris from the more than a hundred defunct natural gas wells on his 10,000-acre property. The company that owned the wells went out of business four years ago, leaving behind fuse boxes, internet boxes and thousands of feet of underground pipe. “They just walked away and left everything sitting,” said West, 85. [node:read-more:link]
Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt managed to fire a Parthian shot on his final day in office when he cemented a massive loophole for some of the dirtiest, most polluting trucks on the road, allowing manufacturers to build even more them. [node:read-more:link]
Riparian zones are a very important part of our everyday life. They serve many purposes along streams and rivers to support a biodiversity ecosystem. A riparian zone is an area of land on or adjacent to a river or stream, normally dominated by herbaceous cover that acts as a buffer from the upland. These areas are tolerant to flooding or saturated soils normally in the floodplain. [node:read-more:link]
The Land Commissioner is charged with jurisdiction over state trust lands to generate support for public schools and other state institutions. In the Complaint, filed in the First Judicial District Court, the Commissioner asserts that he has “an interest in the appropriation of water on and off of state trust lands because the use of water in connection with activities on state trust lands often is essential to the lands’ highest and best use.” The State Engineer is vested with authority to manage the state’s water resources, including issuing permits for groundwater wells. [node:read-more:link]
