When the wind blows a certain way, residents know to head inside. Quickly. They claim the stench from an industrial hog farm on the edge of town is unbearable. The gigantic “finishing” barn confines as many as 4,800 hogs. That many animals produce a lot of waste, and it’s what Will-O-Bett Farm does with the liquid manure — applying tens of thousands of gallons to nearby farm fields — that prompted a nasty legal dispute with neighbors. Pennsylvania law shields farms from most suits making a nuisance claim, helping Will-O-Bett prevail in the lower courts. [node:read-more:link]

A week and a half after the earth split open in Puna and the hazards of Kilauea began devouring and toxifying everything in their path, 67-year-old Garuda Johnson looked out his window. Seeing through the sulfur dioxide-laced haze of vog — which has measured quantities of SO2 as high as 10 parts per million (ppm) on Johnson’s personal monitor — is nearly impossible at distance. [node:read-more:link]

As monarch butterflies flutter on their 3,000-mile trek north to New York and Canada this spring, the nation’s farmers are being asked to help provide respite along the way. Farm groups, along with several agribusiness companies and conservation organizations, launched Farmers for Monarchs earlier this winter as part of a voluntary effort to restore the diminishing butterfly’s habitat.Through the winter, monarchs live in the forested mountains of Mexico, said Ryan Yates, director of congressional relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation. [node:read-more:link]

State agriculture officials depopulated a Mineral Point deer farm last week over chronic wasting disease concerns, the second such action at a Wisconsin captive cervid facility in two months. In the most recent move, 103 deer were killed at Windy Ridge Whitetails in Mineral Point.The facility had the animals contained in a 15-acre fenced area. [node:read-more:link]

New Zealand Monday (May 28) ordered the culling of 126,000 cattle in an attempt to eradicate the painful Mycoplasma bovis disease, which causes udder infections, pneumonia and arthritis. The decision was taken to "protect the base of our economy - the farming sector," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said."This is a tough call - no one ever wants to see mass culls. But the alternative is the spread of the disease across our national herd."Mycoplasma bovis does not affect milk and meat for human consumption, and most governments are content to control outbreaks. [node:read-more:link]

American businesses are investing record amounts in solar, with the top corporate users adding 325 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity last year, according to the "Solar Means Business 2017" report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). The impact of corporate solar is significant: the solar installations analyzed in the SEIA report produce enough electricity to power 402,000 U.S. homes and offset 2.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.Here, CNBC's Sustainable Energy looks at the top 10 corporations in the U.S. by their installed capacity of solar power. 10. [node:read-more:link]

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley had some harsh words for House Ag Committee Chair Mike Conaway of Texas. The Grassley response came as Conaway said Grassley is wrong “every single time” when he complains about loopholes in the process by which USDA makes subsidy payments to farmers. Earlier this week, Grassley had said he would use the Senate farm bill to go after loopholes that non-farmers exploit to collect a lot of subsidy cash from the government. The House version of the farm bill doesn’t contain any payment limitations. [node:read-more:link]

A nonprofit group called the McLemore Cove Preservation Society is suing the government of Walker County, Georgia, claiming that government officials are secretly “conspiring to install a large-scale chicken slaughterhouse” in the area. The group claims county officials are in talks with Pilgrim’s Pride and is offering the company tax incentives to open a plant there. Walker County is located directly south of Chattanooga, Tennessee.However, those talks have never been confirmed by county officials or by Pilgrim’s Pride. [node:read-more:link]

United States Trade Representative Michael Froman announced today that the Obama Administration has launched a new trade enforcement action against Canada at the World Trade Organization (WTO).  Today’s action challenges British Columbia’s (BC) regulations that discriminate against the sale of U.S. wine in grocery stores.  These regulations appear to breach Canada’s WTO commitments and have adversely impacted U.S. wine producers.  Today’s action marks the 26th trade enforcement challenge the Obama Administration has launched at the WTO. [node:read-more:link]

Recombinetics announced that it has formed an alliance with Semex, a farmer-owned cattle genetics organization based in Canada, to implement a precision breeding program that improves animal health and well-being through hornless dairy cattle genetics. According to the announcement, the dehorning of calves is a routine procedure designed to prevent injuries both to other animals and to handlers. This procedure is uncomfortable for animals and is an unpleasant task for farm personnel. [node:read-more:link]