Nashville wants to sell its energy system that heats and cools more than 40 buildings downtown — including the Tennessee state Capitol — for $60 million. Metro's District Energy System uses electricity and natural gas to produce steam and chilled water that is distributed through 91,100 feet of underground pipes to its downtown customers.But city officials say its no longer financially viable for Nashville and are in final negotiations with Engie Development, LLC to sell the system. [node:read-more:link]

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Senate Bill 153 (SB 153) seeks to bring California’s hemp industry regulations in line with federal requirements, according to officials. “I am very pleased to see SB 153 moving with bipartisan support,” Wilk said. “Industrial hemp is a natural fit for California’s arid climate. [node:read-more:link]

Minnesota farmers are considering ways to prevent the closure of small dairies during a sustained slump in milk prices.Roughly 80 farmers recently gathered in Greenwald to voice concerns about the loss of small dairies, which face higher milk production costs than mega-dairies, the Star Tribune reported.Minnesota has seen more than 1,100 dairy farmers leave the industry in the past six years. [node:read-more:link]

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo marked Earth Day on Monday by signing into law a measure banning most single-use plastic bags, making New York the third state in the nation to enact a statewide bag policy. The ban, which goes into effect in March 2020, prohibits retailers that collect sales tax, including supermarkets and small businesses, from handing out disposable plastic bags, with a few exceptions. [node:read-more:link]

We hate to sound like the little boy who cried wolf, but for US farmers there really is a wolf out there and that wolf is called low prices. While the pain is not evenly spread across the nation and across farm types, for those involved it is serious. [node:read-more:link]

It’s a fascinating, but uncertain, time in the agricultural markets. Global and US supplies of agricultural products are at or near record levels. At the same time, global demand for agricultural products continues to grow, pressured by both population and income growth. Markets work to distribute the products across the globe, and government policies can definitely shape that distribution. Myriad new trade agreements, trade disputes, and tariffs introduced over the last 15 months are reshaping global agricultural trade flows. [node:read-more:link]

The damage of ASF has already significantly influenced China’s pork imports. After the initial tariff increase on US pork in April 2018 (Li 2018), pork exports to China reduced to a trickle. In December 2018, US exports to China started to pick up with 7,823 metric tons of pork exported by the first week of January 2019. After several weeks of zero exports, trade resumed with 17,215 metric tons exported in the second week of February 2019. [node:read-more:link]

After years of declining prices that are below the full cost of production for a large number of farmers and crops, scattered payments for some crops in a few counties are insufficient to ameliorate the growing financial crisis in farm country. So, what will things look like under the 2018 Farm Bill that begins with the 2019 crop marketing year? An article by Zulauf et. al. raises the question of fairness on the timing of the ARC/PLC election on the certainty farmers have in knowing the final marketing year price. [node:read-more:link]

Legislation to fund agriculture, rural development and affordable workforce housing passed the Minnesota Senate Finance Committee this week.The comprehensive omnibus budget bill places an emphasis on rural broadband expansion, invests in affordable manufactured/modular housing and home ownership, and prioritizes value-added agriculture opportunities that directly impact farmers.Specifically, the bill makes a one-time investment in an innovative soybean processing and research facility near the University of Minnesota – Crookston; invests in the Dairy Modernization and Innovation program to [node:read-more:link]