The natural gas pipeline is routed to run through the southwest Virginia farm his family has owned for seven generations. The 88-year-old Navy veteran never considered signing an easement agreement with the developers, because he thought the whole thing seemed an affront to his property rights. But state law meant he couldn't even keep surveyors out. As work chugs along toward having the pipeline in service by the end of the year, Jones and a coalition of more than a dozen other like-minded Virginia and West Virginia landowners have taken their fight to court. [node:read-more:link]

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig today highlighted key agriculture provisions passed by the Iowa Legislature during the 2018 legislative session. This includes long-term funding for water quality efforts, additional funding for foreign animal disease response preparations, continued funding for the Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program and updates to the Iowa noxious weed law. [node:read-more:link]

Monsanto has shelved a longstanding project to bring Bt soybeans to the U.S. by the turn of the decade. The company cited low grower demand, but U.S. insect resistance to the proteins in its Bt soybean product is more likely the culprit, entomologists told DTN.Monsanto first launched Intacta RR2 PRO soybeans, which contain the single Bt protein Cry1Ac, in South America in 2013. The company has produced a second-generation product called Intacta 2 Xtend, which adds the Bt proteins Cry1A.105 and Cry2Ab2, as well as dicamba tolerance. [node:read-more:link]

When Fairbanks was founded in the early 1900s, it wasn’t possible to run down to the supermarket to purchase a dozen eggs or fresh produce. If you wanted eggs or produce, it was likely that you or someone you knew grew or raised the food. Obviously, the Fairbanks community has changed quite a bit in the last century with the establishment of multiple large supermarkets, but the local food movement is strong and growing in Fairbanks, as well as nationally, as people strive to produce more food themselves and to purchase from local vendors. [node:read-more:link]

It’s been a tough go for farmers these last few years with low incomes. Many dairy farmers across the U.S. have been hit particularly hard — financially, physically and emotionally — as they work 16-plus hour days, seven days a week, to care for cattle and manage their farm businesses.  Farmers work where they live. They don’t go home at the end of the day — they are already there. Coworkers can mostly be family members. They wrestle with responsibility versus control. Farmers feel responsible for just about everything, yet some things are beyond control. [node:read-more:link]

Negotiations over a new North American trade deal have hit a major snag, leaving White House officials increasingly uncertain of their ability to hit their May 18 deadline for securing congressional approval of a new deal before year’s end. The main stumbling block involves a dispute over determiningwhich automobiles are given duty-free treatment under the agreement, according to five industry and U.S. government sources.After almost nine months of negotiations, the United States and its trading partners , Canada and Mexico, remain far apart on a host of contentiousissues, including U.S. [node:read-more:link]

China’s food giant Cofco International is positioning itself to increase soybean purchases from Brazil as trade tensions escalate between the U.S. and the Asian nation, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Cofco has strengthened its team that buys, stores and sells farmer crops, known as origination, in the South American country, recently hiring as many as 12 people to work directly with farmers in Mato Grosso, Goias, Parana and Rio Grande do Sul states, said the person, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public. [node:read-more:link]

A Wisconsin cheese producer has notified 11 state dairy farms that it will stop buying their milk in 60 days, an official with the state’s cheesemakers’ association is saying.Arla Foods’ Hollandtown Dairy in Kaukauna notified the farms either Monday or Tuesday, according to John Umhoefer, the executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association.Umhoefer said an Arla Foods executive told him the company is no longer buying milk from the farms because “they are oversupplied for their needs.”The decision comes at a bad time for dairy farmers, who have been dealing with depressed milk [node:read-more:link]

The national anti-hunger nonprofit, Feeding America, announced new data, today, that shows 97 percent of counties include families facing hunger who are likely ineligible for federal nutrition assistance and, as such, must rely on charitable food banks to help put meals on their tables. [node:read-more:link]

The 2017 Wildfires and Hurricanes Indemnity Program (WHIP) is providing payments to agricultural producers to offset losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irene and Maria and devastating wildfires. WHIP was authorized by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. Sign-up for the new program will begin no later than July 16. [node:read-more:link]