That experience underscores the complexity of defining what constitutes a rural community for the purposes of qualifying for rural-specific federal programs — a question that has plagued Congress, USDA officials and researchers for decades. Communities looking to qualify for rural development programs must first prove that they meet the government's definition of “rural” before they can be considered for assistance. But there’s no one-size-fits-all definition, and population thresholds vary from program to program. [node:read-more:link]

 the last four years, farm real estate markets have faced pressure due to low commodity prices and deteriorating farm income. From 2013 to 2018, farm income in the United States declined more than 50 percent, and working capital declined 65 percent. Despite these developments, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions shows farmland values remained relatively stable, declining only modestly in most areas. Indeed, Chart 1 shows that in the Tenth District, cropland values declined only 16 percent from 2013 to 2018. [node:read-more:link]

Yet in Idaho, as in many Western states, lawmakers can legally overturn or alter voter-approved ballot measures with little or no input from voters. And as Westerners reckon with issues that conservative governments have been reluctant to take up — including marijuana legalization, increased minimum wage, gun control and Medicaid expansion — legislators are increasingly attempting to block them, curtailing a century-old tradition of direct democracy. [node:read-more:link]

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has proposed spending just over $240 million over two years on the state's agriculture needs, such as meat inspectors, lab equipment and research.His proposal will have to go through a Republican Senate and a Democratic House, and will likely be modified along the way. [node:read-more:link]

But the mountain lions know that something is wrong. A number of years ago, Swanson and her colleagues studied which deer mountain lions prefer to attack. “The mountain lions were definitely preferentially selecting deer that had chronic wasting disease over those that were negative,” she says. “And for most of the ones that they had killed, we had not detected any chronic wasting disease symptoms yet. So certainly the lions were able to key in on far more subtle cues than we were.” [node:read-more:link]

A plan to address a shrinking supply of water on a river that serves 40 million people in the U.S. West is headed to President Donald Trump. The U.S. House and Senate approved the Colorado River drought contingency plan. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming spent years negotiating the drought plan. They aim to keep two key reservoirs from falling so low they cannot deliver water or produce hydropower.Mexico has promised to store water in Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada border if the U.S. legislation is approved by April 22. [node:read-more:link]

A new bill was introduced April 10 to give incentives to established and beginning farmers in Ohio. This bill will allow income tax credits for established farmers who sell or rent their agriculture assets to beginning farmers. A beginning farmer is defined as an individual just starting to farm or who has been operating a farm for 10 years or less. [node:read-more:link]

Vietnam announced this week it is banning the importation of glyphosate. It comes after the most recent glyphosate verdict that went against Bayer in a California court.  [node:read-more:link]

Bayer has made its more than 100 glyphosate safety studies public, as several trials against its acquired Monsanto RoundUp glyphosate weed killer are ongoing. Charlotte Morr is Bayer Crop Science data transparency manager, “So it’s no longer speculation about what could be in those studies. [node:read-more:link]

As states consider the compatibility of utility-scale solar projects on farmland, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration is revisiting a state policy that the industry says has acted as a barrier. Michigan’s Farmland and Open Space Preservation Program provides tax incentives to landowners who keep land under contract for agricultural practices for decades. In 2017, under former Gov. [node:read-more:link]