With current shortages of health care professionals in rural Pennsylvania, community health workers have the potential to play a significant role in the delivery of rural health services, according to research out of Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. Currently, there is no single definition of a community health worker (CHW). [node:read-more:link]

Closed circuit television (CCTV) recording would become mandatory in all slaughterhouses in England next year under a new legislative proposal, the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced. [node:read-more:link]

Tyson Foods was caught by surprise in September when residents of Tonganoxie and Leavenworth County, Kansas, made it clear that they did not want the company to build a broiler complex in their community. [node:read-more:link]

Sir Paul McCartney is a gifted musical artist.  In his former Beatles life as well as in his solo career, he has always been at the top of the popular musical scene even now at the tender age of 75.  After meeting his future wife Linda, a vegan, he joined her in that gastronomic choice.  Now, however, he is proselyting for others to join him in this vegan lifestyle by promoting a new movie that extolls the virtues of a non-meat eating day per week. Ok, my concern isn’t the movie.  After having viewed it a few times, I can say that it is professionally produced, but factually disingenuous. [node:read-more:link]

North Carolina’s two Republican senators said Wednesday they oppose President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee chemical safety at the Environmental Protection Agency, putting his nomination at serious risk. Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis issued statements saying they will vote against Michael L. Dourson to serve as head of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.Environmentalists and Senate Democrats have vehemently opposed Dourson, a toxicologist with close ties to the chemical industry. [node:read-more:link]

Last year in Nueces County, sorghum farmers raked in $10.9 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies. Corn farmers in Castro County took $12.6 million. In Deaf Smith County, the kingpins of cotton were paid $32.5 million, according to new farm subsidy data released last week. But as the state’s biggest farms drew lucrative paydays, the pocketbooks of small family farmers got thinner. Now, critics of federal farm subsidy programs are calling for reform of a system they say overwhelmingly favors big agribusiness.   The U.S. [node:read-more:link]

As Republicans push ahead with their tax reform plan, the small farmer is again invoked. This time it’s about the estate tax. During a speech in North Dakota, President Trump declared, “We’ll also protect small businesses and family farmers here in North Dakota and across the country by ending the death tax.” He added: “Tremendous burden for the family farmer, tremendous burden. We are not going to allow the death tax or the inheritance tax or the whatever-you-want-to-call-it to crush the American Dream.” But few farmers put the elimination of this tax on the top of their wish lists. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is moving ahead with some reorganization moves just a few weeks after hitting the pause button so they could be discussed further. [node:read-more:link]

Nanoparticles that allow for CRISPR genome-editing in adult animals have now been developed by researchers. Using a new nanoparticle-based, nonviral delivery technique, the researchers were able to cut out a disease-causing gene in about 80 percent of liver cells, and permanently lower cholesterol in mice. [node:read-more:link]