he dairy state of Wisconsin, for example, has lost 20 percent of its dairy farms within the last five years. Despite the loss in total farms, Wisconsin still produced a record 30 billion pounds of milk in 2016. A similar thing is happening in most states, Utah included. The 2014 USDA Farm Bill included voluntary dairy farmer participation in the Margin Protection Program-Dairy (MPP). The purpose of this federal dairy income safety net was to protect the margins between milk prices and the cost of feeds cows eat. [node:read-more:link]

Potash Corporation plans to acquire Agrium and achieve substantial synergies through this acquisition. [node:read-more:link]

“The idea is that it would be able to let you reduce–and maybe ultimately replace–synthetic nitrogen fertilizer,” says Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Gingko Bioworks, a Boston-based genetic engineering company, which partnered with Bayer, the multinational biochem company, to launch the new, as-yet-unnamed ag-tech startup. [node:read-more:link]

One year ago, Mann Packing went through the process of getting some of its vegetable products Non-GMO Project Verified. Now, the company is trying to distance itself from non-GMO labeling.The company is removing the non-GMO verified check from its single-cut lettuce products in its next print run, which could take place next month, said Gina Nucci, Mann’s director of corporate marketing. [node:read-more:link]

The Washington dairy industry, seeking to bridge the rural-urban divide, has turned to social media’s biggest platform, Facebook, and its most-informed spokesmen, farmers. In a live video cht, Yakima County farmer Bill Warvin fielded questions about his dairy practices, including why calves are taken from their mothers at birth. “I think it’s a great question,” he said. “It seems unnatural for someone not close to animal livestock.”The video was the second of four chats planned by the Dairy Farmers of Washington, the state dairy products commission. [node:read-more:link]

Catchily named the McVegan, it consists of a soy-based patty topped with tomato, salad, pickles and vegan McFeast sauce, sandwiched between a bun. McDonald’s have decided to trial the burger in Tampere, Finland, from 4 October to 21 November.  However, if it’s popular, the McVegan might be rolled out globally. [node:read-more:link]

very year, U.S. dairy farmers produce 3 billion more pounds of milk than the year before. For the past few years, production growth has outpaced processing capacity growth and dairy processors are struggling to keep pace, according to a new report from CoBank's Knowledge Exchange Division. As a result, "Dairy processors are faced with the challenge of handling an ever-growing milk supply, while anticipating the right product mix to meet consumer demand," said Ben Laine, senior dairy economist at CoBank. "An additional 27 billion pounds of U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A new study in Global Food Security found that livestock place less burden on the human food supply than previously reported. Even stronger, certain production systems contribute directly to global food security because they produce more highly valuable nutrients for humans, such as proteins, than they consume."As a Livestock Policy Officer working for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, I have been asked many times by the press to report on the negative environmental impacts of livestock," explained lead investigator Anne Mottet, PhD. [node:read-more:link]

It disturbs me to see less-developed countries using valuable resources to implement western-style regulatory systems for such crops when those resources could be better used elsewhere and such technologies probably hold greater potential than in the western world. Some people have made their careers debating from a pro- or anti-GMO point of view. Organizations have developed on both sides, again taking resources that could be better used elsewhere. [node:read-more:link]

Efforts underway from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to scale back the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) would break repeated promises by President Donald Trump to protect the RFS. As part of a Notice of Data Availability (NODA) published by the agency on Oct. 4, EPA signaled that it is contemplating reducing proposed RFS volumes, including volumes that were finalized a year ago. [node:read-more:link]