Insurance and Hay Stocks Help Some, But Crops are Lost and Cattle Being Sold. Mark Watne, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, has been touring parts of western North Dakota this past week to talk to producers about the farm bill. The farther north and west, the worst the conditions are for farmers and ranchers, he said."It's a crisis. It's way more than people think. I've driven through areas where you would expect to see a spindly wheat stand, but there's no crop left -- it's gone," Watne said. [node:read-more:link]

Oil spilled seven years ago in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico might no longer be visible, but it's still taking a toll on Louisiana's fragile wetlands. A new study by Louisiana State University indicates that crude oil from the 2010 BP oil spill has become lodged in wetland soils, where it remains almost as toxic as the day it flowed into the gulf.  "We found oil four to five centimeters down in the layers of marsh, which we expected to see," said John White, associate director of LSU's Coastal Studies Institute. [node:read-more:link]

A clean energy financing program in Michigan reached a milestone last month when it helped homeowners and businesses install 1 megawatt of solar energy across the state. Michigan Saves — which was created by a $6.5 million Michigan Public Service Commission grant in 2009 — acts as a green bank by financing clean energy projects at homes and businesses. [node:read-more:link]

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is investigating about two dozen complaints from farmers about the weed killer dicamba. Dicamba is used on soybean fields that have been genetically modified to tolerate the herbicide. But Minnesota farmers have joined hundreds in the southern U.S. who allege that drifting dicamba hurts non-resistant fields. [node:read-more:link]

All packets of pasta and rice sold in Italy will have to include labels of origin showing where the produce was grown, the government ruled on Thursday, in a move it said was aimed at protecting local farmers. The agriculture and industry ministers signed a decree ordering the new labeling policy, saying it would run in an experimental fashion for two years, and criticizing the European Union for not introducing the measure across the 28-nation bloc. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. can now ship rice to China for the first time ever, signaling a win for President Donald Trump in his efforts to reshape the trade relationship just after talks between the nations broke down Wednesday. Officials from the nations finalized a protocol to allow for the first-ever American shipments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday in a statement. China is the world’s biggest rice consumer, importer and producer.The rice deal comes just a month after China reopened its market to U.S. [node:read-more:link]

They called it “Meatless Mondays.” But the all-vegetarian lunch menu offered once a week at Oxnard Union High School District campuses since 2015 was never a big hit with students, officials said.“Vegetarian Day was the lowest participation day” among students eating in OUSHD cafeterias, Stephanie Gillenberg, nutrition services director, told school board members at a recent meeting.Now, “Meatless Mondays,” which this past school year was offered on Fridays, is out.School board members decided June 26 to eliminate the no-meat menu for the next school year as part of cost-saving measures aim [node:read-more:link]

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved unanimously a USDA-FDA funding bill that rejects President Trump’s proposals to slash spending on rural development, crop insurance, and food stamps. In the first major congressional disagreement with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, the $145 billion funding bill overrides his recent elimination of the slot for an undersecretary in charge of rural economic development — and directs the administration to fill the job. [node:read-more:link]

As commodity prices remain low and rural economies struggle, farmers and rural citizens need a strong safety net to stay afloat until conditions improve.However, the budget proposals from the White House and the U.S. House of Representatives do not address that need. The House Budget Committee recently released its 2018 budget proposal, which called for a $10 billion cut in programs under the control of the House Agriculture Committee. [node:read-more:link]

Plenty, a San Francisco vertical farming start-up, has raised $200m  from big-name investors that include Japanese media giant SoftBank, Alphabet's Eric Schmidt and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. [node:read-more:link]