The state’s emerging opioid crisis may be partly to blame for the workforce shortages stymieing local efforts to attract new jobs. This was one of the revelations from the second meeting of the state’s new House Rural Development Council, which met recently in Toccoa. The group of legislators is tasked with identifying potential policy fixes for the economic challenges facing the rural Georgia. [node:read-more:link]
The number of people living in nonmetro counties declined by nearly 21,000 (-0.05 percent) between July 2015 and July 2016, continuing 6 years of modest population losses. Although many individual nonmetro counties have shown population losses for decades, this is the first period of overall nonmetro population decline. ERS tracks demographic change in nonmetro areas and conducts research to help explain the relationship between population change and the socioeconomic well-being of rural and small-town residents. [node:read-more:link]
The state of U.S. agricultural production is changing. Over the next decade, increases to minimum wage and other changing labor regulations will have a dramatic impact on fruit, vegetable and other labor-intensive agricultural production in the U.S. These impacts will be on top of evolving immigration policies and trends, which have been receiving a lot of attention in mainstream media as well as farm media in recent months. Many of these changes will undoubtedly be welcome to farmworkers and their families. [node:read-more:link]
California would set standards for organic marijuana, allow pot samples at county fairs and permit home deliveries under legislation set to be considered by lawmakers Thursday as the state prepares for next year’s start of legal marijuana sales. Lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration are working to merge California’s new voter-approved recreational pot law with the state’s longstanding medical marijuana program. [node:read-more:link]
Two dairy farmworkers were heading back to a Franklin Country farm where they live and work after participating in a 13-mile march from Montpelier to the Ben & Jerry’s Factory in Waterbury. That’s when U.S. Border Patrol agents detained them on Saturday night.Immigrant dairy farmworkers and activists Yesenia Hernández-Ramos and Esau Peche-Ventura, 19 and 26, continue to be detained, and the immigrant justice group they’re involved with, Migrant Justice, is planning a rally outside of the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility where Hernández-Ramos is detained. Both are in U.S. [node:read-more:link]
The grasslands of U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue today named Jason Hafemeister as his acting Deputy Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agriculture Affairs and two other individuals to key leadership roles as he continues the reorganization plan he announced a month ago. Robert Johansson was appointed acting Deputy Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation, while staying on as USDA’s Chief Economist, a position he has held since July 2015. [node:read-more:link]
Friction between the U.S. and Mexico over trade is starting to cut into sales for U.S. farmers and agricultural companies, adding uncertainty for an industry struggling with low commodity prices and excess supply.Over the first four months of 2017, Mexican imports of U.S. soybean meal—used to feed poultry and livestock—dropped 15%, the first decrease for the period in four years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Shipments of U.S. chicken meat fell 11%, the biggest decline for the period since 2003. U.S. corn exports to Mexico declined 6%. [node:read-more:link]
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published in the Federal Register its proposed rule regarding China’s poultry slaughter system and its equivalence to the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
This week a federal court had its own interpretation of the rule of law. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote: “Lake Oahe holds special significance for the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. Its creation necessitated the taking of approximately 56,000 acres of some of ‘the best land’ from Standing Rock’s Reservation, as well as 104,420 acres of Cheyenne River’s trust lands. [node:read-more:link]
