Experts in the industry have already pointed out, repeatedly, that the coal jobs are extremely unlikely to come back. The plight of the coal industry is more a function of changing energy markets and increased demand for natural gas than anything else. The chief executive of the nation's largest privately held coal operation said that Trump “can't bring coal back.” Another largely overlooked point about coal jobs is that there just aren't that many of them relative to other industries. [node:read-more:link]

DuPont will sell the majority of its 600-employee Stine-Haskell Research Center in Newark to Philadelphia-based FMC Corp. as part of a multibillion-dollar asset swap. The Wilmington-based company also announced it has pushed back the expected closure date of its proposed $130 billion merger with the Dow Chemical Co. DuPont now expects the deal to be completed between Aug. 1 and Sept. 1. Originally, Dow and DuPont said the merger would be finalized in the first half of 2017.  FMC will acquire the 515-acre facility's agriculture research space, known as the Stine portion. [node:read-more:link]

In its annual prospective plantings report released Friday, the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

French yogurt maker Danone will sell its Stonyfield Farms business to gain approval from U.S. regulators for a $12.5 billion buyout of Denver's WhiteWave Foods. The Justice Department made the deal, first announced last summer, contingent on the sale, citing the potential for reduced competition in the organic milk market if Stonyfield were owned by Danone. [node:read-more:link]

JBS SA, the world’s largest meatpacker, has been named in a new federal investigation into purchases of cattle that were grazed on illegally deforested land. JBS has denied any wrongdoing.  IBAMA, the Brazilian environmental protection agency, released the results of Operation “Carne Fria” which is a three-year probe of more than a dozen meat packers and at least 20 farms that sold cattle raised in Para, which occupies a large swath of the Amazon Rainforest. The state capital is Belem, which is located near the mouth of the Amazon River. [node:read-more:link]

In response to a House-approved bill that would legalize raw milk, lawmakers are considering a bill that would label it and products made from it.  Senate Bill 300 would make it so “fresh” or unpasteurized milk and related products would require a warning label for consumers who are vulnerable to bacterial infections. That would include pregnant women, young children or infants.The bill passed the Senate 29-to-21 in February and is now in the House of Representatives.Another bill, House Bill 325, would allow milk producers to sell unpasteurized milk. [node:read-more:link]

To boost the number of beds available for low-income residents, the federal government has granted California, Maryland, Massachusetts and New York a waiver of an obscure Medicaid rule that prohibits the use of federal dollars for addiction treatment provided in facilities with more than 16 beds. Seven other states — Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Utah and Virginia — are seeking similar permission. [node:read-more:link]

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is announcing a series of public meetings to receive input on the current Animal Disease Traceability system.  The meetings will allow APHIS to hear from the public about the successes and challenges of the current ADT framework, specifically for traceability in cattle and bison.  They will also provide attendees an opportunity to brainstorm ideas about overcoming these challenges and finding ways to fill gaps in the existing system. These meetings will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. pork producers continue to expand their herds as windfalls from 2014 and relatively cheap input costs help them weather lagging pork pricing and new slaughtering capacity set to come online in the fall provides an incentive. So said analysts Thursday after USDA released its quarterly Hogs and Pigs report, which showed a record crop of 71 million head, up 4.2 percent from the year-ago report. That compared to analysts' average expectations of a 3.9 percent bump in the total inventory. [node:read-more:link]

Prestage Farms on Thursday broke ground in Eagle Grove, Iowa, to begin construction of its new fresh pork processing plant.  The $240 million facility is expected to be completed in the fall of 2018 and will employ about 1,000 people.Prestage Farms now raises pigs in more than 30 counties in Iowa. The plant will support those operations, utilizing "the latest in processing and automation technology," the company said. [node:read-more:link]