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]
The 75 mayors who make up the Mayors National Climate Action Agenda—also known as Climate Mayors—not only issued a strong condemnation of Trump’s actions, they outlined specific ways they will continue their collective work to stop climate change, regardless of the federal government. The signatories include mayors of all major metropolitan areas like New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and D.C., as well as smaller cities like Santa Monica, California, Park City, Utah, and Eugene, Oregon. [node:read-more:link]
The greater Lehigh Valley scored a handful of the first 16 industrial hemp research projects approved by the state Department of Agriculture. [node:read-more:link]
The Environmental Protection Agency has decided to continue allowing the use of the insecticide chlorpyrifos, stating that the science surrounding human health effects is too uncertain to justify its own proposed ban on food tolerances. The agency announced the decision late today, two days ahead of a court-ordered deadline. [node:read-more:link]
I’ve grown accustomed to paying close attention to the exact phrasing in press releases whenever a restaurant company announces a change regarding things such as antibiotic use, cages in egg production and slower-growing broiler chickens. [node:read-more:link]
Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) officials reported net income of $131.8 million, compared to $94.1 million of net income for 2015. The increase was attributable to higher sales volumes, overall operating efficiencies and lower commodity input costs. The record earnings were also buoyed by the acquisition of the remaining 50 percent equity interest in DairiConcepts, a manufacturer of cheese, dairy ingredients and dairy flavor systems with eight facilities across the United States. DFA’s net sales totaled $13.5 billion for 2016, compared to $13.8 billion in 2015. [node:read-more:link]
Today, President Trump is poised to release a long-anticipated executive order to roll back the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s signature climate initiative. The order is expected to be accompanied by directives to lift a moratorium on federal land coal leases and to cease the use of the social cost of carbon — all part of a broad campaign to dismantle environmental regulations on the power sector that Trump blames for the decline of the coal economy in the United States. But while rescinding the rules could help slow coal power’s decline in the short term, analysts say it is [node:read-more:link]
