more than 120 military veterans working and investing in the ethanol industry sent a letter to President Trump last week, urging him to include a prominent role for ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in his “America First Energy Plan.”  According to the letter, “many of us have witnessed firsthand the dangers of our reliance on oil imports from hostile and unstable parts of the world. We share your belief that the United States can and must do more to insulate itself from the negative impacts associated with oil import dependence and OPEC manipulation. [node:read-more:link]

The latest new buzzword in food tech? Fermentation. And we’re not talking about the kimchi or kombucha kind.  Rather, it’s a process increasingly used by food companies to answer a ballooning demand for natural ingredients that are hard to come by. Instead of sourcing these ingredients from nature, food scientists are creating them through an industrial method that they describe as similar to brewing beer. Here’s how it works: Scientists identify the desired genes in a plant or animal and insert them into a host such as yeast. [node:read-more:link]

Cargill Inc. said its Wichita, Kans.-based North American protein business is donating $50,000 in new fencing materials to ranchers who lost fences during last week’s fast-moving wildfire in western Kansas and two nearby states. The wildfires consumed more than 1,000 square miles of grazing land in rural Kansas, destroying an estimated 100,000 miles of ranch fencing in Kansas alone, Cargill noted in a news release. The company said the Kansas Livestock Association told officials that replacement fencing materials were needed more than anything else to rebuild what the fire destroyed. [node:read-more:link]

The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has yet to issue any public notices of fines for violations so far this year, although officials told The New York Times that enforcement actions are still under way.  OSHA has not posted any news releases covering rule enforcement fines on its website, a major shift from activity under the Obama administration, when the agency issued an average of about 460 news releases per year, the paper reported. [node:read-more:link]

The Texas Thoroughbred Association and Texas Horsemen’s Partnership are excited to report that five bills have been filed with the Texas Legislature that could benefit the Texas racing industry.  Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R) filed three bills in the Senate: SB #1971 (Co-authored by Sen. Dawn Buckingham (R)) – Would create a purse matching fund from the state’s general revenue fund that is expected to increase purses by $25 million. Committee substitute language is expected to clarify specifics. [node:read-more:link]

Change is never easy. But when it comes to adopting new agricultural practices, some farmers are easier to convince than others. A group of researchers at the University of Illinois wanted to know which farmers are most likely to adopt multifunctional perennial cropping systems—trees, shrubs, or grasses that simultaneously benefit the environment and generate high-value products that can be harvested for a profit.“We surveyed farmers in the Upper Sangamon River Watershed in Illinois to learn their attitudes about growing MPCs on marginal land. [node:read-more:link]

There has been much debate and much written about the likely costs and benefits of including ethanol in the domestic gasoline supply. Costs and benefits fall into two major categories--environmental and economic (e.g., Stock, 2015). One economic consideration is the potential impact on domestic gasoline prices from augmenting the gasoline supply with biofuels. A second economic consideration, and one that has received the most attention, is the cost of ethanol relative to petroleum-based fuel. [node:read-more:link]

With 69 of Ohio’s 88 counties producing maple syrup, it’s easy to see that “liquid gold” is an important part of the state’s agriculture. The Ohio Maple Madness Driving Tour allows people to see just how maple syrup is made. [node:read-more:link]

The Kansas House on Tuesday passed and sent to the Senate a bill that would offer tax incentives for investment companies that finance business projects that bring jobs to rural areas.  The Ad Astra Rural Jobs Act, as the bill is called, passed the House, 97-22, over the objection of some House members who said it had not been thoroughly studied, and worried that it could lead to giving taxpayer subsidies to factory hog farms or other kinds of confined animal feeding operations.  Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, made that argument during debate on the bill Tuesday. [node:read-more:link]

These preliminary compliance estimates were conducted by soil and water conservation districts based on parcel reviews via aerial/satellite imagery. It is important to note that these estimates do not imply or represent non-compliance. Additional field-level reviews will be the next step in the inventory process. [node:read-more:link]