On Friday, March 15, lawmakers from the state of Colorado introduced a bipartisan bill calling for the study of how blockchain technology might be applied to the state's agricultural industry. House Bill 1247 is championed in the house by representatives Donald Valdez and Mark Catlin, with state senators Kerry Donovan and Don Coram also sponsoring. [node:read-more:link]
Georgia lawmakers on Monday passed legislation to create an oyster farming industry in the state despite opposition from fishermen and environmentalists who consider it too restrictive. With a vote of 35-19 in the senate, H.B. 501, which passed the house last week, now goes to the desk of Gov. Brian Kemp. [node:read-more:link]
The Wyoming Department of Agriculture is beginning the process of regulating industrial hemp in Wyoming following the passage of HB171/HEA No. 0110 and Gov. Mark Gordon's signature. [node:read-more:link]
New research shows that a critical piece of the butterfly's annual cycle was missing -- the fall migration.Scientists studying monarch butterflies have traditionally focused on two sources for their decline -- winter habitat loss in Mexico and fewer milkweed plants in the Midwest.New research conducted by Michigan State University and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, shows that a critical piece of the butterfly's annual cycle was missing -- the fall migration. [node:read-more:link]
While the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) remains in winter hibernation, the rest of the river system is overflowing with excess water from snowmelt and recent rains. The flooding is preventing barges from moving grain and fertilizer for spring planting. [node:read-more:link]
Exasperated local officials told Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday about lost farms and businesses due to flooding, ongoing river breaches, the need for higher levees and their concern about a lack of information from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Flooding over the weekend in the Missouri River Basin quickly became more destructive than flooding the region faced in the spring and summer of 2011. Levees that held back the river eight years ago collapsed and were undermined by heavy water coming from multiple rivers. [node:read-more:link]
The National Solar Jobs 2018 tracks solar employment nationwide and state by state. Below is complete information on solar jobs for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico in 2018. [node:read-more:link]
There is growing frustration among some living in rural areas, who find themselves fighting for a lane on the information highway. "Numerous times we're booted off. It's hard to navigate the internet if you have more than one person on, and with three kids and a wife who's an educator, it's very difficult to use the internet sufficiently," says David Poyer, of Deansboro. [node:read-more:link]
On February 12, 2019 Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) introduced S.454 – The Office of Rural Broadband Act in the Senate. Co-sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), John Hoeven (R-ND) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), the bill would establish an Office of Rural Broadband in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The bill has now been referred to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. [node:read-more:link]
On January 17, more than 30 organic dairy farmers—most of whom sell their milk to Organic Valley or Maple Hill—gathered at a farm near Syracuse, New York. The “emergency meeting” was called without the processors’ knowledge, and attendees discussed who had lost contracts, who had seen trucks from Texas hauling in cheap organic milk, and falling prices. “The reason we had it was just to keep each other informed,” said Dave Nichols, a grassfed organic dairy farmer who sells to Maple Hill. “None of us really knew what was going on on the other side of the fence. [node:read-more:link]
