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As Pot Prices Plunge, Growers Scramble to Cut Their Costs

The increasing supply of legal marijuana is turning into a major buzz kill for growers as prices plunge -- and an opportunity for companies that can help cut production costs. Prices are tumbling as formerly illicit cultivators emerge from the shadows to invest millions of dollars in massive pot factories. In Colorado, the average price sought by wholesalers has fallen 48 percent to about $1,300 a pound since legal sales to all adults started in January 2014, according to Cannabase, operator of the state’s largest market. [node:read-more:link]

ASPCA, Vermont Law School release animal welfare certification guide

Animal rights group The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and Vermont Law School's Center for Agriculture & Food Systems (CAFS) released this week what they call “a comprehensive guide for farmers seeking to better understand or obtain animal welfare certification.”  “The demand for higher animal welfare and transparency in the food system is on the rise as consumers become more concerned about inhumane factory farming practices,” they said. [node:read-more:link]

COOL provisions changed to add venison meat

Once finalized, retailers and suppliers would be required to keep records and provide their customers with notification of the country of origin of muscle cuts and ground venison they sell. The Agricultural Act of 2014 (farm bill) directed AMS to add muscle cuts of venison and ground venison to the list of covered commodities subject to mandatory COOL requirements. Once finalized, retailers and suppliers would be required to keep records and provide their customers with notification of the country of origin of muscle cuts and ground venison they sell. [node:read-more:link]

Growing Pains for Illinois Cannabis Farm

News alert to farm entrepreneurs: There are no get-rich-quick schemes. Case in point is cannabis farming. Marijuana, that is. Successful Farming magazine reported a year ago on one of the first cannabis farms in Illinois, where it’s legal to grow the crop for medicinal reasons. The Revolution Enterprises cannabis farm near Delavan had plans to produce 7,000 pounds of medical cannabis every year, worth $20 million or more. Dispensaries in Illinois would sell it to muscular dystrophy, cancer, autism, and other patients for pain, seizure, or depressive disorders. [node:read-more:link]

Trump's Last Vacant Cabinet Post

Three days before Donald Trump is to be inaugurated as America’s new president, just one Cabinet agency lacks a nominee to lead it: the Department of Agriculture.

The pick has become mired in politics and drama, unsettling the agriculture industry and potentially imperiling Trump’s standing with some of his most ardent supporters—the residents of rural America. In the process, it has become a case study in the difficulty Trump will face as he begins to govern, as his sweeping promises and catchy slogans run up against competing interests. [node:read-more:link]

New study reveals negative implications of raising slow growing chickens

In assessing a transition to a slower-growing breed, the environmental impact is an important component often left out of the equation, NCC said. If only one-third of broiler chicken producers switched to a slower-growing breed, nearly 1.5 billion more birds would be needed annually to produce the same amount of meat currently produced — requiring a tremendous increase in water, land and fuel consumption. This would amount to: Additional feed — It will take enough feed to fill 670,000 more tractor trailers on the road per year, using millions more gallons of fuel annually. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. dairy groups urge Trump to set his sights on Canadian dairy policies

U.S. dairy groups are calling on Donald Trump to set his sights on Canada's "protectionist" dairy practices as he seeks to safeguard American jobs. The International Dairy Foods Association, National Milk Producers Federation and U.S. Dairy Export Council, along with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture say a planned national Canadian ingredients strategy will block U.S. exports in violation of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization. Ontario milk pricing policies adopted last April are hurting U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A Life-Cycle Analysis of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Based Ethanol

To reflect the full range of recently published literature relating to the contribution of international landuse change to the current GHG profile of corn ethanol, ICF adopted a composite approach that averaged the results of three recently published studies (CARB, 2015; Dunn et al., 2015; and GTAP, 2013) and four scenarios developed from their results that allow for alternative sets of emissions factors and the increased use of double cropping (Babcock and Iqbal, 2014). These seven results are shown in Figure 3-4. Dunn et al. [node:read-more:link]

The coming social storm and what it means to agriculture

In our new Post-post modern era, facts are dispensable. It’s the myth that counts. My point is this: With a new Administration assuming the highest office in just a few days, we are going to witness something like a 180 degree turn from the policies of the last eight years.   Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing will be debated for the life of our country.  Some of the debates will be sensible and well-mannered. Too many of them will descend into unreasoned rage and madness. [node:read-more:link]

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