A patent application from General Mills shows it is experimenting with legumes such as chickpeas, adzuki beans, fava beans and lentils to create non-dairy ‘milks;' eggless mayonnaise and dips; and cultured legume based products such as cheeses, yogurts, kefir and ice cream. [node:read-more:link]
Unable to find enough workers to carry out the painstaking tasks of milk production, dairy producers in South Dakota hope to tap into a different labor force: unemployed residents of Puerto Rico. It could be a tonic both for dairy operators and Puerto Rico, where the jobless rate stands at 12 percent but workers are far freer to travel to the U.S. for jobs than immigrants due to the island's status as a U.S. territory. South Dakota dairy farms produced 209 million pounds of milk in 2016, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. [node:read-more:link]
A coalition of health and environmental groups is asking Oregon officials to investigate construction of a mega-dairy in Morrow County. It's unclear whether state agencies will sign off on the controversial 30,000-cow dairy farm. It hasn't been determined whether Lost Valley Ranch broke the law by breaking ground long before it secured the necessary permits. [node:read-more:link]
In one end of the long green warehouse come heaps of powdery, malodorous chicken manure. Out the other goes garden-ready fertilizer sold to golf courses or companies like Scotts, which bag it and markets it as Miracle Gro Organic Choice and other products. Supporters say the Perdue AgriRecycle facility a few miles from the Maryland state line is one solution for chicken farmers on the Eastern Shore who need to get rid of manure. Along with the chicken litter, Perdue receives hundreds of thousands of state taxpayer dollars each year. [node:read-more:link]
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection service has issued a notice providing instructions to FSIS Public Health Veterinarians (PHVs), inspection program personnel (IPP) and District Veterinary Medical Specialists (DVMSs) about assessing and informing official livestock establishments whether their written systematic approach for humane handling and slaughter meets the criteria for being a robust plan or not. [node:read-more:link]
The United States announced an end to a ban on imports of French beef that was in place for 19 years on concerns over bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the European Commission said Friday. France becomes the fourth European country under BSE-related restrictions to receive the nod from the U.S., which earlier reopened to Ireland, Lithuania and the Netherlands. [node:read-more:link]
“Bobwhites on the Brink,” a five-part film series by the syndicated television conservation news magazine, This American Land, examines the reasons for the nationwide decline of the bobwhite quail and the efforts being made to reverse the trend on the American landscape. In the fourth segment (#604) of the series, viewers are brought to Kansas in large part due to the success of the state’s Conservation Reserve Program in providing species habitat. The segment explores how agricultural operations in the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
As coastal development along the Gulf Coast continues to expand, tidal saline wetlands could have difficulty adjusting to rising sea levels. Tidal saline wetlands along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast, such as mangrove forests, salt marshes, and salt flats, face survival challenges as sea levels rise rapidly and development along coastlines continues to grow. But, a recently published U.S. Geological Survey study shows there is hope for some of these at-risk Gulf coast wetlands. [node:read-more:link]
Thanks to a class action settlement, Oregon residents who has purchased milk or milk products since 2003 may be entitled to a payment. The $52 million settlement over price-fixing of milk and milk products includes Oregon, 14 other states, and the District of Columbia. While the payment amounts will vary depending on the number of products and the number of submitted claims, a website for the settlements says consumers may receive up to $70. No proof of purchase is needed to be eligible. In order to be eligible, you must have purchased milk or milk products from a grocery store. [node:read-more:link]
Google stunned a few communities last June with the announcement that they were taking a break from fiber deployments and considering building hybrid wired/wireless networks. Suddenly, people started to publicly question whether fiber is the Holy Grail that communities assume it to be. Wireless in broadband has been deified, vilified, misunderstood, hyped to holy heaven, and in some circles, just plain ignored. To many, fiber can do no wrong, only become faster. Then came gig fiber. No, wait, now there’s gig wireless. [node:read-more:link]
