The U.S. potato industry has taken umbrage with a popular dietary fad, which is based on the premise that humans ate healthier during the Stone Age than following the advent of agriculture. The Paleolithic diet — coined by Colorado State University emeritus professor Loren Cordain — promotes foods that would have been available to hunter-gatherers more than 10,000 years ago — such as grass-fed meat, wild game, nuts, fruits and non-starchy vegetables. [node:read-more:link]

U.S. District Judge Garr King has awarded the Oregon Natural Desert Association nearly $63,500 because the nonprofit prevailed in a lawsuit opposing the use of motorized vehicles in an 80,000-acre “wilderness study area” near Steens Mountain. Ranchers and local officials worry the prohibition against motorized vehicles will impede juniper removal to the detriment of habitat for the sage grouse. The bird’s declining population has prompted restoration efforts in the arid West to forestall its designation as a threatened species, which would likely curtail cattle grazing on public land. [node:read-more:link]

Seven northwest Washington dairies have pledged to step up efforts to keep manure from spoiling Lummi Nation shellfish beds, while the tribe has agreed to pull back on plans to sue.  Dairies also will compensate the tribe with nearly $1.2 million for beds closed by bacteria since 2014 in Portage Bay in Whatcom County. Over the next several months, the tribe and dairies will try to out work water-quality improvement plans for the farms. [node:read-more:link]

Fifteen Oregon counties must soon decide whether to opt out of a class action lawsuit seeking $1.4 billion for allegedly insufficient logging in state forests.  As the Jan. 25 deadline approaches, a coalition of environmental and fishing groups is urging counties and the taxing entities within them — including school and fire districts — to exit the litigation. [node:read-more:link]

The USDA has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) against the agency over the sale by National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) to the National Pork Board of the “Pork. The Other White Meat” trademarks.  In 2006 NPPC sold the trademarks to the Pork Board for approximately $35 million. It financed the purchase over 20 years. USDA (which oversees the federal Pork Checkoff) approved the purchase, and the Pork Board’s annual payment was set at about $3 million. [node:read-more:link]

Monthly milk cost-of-production (COP) estimates, and annual milk COP estimates by State and size of operation are shown below. Estimates since 2010 are based on the 2010 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) data from milk producers. Estimates for 2005 through 2009 are based on the 2005 ARMS data from milk producers. Maine and Kentucky farmers lose big.. [node:read-more:link]

A new training tool is available for agriculturalists who want to learn more about the Veterinary Feed Directive, a  federal directive that regulates the medications put into animals’ feed. The VFD went into affect Jan. 1. The tool, Module 29: Veterinary Feed Directive, was developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's National Veterinary Accreditation Program, working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine and Iowa State's Center for Food Security and Public Health. [node:read-more:link]

Global agricultural trader Bunge Ltd said on Monday it will build its first new U.S. soybean processing plant in 15 years in Indiana or Ohio to serve growing domestic and export demand for soy products. The plant is expected to be on line by the end of 2019, St. Louis County-based Bunge North America said in a statement. [node:read-more:link]

Scientists have demonstrated that they can use a crop spray to silence genes in plants, rendering the plants resistant to a virus for several weeks.  A team at the University of Queensland in Australia has developed a technique that allows it to deposit RNA onto the leaves of crops. The spray makes use of microscopic sheets of clay, into which RNA is loaded. As the sheets stick to the leaf of a plant and gradually break down, the RNA is taken up by the plants and then interferes with a gene inside to stop it from functioning. [node:read-more:link]

Seven MIT graduate students studying food and water security issues presented their research and preliminary findings on issues such as these during the MIT Water and Food Security Student Symposium. Hosted by the MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the MIT Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab, the event brought together professors and students to discuss food and water challenges and opportunities to address these through research. [node:read-more:link]