Former McDonald’s executive, Robert Langert, said: “Quality is redefined as feeling good about the food we eat.” He said the fast food giant shifted a few years ago from an operational focus to being customer driven, and adopting the cage-free purchase pledge fits into this focus on the customer. “No one is closer to the consumer than McDonald’s,” he said. Egg producers who questioned Langert didn’t agree with his assessment of what consumers want. These egg producers cited the fact that the vast majority of U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Keiser died on Saturday of natural causes, the firm said. With his death, co-founder Craig Culver will take over as interim CEO until a successor is named.  Keiser would have turned 61 on Monday. Keiser worked for Culver's for more than 20 years and was a driving force in the chain's expansion, the company said. Since 1996, Culver's has grown from 44 restaurants to 580 spread across 24 states.  Almost all of the restaurants — known for its "Butter Burgers" and frozen custard — are franchises. [node:read-more:link]

Arrtificial eggs have been grown in a petri dish for the first time, and used to create living animals in a breakthrough hailed as 'remarkable' by British experts. Scientists in Japan proved it is possible to take tissue cells from the tail of a mouse, reprogramme them as stem cells and then turn them into eggs in the lab. The ‘eggs in a dish’ were then fertilised and the resulting embryos were implanted in  female mice which went on to give birth to 11 healthy pups. [node:read-more:link]

The top Republican in the U.S. Congress dimmed hopes that lawmakers might end the embargo on Cuba after President Barack Obama leaves office, saying on Tuesday he intends to keep the trade restrictions in place.  "As the past two years of normalizing relations have only emboldened the regime at the expense of the Cuban people, I fully intend to maintain our embargo on Cuba," U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Low commodity prices are rippling up and down the farm-economy food chain — from the farm to the boardroom — and it has many of the huge companies that control farm inputs looking to a new future.  Most of the seeds and chemicals used to grow the world's crops come from just a handful of big companies, and the largest of those multinational companies — Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, and Syngenta — are trying to get even bigger.  The prospect of fewer, larger companies controlling so much of the basic food supply is giving some farmers and antitrust advocates heartburn.  With massive supplies [node:read-more:link]

A new state law aims to reduce methane from cows, but the cattle industry thinks the regulation stinks.  "I don't have a whole lot of hope that common sense will prevail," said Rob Vandenheuvel, general manager of the Milk Producers Council, a industry group in California. The Golden State has the most dairy cows in the nation with a herd of 1.7 million animals churning out milk. There are also nearly 4 million beef cattle.  Vandenheuvel may not have much to worry about. [node:read-more:link]

The Baltimore County Council voted unanimously Monday to halt large-scale solar power projects on farmland for four months while the county considers rules for them. [node:read-more:link]

It’s a huge job to talk about what we are doing every day on the farm, in that back 40 acres, and what everyone else is doing in this fast-paced world, with so much change happening. We are starting to finally learn how to use Twitter.  It’s hard to connect but I have to earn your trust. I have to tell the story for farmers and ranchers. I have to explain to you what we’re doing and why, and how science influenced our decision to change. [node:read-more:link]

For the first time ever, the army of spinning white turbines that has sprouted across the lush countryside generated enough electricity to power all of Scotland. The exceptional output brought the country membership in a small but growing club of nations proving that the vision of a world powered by renewable fuels is closer than many realize. Long derided as a fantasy, a day’s worth of energy harvested purely from the sun and the wind has lately become reality in nations such as Portugal, Denmark and Costa Rica. [node:read-more:link]

Nick Clegg has claimed that quitting the European Union without staying inside the single market will devastate British farming. He said a hard Brexit would be followed by “punishing tariffs” on products including beef, cheese and wine, effectively pricing them out of their biggest export market. [node:read-more:link]