The Young Farmer Success Act isn’t a handout. It’s a repayment plan, where those entering the agriculture industry are making income-based repayments consistently for 10 years, prior to qualifying for debt forgiveness. That means they have to make a 10-year commitment to agriculture before benefiting from such a program. If in 10 years, a grower has outstanding student debt, it’s forgiven. [node:read-more:link]
Critics of water markets and efficient allocations in general claim that this flexibility is dangerous because high-income households and profitable firms could enjoy all the water they want, leaving low-income households to die of thirst. Would this happen if water was allocated by a market? Drinking is one of the highest valued uses of water in the entire market. A market for water is going to place a very high priority on getting people drinking water precisely because it is a high-valued use. [node:read-more:link]
A simple metric of water scarcity is the water availability per capita. We calculate it for both water-endowed and water-short countries. [node:read-more:link]
Confusion exists about water scarcity, but much more confusion and disagreement prevails about policies and the means to address water scarcity. In an article published at the beginning of the millennium, Glieck (2003) compares 20th century water policies and those needed for the 21st century. Policies developed in the previous century were based on development of physical means, such as pipes and reservoirs. [node:read-more:link]
A new survey conducted by Dow AgroSciences shows a widening gap between agriculture and consumers. The survey questioned 155 growers, between 35 and 65 years old, in the Midwest. Less than 2 percent say policymakers understand the impact of regulations on their businesses. Nearly 80 percent contend policymakers don’t understand the ag industry overall. Seventy-nine percent contend a more-informed consumer benefits U.S. agriculture. Only one in 10 say farmers can influence food company decisions on ag inputs used in their products. [node:read-more:link]
Attorneys for opponents of Oklahoma’s so-called “Right to Farm” ballot initiative have filed an appeal to try to keep the measure off the statewide ballot in November. Attorney Heather Hintz tells The Oklahoman that an accelerated appeal was filed in hopes that the state Supreme Court will take up the case before an August deadline for the Oklahoma Election Board to print the November ballot. Nonprofit organization Save The Illinois River Inc., state Rep. [node:read-more:link]
Federal food inspectors, armed with a court order and escorted by police, inspected a Lancaster County farm on Monday linked in March to tainted milk. Amos Miller, who owns Miller’s Organic Farm, had denied inspectors access in April, but relented in the face of a court order from a federal judge.Two meat inspectors, accompanied by an Upper Leacock Township police officer, inspected the farm for about three hours, he said. [node:read-more:link]
Maple Leaf Foods has received $90,380 in federal and provincial government grants to bolster employee training at the company’s Hamilton, Ontario, processing plant. [node:read-more:link]
The scale of the crisis facing Britain's dairy farmers following years of falling milk prices has been laid bare in a new report that shows that more than 1,000 farms have closed in the past three years. Low prices are partly to blame, says the AHDB, with wholesale milk prices often as much as 10p below the cost of production. The worst hit area of the UK is North Yorkshire, where 89 farms have closed, and the largest proportionate decline is in Berkshire, where a third of farms have now shut down. [node:read-more:link]
Following in the footsteps of “Food, Inc.” and “Cowspiracy” before it, the latest film to use entertainment as a tactic to plant questions in consumers’ heads about their food supply is set to premiere this week. "At the Fork" positions itself as a “refreshingly unbiased look at how farm animals are raised for our consumption” —but I can’t see how that’s possible when the film was produced in partnership with HSUS, an organization with a vegan CEO and a 15-member “meatless transition team” working to take meat off the menu at restaurants and in schools and institutions. [node:read-more:link]
