▬ USDA predicts record harvest | Lincoln Journal Star
▬ The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, or WASDE, report that corn output will rise 11 percent this season from a year earlier, while soybean production will increase 3.3 percent, topping projections by analysts. | Bloomberg
▬ Why does the Land Stewardship Project oppose the TPP? | Land Stewardship Project [In a nutshell, "It’s a threat to small farmers and local food systems worldwide."]
▬ 4 Ag Tech Funding Trends for 2016 | Agweb
▬ Nanoparticles: Should We Be Worried? We're ingesting them in cookies, cakes, and Jell-O, but the science is still out on what nanoparticles do to the human body. | National Geographic
▬ Can we feed 10 billion people on organic farming alone? | The Guardian
▬ The unprecedented international appetite for avocados is indirectly fuelling illegal deforestation and environmental degradation. | The Guardian
▬ California farm communities, too, are suffering from nitrate polluted ground water. | Sacramento Bee
▬ Illegal herbicide (dicamba) use may threaten survival of Missouri's largest peach farm. | St Louis Today [This is sad and pesticide drift makes diverse farming communities a difficult proposition sometimes. Expect to see more about illegal Dicamba use this year.]
▬ Falling Beef Prices | Forbes
FARMLAND PRICES
▬ Clean fuels law brings ethanol to Oregon — but mostly from the Midwest | Oregon Live
▬ US ethanol plant capacity increases for third consecutive year | Biofuels International
▬ Unsafe shrimp and the question of seafood farming - With 90 percent of all shrimp in eaten in the U.S. imported, is the FDA doing enough to protect consumers from illegal antibiotics in their seafood? | AlJazeera
▬ Political Influence of the Traditional Farm Coalition Commodities; with maps showing which congressional districts vote for which commodities subsidies. | Farm Doc Daily
▬ Pollinators in Corn and Soybean Fields Surveyed in Iowa | ATTRA
▬ Blue Cross takes away access to the rural Minnesota self-employed (farmers) leaving few options for health coverage | Star Tribune [From June, but still relevant]
▬ Russia To Become World’s Largest Wheat Exporter | QT Ag Online
▬ Drones will change the way agriculture works in the future. | KRISTV [This article states drones are already being used to spray pesticides in Texas.]
▬ How Refugees Are Growing Food from Their Homelands in Inner-City Philadelphia | VICE
▬ The top 10 places you'll never find a cowboy | The Fence Post [When our boys were young we lived in Nebraska ranch country, and I used to challenge my boys to tell me if a certain cowboy I'd point to was a plastic cowboy or a real cowboy when they were only 2, 3, 4 years old. It was a fun game and quite easy for them to quickly pick up the cues of what constituted a real cowboy.]
▬ Historic Flood Event in Louisiana From 20-30 Inches of Rain | Wunderground
▬ What Will You Do When The Lights Go Out? The Inevitable Failure Of The US Grid | Naked Capitalism [I've included this because our power also went out for 3-4 hours one day last week and it was never explained. The local grocery store was closed, the bank, and virtually everything was shut down. These days we cannot function without our electricity.]
▬ 100% off grid Netherlands town will grow its own food, power itself, and more | Collective Evolution [Although I like the self sufficiency concept, anytime you construct new, and tout future efficiency, people seem to ignore the outsourcing of GHG emissions required for the construction costs of building, so I'm skeptical long range especially since we are not constructing things to last more than 40 years or so, these days. If they do use consumption based GHG emission accounting in the Netherlands, they definitely do not here in the U.S.]
▬ Expect to see more Toast Ale, a beer brewed using bread that would otherwise go to waste. | Huffington Post
▬ Farmer Olympics in Vermont Photo Story | Boston Globe
TRAILER: Milk Men - The Life and Farms of Dairy Farmers
To view last week's LINKS, click here.
▬ The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates, or WASDE, report that corn output will rise 11 percent this season from a year earlier, while soybean production will increase 3.3 percent, topping projections by analysts. | Bloomberg
▬ Why does the Land Stewardship Project oppose the TPP? | Land Stewardship Project [In a nutshell, "It’s a threat to small farmers and local food systems worldwide."]
▬ 4 Ag Tech Funding Trends for 2016 | Agweb
▬ Nanoparticles: Should We Be Worried? We're ingesting them in cookies, cakes, and Jell-O, but the science is still out on what nanoparticles do to the human body. | National Geographic
▬ Can we feed 10 billion people on organic farming alone? | The Guardian
▬ The unprecedented international appetite for avocados is indirectly fuelling illegal deforestation and environmental degradation. | The Guardian
▬ California farm communities, too, are suffering from nitrate polluted ground water. | Sacramento Bee
▬ Illegal herbicide (dicamba) use may threaten survival of Missouri's largest peach farm. | St Louis Today [This is sad and pesticide drift makes diverse farming communities a difficult proposition sometimes. Expect to see more about illegal Dicamba use this year.]
▬ Falling Beef Prices | Forbes
FARMLAND PRICES
▬ Based on USDA real estate surveys, the Mississippi Delta remains a happy hunting ground for farmland owners and investors. In contrast, much of the U.S. Corn Belt's values faltered into negative territory the past year. | DTN Progressive Farmer▬ India has decided to put a financial value on its forests: Rs115 trillion, or an astounding $1.7 trillion. This is lower than India’s GDP, pegged at $2.1 trillion, but higher than the GDPs of countries such as Canada, Korea, Mexico or Russia. | Quartz
▬ According to the most recent AgLetter, Seventh District farmland values in the second quarter of 2016 were 1 percent lower than a year ago. However, values for “good” agricultural land in the second quarter of 2016 were 1 percent higher than in the first quarter. | Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago [Included: Egg prices are down 75 percent from one year ago, and 50 percent from two years ago.]
▬ Declines in cropland values were most significant in Kansas and Oklahoma, likely due to sustained weakness in profit margins associated with wheat and cattle production and potential spillover effects from difficulties in the energy sector. The declines in Kansas cropland values were, in fact, the largest year-over-year declines in any state during the downturn of the past two years. Cropland values in Nebraska fell for an eighth consecutive quarter, and the 5 percent decrease in irrigated cropland values for the District was the largest decrease in 29 years. | Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
▬ Clean fuels law brings ethanol to Oregon — but mostly from the Midwest | Oregon Live
▬ US ethanol plant capacity increases for third consecutive year | Biofuels International
▬ Unsafe shrimp and the question of seafood farming - With 90 percent of all shrimp in eaten in the U.S. imported, is the FDA doing enough to protect consumers from illegal antibiotics in their seafood? | AlJazeera
▬ Political Influence of the Traditional Farm Coalition Commodities; with maps showing which congressional districts vote for which commodities subsidies. | Farm Doc Daily
▬ Pollinators in Corn and Soybean Fields Surveyed in Iowa | ATTRA
▬ Blue Cross takes away access to the rural Minnesota self-employed (farmers) leaving few options for health coverage | Star Tribune [From June, but still relevant]
▬ Russia To Become World’s Largest Wheat Exporter | QT Ag Online
▬ Drones will change the way agriculture works in the future. | KRISTV [This article states drones are already being used to spray pesticides in Texas.]
▬ How Refugees Are Growing Food from Their Homelands in Inner-City Philadelphia | VICE
▬ The top 10 places you'll never find a cowboy | The Fence Post [When our boys were young we lived in Nebraska ranch country, and I used to challenge my boys to tell me if a certain cowboy I'd point to was a plastic cowboy or a real cowboy when they were only 2, 3, 4 years old. It was a fun game and quite easy for them to quickly pick up the cues of what constituted a real cowboy.]
▬ Historic Flood Event in Louisiana From 20-30 Inches of Rain | Wunderground
▬ What Will You Do When The Lights Go Out? The Inevitable Failure Of The US Grid | Naked Capitalism [I've included this because our power also went out for 3-4 hours one day last week and it was never explained. The local grocery store was closed, the bank, and virtually everything was shut down. These days we cannot function without our electricity.]
▬ 100% off grid Netherlands town will grow its own food, power itself, and more | Collective Evolution [Although I like the self sufficiency concept, anytime you construct new, and tout future efficiency, people seem to ignore the outsourcing of GHG emissions required for the construction costs of building, so I'm skeptical long range especially since we are not constructing things to last more than 40 years or so, these days. If they do use consumption based GHG emission accounting in the Netherlands, they definitely do not here in the U.S.]
▬ Expect to see more Toast Ale, a beer brewed using bread that would otherwise go to waste. | Huffington Post
▬ Farmer Olympics in Vermont Photo Story | Boston Globe
TRAILER: Milk Men - The Life and Farms of Dairy Farmers
To view last week's LINKS, click here.