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| Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm ~ Butterfly Copper Engravings ~ 1810 |
This Tuesday news thread is a weekly feature here at Big Picture Agriculture.
- Exemplary: some Iowans have called him “nuts” for sowing grass where he could plant more corn | DesMoines Register
- Foreign investment in U.S. farmland on the rise | DesMoines Register Quote: The database shows that between 2004 and 2014, the amount of agricultural land held by foreign investors doubled from 13.7 million acres to 27.3 million acres — an area roughly the size of Tennessee.
- Global demand for food and agriculture products is projected to slow "considerably" over the next decade, mainly due to weakening consumption in China | Phys.org Quote: The FAO added that the use of biofuels—which "was heavily policy-driven" ... over the past decade—will experience a similar production slowdown... This slowdown will allow farmers to use land that was previously earmarked for biofuels to grow food instead. The report also predicted that consumption growth in developing countries will decrease the number of undernourished individuals from 11 percent to eight percent over the coming decade, bringing the total down from over 788 million to 650 million people.
- Dicamba drift is a problem this year | NPR
- Two states ban dicamba weed killer after drift complaints | Reuters
- Zapping Noxious Weeds On Organic Farms Is Harder Than You Think | NPR Quote: "We use a lot of steel and diesel to control weeds," Hunton says. "It's not easy being a farmer, but it's easier being a conventional farmer."
- Russia and the great land giveaway in the Far East | Asia Times
- From the UK comes one of the best documents I’ve ever seen about food system policy: A People’s Food Policy | Food Politics
- Kansas farmers are in debt. | The Hutchinson News
- Amish farmers square off against Big Organic in milk battle | Chicago Tribune Comment: Many have been convinced to buy organic milk, but does their label mean much?
- Kelly Whitaker’s Heritage Grain Crusade; With his new nonprofit, the Noble Grain Alliance, the Basta chef is bringing heritage grains back to Colorado farms and restaurants. | 5280 Comment: Very interesting story from my backyard.
- Ceres Launches New Investor Guide to Engage Food Sector on Sustainability Risks | CERES
- Food Prices Near 2-Year High Thanks to a Record Surge in Butter and Wheat | Bloomberg
- Progress on World Hunger Has Reversed | IPS Quote: FAO has identified 19 countries facing severe food crises due to a combination of conflict and climate change including South Sudan, Northeast Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen where nearly 20 million are affected.
- Rural hospitals often trade independence for better care | Denver Post
- Mexico Is No Longer No. 1 U.S. Corn-Buyer After Trade Tensions, now it's Japan | Bloomberg
- How A Vermont Family Dairy Farm Makes Ends Meet | VPR
- The EPA proposed to keep the 2018 target for conventional ethanol at 15 billion gallons, unchanged from 2017, helping corn farmers | Bloomberg
- Yet another anti-ethanol newspaper opinion piece. | Waco Tribune Herald
- The enzymes tapped to help turn switchgrass, corn stover (corn stalks, leaves and other leftovers) and poplar into biofuels amount to about 20 percent of production costs | EurekAlert Comment: A policy gift to Danish owned Novazymes plant, located on Iowa-Nebraska border.
- California Almond Crop Projected to Increase 5 Percent | USAgnet
- Bankers turn positive on land prices in US cotton, cattle heartland | Agrimoney
- Irrigation equipment maker, Lindsay Corp continues to grow | Omaha W-H
- USDA spends 10 Million to purchase surplus Maine blueberries | Kansas City
- Japan-EU trade deal good for European dairies, bad for ours | USA Today
- Ukraine land reform to unlock $40-50 billion for agribusiness lending | Reuters
- ‘Farming powerhouse’ Thailand is Asia’s top milk exporter | Royal Thai Embassy, Washington D.C.
- Egypt aims to double its high-quality cotton production and export | Reuters
- Fresh sweet cherries expected to be plentiful this summer | USDA (chart)
- Yield of Dreams: How Precision Agriculture Will Help Feed the Planet | Trend.pewtrusts
- CWT Assists with 1.9 Million Pounds of Cheese Exports | USAgnet
- How Group Organic Farming Empowered Tribal Farmers in Tamil Nadu. Organic farming has doubled the crop yield and increased tribal farmers’ profit margins, helping relieve their previous debts. | The Wire
- Mideast: Water Use Innovations ‘Crucial’ to Face Climate Change | IPS
- Grapes shrivel as Spanish farmers lament a relentless drought | The Guardian
- Climate change could make Sahel wet | Phys.org
- Millions of pigs will soon live better lives in China | CSM
- Despite the Myth, Sustainable Farming Methods Can Lead to High-Yield Agriculture | The Wire
- International Bison Conference announces goal of 1 million bison | Missoulian
- How a crop-destroying fungus mutated to infect wheat | ScienceNews
- A record-setting siege of deadly heat gives Southwest a taste of its future | MinnPost
- Big food is in trouble. Firms including General Mills and Conagra were slow to address the twin threats of fresher, more modern fare and inexpensive store brands. | WSJ (paywall)
- Shopping for sunscreen: Are all brands equal? | Harvard Health
- 7-Eleven is now stocking Soylent | Business Insider
- 9 Can’t-Miss Events at Slow Food Nations; What to do at Denver's most anticipated foodie event of the year. | 5280
AND, FINALLY, a big thanks to @AgScienceWriter for this tweet:
You bet! You do the best ag/ag production news round-up! Thanks for doing this!
— Ag Science Writer (@agsciencewriter) July 5, 2017
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