agriculture

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Farmers Drown Their Sorrows in Beer and Fried Chicken

Illinois farmers gather for a 'Prevent Plant Party'

(Newser) - Illinois farmers gathered to tell their tales of woe Thursday at—of all places—The Happy Spot. With heavy rains and record floods forcing them to leave millions of acres unseeded, corn farmers gathered with sellers of equipment, chemicals, and seed at the Deer Grove restaurant to swap stories over...

Researchers Find Trick to Growing Tastier Basil

24-hour light is the key, say MIT researchers

(Newser) - Researchers at MIT say they've figured out how to grow the tastiest basil: Expose the plant to light 24 hours a day. The nugget comes out of a project in which scientists grew the herb in a shipping container, a controlled environment that allowed them to precisely monitor every...

Farm Debt Hits Levels Not Seen Since 1980s Crisis

Perdue says demand for loans is at a high

(Newser) - American farmers are in debt to the tune of $409 billion, up from $385 billion last year and reaching levels of the 1980s agriculture crisis, the agriculture secretary told Congress Wednesday. And loan demand among farmers is "historically high," Sonny Perdue added, per Reuters . Low interest rates and...

Insects Could Disappear Within a Century
Insects Could Disappear
Within a Century
new study
Feb 11, 2019 1:21 PM CST

Insects Could Disappear Within a Century

New global survey provides doomsday warning to world's ecosystem

(Newser) - Insects could completely disappear within the next 100 years, dragging global ecosystems into a catastrophic collapse. The world is embarking on its sixth mass extinction , and the first global scientific review points to a grim outlook for the planet's insects, reports the Guardian . Massive declines have already been seen...

Trump Launches 2nd Round of Payments to Farmers

He cites 'unjustified trade retaliation'

(Newser) - President Trump has authorized the Agriculture Department to launch the second and final round of $11 billion in trade mitigation payments to farmers hard hit by tariffs. In a tweet on Monday, Trump said he is fulfilling a promise to protect farmers against "unjustified trade retaliation by foreign nations....

Farmers Worried as Death Rates Surge for Female Pigs

Agriculture industry trying to get a handle on problem with sows

(Newser) - Operators of farms with a large number of female pigs are seeing a worrying trend—death rates are surging among the sows. One industry group, Swine Management Services, says the death rate increased from 5.8% to 10.2% from 2013 to 2016, per National Hog Farmer . "This makes...

US to Start Paying Farmers $4.7B for Trade War Losses

Soybean growers will get the most relief

(Newser) - Starting next week, farmers who have taken a financial hit because of trade disputes between the US and other countries can apply for government assistance. The White House will dole out $4.7 billion in direct aid to help make up for their reduced profits, reports Bloomberg . Most of that,...

Trump to Give Farmers Aid, but Farmers Aren't Thrilled

'They want trade, not aid,' says lawmaker of $12B in emergency relief amid tariff disputes

(Newser) - President Trump showed off a new campaign hat on Monday—it's green with yellow letters, reminiscent of the John Deere logo, and it reads "Make Our Farmers Great Again," notes Politico . (See Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue sporting one here .) The message is a calculated one as...

China Cancels US Orders, Buys Russian Soy

Beijing calls off investigation of US sorghum

(Newser) - The US-China trade dispute is excellent news for farmers—in Russia. Amid uncertainty over future US tariffs, China has canceled several shipments from American soybean producers and tripled the amount it is buying from Russia, Bloomberg reports. According to the Russian government's latest statistics, Russia sold 850,000 metric...

Company Develops 'World's Tiniest Tomato'

'It's clean, it's nice, it's sexy,' chef says

(Newser) - They say bigger is better, but in the succulent world of cherry tomatoes, one Israeli company is going smaller than ever before. The "drop tomato" is about the size of a blueberry, and the Kedma company in the country's southern Arava desert says it is the smallest one...

They Flew Across the World on a Failed Quest for a Banana

Inside the search for the Cavendish banana's successor

(Newser) - The Cavendish banana—that's the kind sitting in your kitchen right now—is "almost perfect," a scientist with Dole Food Co. tells the Wall Street Journal . Well, "laments," is the word the paper uses. That's because, as has been reported for the past couple...

New Hope Against Hunger: These 'Super Beans'

Early signs of success in Africa

(Newser) - The so-called "super bean," a fast-maturing, high-yield variety, is being promoted by Uganda's government and agriculture experts amid efforts to feed hunger-prone parts of Africa, the AP reports. It's also a step toward the next goal: the "super, super bean" that researchers hope can be...

Gulf of Mexico's Dead Zone Is Now Bigger Than Ever

Heavy rains in Midwest increased agricultural runoff this year

(Newser) - In 2014, the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico was found to have shrunk to the size of Connecticut. To the ire of environmentalists, it has since ballooned to its largest size since mapping began in 1985, says NOAA . Covering 8,776 square miles—that's the size...

Farmer Faces $2.8M Fine for Plowing Field
Farmer Faces $2.8M Fine
for Plowing Field
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
May 28, 2017 12:27 PM CDT

Farmer Faces $2.8M Fine for Plowing Field

John Duarte is accused of disturbing California wetlands

(Newser) - California farmer John Duarte could be facing a $2.8 million fine—and may be ordered to pay millions more in wetlands mitigation—for an offense he describes thusly: "Planting wheat in a wheat field," something he says had been done many times previously. Duarte has been fighting...

After Attempt to Save Bees, a Superweed Thrives Instead

Pigweed inadvertently spread in seed mix, could take years to eradicate

(Newser) - A herbicide-resistant weed strong enough to damage farm equipment has been spread on acres of conservation land in states like Ohio, Texas, Indiana, and Illinois under government programs, reports Illinois Farmer Today . Palmer amaranth, or pigweed—which the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes is "one of the most prolific and...

'War on Gardens' Flares in Mo. Town

New ordinance restricts front yard gardens; guy says it's targeting only him

(Newser) - Score one for lovers of the lawn in Sugar Creek, Mo. The city has passed new restrictions on front-yard vegetable gardens, KSHB reports. One man, Nathan Athans, says he's the sole target of the new rules that prohibit growing food within 30 feet of the street. "We are...

A Tiny Fly Is Wreaking Havoc on Florida's Fruit

85 square miles quarantined over Oriental fruit fly

(Newser) - A $1.6 billion agriculture industry in Florida's Miami-Dade County is essentially at a standstill thanks to a swarm of hungry insects. About 159 Oriental fruit flies have been caught in the area in the last few weeks and agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam tells the Miami Herald it's...

Filthy Air Kills 3.3M a Year—and That May Double

Farming is surprise culprit of smog and soot in industrial nations

(Newser) - Air pollution is killing 3.3 million people a year worldwide, according to a new study that includes this surprise: Farming plays a large role in smog and soot deaths in industrial nations. Scientists from Harvard and in Germany, Cyprus, and Saudi Arabia used health statistics and computer models for...

Bad News, Pistachio Lovers: Nuts Are 'Blanking'

This year's California crop will probably be way down

(Newser) - If you're a fan of noshing on pistachios, news out of California might be more than a little depressing. It's harvest time, and early reports suggest that this year's crop might be down as much as 70%, reports Western Farm Press . The main problem seems to be...

This Methane-Run Tractor Could Be a Gamechanger

New Holland T6 could significantly cut costs and pollution

(Newser) - Luca Remmert's dream of running a self-sustainable farm is within sight. He produces energy from corn and grain near the northern Italian city of Turin and hopes in the not too distant future to run all of his eight tractors on methane generated at the farm. Remmert's 1,...

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