Every week we read a lot of interesting stuff found lying around the internet that may be useful to our members. Enjoy this archive of previous Weekly Links posts.
Weekly Links 6-01
Unbound river to surge through Grand Canyon
USA Today
The Colorado River, restrained in its flow through the canyon since the 1960s, will be allowed to gush in semi-flood conditions again, beginning next year under an Interior Department plan to protect native fish and naturalize the river.
Shredding Wheat
Wall Street Journal
The prospect of strong yields in Kansas, the country’s top grower of wheat harvested in the spring, and in other key states like Oklahoma, has sent wheat futures down more than 8% in seven trading sessions.
European authorities reject French ban on Monsanto corn
STLToday.com
European authorities have rejected a French government effort to ban a genetically modified corn developed by Creve Coeur-based Monsanto Co.
FDA Appeals Mandate to Ban Three Animal Antibiotics
Food Safety News
After a magistrate judge ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration must act on its long-standing proposal to ban the use of three antibiotics in animal feed because they may contribute to antibiotic resistance in bacteria, FDA is appealing the decision.
Beef Supplies and Cattle Industry Expansion Plans
Farm Doc Daily
With the cookout season in full swing, it’s a good time to take a close look at beef supplies and cattle numbers.
Weekly Links 5-18
Prices for Hogs Wallow in the Mud
Wall Street Journal
In the Chicago futures pits, prices of lean hogs are going belly up. The 26% decline in prices over the past nine months has frustrated traders, farmers and meat processors, who have long anticipated a rebound. It also has shown little benefit to consumers, who still are paying record prices for pork chops or to snack on BLTs, as retailers are reluctant to discount pork products.
TPP Talks Advance in Texas
USTR
The United States said that TPP partners – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam – made better-than-expected progress at the twelfth round of negotiations that formally concluded today outside Dallas, Texas.
Iowa governor applauds state’s schools for sticking with LFTB
Brownfield
As the controversy over Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) raged on earlier this spring, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds sent letters to all 359 Iowa school districts, urging them to continue using LFTB in their school lunch programs.
Weekly Links 4-27
Delay sought on farm bill
Politico
A draft Senate farm bill would save $26.4 billion over the next 10 years, but it faces resistance from Southern commodity interests who are pressing for a delay in Wednesday’s markup before the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Consumer Magazines Brag On Beef
Beef Daily
Want to improve your strength and endurance, increase your muscle mass while reducing fat, and live a long, healthy life? Beef may be the answer, according to leading health magazines.
Rural kids, parents angry about Labor Dept. rule banning farm chores
The Daily Caller
A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves.
Weekly Links 4-13
NGFA Wants to Take a Bite Out of CRP
DTN
The National Grain and Feed Association issued a news release Tuesday “urging the Senate Agriculture Committee to implement fundamental reforms to the Conservation Reserve Program as it begins drafting the 2012 farm bill this month.”
T. BOONE PICKENS: ‘I’ve Lost My A– In The Wind Business’
Business Insider
Energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, the chairman of BP Capital Management and author of his namesake plan for U.S. energy independence “The Pickens Plan”, said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he “lost his a– in the [wind] business.”
Weekly Links 3-16
Is Perception Reality? Improving Agricultural Messages by Discovering How Consumers Perceive Messages
Journal of Applied Communications
This study assessed how consumers interpret agricultural messages typically found on commodity organizations’ websites in Florida.
‘Spite effect’ drives crazy land sales
Successful Farming
The continued spike in farm land values continues to be a huge story for corn and soybean farmers in the Midwest. But, are all these eye-popping land sale numbers really good indicators of where the land market sits right now?
What’s Behind the Rise in SNAP Participation?
Amber Waves
The weak economy played a major role but other factors also contributed to the increase in program participation over the last decade.
Weekly Links 3-9
Failed backyard farms lead to growing number of homeless animals
Mother Nature Network
More people are giving backyard farming a try. The prospect of fresh eggs and milk inspires them to bring home adorable chicks and goats — but when chicks grow into roosters or goats begin eating the landscaping, these animals are often given to animal sanctuaries or simply abandoned.
North Dakota now third biggest crude-producing state
The Bismark Tribune
North Dakota has overtaken California as the third-largest oil-producing state in the nation.
Weekly Links 3-2
Holes Found in Organic Milk Certification Program
USDA
USDA Office of Inspector General’s report this week cited a number of steps that can be taken by the National Organic Program (NOP) to increase consumer confidence in organic milk.
The Coming Boom in Agriculture
Forbes
The old way of looking at food supply and demand is giving way to a new emphasis on the changing diets of hundreds of millions of people. Those changes will substantially increase demand for grains, putting upward pressure on prices.
Texas hunting ranchers fight for right to save African antelope species
The Daily Caller
A court case filed by one animal rights group may cause three endangered species to become extinct.
Compendium of Federal Agencies’ Policies, Strategies, Work/Implementation Plans, Guidance on Environmental Justice
US EPA
Federal agencies recently announced their environmental justice strategies and annual implementation reports. Every agency has a unique and important role to play in ensuring that all communities receive the health and environmental protections they deserve. These strategies and implementation reports outline steps agencies will take to protect communities facing greater health and environmental risks.
Weekly Links 2-22
MF Global failure creates tax crunch for farmers
Reuters
With the tax man breathing down his neck, Ohio farmer Tony Rohrs is scrambling to figure out how much money he made last year in an account at MF Global.
APNewsBreak: Obama’s budget axes USDA program that tests for deadly bacteria in fresh produce
AP
President Barack Obama’s proposed budget would eliminate the nation’s only program that regularly tests fruits and vegetables for deadly pathogens, leaving public health officials without a crucial tool used to investigate deadly foodborne illness outbreaks.
New York Court Affirms Towns’ Powers to Ban Fracking
ProPublica
In a decision that could set a national precedent for how local governments can regulate gas drilling, a New York state court yesterday ruled for the first time that towns have the right to ban drilling despite a state regulation asserting they cannot.
SHOCKER!!
Millions Still Like Their Burgers Pink
Food Safety News
Despite repeated E. coli outbreaks linked to undercooked ground beef, millions of Americans continue to favor their burgers slightly pink inside.
Weekly Links 2-10
Newt Gingrich joins Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum on pre-caucus campaign trail
Westword
Gingrich, Santorum: Open public lands to drilling
Durango Herald
Newt Gingrich Speaks at the Colorado Election Energy Summit
C-SPAN
Rick Santorum Discusses Energy Policy
C-SPAN
Santorum and Gingrich dismiss climate change, vow to dismantle the EPA
Colorado Independent
Rocky Mountain High expectations
CNN
Rick Santorum to President Obama, ‘We’re Not That Stupid’
ABC News
On eve of caucuses, GOP candidates push for Colo. Votes
9News
Weekly Links 1-20
Keystone symbolizes what is wrong with U.S. energy policy
Financial Post
Like regulatory approvals needed for a wide range of other energy projects, the permitting process for Keystone subjected it to years of delay, maximized uncertainty for investors and the oil industry and was ultimately influenced by extraneous factors that were not relevant to the pipeline extension itself.
Obama’s Keystone pipeline rejection is hard to accept
Washington Post
“We almost hope this was a political call because, on the substance, there should be no question […] Environmentalists should fight for policies that might actually do substantial good instead of tilting against Keystone XL, and President Obama should have the courage to say so.
Obama’s pipeline decision delays energy security
USA Today
“The Obama administration’s kick-the-can decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, at least for now, leaves a confusing muddle that exemplifies the continuing fecklessness of U.S. energy policy.
The Anti-Jobs President
Wall Street Journal
The central conflict of the Obama Presidency has been between the jobs and growth crisis he inherited and the President’s hell-for-leather pursuit of his larger social-policy ambitions. The tragedy is that the economic recovery has been so lackluster because the second impulse keeps winning.
Misguided Obama blocks Keystone pipeline
Chicago Tribune
Obama made a decision that will cost the U.S. good jobs. He seems to think those jobs will still be there when he gets around to making a decision on the pipeline. But they may well be gone for good.