House ag leader backs one-time aid for flooded grain
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said farmers ought to be considered for federal compensation for grain lost in flooded bins this spring. At nearly the same time, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee called for a one-time grain payment to flooded operators.
Report links farm manure to algae blooms in Lake Erie
A spike in the number of large-scale animal farms and resulting manure production in the Maumee watershed is contributing to algae blooms in Lake Erie, a new report finds.
U.S. cotton use lowest in 120 years or more
Domestic demand for cotton is shrinking, so much so that U.S. cotton consumption this year will be the smallest since the 1890s, according to the USDA.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Moving a forest for a butterfly (Los Angeles Times): In a epic experiment, scientists in Mexico are trying to get a step ahead of climate change to the benefit of monarch butterflies by relocating 1,000 feet uphill a forest of the monarch’s preferred habitat of oyamel fir trees.
Climate change transforms the Arctic (InsideClimate News): A team of researchers says the Arctic is shifting to an “unprecedented state” as melting permafrost turns forests into bogs and increased levels of precipitation sweep sediment and nutrients to sea.
China considers end of DDG investigation (AgriCensus): Market sources say China may be considering an end to its investigation of alleged dumping of U.S.-produced DDGs, an ethanol co-product used in livestock rations, which could signal an easing of trade tensions between the nations.
Protecting the parent (Press-Enterprise): City workers in Riverside, hoping to save the “parent navel orange tree,” credited with starting the citrus industry in California and the ancestor of most of the navel orange trees in the state today, removed two citrus trees near the parent tree to create buffer against citrus greening disease.
