Chicken Plant
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit denied Sanderson Farms’ petition for a review of a decision that found its chicken
Read moreAgriculture
Climate Change Forcing Farmers to Choose Between Low Yields or Income Instability
Farmers are facing a tough decision in the face of climate change: Deal with low yields from the crops they depend on, or plant drought-resistant strains that leave them prone to income instability.
Read moreEnvironment
The United States sued J.R. Simplot Co. and Simplot Phosphates for years of environmental violations at its fertilizer plant near Rock Springs, Wyoming.
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Kentucky Official Claims Covid Orders Are Unfair to Agritourism Sector
The Republican head of Kentucky’s Department of Agriculture sued Democratic Governor Andy Beshear on Monday, claiming executive orders he issued during the Covid-19 pandemic are unconstitutional and have damaged the state’s agritourism industry.
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Salvadoran Army Helps the Poor While Coronavirus Spreads
With Covid-19 cases increasing in El Salvador after the supreme court and Legislative Assembly overturned President Nayib Bukele’s strict quarantine orders, the Salvadoran army is delivering emergency care packages to remote villages, where landless people rent land to gamble on the corn harvest.
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Space Agencies Unveil Site Showing Lockdown Changes to Earth
You can now see how coronavirus lockdowns have changed air pollution, hospital lights and even white asparagus harvests.
Read morePandemic Doesn’t Justify Lifting Cap on Food Stamps, Judge Rules
A federal judge refused Wednesday to uncap emergency food benefits available to low-income Californians during the pandemic.
Read moreMaking California Wine in the Time of Covid-19
As the pandemic proves durable in California, the local wineries will have be as well.
Read moreMeatpacking Industry Struggles to Find New Normal
Slow to implement safety precautions, meatpacking companies balance worker safety with keeping production high while hundreds of workers die.
Read moreFarmworkers
Familias Unidas Por La Justicia sued Washington state in Thurston County Court, claiming it fails to protect migrant farmworkers from Covid-19 in the labor camps where they stay.
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Plant Detectives Develop Tool to Track Spread of Major Crop Disease
Researchers from Oregon State University have developed a method that targets the spread of a disease-causing bacterium — a promising development for preventing ailments of more than 100 plant species, according to a new study.
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France to Transform Surplus Wine Into Hand Sanitizer
PARIS (AFP) — French winemakers will transform wine that went unsold during the country’s two-month coronavirus lockdown into hand sanitizer
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Football Field of Rainforest Destroyed Every Six Seconds
Vast tracts of pristine rainforest on three continents went up in smoke last year, with an area roughly the size of Switzerland cut down or burned to make way for cattle and commercial crops, researchers said Tuesday.
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Romanian Pickers Arrive in Private Jet to Save Italy Vineyard
Italy’s vines have not stopped growing during the country’s long coronavirus lockdown, but without their usual foreign grape-pickers, winemakers are now fearing for their harvests.
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Dutch Mink Workers May Be First Known Humans Infected by Animals: WHO
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that Dutch workers apparently infected with the coronavirus by minks could be the first known cases of animal-to-human transmission.
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Lockdown Gives Albanian Beekeepers a ‘Golden Year’
With factories and farms silenced by the coronavirus shutdown, Albania’s bees have been busier than ever, stirring excitement among farmers expecting an unparalleled honey harvest thanks to a respite from pollution and pesticides.
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EU Wants To Reduce Pesticides Use, Promotes Organic Farming
The European Commission unveiled plans Wednesday to protect biodiversity across the 27-nation bloc while building a more sustainable food system, insisting on the need to both reduce the use of pesticides and promote organic farming.
Read moreWildlife Killing
WildEarth Guardians and a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture reached a settlement agreement in a federal suit over the division’s wildlife killings in Montana. The environmental protection group claimed the division relied on outdated environmental reviews. Under the settlement, the division will curtail its use of snares, traps and poisons.
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Federal Judge’s Order Protects California Trout
To protect the spring migration of threatened California trout species, a federal judge Monday halted the Trump administration’s bid to supply farmers with extra water from the West Coast’s largest estuary.
Read moreEnvironment
The Western Watersheds Project et al. sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture in federal court for its outdated environmental plans to kill coyotes and other wildlife with poison and other means.
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