Featured

Poultry growers, caught between strict rules and financial risk, lean heavily on government-backed loans

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Since 2010, poultry growers have taken out more than 3,000 loans backed by the SBA, totaling $2.9 billion, according to analysis of Small Business Administration loan data by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. In March, the Inspector General released a report looking into the relationship between poultry integrators and growers. It said the rules big poultry companies placed on chicken farmers means they are not independent small businesses, calling into question their eligibility for Small Business Loans. Now, the SBA is considering revising

Food for thought

Opinion: Is half a loaf of bread better than none?

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Many of my blog posts notwithstanding I root for big-agriculture.  I want them to succeed. At heart, I am a pragmatist that realizes big ag must be part of any solution to feed the world's growing population.  But having said that there are specific things I believe big ag must do as part of its corporate identity.

Environment
Andrew Rehn of the Prairie Rivers Network presents the report 'Cap and Run: Toxic Coal Ash Left Behind by Big Polluters Threatens Illinois Water' at a news conference at the Illinois state capitol building in Springfield

Report shows toxic contamination at coal ash sites throughout Illinois

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A new report published by several state environmental groups shows severe pollution of groundwater at nearly every known coal ash storage site in Illinois.

The report states that groundwater tests show unsafe levels of toxic chemicals and heavy metals at 22 of 24 Illinois coal-fired power plants. The tests were done by the companies that own the sites, collated by the environmental groups, and released this week.

When workers are killed on small farms, OSHA’s hands are tied

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Over the last four decades, many hundreds of employees have been killed or seriously injured without follow-up investigations by OSHA because small farms are exempt from agency scrutiny.
What’s more, because the exemption applies to all OSHA activities, agency inspectors also are barred from checking for hazards before injuries or deaths occur, and from responding to employee complaints about unsafe conditions.

Agribusiness

Timeline: U.S.-China trade war

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The United States has been in a trade war with China over the last several months, swapping import tariffs worth billions of dollars stemming from U.S. investigations into China's trade practices including “technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation.” This timeline shows how we got here.

High-Grade Cropland Gives Way To Urban Growth In Iowa – At Least Where There’s Growth

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Urban expansion, at least in the few areas where Iowa cities are growing, is eating up some of the state’s best farmland. In Ankeny, a central Iowa suburb of Des Moines that a May U.S. Census Bureau report ranked as the nation’s fourth fastest-growing large city from July 2016 to July 2017, much of the land being developed for housing is high quality soil for raising crops, an Iowa State University agronomy department survey shows.