ag economics

For Midwestern farmers, the workforce and supply chain are top issues in ‘flash recession’

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In agriculture, when a lack of rain combines with very high temperatures and sunny days, the rapid dryness is called a “flash drought.” Well, this economic downturn related to fears about the coronavirus pandemic could be a flash recession, said Scott Irwin, an agricultural economics professor at the University of Illinois. Irwin, along with four other professors from the University of Illinois Agricultural and Consumer Economics department, addressed how the coronavirus pandemic could affect agriculture in the Midwest in a webinar on Friday.

#agalerts

#AgAlerts: Climate change; pesticides; Gates Foundation Ag Center

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Missouri agriculture officials are struggling to address a backlog of complaints from farmers who allege that dicamba-based herbicide drift from another farm has damaged their crops. The Missouri Department of Agriculture has about 600 pending pesticide investigations. Some of them date back to 2016, the year that Bayer-owned Monsanto began selling its dicamba-tolerant soybeans.

Agribusiness

EPA fines Frontier Ag over Clean Air Act violations

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, reached a settlement Monday with Frontier Ag Inc. concerning three facilities in Kansas that were violating the Clean Air Act in Oct. 2018.

Agribusiness
Photo of dogs “Okie” (left), “Jenny” (middle) and “Foot” (right) at former dog breeding facility owned by Debra Pratt near New Sharon, Iowa, in this photo taken March 26, 2013, during an authorized USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service investigation.

Federal judge strikes Iowa ‘ag-gag’ Law

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A federal judge has struck down as unconstitutional a 2012 Iowa law that banned undercover recording at agricultural production facilities in the state, saying the law’s primary aim is curbing speech critical of practices at those facilities.