#agalerts

#AgAlerts: CAFOs; Solar; Partial wavers

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A roundup of news, reports, and research on agribusiness and related issues. Do factory farm bans have a political future? | Newfoodeconomy.com   

CAFOs have long been a hot-button issue in big farming states like Iowa and North Carolina. “In Iowa, there’s been like, 15,000 new CAFOs in the last eight years or something like that,” says Bob Martin, program director of Food System Policy at the Center for a Livable Future. “And they’re continuing to intensify in North Carolina, in broiler [chicken] CAFOs on the Eastern Shore [of Maryland] … they’re kind of moving unabated,” he adds.

#agalerts

#AgAlerts: Sugar shortage; small farmers; wheat’s falling numbers

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The closing days of 2019 find small farms pummeled from every side: a trade war, severe weather associated with climate change, tanking commodity prices related to globalization and political polarization. It is the worst crisis in decades.

#sharpiegate

Opinion: Weather forecasting isn’t a political game

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OK, let's begin with the obvious.  The POTUS is not a meteorologist (although he's been known to play one on TV).    Meteorologists pride themselves on using the best scientific tools at their disposal in order to provide the public with the most possible accurate weather forecast.  Full stop.  Meanwhile, the POTUS has shown himself to be less than science-friendly.  And there's the rub.  Now generally I don't get too involved in whatever kerfuffle the White House is embroiled in at any given moment, but when it comes to all things agriculture (and what is more agriculture-dependent than the weather) I pay attention. And what one comes away with regarding the POTUS' September #Sharpie-gate surprise regarding the potential storm track of Hurricane Dorian is that this particular White House has no problems with providing the public with misleading (some would say false or outdated) weather projections to protect the President's beliefs (right or wrong). Anyone reading my December 2016 blog to fellow journalists would not be surprised that weather forecasts could one day could not only become twisted but politicized.  Truth is a fragile thing.

Government
Since the creation of the World Trade Organization, the U.S. has been involved in 269 trade disputes.

Trade disputes explode under Trump tariff war

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As President Donald Trump continues to wage a multi-front trade war with some of the U.S.’ biggest economic partners, farmers have borne some of the heaviest financial burden.

More than a third of trade disputes involving the U.S. relate to agriculture, according to an analysis of disputes submitted to the World Trade Organization since its creation in 1995.