Yes, you heard us right. Robotics is coming to agriculture. Companies around the world are racing to develop new tools in this rapidly growing field. China just launched a seven-year program to develop “autonomous agriculture” (Minter, 2018), and organic farmers in Australia are getting a $250,000 government grant to use robotic weeders on their organic […]
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In an important dietary shift that has been a long time coming, following a three-year phase out period on June 18, 2018, artificial trans fats are now officially banned in the U.S. food supply. These altered vegetable oils, which have been partially hydrogenated to extend the shelf life of some processed foods, have long been linked […]
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Fall application of glyphosate is getting a closer look in Canada. The “Keep it Clean” campaign, a joint operation of a trio of industry groups (Canola Council of Canada, Cereals Canada, and Pulse Canada), educates growers about pesticide residue limits and other guidelines, with a particular focus on export markets. One of their main focus […]
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Reuters and CBC News report that Japan and South Korea have banned Canadian wheat and flour imports following the discovery in the summer of 2017 of a stand of GMO wheat on roadside in Alberta. The wheat, which was identified after it survived herbicide spraying, was a genetic match to a small trial crop of resistant […]
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“Weeds are winning the war against herbicide resistance.” This stark analysis is part of the title of a new Scientific American deep-dive into efforts to battle weed resistance. The author, Brooke Borel, summarizes the latest science, including research done at North Carolina State University. Scientists at NC State reached the sobering conclusion that “[there is a] […]
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In an announcement that appeared to take the USDA by surprise, FDA Comissioner Scott Gottlieb issued a statement on Friday claiming that the agency has jurisdiction over the development and marketing of lab-grown meat, and announcing plans to hold a public meeting on the subject in July 2018. Lab-grown meat is a hot topic in […]
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Hawaiis’ governor David Ige has signed into law a ban on the controversial insecticide chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to “serious health risks,” including developmental impacts in children, lung cancer, and immune disorders in farm workers. (For more on the health impacts of chlorpyrifos, see the Managing Weeds for Healthy Kids project bibliography.) Pruitt’s EPA rejected […]
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FERN, the Food and Environment Reporting Network, is ready for the upcoming farm bill vote, releasing the 7+ minute long video “What is the farm bill and why does it matter?” Congress takes up the farm bill every 5 years or so, and this huge piece of legislation is critically important to American agriculture, providing […]
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John Vidal, the former Environmental Editor at The Guardian, has written a compelling piece about the $66 billion takeover of the world’s largest seed company- Monsanto – by the second largest pesticide company, Bayer. Vidal reports that the huge deal, set to be approved June 7, 2018, “has been called both a ‘marriage made in hell’ […]
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The headline in a March 2018 story in the Western Farm Press reads “The alfalfa industry wants more favorable farm policy for its forage crop.” It argues that alfalfa doesn’t get the support and respect it deserves, given that by value, it is the number three field crop grown in the U.S., behind corn and […]
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