Free Republic

Michael Graham reaches into a bright blue tub of bubbling water and pulls out a handful of a dark brown curly substance. It’s slippery to the touch, smells like the sea, and tastes a bit like salty kale. It’s live seaweed, and Graham – a kelp biologist and the creator of Monterey Bay Seaweeds – has been farming the stuff on a small scale in these big tanks in Moss Landing on the central coast of California for close to two years. Using more than a dozen of these big tubs and a couple of larger tanks, he produces between...

The new $300 million pork processing plant being built at Sioux City is set to open in September, giving hog farmers in northwest Iowa and bordering states a new market. Officials of Seaboard Triumph Foods outlined their plans at a press conference at the recent World Pork Expo in Des Moines. “We’re still on schedule and getting close to opening,” says Mark Porter, CEO of Seaboard Triumph. “We are planning to begin operations no later than the first week of September.” The Sioux City plant is an equal partnership between Seaboard Foods and Triumph Foods. Company officials say the Sioux...

An Iowa newspaper ran a front-page editorial Wednesday telling President Trump that "now is not the time for a rally" ahead of his campaign event scheduled in the state later in the day. The editorial board of The Gazette in Cedar Rapids asked in an open letter to Trump for him to not hold his scheduled rally in the city but instead talk about his policies and how he will help Iowans. (TWEET-AT-LINK) “Mr. President, the campaign is over. You won. Now is not the time to rally. Now is the time to sell your policies, listen to Americans with...

President Donald Trump will commit on Wednesday to improving internet access in the country’s hardest-to-reach rural areas as a part of his forthcoming push to improve the nation’s infrastructure. Trump will outline his pledge during a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shortly after visiting Kirkwood Community College, which specializes in fields like precision agriculture. In the eyes of the White House, farmers can’t use emerging big data tools that track crops in real time without faster, more reliable broadband internet service — so the Trump administration intends to tackle that challenge as part of its campaign to upgrade the country’s...

Thinning Cotton, Growing up on the Mississippi Delta When I was a boy, my father worried that I was unlikely to go far in life until I overcame my stubborn nature, and whenever he tried to convince me of that, I stubbornly persisted the he was confusing stubbornness with persistence. One day, after putting up with my hard-headedness as long as he intended to, he said, “Junior, since you work with Jaybird every day, I’ll ask him about all this persistence you profess to have.” Early the next morning, my boyhood best friend and mentor Jaybird took his work crew...

Cannabis is joining the ranks of the financial, advertising, real estate and alcohol industries with the formation of its first self-regulatory organization. The National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB) launched Thursday with a powerhouse leadership team and an ambitious plan: Develop and enforce national standards that will increase compliance and transparency, spur growth, and shape future federal regulations. The NACB’s slogan is “Be ready,” in anticipation of federal legalization of cannabis. The cannabis industry is on a historic growth trajectory even as its businesses operate in a fractured regulatory environment and in the face of uncertain federal policy, NACB president...

Kara Nielsen, manager of Sales and Engagement USA for Innova Market Insights, discussed food trends during her presentation at the Sosland Publishing Purchasing Seminar. KANSAS CITY — Vegetable butchery, lab-grown burgers, seaweed and spirulina may be among the food trends of tomorrow. Concepts supporting sustainable nutrition and busy consumer lifestyles are set to emerge, said Kara Nielsen, manager of Sales and Engagement USA for Innova Market Insights. During a June 6 presentation at the Sosland Publishing Purchasing Seminar in Kansas City, Nielsen discussed current and future food trends, including what’s next on the health and wellness horizon. Protein may be...

In a speech otherwise laden with praise for President Trump, Rep. Roger Marshall broke ranks on immigration, questioning the feasibility of a mammoth border wall and saying mass deportation would wreck Kansas’ economy. Marshall represents Kansas’ 1st District, a sprawling, mostly rural and agrarian district that covers the western two-thirds of the state. He said the U.S. needs to revise its immigration policies and document those who come to the United States to work in the farms and feedlots....

The Tennes family has been farming in Michigan for generations. They grow all sorts of crops at the Country Mill Farm – organic apples, blueberries, pumpkins, sweet corn. And for the past seven years, Steve Tennes and his family have sold their produce at the farmer’s market owned by the city of East Lansing. But this year – city officials told the devout Catholic family that their blueberries and sweet corn were not welcome at the farmer’s market – and neither were they. Last year, someone posted a message on Country Mill’s Facebook page inquiring about whether they hosted same-sex...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced Clearwater Organic Farms LLC, the nation’s largest hydroponic commercial greenhouse, will locate its operations in Monroe County. The company will build a 15 acre, 650,000 square foot facility at Eastman Business Park. It will produce locally grown, organic baby leaf greens year-round. The project will create 137 new full-time jobs in packaging, shipping, receiving and warehousing; 55 of those jobs are reserved for veterans or those who are underemployed. “The new Clearwater Organic Farms facility will drive innovation, create jobs for New Yorkers who need them most and bolster economic growth throughout the region,” Cuomo...

The Trump administration wants to impose a work requirement on able-bodied adults who receive food stamps and force states to pick up some of the costs as part of a wider plan to slash spending by $3.6 trillion over the next decade. Budget director Mick Mulvaney said that once states have “a little skin in the game,” they will be more inclined to root out abuses and waste in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Enrollments haven’t decreased much since the recession despite a low 4.5 percent unemployment rate. The program cost about $33 billion in 2007 with 26 million...

Why are Sasse and Schumer meeting?

A company is set to open what Governor Cuomo's office says will be the biggest commercial hydroponic facility in the nation in Rochester. The governor says Clearwater Organic Farms will build a 15 acre, 650,000 square-foot facility at Eastman Business Park, creating 137 new jobs. About half of those positions will be reserved for veterans and the unemployed, the state says. The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year. "The new Clearwater Organic Farms facility will drive innovation, create jobs for New Yorkers who need them most, and bolster economic growth throughout the region," Governor...

BURLEY, Idaho — Potato farmers say the expansion of the local McCain Foods USA processing plant should significantly increase demand for their crop and boost the area’s economy. McCain officials announced the $200 million investment this week. The expansion should be operational by the late summer of 2018 and will employ 180 new workers. “From my standpoint, that’s as big of a thing as we could have had announced in this area,” said Mark Darrington, a McCain grower from Declo. “For this to come right into the heart of our production area, this is a huge win for agriculture and...

It's rare that a governor shows up to celebrate a new condo tower. But this one's made of wood, and that's a bigger deal than it seems. Gov. Kate Brown was on hand the day Carbon12 in North Portland reached its full eight stories and became the nation's tallest wood building. The feat was made possible by cross-laminated timber, wood engineered to have the strength of steel. The distinction won't last long. Another Portland development, an 11–story high-rise made of the same wood product, is expected to secure a building permit within weeks and start construction this summer. For Oregon,...

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, after meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week in Washington, says that he doesn’t believe a federal crackdown on legal marijuana is on the way, adding that Sessions called the Obama administration’s guidance on marijuana “not too far from good policy.” “The meeting was very productive, and overall it was very good,” Jacque Montgomery, press secretary for the Democratic governor, told HuffPost. Montgomery said that Sessions spent about an hour with Hickenlooper, and they discussed the state’s successful marijuana regulation, its collection of data on usage, what the state has learned since the first legal...

Those who are responsible for feeding our world and keeping up with the forever changing challenges facing the food and agriculture industry have come together to work with those who have defended our nation. Michigan State University Institute of Agricultural Technology accompanied by extension agencies and some of the food and agriculture industry's leaders, work with partners like the Veterans' Services Division of the Michigan Workforce Development Agency and the VA Hospital System to train veterans and ultimately help them obtain a job within the field as part of a program called Vets to Ag. Founded in 1894, the Institute...

Senate Democrats have no clothes, nor the moral principles that govern a person's behavior Democrats in the State Senate Thursday confirmed former Sen. Isadore Hall (D-Compton) to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board on a party line vote. You’ll recall Hall’s recent “obscenity-laced tirade” and threats to use his position to ‘get’ several farmers who opposed his confirmation:

With the legal cannabis industry generating $6.9 billion in sales in 2016, up 34% from 2015, it’s a no-brainer to say that much is at stake as the business inevitably grows. Much like the independent movie biz, the cannabis industry attracts investors looking for high-risk, high-reward investments, and as marijuana goes more mainstream, so does the funding mechanisms for the industry’s businesses. Just recently, numerous investment firms have cropped up, announcing themselves as major entities in the billion-dollar industry. The opportunities are wide-ranging: Everything from exotic strains of marijuana to concentrated edibles to topical creams fortified with CBD extracts, as...

McALLEN — Amid a time of uncertainty for business along the border, Scantech Sciences is doubling down with a new technology it predicts will revolutionize food safety practices. Scantech, a developer, manufacturer and operator of food treatment systems and facilities, already has a building in the Sharyland Business Park in McAllen. But the Atlanta-based company has not had an electronic cold-pasteurization food treatment center before. Scantech began construction Thursday on a 100,000-square-foot facility connected to its current building. It’s expected to open, at the latest, by the beginning of 2018. Bret Erickson, president of the Texas International Produce Association for...