Free Republic

Zimbabwe receives $150 million in U.S. aid funding annually to combat food insecurity and support climate resilience programs for 2.1 million people. A narrow dirt road snakes along the banks of a small river and leads to the remote village of Birirano. Marked by baobab trees and drought-tolerent shrubs, this small community is sandwiched between desolate mountains in Zimbabwe’s eastern district of Chipinge. Far from the main highway, it is largely cut off from the rest of the country and the world. With limited livelihood possibilities, villagers here have long been locked in an unending cycle of poverty. Over the...

The cannabis industry could have a notable economic impact, if the U.S. federal government stays out of the way. Investors are always on the lookout for fast-growing industries, which means there's no surprise why marijuana stocks have been such strong performers over the past year. Far more pot stocks than not with a market cap of at least $200 million have doubled or tripled in value over the past year. Optimistic growth figures for the industry are seemingly everywhere. Aside from the fact that a record number of Americans surveyed by Gallup and CBS News want to see cannabis legalized...

A new bill introduced in New York City Council Thursday addresses the need for an urban agriculture plan that doesn’t fall through the cracks of the city’s zoning and building regulations, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bill, introduced by Councilman Rafael Espinal and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and assigned to the Land Use Committee, also raises the possibility of an office of urban agriculture. If a New York City farm bill seems surprising, you may also be surprised to know that NYC has the country’s largest urban agriculture system, including community gardens, rooftop farms and greenhouses. The city’s...

A former Pepsi factory that sat vacant for a decade is being reincarnated as an indoor marijuana grow — one of the largest in the pot-friendly state of Colorado. Doyen Elements, a holding company that leases real estate properties out to legal cannabis companies, bought an old bottling plant in Pueblo County. Upon completion in 2019, the facility could potentially produce up to 70,000 pounds of marijuana flower a year. According to a recent report in Forbes, the company is one of a growing number of real estate investment firms that are making money in legal weed without actually touching...

HOUSTON, TEXAS: Anand Mahindra-led Mahindra group will double the number of American employees at its North American farm equipment business, the move coming at a time when President Donald Trump has asked companies to increasingly hire locals to manage business in the US. Mahindra USA (MUSA), that manages the group's tractor and farm utility vehicles (UTVs) business, is also considering setting up a factory in America in line with the expansion of business, which has grown nearly five-fold over the last few years. MUSA recorded revenues of $600 million last year as it sold 32,000 units, with tractors accounting for...

A vacant dairy plant in Batavia is being re-purposed and will result in millions of dollars of investment in that facility and more than 200 jobs. That announcement was made by Governor Andrew Cuomo Tuesday when he visited the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park. The dairy company HP Hood is buying the plant previously operated by the Muller-Quaker venture a couple of years ago, and Hood will use the plant to make extended shelf-life dairy products. Cuomo credits state and Genesee County economic development officials for being persistent in trying to find a new use for the plant. “They have taken...

Last month I gave the keynote address at the Cannabis World Congress Business Expo in New York City. CWCBExpo is the trade show for the cannabis industry. I had the pleasure of meeting thousands of like-minded cannabis activists, and the experience was truly refreshing and inspiring on many levels. I learned firsthand that those in the legal cannabis industry — whether they're growing hemp, medical marijuana or recreational marijuana in Colorado or California or Oregon or wherever — have formed a united front. Everyone at the convention was looking to work together to come up with solutions on how to...

If we built farms in space, they'd look nothing like the vast wheat fields of Kansas. But they just might look something like urban farms being used today—modular closed-loop hydroponic farms, actually. These compact, efficient grow houses could be the life-giving answer to keeping astronauts fed, a solution The Martian's Mark Watney could only dream of. The idea is less science fiction than you might think, too. Freight Farms, based in Boston, is trying to revolutionize the global food system with its Leafy Green Machines. These shipping containers filled with racks of planted crops, grow lights, and environmental control systems...

As canna-business strategist Elise McRoberts walked across an animal skin rug and into the living room of a Pacific Heights home for the recent San Francisco launch of Beboe, an upscale cannabis brand from Los Angeles, she assumed she would see the usual faces on the marijuana circuit — growers, dispensary owners and cannabis chefs. Instead, the party was a cross-pollination of the worlds of high society, Silicon Valley, politics, fashion and design: industrial designer Yves Béhar, former Mayor Willie Brown, who carried decriminalization bills in the state assembly in the 1970s, philanthropists Katie and Todd Traina, boutique owner Emily...

Hampton Creek, a plant-based food startup headquartered in San Francisco, recently announced that it will be moving into the lab-grown meat industry, and plans to have its clean meat products on shelves as soon as 2018. According to Spanish tech site ABC.es, Hampton Creek is considering using 3D printing to realize this goal. Since its founding in 2011 by Josh Balk and Joshua Tetrick (the company’s current CEO), Hampton Creek has gained a lot of attention for its plant-based food products—both good and bad. On the good side, the company has been recognized as a unicorn startup and has done...

Gov. Tom Wolf announced today that the Tyson Foods Distribution Center will expand in Schuylkill County at Highridge Business Park and create 114 new, full-time jobs. “I’m proud to announce that Tyson Foods will expand and create 114 family-sustaining jobs in Schuylkill County,” Wolf said in a presss release. “The company is investing heavily in its future in Pennsylvania with its own $59.7 million capital investment. The I-81 corridor has become an extremely attractive location for food processors, and I applaud Tyson Foods for choosing to grow right here in Pennsylvania.” Tyson Foods plans to add 164,000 square feet to...

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, 93, on Friday told unemployed youths to "go and herd cattle" in the rural areas amid a critical shortage of jobs in the southern African country. During his election campaign of the 2013 polls, Mugabe promised Zimbabweans that his government would create more than 2.2 million jobs. However, latest statistics indicated that Zimbabwe had a formal unemployment rate of around 80%. Addressing his supporters at a rally at Mucheke Stadium in Masvingo, Mugabe said Zimbabwean youths who had no jobs should look for ideas so that they became entrepreneurs. “We always hear youths from the (opposition...

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....