Vianey Servin, lead foreman of Handley Orchards, East Wenatchee, Wash., thins Gala apples on Aug. 9 about a month before harvest. Many Gala apples are exported to Mexico.
Growers could suffer a $44 million loss or more in exports to Mexico this coming sales season because of a new 20 percent tariff.
Frustration with Obama administration inaction on Mexican tariffs is increasing among elected officials and people in industries hurt by the tariffs.
They blame the administration for playing politics with trade policy to mollify the Teamsters Union at the expense of ag industries and communi ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:14 AM
REDDING, Calif. -- Surrounded by students, farmers and ranchers on a recent warm summer evening, John Maas maintained a firm grip on their attention.
The beef extension veterinarian at the University of California-Davis mixed humor with down-to-earth language as he taught producers how to spo ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:29 AM
FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Eric Holder got an earful from each side over proposed changes to the Packers and Stockyards Act when they held a workshop here Aug. 27 on antitrust issues in the meat industry.
But by the end of the day it was not ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 11:09 AM
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) -- A Hardin County farmer says that some ears among his feed corn rows popped on the stalk in a phenomenon that agricultural experts say is associated with irregular rainfall and high heat.
Star Mills farmer Patrick Preston sent a photo of the burst kernels that look l ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 11:00 AM
Man accused in parents' deaths
DALLAS, Ore. (AP) -- A Salem man has been charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of his parents at their home in Dallas just west of Salem.
The Polk County sheriff's office said the bodies of 61-year-old David Scott Jondle and his 58-year-old wife Marilyn J ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:33 AM
The U.S. apple industry is second in value only to pork among the agricultural commodities targeted in the latest Mexican tariffs resulting from a trucking dispute.
Virtually all of those apples come from Washington state.
Counting Mexico's own apples and what it imports from other nation ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:42 AM
Missouri man killed by tractor
CHAFFEE, Mo. (AP) -- A southeast Missouri man in his 70s has died after the tractor he was driving rolled over and landed on top of him.
The Southeast Missourian reports the victim's name has not been released pending notification of relatives.
Scott County de ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 11:07 AM
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is launching an inquiry into the marketing practices of Monsanto Co. and its Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean trait.
McDaniel on Thursday sent a civil investigative demand asking the company to substantiate its claims that the ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 5:29 PM
CHICAGO (AP) -- Burger King's new ruler could help its empire expand.
Burger King Holdings Inc. sealed a deal Thursday to sell itself for $3.26 billion to 3G Capital, an investment firm with strong ties to Latin America. The fast-food chain's chairman and CEO, John Chidsey, said the deal wil ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 2:48 PM
MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday he has extended Russia's ban on wheat exports until next year's harvest to ensure it has bounced back from a severe drought and wildfires that destroyed 20 percent of the crop this year.
Putin said in televised remark ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 1:08 PM
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Premium Standard Farms has been given a two-year extension to install technology at its hog confinements to reduce odors after it failed to meet a July 31 deadline established by a Jackson County court six years ago.
As part of the deal between the company and ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:09 AM
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) -- A man who railed against the Discovery Channel's environmental programming for years burst into the company's headquarters with at least one explosive device strapped to his body Wednesday and took three people hostage at gunpoint before police shot him to death, off ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 4:08 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Manufacturing is growing in the United States and abroad, easing fears that the economy might be on the verge of a second recession.
The U.S. sector expanded for a 13th straight month in August, coinciding with gains in Chinese manufacturing and auto sales.
The new ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 2:09 PM
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Officials from 2 federal agencies held a meeting in Fort Pierre on Wednesday to seek public comment on President Barack Obama's initiative aimed at finding ways to reconnect people to the outdoors.
Acting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Rowan Gould and U.S. Agric ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 11:09 AM
MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) -- Young men angry over the rising cost of food, fuel and water rampaged through Mozambique's capital Wednesday, throwing stones, looting shops and drawing police fire that killed at least seven people.
Rising prices around the world have raised concerns about a re ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 9:49 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, the two Iowa farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive egg recall, have been visited by federal agents again.
Spokeswomen for the farms said the agents who arrived Tuesday worked for the Food and Drug Administration ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 7:49 AM
ROME (AP) -- International food prices have risen to their highest level in two years, fueled in part by a drought in Russia that lifted the cost of wheat, a U.N. agency said Wednesday.
The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said its food price index shot up 5 percent between ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 7:49 AM
CHAFFEE, Mo. (AP) -- A southeast Missouri man in his 70s has died after the tractor he was driving rolled over and landed on top of him.
The Southeast Missourian reports the victim's name has not been released pending notification of relatives.
Scott County deputies received a call Tues ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 7:49 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed company, said Tuesday it expects full year earnings at the low end of its previous expected range and is cutting up to 700 more jobs.
Monsanto's weak forecast reflects continued struggles with its once profitable herbicide divisi ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 7:29 AM
PARIS (AP) -- France on Tuesday called for stricter European rules on commodity derivatives trading, part of its push for tighter global financial regulation as it prepares to chair the Group of 20 summits of rich and developing nations later this year.
In letters to the European Commissi ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 7:29 AM
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- A farmer who held repeated hunger strikes in a land dispute with Venezuela's government has died in a military hospital where he had been taken against his will.
For opponents of President Hugo Chavez, Franklin Brito's emaciated figure became a symbol of governm ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 4:49 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Shirley Sherrod, ousted from the Agriculture Department during a racial firestorm after which she was vindicated, is scheduled to speak at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church.
Sherrod, who refused an offer to return to the department, will speak Sept. 19 at the church's 9 a.m. s ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 3:29 PM
TORONTO (AP) -- Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. said suitor BHP Billiton is calling its customers "to sow seeds of doubt and confusion about the future" of the Canadian company.
Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest mining company, launched a hostile $130-a-share ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 2:08 PM
DAMASCUS, Pa. (AP) -- A northeastern Pennsylvania toddler is dead after police say he tumbled out of a moving tractor and was run over.
State police say 23-month-old Zevrix Hyde was killed Monday evening when he was run over by a tractor operated by a family friend on a farm in Damascus.
...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:09 AM
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- North Dakota's Agriculture Department is offering ranchers a voluntary registry they can use to prove the age and birthplace of their livestock.
Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring (GOHR'-ing) says some countries, including South Korea and Japan, require age and sou ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:09 AM
By CHRISTINE METZ
The Lawrence Journal-World
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Their names seemed to be pulled out of a science-fiction novel: Rift Valley Fever, exotic blue tongue, Chinese porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome.
But on Monday at the Biosecurity Research Symposium in Ka ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:09 AM
