Latest Agribusiness Headlines
All the headlines from our Agribusiness Topic Page, ordered by recency.
States’ Efforts on Climate Change Adaptation: Half Full or Half Empty?
Oct 16 2014 // Who hates that glass-half-full analogy? I’m guessing more than half of you, but let’s not let that stand in the way of using the clichéd-to-death philosophical quandary to illustrate a point being made by a...
Oklahoma Wheat Farmers Seek Drought Loss Relief from USDA
Oct 13 2014 // Oklahoma wheat farmers want the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement now a policy that’s scheduled to start in 2016 that farmers say would help ease the financial pain of ongoing drought. The policy is part of...
Labor Advocates Question Florida Immigrant Workers’ Comp Arrests
Oct 9 2014 // Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater touted the arrests of more than 100 immigrant agriculture workers last July as an effort to crack down on the costly problem of workers’ compensation fraud. But it quickly...
Louisiana Agriculture Officials Seek Drone Rule Changes
Oct 6 2014 // Louisiana agricultural officials have asked the federal government to loosen restrictions on the use of pilotless aerial vehicles. The Advocate reported the Federal Aviation Administration is modifying drone regulations...
With $100M In Crop Losses USDA Grants Eight Idaho Counties Disaster Status
Oct 6 2014 // The U.S. Department of Agriculture has granted disaster area status to eight counties in central and eastern Idaho, clearing the way for farms to receive low-interest loans for operating costs. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack...
Viewpoint: Costs Bury Insurance Savings Promised in Farm Bill
Oct 2 2014 // When does a $23 billion spending cut result in no savings at all? When it’s part of the U.S. farm bill. Just a few weeks ago, the newest bill — a grab bag of subsidies for farmers and federal nutrition programs...
HCC Insurance Eyes Crop Insurance with Acquisition of Producers Ag
Oct 1 2014 // HCC Insurance Holdings Inc. said has agreed to acquire Producers Ag Insurance Group Inc. (ProAg) from CUNA Mutual Group in an all-cash purchase of ProAg’s capital stock for $110 million. The transaction, which is...
Farm Fatalities Continue Downward Trend in Indiana
Sep 30 2014 // The downward trend of Indiana’s farm-related fatalities continued in 2013 as the state saw 18 deaths, according to a Purdue University report. The total is eight fewer than were reported in 2012, giving Indiana fewer...
New Mexico’s Green Chile Crop Endangered by Weather
Sep 30 2014 // Wet weather in recent weeks has left some of New Mexico’s green chile crop in danger. The Las Cruces Sun-News reported that a hail storm last week was the latest in a spate of precipitation to plague chile fields in...
Idaho Dairy Explosion Kills Worker
Sep 25 2014 // A south-central Idaho man has died in an explosion at a dairy. Authorities tell The Times-News the explosion occurred at about 6 a.m. Monday as 30-year-old Dayne A. Hansen of Rupert did welding work on a trailer. Minidoka...
Deere Mulls Sale of Crop Insurance Business
Sep 24 2014 // Deere & Co., the world’s largest maker of agricultural equipment, hired Citigroup Inc. to look at strategic options for its crop insurance unit as it sells assets to focus on core businesses such as...
Administration Relaxes Food Safety Rules for Farmers
Sep 24 2014 // The Food and Drug Administration has revised sweeping food safety rules proposed last year after farmers complained that the regulations could hurt business. The new proposals would relax water quality standards and allow...
Deere Mulling Options for Crop Insurance Business
Sep 23 2014 // Deere & Company, based in Moline, Ill., announced it is reviewing strategic options for its crop insurance business, which underwrites policies through John Deere Insurance Co., a business unit within John Deere...
Barley Crops in Montana, Idaho Rain Damaged
Sep 22 2014 // That rain on the plain that saturated Montana’s malt barley crop in late August could be tears in the beer of American brewers in 2015. Heavy late-August rains have damaged crops in the nation’s largest...
Cleaning Up China’s Contaminated Soil: Who Pays?
Sep 17 2014 // Nearly four years after a massive state-run steel mill on the outskirts of Beijing was closed to help cut smog in the Chinese capital, little has been done to clean up the contaminated site. The factory’s idled...
Montana Crops Besieged by Floodwaters
Sep 16 2014 // The round hay bales in the Saco flats have turned dark with mud and mildew. The high-water mark rises halfway up these slumping, soggy bales – thousands of which dot the fields along U.S. Highway 12 – bearing the ruin...
North Dakota Farmers Filing Insurance Claims for Wheat Crop
Sep 15 2014 // Crop insurance agents in North Dakota say they have begun receiving claims and expect more than the usual number to come in because a lot of wheat still unharvested. The Bismarck Tribune reports that a snowy April and wet...
Barley Crops In Montana, Idaho Rain Damaged
Sep 10 2014 // That rain on the plain that saturated Montana’s malt barley crop in late August could be tears in the beer of American brewers in 2015. Heavy late-August rains have damaged crops in the nation’s largest...
Researchers Developing Tool to Help Oklahoma Farmers Predict Drought
Sep 9 2014 // Weather researchers are developing a new tool they say could give Oklahoma farmers and ranchers as much as a month’s warning when drought conditions are on the way. The Evaporative Stress Index is a system being...
U.S. Economic Losses Due to Napa Quake, August Floods Top $4 Billion: Aon
Sep 8 2014 // As far as natural perils go, August was mostly about earthquakes, along with a few tropical storms and typhoons around the world to add to the trouble, according to Aon Benfield’s Impact Forecasting in its latest...
