A bill that recently passed both the House and Senate of the North Carolina General Assembly would preempt local government authorities from banning plants, seeds and plant parts in their jurisdictions. Some advocates of organic farming systems have suggested that the legislation will harm organic producers. They reason that with the legislation in place, organic…
DetailsSen. Kay Hagan introduced a bill last week to clarify that pesticide applications are regulated by Congress under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and by EPA under the Clean Water Act (CWA.) A U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in 2009 determined that applications over or near water required a CWA…
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Deciding where to invest soybean checkoff research dollars can be a daunting task for a checkoff board. The facts of the situation are that (1) farmers on checkoff boards do not routinely work in a research environment and so do not keep up with the current state of science and (2) research leaders routinely make…
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Farmers are extremely attentive to governmental policy, especially the regulations generated by the Environmental Protection Agency, but also tax policy, trade policy, and conservation policy. Immigration policy has recently moved to the forefront of farmers’ minds due to necessity of finding labor and the rising costs to farmers of the current farm worker visa program.…
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Monsanto’s patent on the original Roundup Ready soybean trait is set to expire after the 2014 planting season. The Roundup Ready (RR) patent and the Roundup Ready to Yield (RR2Y) patent are general utility patents, by the way, not Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) protections, and that is one reason farmers cannot save seed. But…
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The tools of farmers are becoming so precise that almost unheard of issues (for farmers) are moving to the forefront. Farmers have adapted Global Position System (GPS) technology just like engineers, surveyors, and the military. Unlike Joe and Susy Sixpack in the family wagon, who also have adapted GPS for plotting the course to the…
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A special report titled “Feeding the World” in a recent issue of The Economist magazine examined how we will cope with world food production in the coming decades. The report concluded that the focus on a “food crisis” has produced competing perspectives on the main problems with food and agriculture, and led to different proposals…
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The association has been reaching out to consumers this fall 2013. The soybean fountain and educational messages about soybean production and seed technology at the North Carolina State Fair were seen by tens of thousands of people. The fountain turned out to be very popular with most visitors feeling compelled to sink their hands down…
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Your soy checkoff works to help you increase the profit potential of your farm, and that begins with farm-management basics. Here are some simple tips from Brian and Darren Hefty, of the “Ag PhD” TV show, on the importance of soil sampling. Did you know? Sixty bushels of soybeans need 131 pounds of potassium. They
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Your soy checkoff works to help you increase the profit potential of your farm, and that begins with farm-management basics. Here are some simple tips from Brian and Darren Hefty, of the “Ag PhD” TV show, on the importance of drainage to improve soybean yields. Drainage is critical because if your crop sits in water
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Soy Transportation Coalition sees improvements in Pacific Northwest infrastructure Twenty-five percent of all U.S. soybeans are exported through Pacific Northwest ports; a majority of these beans eventually make their way to China. And with China’s seemingly insatiable appetite for soy continuing to increase, these ports are staying on the cutting edge of technology to make
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Three Steps to Finding Soybean Varieties that Are Worth More As you watch your soybean crop mature and start estimating yields, you might also start thinking about which varieties you’ll plant next year. While you look through mounds of material about endless soybean varieties and how they’ll perform in your field, remember to also check
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