Author: staff

Plant stem cells are crucial for the world’s food supply, animal feed, and fuel production. They lay the foundation for how plants grow. Yet, much about these mysterious building blocks remains unknown. Previous analyses have failed to locate many of the important genes that regulate how these cells function. For the first time, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory plant biologists have mapped two known stem cell regulators across thousands of maize and Arabidopsis shoot cells. Their research also uncovered new stem cell regulators in both species and linked some to size variations in maize. This method for recovering rare stem cells…

McDonald’s, which sells nearly 2.4 billion burgers annually, is joining a nationwide initiative to promote and accelerate regenerative grazing practices, habitat restoration, water and wildlife conservation on cattle ranches spanning 4 million acres across up to 38 states. The fast-food chain is pledging $200 million over the next seven years, marking this as its largest investment in “regenerative agriculture” ever through the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative, which is being done in conjunction with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and some of McDonald’s U.S. suppliers. Through this initiative, McDonald’s says…

By Galen Bacharier Gov. Josh Stein is asking Congress and the Trump administration to send an additional $13.5 billion to North Carolina, his latest ask for federal aid as recovery from Hurricane Helene continues one year later. Included in that request is $8 billion in additional grants to rebuild homes and businesses, $2 billion in community loans from FEMA, $2 billion to repair roads and bridges and $400 million for forgivable loans to small businesses. “The next stage in recovery is going to require a new commitment from Congress and from the administration,” Stein said during a news conference outlining…

By Carl Zulauf, Gary Schnitkey, Nick Paulson, and Joana Colussi The implication of this set of four articles is that the U.S. grain and oilseed sector should focus less on South America and China (hereafter, SAC). This implication is consistent with the multivariable regression analysis in this article. It finds that production in excess of domestic consumption in SAC is not a statistically significant explanatory variable of the yearly variation in the U.S. composite grain–oilseed price. In contrast, production in excess of domestic consumption in the U.S. and rest-of-the-world (hereafter, ROW) are statistically significant. The implication is also consistent with the analysis of the…

By Emma Murphy YUKON — With no active cases of New World screwworm, the USDA is working to prevent its spread from Central America, a Trump administration official said Friday.  U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins outlined the Department of Agriculture’s plan to prevent the spread of screwworm to the U.S., including a partnership with the government of Mexico, during a stop at Express Ranches in Oklahoma.  New World screwworm is a fly that lays eggs in the wounds of living animals and its larvae burrow and feed on healthy flesh, causing illness or death. The insect usually infects livestock and is typically…

By Cami Koons A handful of Iowa farmers fired up their combines this week to start harvesting corn, according to the latest crop progress and condition report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  More than a quarter of corn acres across the state have reached maturity, according to the report, which is ahead of both last year and the five-year average for the reporting period. West-central Iowa and the northern regions of the state had lower percentages of mature corn than the rest of the state.  Eighty percent of corn has dented, which is also ahead of last year, but…

By Joshua Haiar MITCHELL — As China boycotts U.S. soybean purchases, a $500 million processing plant south of Mitchell that will turn more of the state’s crop into oils and livestock meal opened its doors Tuesday. Tom Kersting, the CEO of South Dakota Soybean Processors, which manages the plant, said it will help stabilize prices and create local demand. “If it wasn’t for demand sources like this facility, it’d be very, very tough out there,” Kersting said, calling China, until now, the No. 1 buyer of South Dakota’s exported soybeans. China is avoiding U.S. soybeans this fall in response to tariffs imposed…

By Robin Opsahl Gov. Kim Reynolds has returned to India with a delegation from Iowa this week, following up from trade discussions that began during her first visit in 2024. Reynolds had first visited India with Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Finance Authority Director Debi Durham and Iowa agricultural and business leaders, for a 10-day mission in September 2024. She and other state leaders discussed trade opportunities with business and government leaders between Iowa and India in areas like biofuel, commodity crops and agricultural technology. The governor is joined by many of the same Iowans,…

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reconsidering a rule extending endangered species protections to threatened species. FWS has drafted a proposal to rescind the 4(d) blanket rule, which automatically extends to threatened species a prohibition on the “take” of endangered ones, according to a court affidavit submitted by Elizabeth Maclin, the acting deputy assistant director of FWS’s Ecological Services Program. The agency plans to have the proposal ready for publishing in the Federal Register by the end of October. Two groups — the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Property and Environment Research Center — had challenged the rule, which was…

The Trump administration is making another run at reforming the way H-2A minimum wage rates for farmworkers are set in a manner that could provide some relief to farmers during a time of continued uncertainty about workers who are in the country illegally. A big question is whether the administration will follow the strategy they tried to implement as President Donald Trump was leaving office in 2020 or come up with a new method of setting the adverse effect wage rates, or AEWR, that farmers must pay H-2A workers. USDA took a step toward reform by announcing that it will…