Land

Deadly piglet virus hits Midwest farms

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Pig farmers in Michigan and around the nation are losing piglets to a virus that is easily spread and almost always lethal to very young animals. So far, it’s killed over six million piglets.

Land

Test kitchen, production line could cook up jobs

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Food entrepreneurs in Michigan could take an idea to a frozen meal on the shelves of your grocery store using a proposed mock production line.
Proponents hope to generate an additional $300 million to $400 million in sales and 1,000 jobs annually at the center proposed near Lansing.
The center would be one of a kind targeting medium-sized businesses.
Read more.

Land

Researchers warn of health and environmental concerns surrounding livestock farms

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By Kate Golden
Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Six leading researchers at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health are warning northeastern Wisconsin rural residents that over-application of manure at intensive livestock operations could cause them a host of health problems and damage the environment. The authors, all at the school’s Center for a Livable Future, cited dozens of studies, including one 2005 article suggesting that 71 percent of Wisconsin dairy farms generate more manure than needed by the cropland where it’s applied. A growing body of evidence has implicated the generation and management of manure from intensive livestock operations in the spread of infectious disease (including antibiotic-resistant strains), the introduction of microbial and chemical contaminants into ground and surface waters, impacts to air quality, and the wide range of adverse health, social, ecological and economic outcomes that result from these events, according to the March 27 letter. The letter was requested by Kewaunee CARES, a Kewaunee County water quality advocacy group that has criticized the intensity and oversight of large dairies in the area. The county is in northeastern Wisconsin, which has some of the densest livestock farming in the state.

Land

Snow delays spring corn planting, asparagus harvest

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By Nick Stanek

Farmers may be off to a late start this year after snowfall and low temperatures put them behind schedule. There is good news and bad news associated with the snow. The heavy snow insulated the ground, protecting micro-organisms that are good for corn. But the high water remaining in fields could strain the industry, said corn grower Scott Lonier, owner of Lonier Farms near Lansing. “We are at the mercy of Mother Nature right now,” he said.

Land

Connecting environmental justice and biodiversity

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When the U.S. Supreme Court held last year that farmers can be liable for damages if they use patented seeds for more than one planting, the decision highlighted a debate over growers’ rights, intellectual property and agricultural sustainability.