Month: June 2023

Since 2018, “Dairy Distillery” in Ontario, Canada, has been turning a waste byproduct of cheesemaking into vodka and cream liquors. Now, the company will help members of the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) turn their waste into biofuel. The MMPA is a farmer-owned cooperative of over 1,000 dairy farmers in Michigan, as well as Indiana, …

Got Milk…In Your Gas Tank? A Canadian Distillery is Turning Dairy Into Fuel Read More »

Every five years, Iowa State University conducts the “Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey,” which provides a current snapshot of the forms of ownership, tenancy, and transfer of the state’s farmland. This series of studies concerning land ownership is unique to Iowa, having been collected by Iowa State researchers since 1949 and mandated by the …

Iowa’s Aging Farmland Owners Increasingly Lease Out Their Land Read More »

As NASA gets closer to sending the first astronauts to Mars, they have a lot of critical details to work out. To help them get there, NASA, in coordination with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), has enlisted the public’s assistance in developing new technologies and systems to produce one of the most important fuels of …

Protein Made From Air and a Simulated Photosynthesis Among the Finalists in NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge Read More »

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its May 2023 baseline for the farm bill, which projects that total spending for the next decade will reach $1.51 trillion, the most expensive ever. This is an increase of +$31.5 billion from the February baseline and represents a nearly +74% increase from the original estimated cost of the …

SNAP Estimated to Make up +80% of Farm Bill Spending, Followed by Federal Crop Insurance at 7% Read More »

According to a recent Rabobank report, adoption of gene-edited (GE) crops will increase significantly in the years ahead. Within the next 5 to 10 years, Rabobank analysts expect adoption rates could exceed 50% worldwide. Chia-Kai Kang, farm inputs analyst at Rabobank, says that GE technology has the potential to solve issues across the food supply …

Rabobank Expects Rapid Adoption of GE Crop Seed Technology Read More »

Wildfires and their related troubles in the US have typically been concentrated in Western states. This year, however, record wildfires in eastern Canada are impacting parts of the Northeast and Midwest. Smoke from the fires is blamed for New York City’s air quality recently ranking as among the worst in the world. The smoke has …

Smoke From Canadian Wildfires Poses Hazard to US Farmers…What You Need to Know Read More »

Chemical giant Dow has entered into a supply agreement with biomass refiner “New Energy Blue “to develop bioplastics from corn stover. Described as a ‘first-of-its-kind’ agreement in North America, New Energy Blue will create bio-based ethylene for Dow’s US Gulf Coast facilities to produce renewable plastics. Dow expects to use the bio-based ethylene in recyclable …

Dow Teams with New Energy Blue to Make Renewable Plastics from Corn Residue Read More »

There’s starting to be more talk of dry conditions creeping into some important soybean growing regions of the US. While soybeans are a resilient crop, prolonged dry conditions during both germination and the reproductive growth stages can be particularly detrimental, reducing stands and ultimately limiting yields. Below are some thoughts and information we have gathered …

How Drought Impacts Soybeans Throughout the Growing Season Read More »

The famous Velveeta Cheese we all grew up with wasn’t so much discovered as it was invented, and even stranger is the fact that it’s actually the second cheese invented by Swiss immigrant Emil Frey. Frey emigrated to the US with his father in the late 1800’s. His father was a farmer and cheese maker, …

Happy Birthday “Velveeta Cheese” Read More »

After nearly two decades of planning, the new, state-of-the-art National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) has finally opened in Manhattan, Kansas. The $1.25 billion facility, a level-four is the first of its kind in the United States and will allow scientists to study and diagnose critical animal diseases.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science …

Long-Awaited National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility Opens in Kansas Read More »