The Van Trump Report

Month: February 2025

Net Farm Income to Rise in 2025 Thanks Largely to $31 Billion Disaster Aid Infusion

In its first estimates for farm sector income in 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is forecasting an increase in net farm income of almost +30% over 2024 while net cash farm income is seen climbing nearly +22%. However, a more than +355% rise in government farm payments, mostly in the form of disaster …

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I Had No Idea… Battle Over “Border Water” Adds to US-Mexico Tensions

Texas and Mexico share not only a land border but also a shrinking supply of water that farmers and communities on both sides depend on for survival. Prolonged drought, excessive heat, and population growth are all blamed for the growing water crisis that already decimated the South Texas sugar industry and is now coming for …

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Google’s “Moonshot Factory” Spins Out New AI-Driven Startup“ Heritable Agriculture”

Google works on a lot of seemingly random projects in its “X” division, which is the so-called “moonshot factory” tasked with developing breakthrough technologies to solve some of the world’s hardest problems. While many never see the light of day, several have been spun off into independent startups. The latest is “Heritable Agriculture,” a biotechnology …

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What Are the Odds of a Bird Flu Vaccine for U.S. Poultry?

The decimation of U.S. poultry flocks from the ongoing HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) outbreak continues to push egg prices to new heights, with no end in sight. Over 20 million egg-laying hens were lost to the disease in Q4 2024, including over 13 million in December alone. In January, another 14 million birds were …

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Cutting CH4 Perhaps as Important as Cutting CO2

In the past two decades, the world has mobilized around reducing and sequestering CO2, but CH4 remains critically under-addressed. In fact, many climate experts believe cutting methane is the single most impactful way to prevent planetary warming in our lifetime. “Methanotrophs” are a family of naturally occurring soil microbes that eat methane and transform it …

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