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Tag: Agriculture

  • OSHA fines 3 companies $247,000 after 6 die of gas exposure at dairy farm near Keenesburg

    The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Tuesday that it had cited and fined three Weld County companies a combined $247,000 after it determined six people died following a hazardous gas exposure at a Weld County dairy farm in August.

    Prospect Ranch LLC, which operates Prospect Valley Dairy east of Keenesburg, faces $132,406 in penalties after OSHA cited the company for failure to protect workers from atmospheric hazards, failure to communicate the hazards in writing and failure to train workers on how to detect hazardous gases, according to a U.S. Department of Labor news release.

    Fiske faces $99,306 in fines and HD Builders faces $14,897 in penalties for failure to protect employees from atmospheric hazards and failure to provide hydrogen sulfide detection training. HD Builders employees were present during the incident, but were not harmed.

    Fiske, based in Johnstown, is a construction and consulting company that provides equipment for dairy farms and other industrial services. HD Builders, based in Windsor, is owned by Agrifab Colorado, according to county records, and is a construction company specializing in agricultural equipment and structures.

    OSHA’s investigation into the Aug. 20 incident found that a pipe in Prospect Valley Dairy’s manure management system had disconnected and released manure water and hydrogen sulfide gas, according to the news release. Contractors from Fiske and HD Builders had been hired to work on the system.

    Hydrogen sulfide occurs naturally in crude petroleum and natural gas, but is also produced from decomposing manure, according to OSHA. In low doses, it is mildly irritating to eyes and lungs, but in high doses in a confined area it can quickly become deadly.

    A Fiske employee and a Prospect Ranch employee attempted to stop the flow of the gas but died due to the exposure, according to the investigation. Three more Fiske employees and one Prospect Ranch employee entered the pump room where the gas was leaking and also died.

    Weld County Chief Deputy Coroner Jolene Weiner confirmed the identities of the six victims as Oscar Espinoza Leos, 17, Carlos Espinoza Prado, 29, Noé Montanez Casanas, 32, Jorge Sanchez Pena, 36, Ricardo Gomez Galvan, 40, and Alejandro Espinoza Cruz, 50. In October, the coroner confirmed that the men died due to exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas. 

    Four of the people who died were part of the same extended family, including father Espinoza Cruz and his sons Oscar Espinoza Leos and Espinoza Prado. They were related to Sanchez Pena by marriage, who lived in the employer-provided housing. The family worked in machinery repair for multiple dairy farms in the area.

    The companies have 15 business days after receiving their citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA or contest the findings, officials said.

    County records show the dairy farm is owned by Prospect Valley Dairy and Colorado business registrations show a Bakersfield, California, address for the owners of Prospect Ranch.

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  • Utah begins to cull mountain lions to ‘study’ the effect (Opinion)

    This year, in what it calls a “study,” Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources is killing off mountain lions in an effort to increase mule deer herds. It has hired trappers from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, authorizing them to dispatch lions with any method, including banned traps and neck snares.

    The study, covering roughly 8.6 million acres in six management units, will run for at least three years with the goal of indiscriminately exterminating “as many (lions) as possible.”

    Buying into this ancient predator-prey superstition are the nonprofits Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Utah Wild Sheep Foundation. Each has contributed $150,000 to the cull.

    Wildlife managers have no idea how many mountain lions roam the state because estimating populations is essentially impossible. Lions are solitary, elusive and range over vast territories they defend. Unlike ungulates that compensate for mortality with fecundity, predators don’t “overpopulate,” and they’re much slower to recover from culling or hunting.

    I asked veteran mountain lion researcher Dr. Rick Hopkins, board president of the Cougar Fund, what science supports a claim that killing mountain lions generates more deer. “None,” he replied. “For years, agencies have made such claims, but when pushed to provide evidence, they can’t. Predator control has never worked anywhere.”

    Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources estimates the state’s mule deer population at 295,200–73 percent of the “long-term goal.” That goal is based more on desired hunting-license sales than science. Still, considering the natural ebb and flow of deer populations, 73 percent isn’t bad.

    Mountain lions have little or nothing to do with the decline of Utah’s mule deer. Predator populations are limited by available prey. What we learned in Biology 101–that predators control prey—is incorrect: Prey controls predators. Utah has experienced prolonged drought, which peaked in 2022. Reduced forage starved female deer so that fewer fawns were born, and those fawns were sickly and therefore less likely to survive winters. When record-breaking snowfall occurred during the winter of 2022-2023, there were massive mule deer die-offs.

    Utah’s mountain lion cull follows hard upon a 2023 state law that opened up year-round, mountain lion killing without requiring permits. Both this law and the current cull outrage environmental and animal wellness communities. The Western Wildlife Conservancy and Mountain Lion Foundation have filed a lawsuit (ongoing), asserting that the law violates the state’s Right to Hunt and Fish Act, which requires a “reasonable regulation of hunting.”

    The Mountain Lion Foundation dismisses the mountain lion cull study as a “lethal program without rigorous science,” and reports: “Decades of peer-reviewed research across the West show that intensive predator removal rarely delivers sustained or landscape-scale recovery of prey populations. Instead, it often destabilizes predator populations, leading to younger, transient animals, increased conflict and little long-term benefit for deer.”

    And this from Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action: “The science shows that healthy lion populations create robust and healthier deer herds, with lions selectively removing deer afflicted with the 100-percent fatal and highly contagious brain-wasting scourge known as Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) caused by malformed, self-replicating proteins called ‘prions.’”

    All threats to mule deer pale in comparison with CWD. The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a hunter-support group, calls it “the number one threat to deer hunting.”

    In Utah, CWD has been detected in 356 of the few mule deer checked. Symptoms include fearlessness and loss of coordination, behaviors inviting lion predation, and thereby removal of disease vectors.

    What’s more, mountain lions are resistant to CWD. They deactivate prions through digestion, removing them from the environment. That further protects mule deer as well as possibly protecting people. In 2022, two hunters who ate venison from a CWD-ravaged deer herd in Texas died from prion disease. Given the rarity of human prion infections, this seems an unlikely coincidence.

    The Idaho Capital Sun quoted Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease at the University of Minnesota, as follows: “We are quite unprepared. If we saw a (CWD) spillover right now, we would be in free fall. There are no contingency plans.”

    Dr. Mark Elbroch of Panthera, a nonprofit dedicated to conserving wild felines, told me this: “Heaps of science show the beneficial contributions of mountain lions. Humans are healthier when we live with mountain lions.”

    So are mule deer.

    Ted Williams, a longtime environmental writer, is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West.

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    Ted Williams

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  • Bayer proposes $7.2 billion settlement to resolve Roundup weedkiller cases

    Bayer said on Tuesday that its Monsanto chemical subsidiary has proposed a $7.25 billion settlement to resolve lawsuits by customers alleging that its Roundup weedkiller product caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

    If the settlement wins court approval, Monsanto would make annual payments for up to 21 years. People diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma who were exposed to Roundup before the proposed legal remedy was announced on Tuesday can file a claim to receive payments, according to Reuters. 

    Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that develops in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body’s infection-fighting immune system.

    Bayer said in a statement that the agreement does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing. Bayer said these resolutions will increase its litigation liability from 7.8 billion euros ($9.2 billion) to 11.8 billion euros ($13.9 billion).

    Bayer, a German agricultural and pharmaceutical company, also said Tuesday that it had reached agreements to resolve other Roundup-related cases. The terms of those additional settlements were not disclosed.

    Bayer has faced thousands of lawsuits linked to Roundup since it bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion. In 2020, Bayer announced it would pay up to $10.9 billion to settle some 125,000 filed and unfiled claims. Three years later, a jury awarded a California man $332 million after deciding that Monsanto had failed to adequately warn consumers about the risks of using Roundup. 

    Roundup is still available for sale online and from other major retailers. Bayer maintains that Roundup products are safe and that their ingredients have been thoroughly tested and reviewed.

    Edited by

    Alain Sherter

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  • Valentine flower imports increase at Miami airport, despite tariffs, officials say

    MIAMI — Winged babies shooting heart-shaped arrows might get most of the credit on Valentine’s Day, but the real magic behind millions of romantic bouquets happens in a cargo warehouse at a South Florida airport.

    Agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport will process about 990 million stems of cut flowers in the weeks before Feb. 14, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Around 90% of the fresh cut flowers being sold for Valentine’s Day in the United States come through Miami, while the other 10% pass through Los Angeles.

    Roses, carnations, pompons, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums and gypsophila arrive on hundreds of flights, mostly from Colombia and Ecuador, to Miami on their journey to florists and supermarkets across the U.S. and Canada.

    Miami’s largest flower importer is Avianca Cargo, based in Medellín, Colombia. In preparation for Valentine’s Day, the company is transporting about 19,000 tons of flowers on 320 full cargo flights, CEO Diogo Elias said Friday in Miami. They’re running more than twice as many flights compared to normal.

    “We fly flowers for the whole year, but Valentine’s is special,” Elias said. “Much more concentrated on roses, red roses especially. More than 50-60% are red roses at this time.”

    Customers buying flowers will likely see an increase in price this year. Christine Boldt, executive vice president for the Association of Floral Importers of America, said the cause is largely related to tariffs placed last year on imports from Colombia and Ecuador, along with a new minimum wage enacted this year in Colombia.

    “This adds significant dollars to the bouquets that are coming in,” Boldt said. “Every consumer is gonna have to face additional costs.”

    Despite higher prices, Flowers continue to make up one of MIA’s largest imports, airport director Ralph Cutié said. The airport received almost 3.5 million tons of cargo last year, with flowers accounting for about 400,000 tons. More than a quarter of those flowers are shipped before Valentine’s Day, marking a 6% increase over last year.

    “The mother, the wife, the girlfriend in Omaha, Nebraska, that gets their flowers for either Valentine’s or Mother’s Day, chances are those flowers passed through our airport,” Cutié said. “And that’s something we take a lot of pride in.”

    CBP agriculture specialists check the bundles of flowers for potentially harmful plant, pest and foreign animal diseases from entering the country, CBP senior official Daniel Alonso said. Inspectors on average find about 40-50 plant pests a day, the most common being moths. Pests are turned over to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which determines the potential threat.

    “Our rigorous process is vital to safeguarding the floral and agricultural industries, ensuring that our imported flowers are not introducing any pests or harmful diseases,” Alonso said.

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  • Giant snails and tiny insects threaten the South’s rice and crawfish farms

    KAPLAN, La. — Josh Courville has harvested crawfish his whole life, but these days, he’s finding a less welcome catch in some of the fields he manages in southern Louisiana.

    Snails. Big ones.

    For every crawfish Courville dumps out of a trap, three or four snails clang onto the boat’s metal sorting table. About the size of a baseball when fully grown, apple snails stubbornly survive all kinds of weather in fields, pipes and drainage ditches and can lay thousands of bubblegum-colored eggs every month.

    “It’s very disheartening,” Courville said. “The most discouraging part, actually, is not having much control over it.”

    Apple snails are just one example of how invasive species can quickly become a nightmare for farmers.

    In Louisiana, where rice and crawfish are often grown together in the same fields, there’s now a second threat: tiny insects called delphacids that can deal catastrophic damage to rice plants. Much about these snails and insects is still a mystery, and researchers are trying to learn more about what’s fueling their spread, from farming methods and pesticides to global shipping and extreme weather.

    Experts aren’t sure what role climate change may play, but they say a warming world generally makes it easier for pests to spread to other parts of the country if they gain a foothold in the temperate South.

    “We are going to have more bugs that are happier to live here if it stays warmer here longer,” said Hannah Burrack, professor and chair of the entomology department at Michigan State University.

    It’s an urgent problem because in a tough market for rice, farmers who rotate the rice and crawfish crops together need successful harvests of both to make ends meet. And losses to pests could mean higher rice prices for U.S. consumers, said Steve Linscombe, director of The Rice Foundation, which does research and education outreach for the U.S. rice industry.

    Courville manages fields for Christian Richard, a sixth-generation rice farmer in Louisiana. Both started noticing apple snails after a bad flood in 2016. Then the population ballooned.

    In spring, at rice planting time, the hungry snails found a feast.

    “It was like this science fiction movie,” Richard said, describing how each snail made its own little whirlpool as it popped out of the wet ground. “They would start on those tender rice plants, and they destroyed a 100-acre field.”

    Louisiana State University scientists estimate that about 78 square miles (202 square kilometers) in the state are now regularly seeing snails.

    To keep the rice from becoming a snail buffet, Richard’s team and many other rice and crawfish farmers dealing with the pests start with a dry field to give the rice plants the chance to grow a few inches and get stronger, then flood the field after.

    It’s a planting method they’d already used on some fields, even before the snails arrived. But now, with the snails, that’s essentially their only option, and it’s the most expensive one.

    They also can’t get rid of the snails entirely. Many of the pesticides that might work on snails can also hurt crustaceans. People directly eat both rice and crawfish, unlike crops grown for animal feed, so there are fewer chemicals farmers can use on them. One option some farmers are testing, copper sulfate, can easily add thousands of dollars to an operation’s costs, Courville said.

    It all means “lower production, decreased revenue from that, and increased cost with the extra labor,” Richard said.

    Cecilia Gallegos, who has worked as a crawfish harvester for the past three years, said the snails have made her job more difficult in the past year.

    “You give up more time,” she said of having to separate the crawfish from the snails, or occasionally plucking them out of sacks if they roll in by mistake. Work that already stretched as late as 3 a.m. in the busy springtime season can now take even longer.

    The snails separated from the crawfish get destroyed later.

    To look for pests much smaller than the apple snails, entomologists whip around heavy-duty butterfly nets and deploy Ghostbusters-style specimen-collecting vacuums. Since last year, they’ve been sampling for rice delphacids, tiny insects that pierce the rice plants, suck out their sap and transmit a rice virus that worsens the damage.

    It’s worrying for Louisiana because they’ve seen how bad it can get next door in Texas, where delphacids surged last year. Yields dropped by up to 50% in what’s called the ratoon crop, the second rice crop of the year, said The Rice Foundation’s Linscombe. Texas farmers are projected to grow rice on only half the acres they did last year, and some are worried they won’t be able to get bank loans, said Tyler Musgrove, a rice extension specialist at the Louisiana State University AgCenter.

    Musgrove said entomologists believe almost all rice fields in Louisiana had delphacids by September and October of last year. By then, most of the rice had already been harvested, so they’re waiting to see what happens this year.

    “The rice delphacid this past year was probably one of the most significant entomological events to occur in U.S. rice since the ‘50s when it first appeared,” Musgrove said. Delphacids had eventually disappeared after that outbreak until now. It’s been identified in four of the six rice-producing states — Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi — but it’s not clear yet whether it’s made a permanent winter home in the U.S.

    Scientists are still in the early stages of advising farmers on what to do about the resurgence of the destructive bugs without adding costly or crawfish-harming pesticides. And they’re also starting to study whether rice and crawfish grown together will see different impacts than rice grown by itself.

    “I think everyone agrees, it’s not going to be a silver bullet approach. Like, oh, we can just breed for it or we could just spray our way out of it,” said Adam Famoso, director of Louisiana State University’s Rice Research Station.

    Burrack, of Michigan State, said that climate change is making it harder for modeling that has helped predict how big populations of invasive pests will get and when they may affect certain crops. And that makes it harder for farmers to plan around them.

    “From an agricultural standpoint, that’s generally what happens when you get one of these intractable pests,” Burrack said. “People are no longer able to produce the thing that they want to produce in the place that they’re producing it.”

    ___

    Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social. Follow Joshua A. Bickel on Instagram, Bluesky and X @joshuabickel.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Florida Agriculture Commissioner says cold caused up to $1.5B in crop damages

    SARASOTA, Fla. — Information from the Florida Department of Agriculture shows that the state’s recent bout of cold weather may have caused more than $1 billion in losses for the state’s farmers. 

    “We’ve really gotten devastated in Florida,” Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said. “We don’t know the full extent yet of all the damage. Early assessments were the first night, we probably did OK. We were able to come through that. But three nights in a row, well below 32 for many, many hours really has devastated agriculture.”

    What You Need To Know

    • Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson says early assessments show the state’s farmers lost anywhere from $500 million to $1.5 billion to crop damage during the recent bout of cold weather
    • The owner of Blumemberry Farms in Sarasota estimates her losses at $45,000

    • Colleen Blumenthal said her team was able to harvest a lot right before temperatures dipped, but much of what they couldn’t get to was lost — including about 80% of her tomato crop and half of her farm’s green beans

    • Simpson said he’s in talks with federal officials about securing financial relief for Florida farmers


    Walking the fields of Blumenberry Farms in Sarasota, visitors will find as many as 70 different crops. After the recent cold snap hit, owner Colleen Blumenthal said much of the view is very different.

    “This was completely full with really ripe, luscious green beans,” she said. “But once the weather got below 35, they just died on the vine.”

    Blumenthal said about half of her green beans were lost to the recent cold weather, along with 80% of her tomatoes. She said she’s looking at up to $45,000 in losses across all crops.

    Simpson said that is a situation farmers are facing statewide, with early assessments showing anywhere from $500 million to $1.5 billion in damages.

    “You’ve got to remember, this time of year we’re growing 70-80% of all the fresh vegetables that are sold on the eastern seaboard of the United States,” Simpson said. “So, this is the bread basket of the country right now.”

    He said he’s in talks with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and the White House to secure financial relief for the state’s farmers. 

    “I believe the President (Donald Trump) is going to be very supportive of resources coming back in to support our farmers,” Simpson said. “My big thing was, let’s try to do this in real time.”

    In the meantime, local farms like Blumenberry are making assessments of their own.

    “It’s possible we might be able to harvest those,” farm manager Aaron Drucker said, gesturing to green tomatoes that may not have frozen in the cold. “As far as these plants continuing to thrive and create more tomatoes? Unlikely.”

    According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, agriculture brought nearly $9 billion to the state’s economy in 2022. 

    Sarah Blazonis

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  • Farm owner speaks on importance of conserving land

    HARDEE COUNTY, Fla. — With more people calling Florida their home comes increased development, but one state program is working to preserve agricultural land as growth continues.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Rural and Family Lands Protection Program was established in 2001, designed to protect important agricultural lands through land conservation easements
    • Over 500 applications were submitted to the program in 2025
    • Farmer Ned Hancock applied to the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program about a year ago to protect his family’s land for generations to come
    • The interest in the program has increased by 90% since 2023


    Over 500 applications were submitted to the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program statewide in 2025.

    In a quiet corner of Hardee County sits land that’s been in Ned Hancock’s family since 1855.

    “Outside of their love of God and their love of their family, nothing meant more to them than this land,” said Hancock.

    Though his family didn’t originally farm the property, Hancock knew he wanted to put it to use.

    He started in the citrus industry and later expanded into cattle. Today, the family owns over 3,500 acres, known as Charlie Creek Marsh.

    Hancock said the land isn’t just part of his history — it’s his livelihood.

    “Every agricultural endeavor has its challenges and its ups and downs, so we’re hoping that the next 20 years make up for the last 20 years,” he said.

    That’s why Hancock applied to the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program about a year ago.

    The program protects rural land through permanent agricultural land conservation easements, even as surrounding areas grow. 

    About three miles of Hancock’s family property is now part of the program, a decision he said benefits not just his farm, but the community as well.

    “For generations now, it’s going to be just like this,” he said. “It’s going to be cleaning up our water, clearing up our air, creating wildlife corridors.”

    According to the Florida Department of Agriculture, interest in conservation programs has increased by over 90% since 2023.

    “Our agricultural landscapes are what’s left of green space in our state. It’s what much of our wildlife is utilizing to continue to thrive in a rapidly growing state,” said Conservation Florida President and CEO Traci Deen.

    Since the program started in 2001, officials said over 200,000 acres of working agricultural land have been preserved.

    For Hancock, it’s about protecting the future so farmers like him can preserve their way of life for generations to come.

    “I hope 150 years from now, some of my descendants are saying, ‘Man, I’m glad they did this,’” he said.

    Lizbeth Gutierrez

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  • Fruit farmer says cold weather is causing damage to Florida crops

    THONOTOSASSA, Fla. — Farmers are working to protect their crops from the cold temperatures that have been affecting the Tampa Bay area.

    What You Need To Know

    • Florida farmers are taking measures to protect their crops from freezing temperatures

    • One farmer says his lemon trees are already showing signs of damage while strawberry crops are being protected with ice

    • The cold weather impact may affect next year’s crop yields


    Don Balaban, the Owner of Balaban Farms, grows many different fruits.

    The condition of his lemon trees was not promising.

    “It’s soft,” he said. “It’s not good.”

    A farmer for 20 years, Balaban grows everything from oranges to macadamia nuts.

    He’s dealt with tough weather before, but when it gets this cold, the weather wreaks havoc.

    “God willing, I should have some fruit this year, but it won’t be what it would have been,” he said.

    For the trees that already sprouted blossoms, there’s nothing that can be done.

    However, for their strawberries, Farm Manager Matias Bueno is creating a layer of ice.

    That actually helps protect the berries from frost burn.

    “I was out here since 10 p.m. (Saturday night) taking a look at the temperature,” Bueno said.

    It’s all hands on deck with this weather.

    While Bueno is doing what he can, it won’t be known what the damage really is for at least a couple of days.

    “We’re hoping we got enough coverage to not see that much damage,” he said.

    This is not typical Florida weather, but Balaban said it hasn’t been too long since they had weather like this.

    Four years ago, he said there was a 100-year freeze.

    To have something similar is not something any Florida farmer wants to see.

    “This time it’s wearing us out because it’s been going on for weeks,” he said. “Started in November, December was warm, and now the last two weeks we’ve been hitting 26 (degrees) a few times. Last night, 24 out here.”

    Balaban said no matter what the weather is like in the coming days, Florida farmers are already impacted.

    He said the impact of this weather will be felt in next year’s crop.

    Matt Lackritz

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  • After 200 years, the Farmers’ Almanac bets on a digital reboot and new owner

    PORTLAND, Maine — The Farmers’ Almanac isn’t going out of business after all, but it is leaving Maine for the bright lights of New York City and a new owner.

    Beloved by farmers and gardeners, the almanac was first printed in 1818 and — like the arguably more famous Old Farmer’s Almanac — relies on a secret formula of sunspots, planetary positions and lunar cycles to generate long-range weather forecasts.

    It’s been acquired by Unofficial Networks, a digital publisher focused on skiing and outdoor recreation. That means the almanac will keep operating despite announcing in November that its 208-year run was coming to an end.

    A new Farmers’ Almanac website will be “a living, breathing publication with fresh, daily content” and there are plans to bring back a print edition, said Tim Konrad, founder and publisher of New York-based Unofficial Networks.

    “I saw the announcement that one of America’s most enduring publications was set to close,” Konrad said, “and it felt wrong to stand by while an irreplaceable piece of our national heritage disappeared.”

    The deal will prioritize “preserving and sustaining the iconic publication,” according to a statement from Unofficial Networks and Peter Geiger, the almanac’s longtime publisher.

    The Farmers’ Almanac was founded in New Jersey before moving its headquarters to Lewiston, Maine, in 1955. The Old Farmer’s Almanac is based in New Hampshire.

    Over the years, scientists have sometimes chafed at the publications’ predictions. Studies of their accuracy have found them to be a little more than 50% accurate. That is about on par with random chance.

    But Geiger, whose family had the Farmers’ Almanac for more than 90 years, said they’re “going out a winner” by having predicted a cold and snowy 2026.

    “For more than 200 years, the values and wisdom of the Farmers’ Almanac have been protected and nurtured by four owner-publishers,” Geiger said. “I am grateful to have found the right next custodian in Tim Konrad. I am also confident he will honor its heritage and carry it forward for generations to come.”

    Unofficial Networks was started in 2006 by Konrad and his brother John in a California basement, according to the company’s website.

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  • European Union and Mercosur bloc of South American nations sign landmark free trade agreement

    ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay — The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.

    The signing ceremony in Paraguay’s humid capital of Asunción marks a major geopolitical victory for the EU in an age of American tariffs and surging Chinese exports, expanding the bloc’s foothold in a resource-rich region increasingly contested by Washington and Beijing.

    It also sends a message that South America keeps diverse trade and diplomatic relations even as U.S. President Donald Trump declares dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who head’s the EU’s executive branch, said that “the geopolitical importance of this agreement cannot be overstated” amid revived skepticism about the benefits of free trade.

    “We choose fair trade over tariffs. We choose a productive long-term partnership over isolation,” she declared at the ceremony attended by the presidents of Mercosur members Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and by the foreign minister of the trading bloc’s biggest economy, Brazil.

    “We will join forces like never before, because we believe that this is the best way to make our people and our countries prosper.”

    In creating one of the world’s largest free trade zones, the accord — pushed by South America’s renowned cattle-raising countries and Europe’s industrial sectors craving new markets for cars and machines — brings together a market of more than 700 million consumers that accounts for a quarter of global gross domestic product.

    After decades of delay, the politically explosive deal still must clear one final hurdle: ratification by the European Parliament. Powerful protectionist lobbies on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly European farmers scared of the possible dumping of cheap South American agricultural imports, have long sought to scupper the agreement and could still stall its implementation.

    Although the accord eliminates more than 90% tariffs on goods and services between the European and Mercosur markets, some tariffs will progressively be cut over 10-15 years and key farm products like beef will be limited by strict quotas in a bid to assuage European farmers’ fears.

    Those quotas, as well as safeguard measures and generous EU subsidies to cash-strapped farmers, pushed agricultural powerhouse Italy across the line earlier this month. France, however, remains opposed to the accord.

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  • Brazil’s Lula hails historic EU-Mercosur deal ahead of no-show at its signing

    RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday celebrated the expected signing of the free trade agreement between the EU and four South American countries the following day at a ceremony that Lula will not attend.

    This is the first major trade agreement for Mercosur, which includes the region’s two biggest economies, Brazil and Argentina, along with Paraguay and Uruguay. The two blocs are expected to formally sign their quarter-century-in-the-making trade pact this Saturday at a ceremony in Paraguay. Bolivia, the newest Mercosur member, was not involved in negotiations but can join the agreement in the coming years.

    While local media reported that Argentina’s Javier Milei and Uruguay’s Yamandú Orsi will be present at the ceremony hosted by Paraguay’s Santiago Peña, Lula decided not to make the trip to the capital Asuncion.

    Instead, the Brazilian leader will be represented by Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira.

    That caused some surprise, in light of Lula’s energetic efforts in favor of the deal, particularly since returning to Brazil’s presidency in 2023 for a third, nonconsecutive term. Experts say the move may hint at Lula’s disappointment the deal was not signed in December, when Brazil had the rotating presidency of Mercosur.

    In Rio, Lula again pointed to how long the negotiations had taken.

    “It was more than 25 years of suffering and attempts to get a deal,” Lula said during a short statement to the press at Itamaraty Palace in downtown Rio alongside von der Leyen.

    But he hailed the historic nature of the pact.

    “Tomorrow in Asuncion, we will make history by creating one of the world’s largest free trade areas, bringing together some 720 million people and a GDP of over $22 trillion,” he said.

    The European Commission’s president paid warm tribute to Lula for his efforts in making the deal happen.

    “The political leadership, the personal commitment and passion that you have shown in the last weeks and months, dear Lula, are truly second to none,” said von der Leyen.

    In a statement ahead of von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa’s trip to South America, the European Council also said that the latest Brazilian presidency of Mercosur was crucial to advance negotiations, paving the way to its signature in Paraguay.

    The significance of creating one of the world’s largest free-trade zones while U.S. President Donald Trump yanks the United States out of the international economy is not lost on the signatories.

    “This is the power of partnership and openness. This is the power of friendship and understanding between peoples and regions across oceans,” von der Leyen said. “And this is how we create real prosperity — prosperity that is shared. Because, we agree, that international trade is not a zero-sum game.”

    The victory for the EU and Mercosur comes at the expense of the U.S. and China, experts say, as Trump aggressively asserts American authority in the resource-rich region and Beijing uses its massive trade and loans to build influence.

    The accord grants South American nations, renowned for their fertile land and skilled farmers, increased access at a preferential tax rate to Europe’s vast market for agricultural goods.

    Apex, a Brazilian government investment agency, estimates that EU-bound agricultural exports like instant coffee, poultry and orange juice will rake in $7 billion in coming years.

    But Lula on Friday warned that Mercosur would not limit itself to the “eternal role” of commodity exporters. “We want to produce and sell industrial goods with higher added value,” he said.

    Flavia Loss, an international relations professor at Foundation School of Sociology and Politics in Sao Paulo, said that Lula’s absence on Saturday may be retaliation for the delay — another sign that Brazil and Mercosur are seeking equal terms with the EU.

    “I see Lula’s absence as signaling: ‘The deal is important but we’re not going to change everything for them,’” Loss said.

    While the deal is asymmetrical and undoubtedly economically favorable to the European Union, politically the agreement is beneficial for both parties, said Roberto Goulart Menezes, an international relations professor at the University of Brasilia.

    For the European Union, which is under pressure amid Trump’s threats to seize control of Greenland, the deal shows that the group of countries is betting on the diversification of its partners and multilateralism, Goulart said, in a symbolic rebuke of Trump’s MAGA logic.

    “And for Mercosur, it illustrates that the bloc is relevant, despite accusations of being insignificant and on its last legs.”

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  • At the National Western Stock Show, Colorado 4-H teens hope to make the sale

    Ever since Grace Kennedy met Quinn in May, the teenager’s goal has been to fatten the Hereford calf up — but not too much, not if she wants to auction it off at this month’s National Western Stock Show in Denver.

    Quinn, who is about a year-and-a-half old, weighed 460 pounds when Grace won the animal from the Stock Show’s Catch-A-Calf program. The calf weighed about 1,250 pounds as of early December.

    “They just want a good-looking carcass,” Grace, who lives just outside of Morrison, said of the judges who will determine how well she did in raising Quinn for beef.

    The 17-year-old is just one of Colorado’s 4-H youth members who will attend the Stock Show in hopes of making a sale. Teenagers from across the state will come to Denver to auction off cattle, goats and other livestock, with the goal of earning money for college, first cars or to reinvest in their farming endeavors.

    4-H student Grace Kennedy, 17, tries to convince her one-year-old steer, Quinn, to continue his walk around the property on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Morrison, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)

    The Stock Show began Saturday and will run through Jan. 25.

    “Being from Colorado, I feel like it would be really cool making a sale in a national show in your state,” 15-year-old Ty Weathers said.

    Ty, who lives on a cattle ranch outside of Yuma in northeastern Colorado, has been showing cows since he was about 7 years old. He will show a steer named Theodore at the Stock Show this year, and he hopes to sell the animal to earn money for a car.

    Unlike Grace, who received Quinn through the Catch-A-Calf program, which requires participants to sell their calves during the Stock Show, there’s no guarantee Ty will make a sale.

    “I like winning,” Ty said, referring to his hope he’ll be able to auction Theodore off for the highest price. “I’ve grown up in it, so it’s just a part of life.”

    Zemery Weber, who lives in Gill in Weld County, started showing goats when she was 8 years old to earn money, but this is her first time doing so at the Stock Show.

    “I got a goat this year that seems to be pretty good,” the 14-year-old said. “I’m excited, but I’m also nervous because it’s my first time.”

    Zemery will show a goat named Nemo. She plans to save part of the money she earns from selling the goat for meat for her first car and college.

    Zemery Weber, 14, leads her goat, Nemo, outside of the barn at her mother's home near Gill, Colo., on Dec. 15, 2025. Weber plans to show the goats at the National Western Stock Show. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
    Zemery Weber, 14, leads her goat, Nemo, outside of a barn at her mother’s home near Gill, Colo., on Dec. 15, 2025. Weber plans to show the goats at the National Western Stock Show. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

    “It has helped me become the person that I am,” Zemery said of showing goats. “It is a very good experience for students to have and kids to have to learn responsibility and reliability.”

    Showing animals is just one way students can participate in the Stock Show.

    In the Front Range, county 4-H programs — which have youth participate in agricultural, STEM and other projects — also put on a field trip for elementary school students to visit the show so they can learn about animals and where their food comes from, said Josey Pukrop, a 4-H youth development specialist with the Colorado State University Extension in Jefferson County.

    Last year, about 12,000 children participated in the field trip, she said.

    4-H has been operating nationally for more than 120 years, through it, children participate in programs that include showing livestock, gardening and building robots. The youth program is largely funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, according to the agency’s website.

    More than 100,000 Colorado students participate in 4-H via community clubs and other programming, said Michael Compton, the state 4-H program director at the CSU Extension.

    Like Ty, Grace’s family is in the cattle business, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that she began to take an interest and dream of owning her own ranch someday.

    Grace’s foray into cows began when the dance studio she attended closed because of COVID-19 in 2020. Grace, in search of a new hobby, got into horses and trail riding with her father.

    4-H student Grace Kennedy, 17, leads her one-year-old steer, Quinn, around the property as training for being shown at the National Western Stock Show next month, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Morrison, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
    4-H student Grace Kennedy, 17, leads her one-year-old steer, Quinn, around the property as training for being shown at the National Western Stock Show next month, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Morrison, Colo. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)

    Soon after, she took an interest in cows and worked on her grandfather’s cattle ranch in South Dakota during the summer. Grace’s parents have their own herd near Morrison, and the teenager has started breeding and raising her own cattle.

    “Animals are the coolest things,” Grace said. “They are here to teach us something, to teach us life qualities. They’re peaceful.”

    Grace has been a member of 4-H for six years, showing cattle for four.

    She is participating in the Stock Show’s Catch-A-Calf program, which loaned her a calf so she can learn cattle management.

    The Catch-A-Calf program started in 1935 and is open to teens ages 14 to 18 who live in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming, according to the Stock Show’s website.  

    “Sometimes it’s kids that haven’t raised these animals before,” Pukrop said.

    Zemery Weber, 14, cleans the pens for her goats, Theo, left, and Nemo, in a barn at her mother's home near Gill, Colo., on Dec. 15, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
    Zemery Weber, 14, cleans the pens for her goats, Theo, left, and Nemo, in a barn at her mother’s home near Gill, Colo., on Dec. 15, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

    Teens participating in the program have to rope a calf, feed it and return the cow to the next Stock Show to be judged on showmanship and carcass quality. The program’s Grand and Reserve Grand Champions get to sell their steers at an auction held on the final Friday of the Stock Show, according to the website.

    Jessica Seaman

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  • BUTTER THAN EVER?: Pennsylvania Farm Show’s butter sculpture honors America’s 250th anniversary

    THE HONOR IS BOTH HOSTING THIS, BUT ALSO DOING A SCULPTURE THAT CAPTURES THAT MOMENT AS WELL. WELL, THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DESIGN WERE BASICALLY, YOU KNOW, THE FOUNDING FATHERS, YOU KNOW, SIGNING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. MONTHS OF PLANNING, DAYS OF SCULPTING. MARIE PELTON AND JIM VICTOR MADE THE FARM SHOW BUTTER SCULPTURE, WEIGHING IN OVER 1,000 POUNDS OF BUTTER. IT IS QUITE THE FEAT. SO YOU SUBMIT THE DRAWINGS? WE DID THREE OF THEM, AND THIS WAS OUR FIRST DRAWING THAT WE SUBMITTED. AND SO, YOU KNOW, WE WERE GLAD THAT THEY ACTUALLY SELECTED THIS ONE. BRINGING YOU INSIDE OF THE BUTTER SCULPTURE. LET’S TAKE A LOOK. SET IN 1776 TO HONOR THE 250TH BIRTHDAY HERE OF THE UNITED STATES, AND CELEBRATING TWO 50 PA, WE HAVE THE FOUNDING FATHERS UP TOP WITH RED, WHITE AND BLUE ACCENTS. SIGNING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. THERE’S A LITTLE TRIBUTE HERE TO BETSY ROSS OFF ON THE SIDE, CELEBRATING THE FARM SHOW HERE THIS YEAR. AND ON THE BOTTOM YOU SEE HIGHLIGHTS OF PENNSYLVANIA’S AGRICULTURAL EXPERTISE. SOME OF THOSE THINGS ARE THE THE DOCUMENT DEFINITELY IS A HIGHLIGHT. THE FIGURES OF COURSE, YOU KNOW, ARE VERY RECOGNIZABLE AS FOUNDING FATHERS SIGNING THE DECLARATION. THE BUTTER IS FROM ACROSS THE RIVER IN CUMBERLAND COUNTY FROM LAND O’LAKES. AND WHEN THE SCULPTURE REACHES ITS TIME TO MELT, IT WILL BE RECYCLED INTO RENEWABLE ENERGY. WE REALLY DO APPRECIATE THAT THAT THERE’S, YOU KNOW, A FAN BASE FOR THIS PARTICULAR THING. IT MEANS A LOT TO PEOPLE. AND SO WE WANT TO DO AS GOOD A JOB AS POSSIBLE. ALL THERE FOR YOU TO CHECK AT THE MACLAY STREET LOBBY ENTRANCE, ALL FAR

    1,000-pound butter sculpture at Pennsylvania Farm Show honors America’s 250th anniversary

    Updated: 8:52 PM EST Jan 9, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    The 1,000-pound, 2026 Pennsylvania Farm Show butter sculpture has been unveiled. In keeping with this year’s theme of “Growing a Nation,” in honor of America’s 250th anniversary, this year’s butter sculpture features Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross and the Liberty Bell. You can see another view of the creamy creation below.Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, Carolyn Matthews Eaglehouse of Milky Way Farm, Chester Springs, and butter sculptors Jim Victor and Marie Pelton, of Conshohocken, attended the unveiling in the main hall of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center.The sculpture is crafted from butter donated by the Land O’Lakes plant in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.Video below: See the unveiling and get a closer look at the sculpture After the farm show, the butter will be recycled into biofuel. The Pennsylvania Farm Show takes place in the state’s capital of Harrisburg. It is held at the nation’s largest indoor agricultural expo, featuring more than 5,000 animals, 12,000+ competitive entries from over 4,600 competitors, 250+ commercial exhibits, and hundreds of educational and entertaining events.

    The 1,000-pound, 2026 Pennsylvania Farm Show butter sculpture has been unveiled. In keeping with this year’s theme of “Growing a Nation,” in honor of America’s 250th anniversary, this year’s butter sculpture features Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross and the Liberty Bell. You can see another view of the creamy creation below.

    Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding, Carolyn Matthews Eaglehouse of Milky Way Farm, Chester Springs, and butter sculptors Jim Victor and Marie Pelton, of Conshohocken, attended the unveiling in the main hall of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center.

    The sculpture is crafted from butter donated by the Land O’Lakes plant in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

    Video below: See the unveiling and get a closer look at the sculpture

    After the farm show, the butter will be recycled into biofuel.

    The Pennsylvania Farm Show takes place in the state’s capital of Harrisburg. It is held at the nation’s largest indoor agricultural expo, featuring more than 5,000 animals, 12,000+ competitive entries from over 4,600 competitors, 250+ commercial exhibits, and hundreds of educational and entertaining events.

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  • Italy gives key support to fraught EU trade deal with South American nations

    BRUSSELS — Italy on Friday gave crucial support to plans by the European Union to seal a huge free trade deal with five South American nations neighboring Venezuela that has been negotiated for over 25 years.

    Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was long seen as the key vote in the campaign by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to rally support for the trade deal with the Mercosur nations of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

    Von der Leyen could now potentially sign the deal next week during a meeting in Paraguay. European Parliament will vote on it before it enters into force.

    Italy confirmed its support for the deal on Friday, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani hailing it as “good news for Italy.”

    “This agreement is destined to boost our exports, with the goal of reaching 700 billion euros in exports,” Tajani wrote in a post on X. He acknowledged the deal required a long negotiation, but added that Italy had secured protections for its farmers, “especially regarding production standards.”

    Meloni said at a press conference on Friday she never had “any ideological objections” to the Mercosur agreement.

    “We have always said we will be in favor of it when there are sufficient guarantees for our farmers,” she said. “The agreement’s potential is good, but not at the expense of the excellence of our products.”

    The deal would create one of the world’s largest free trade zones, covering some 780 million people from Uruguay to Romania and a quarter of the globe’s gross domestic product.

    It also give Brussels a diplomatic win at a time of economic upheaval, providing a stark counterpoint to the gunboat diplomacy of Washington and the coercive export controls of Beijing.

    A delay in December to the signing of the deal had infuriated Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and led experts to worry a last-minute stumble would wreck the EU’s credibility.

    Opposition to the deal was led by France and Poland, with riled-up farmers flooding streets and blocking roads with tractors from Brussels to Athens. Austria, Hungary and Ireland also voted against it.

    Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Thursday in Shanghai during a state visit to China that “we don’t have confidence that (Irish farmers) wouldn’t be undercut by that,” according to Irish public broadcaster RTE.

    Both Martin and French President Emmanuel Macron said that internal negotiations sparked by the political furor surrounding the deal had led to reforms that better protect European farmers. But they acknowledged such reforms were not enough to overcome domestic political pressure.

    Posting on X on Thursday, Macron said three of France’s key demands were now being met: New safeguards to an “emergency brake” of imports if they are found to undercut EU prices by 5% or more; the mirroring of EU food safety regulations in the Mercosur bloc; and an increase of inspections of agrifood imports at EU ports and beyond.

    Still, Macron said the potential economic gains of the Mercosur deal are limited and do not justify the risks it poses to EU agriculture. His office stated that the deal would only add 77 billion euros ($89.7 billion) by 2040 — half a percent of the EU’s GDP.

    Green members of European Parliament had vowed to take the Commission to court over the deal. They said the agreement would accelerate deforestation in the Amazon and weaken the EU’s climate targets.

    __

    Zampano reported from Rome. Sylvie Corbet contributed from Paris.

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  • Big Tech’s fast-expanding plans for data centers run into stiff community opposition

    SPRING CITY, Pa. — Tech companies and developers looking to plunge billions of dollars into ever-bigger data centers to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing are increasingly losing fights in communities where people don’t want to live next to them, or even near them.

    Communities across the United States are reading about — and learning from — each other’s battles against data center proposals that are fast multiplying in number and size to meet steep demand as developers branch out in search of faster connections to power sources.

    In many cases, municipal boards are trying to figure out whether energy- and water-hungry data centers fit into their zoning framework. Some have entertained waivers or tried to write new ordinances. Some don’t have zoning.

    But as more people hear about a data center coming to their community, once-sleepy municipal board meetings in farming towns and growing suburbs now feature crowded rooms of angry residents pressuring local officials to reject the requests.

    “Would you want this built in your backyard?” Larry Shank asked supervisors last month in Pennsylvania’s East Vincent Township. “Because that’s where it’s literally going, is in my backyard.”

    A growing number of proposals are going down in defeat, sounding alarms across the data center constellation of Big Tech firms, real estate developers, electric utilities, labor unions and more.

    Andy Cvengros, who helps lead the data center practice at commercial real estate giant JLL, counted seven or eight deals he’d worked on in recent months that saw opponents going door-to-door, handing out shirts or putting signs in people’s yards.

    “It’s becoming a huge problem,” Cvengros said.

    Data Center Watch, a project of 10a Labs, an AI security consultancy, said it is seeing a sharp escalation in community, political and regulatory disruptions to data center development.

    Between April and June alone, its latest reporting period, it counted 20 proposals valued at $98 billion in 11 states that were blocked or delayed amid local opposition and state-level pushback. That amounts to two-thirds of the projects it was tracking.

    Some environmental and consumer advocacy groups say they’re fielding calls every day, and are working to educate communities on how to protect themselves.

    “I’ve been doing this work for 16 years, worked on hundreds of campaigns I’d guess, and this by far is the biggest kind of local pushback I’ve ever seen here in Indiana,” said Bryce Gustafson of the Indianapolis-based Citizens Action Coalition.

    In Indiana alone, Gustafson counted more than a dozen projects that lost rezoning petitions.

    For some people angry over steep increases in electric bills, their patience is thin for data centers that could bring still-higher increases.

    Losing open space, farmland, forest or rural character is a big concern. So is the damage to quality of life, property values or health by on-site diesel generators kicking on or the constant hum of servers. Others worry that wells and aquifers could run dry.

    Lawsuits are flying — both ways — over whether local governments violated their own rules.

    Big Tech firms Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook — which are collectively spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers across the globe — didn’t answer Associated Press questions about the effect of community pushback.

    Microsoft, however, has acknowledged the difficulties. In an October securities filing, it listed its operational risks as including “community opposition, local moratoriums, and hyper-local dissent that may impede or delay infrastructure development.”

    Even with high-level support from state and federal governments, the pushback is having an impact.

    Maxx Kossof, vice president of investment at Chicago-based developer The Missner Group, said developers worried about losing a zoning fight are considering selling properties once they secure a power source — a highly sought-after commodity that makes a proposal far more viable and valuable.

    “You might as well take chips off the table,” Kossof said. “The thing is you could have power to a site and it’s futile because you might not get the zoning. You might not get the community support.”

    Some in the industry are frustrated, saying opponents are spreading falsehoods about data centers — such as polluting water and air — and are difficult to overcome.

    Still, data center allies say they are urging developers to engage with the public earlier in the process, emphasize economic benefits, sow good will by supporting community initiatives and talk up efforts to conserve water and power and protect ratepayers.

    “It’s definitely a discussion that the industry is having internally about, ‘Hey, how do we do a better job of community engagement?’” said Dan Diorio of the Data Center Coalition, a trade association that includes Big Tech firms and developers.

    Winning over local officials, however, hasn’t translated to winning over residents.

    Developers pulled a project off an October agenda in the Charlotte suburb of Matthews, North Carolina, after Mayor John Higdon said he informed them it faced unanimous defeat.

    The project would have funded half the city’s budget and developers promised environmentally friendly features. But town meetings overflowed, and emails, texts and phone calls were overwhelmingly opposed, “999 to one against,” Higdon said.

    Had council approved it, “every person that voted for it would no longer be in office,” the mayor said. “That’s for sure.”

    In Hermantown, a suburb of Duluth, Minnesota, a proposed data center campus several times larger than the Mall of America is on hold amid challenges over whether the city’s environmental review was adequate.

    Residents found each other through social media and, from there, learned to organize, protest, door-knock and get their message out.

    They say they felt betrayed and lied to when they discovered that state, county, city and utility officials knew about the proposal for an entire year before the city — responding to a public records request filed by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy — released internal emails that confirmed it.

    “It’s the secrecy. The secrecy just drives people crazy,” said Jonathan Thornton, a realtor who lives across a road from the site.

    Documents revealing the extent of the project emerged days before a city rezoning vote in October. Mortenson, which is developing it for a Fortune 50 company that it hasn’t named, says it is considering changes based on public feedback and that “more engagement with the community is appropriate.”

    Rebecca Gramdorf found out about it from a Duluth newspaper article, and immediately worried that it would spell the end of her six-acre vegetable farm.

    She found other opponents online, ordered 100 yard signs and prepared for a struggle.

    “I don’t think this fight is over at all,” Gramdorf said.

    ___

    Follow Marc Levy on X at https://x.com/timelywriter.

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  • Farmers can now learn how much aid they will get from the Trump administration

    OMAHA, Neb. — Farmers are now learning how much aid they can expect to receive from a $12 billion package that President Donald Trump announced earlier this month.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture released the figures Wednesday for how much aid per acre farmers can plan on for each row crop. The details arrived after most farmers have already met with their bankers to arrange financing for next year’s crops and placed orders for the seed and fertilizer they will need. But officials have promised that the payments should arrive by the end of February.

    Soybean farmers have been hit especially hard by Trump’s trade war with China, which stopped buying any American crops after Trump announced his tariffs this spring. China is the world’s largest buyer of soybeans. This aid package is expected to help farmers weather the trade disruptions until China buys more soybeans under an agreement announced in October and until provisions of Trump’s massive budget bill take effect later this year.

    Soybean farmers will get $30.88 per acre while corn farmers will receive $44.36. Another crop hit hard when China stopped buying was sorghum, and those farmers will get $48.11 per acre. The amounts are based on a USDA formula on the cost of production.

    But farmers say the aid won’t solve all their problems as they continue to deal with the soaring costs of fertilizer, seeds and labor that make it hard to turn a profit right now. Some agricultural trade groups have said they worry that thousands of farmers could go out of business, but others have said they believe most farmers have the financial resources and equity needed to survive.

    Kentucky soybean farmer Caleb Ragland, who was president of the American Soybean Association until recently, said the aid is “a Band-Aid on a deep wound. We need competition and opportunities in the market to make our future brighter.”

    Most farmers remain steadfast supporters of Trump even after the disruptions caused by the trade war. They generally support many of his other policies and believe they will get a better trade deal in the end.

    These aid payments will add up to $11 billion for row crop farmers who raise corn, soybeans, wheat, sorghum and other crops. Another $1 billion will be put aside for specialty crops as the administration works to better understand the circumstances for those farmers.

    After Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in October, the White House said Beijing had promised to buy at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of the calendar year, plus 25 million metric tons a year in each of the next three years. Officials have said China is on track to meet the 12 million metric ton goal by the end of February, but so far China has only purchased about 4.3 million metric tons of soybeans, according to the latest USDA figures.

    Beijing has yet to confirm any commitment to buying 12 million metric tons of soybeans for this season, but the Chinese embassy in Washington said earlier this month that “agricultural trade cooperation between China and the United States is proceeding in an orderly manner.”

    The aid payments will be capped at $155,000 per farmer or entity, and only farms that make less than $900,000 in adjusted gross income will be eligible. During the first Trump administration, a number of large farms found ways around the payment limits and collected millions.

    The USDA said it would use a formula that estimates production costs to come up with a per-acre payment for each type of crop. The USDA says the average size of the 1.88 million farms nationwide was 466 acres last year, but many farmers are much larger than that as larger operations have continued to buy up neighboring farms over time.

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  • Over €56 million distributed to Leitrim farmers by Department of Agriculture in 2025

    Over €56 million was paid out in 2025 in Leitrim in agriculture payments from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The total figure for the county for 2025 amounted to €56,549,467.15. 

    This total included over €13.4 million in BISS payments (Basic Income Support for Sustainability), more than €680,000 in TAMS (Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme), over €2.6 million in forestry payments, over €700,000 in Bovine TB compensation, and over €13.4 million in ACRES (Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme) support.

    In September, over €6 million was allocated to Leitrim farmers under the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme, and more recently in November, over €600,000 was distributed between 525 farmers through Sheep Improvement Scheme payments.

    Nationally, more than €2.18 billion in payments to farmers and fishers were issued over the course of 2025. 

    READ NEXT: Where to recycle your Christmas tree in Leitrim

    Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, welcomed the scale of payments issued by his Department.

    “Understandably, there has been a lot of focus throughout the year on payments made by my Department to farmers. Ireland continues to be one of the earliest to make payments under the CAP within the EU, and to the highest possible number of farmers,” said Minister Heydon.

    “I am accordingly very pleased to announce the breadth of payments made by my Department throughout 2025.

    !We will continue to work to issue payments as quickly as possible where they are still due, and I would ask farmers who have outstanding queries to respond to these as soon as possible,” he concluded.

    READ NEXT: Gallery: Mummers out visiting on Christmas week

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  • Uncertainty growing for Colorado farmers as drought conditions persist

    BERTHOUD, Colo. — At Los Rios Farm just south of Berthoud, the only thing growing this winter season is uncertainty.

    Owner Larry Lempka tends to hundreds of animals while grappling with worries about the ongoing drought.

    “We’re always concerned we never have enough water to begin with,” Lempka said.

    According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, parts of northern Colorado are experiencing moderate to severe drought conditions.

    The combination of minimal snowfall and record-setting temperatures this season is taking a significant toll on the state’s farmers and ranchers.

    Denver7

    Los Rios Farm in Larimer County, Colorado

    “We just don’t have the feed available that we should have,” explained Lempka. “The ground should be covered with something green or growing right now, and we just don’t have that.”

    The drought has forced Los Rios Farm to reduce the number of animals in their care because there isn’t enough feed.

    And for a farm that specializes in grass-fed beef and free-range chickens, the lack of vegetation is impacting product quality as well. Lempka’s chickens don’t have access to the greens they typically consume, which he said affects the quality of eggs they produce.

    “It’s just not good. I mean, you need moisture for life to survive, and right now, as dry as it is, things are either having to migrate down or just die,” Lempka said.

    LOS RIOS FARM 2.jpg

    Denver7

    Inside one of the chicken coops at Los Rios Farm

    The dry conditions are also increasing the risk of disease among animals, something Lempka monitors closely.

    “It’s a lot more serious when it is dry versus having snow on the ground,” he said.

    As the calendar approaches the new year, Lempka remains hopeful but realistic about the challenges ahead.

    “I’m a farmer. Next year is going to be better, right?” Lempka said with a chuckle.

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    Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Claire Lavezzorio

    Denver7’s Claire Lavezzorio covers topics that have an impact across Colorado, but specializes in reporting on stories in the military and veteran communities. If you’d like to get in touch with Claire, fill out the form below to send her an email.

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  • Why beef prices are so high right now


    Why beef prices are so high right now – CBS News









































    Watch CBS News



    Beef prices are up 15% compared to last year, while chicken and pork prices are only up around 1%. “CBS Saturday Morning” goes behind-the-scenes to figure out what’s behind the spike.

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  • Commentary: After a year of insults, raids, arrests and exile, a celebration of the California immigrant

    What comes next is a mystery, but I’d like to share a note of appreciation as 2025 fades into history.

    If you came to Greater Los Angeles from Mexico, by way of Calexico, Feliz Navidad.

    If you once lived in Syria, and settled in Hesperia, welcome.

    If you were born in what once was Bombay, but raised a family in L.A., happy new year.

    I’m spreading a bit of holiday cheer because for immigrants, on the whole, this has been a horrible year.

    Under federal orders in 2025, Los Angeles and other cities have been invaded and workplaces raided.

    Immigrants have been chased, protesters maced.

    Livelihoods have been aborted, loved ones deported.

    With all the put-downs and name-calling by the man at the top, you’d never guess his mother was an immigrant and his three wives have included two immigrants.

    President Trump referred to Somalis as garbage, and he wondered why the U.S. can’t bring in more people from Scandinavia and fewer from “filthy, dirty and disgusting” countries.

    Not to be outdone, Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem proposed a travel ban on countries that are “flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies.”

    The president’s shtick is to rail mostly against those who are in the country without legal standing and particularly those with criminal records. But his tone and language don’t always make such distinctions.

    The point is to divide, lay blame and raise suspicion, which is why legal residents — including Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo — have told me they carry their passports at all times.

    In fact, thousands of people with legal status have been booted out of the country, and millions more are at risk of the same fate.

    In a more evolved political culture, it would be simpler to stipulate that there are costs and benefits to immigration, that it’s human nature to flee hardship in pursuit of better opportunities wherever they might be, and that it’s possible to enact laws that serve the needs of immigrants and the industries that rely on them.

    But 2025 was the year in which the nation was led in another direction, and it was the year in which it became ever more comforting and even liberating to call California home.

    The state is a deeply flawed enterprise, with its staggering gaps in wealth and income, its homelessness catastrophe, housing affordability crisis and racial divides. And California is not politically monolithic, no matter how blue. It’s got millions of Trump supporters, many of whom applauded the roundups.

    But there’s an understanding, even in largely conservative regions, that immigrants with papers and without are a crucial part of the muscle and brainpower that help drive the world’s fourth-largest economy.

    That’s why some of the state’s Republican lawmakers asked Trump to back off when he first sent masked posses on roundups, stifling the construction, agriculture and hospitality sectors of the economy.

    When the raids began, I called a gardener I had written about years ago after he was shot in the chest during a robbery attempt. He had insisted on leaving the hospital emergency room and going back to work immediately, with the bullet still embedded in his chest. A client had hired him to complete a landscaping job by Christmas, as a present to his wife, and the gardener was determined to deliver.

    When I checked in with the gardener in June, he told me he was lying low because even though he has a work permit, he didn’t feel safe because Trump had vowed to end temporary protected status for some immigrants.

    “People look Latino, and they get arrested,” he told me.

    He said his daughter, whom I’d met two decades ago when I delivered $2,000 donated to the family by readers, was going to demonstrate in his name. I met up with her at the “No Kings” rally in El Segundo, where she told me why she wanted to protest:

    “To show my face for those who can’t speak and to say we’re not all criminals, we’re all sticking together, we have each other’s backs,” she said.

    Mass deportations would rip a $275-million hole in the state’s economy, critically affecting agriculture and healthcare among other industries, according to a report from UC Merced and the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.

    “Deportations tend to raise unemployment among U.S.-born and documented workers through reduced consumption and disruptions in complementary occupations,” says a UCLA Anderson report.

    Californians understand these realities because they’re not hypothetical or theoretical — they’re a part of daily life and commerce. Nearly three-quarters of the state’s residents believe that immigrants benefit California “because of their hard work and job skills,” says the Public Policy Institute of California.

    I’m a California native whose grandparents were from Spain and Italy, but the state has changed dramatically in my lifetime, and I don’t think I ever really saw it clearly or understood it until I was asked in 2009 to address the freshman convocation at Cal State Northridge. The demographics were similar to today’s — more than half Latino, 1 in 5 white, 10% Asian and 5% Black. And roughly two-thirds were first-generation college students.

    I looked out on thousands of young people about to find their way and make their mark, and the students were flanked by a sprinkling of proud parents and grandparents, many of whose stories of sacrifice and yearning began in other countries.

    That is part of the lifeblood of the state’s culture, cuisine, commerce and sense of possibility, and those students are now our teachers, nurses, physicians, engineers, entrepreneurs and tech whizzes.

    If you left Taipei and settled in Monterey, said goodbye to Dubai and packed up for Ojai, traded Havana for Fontana or Morelia for Visalia, thank you.

    And happy new year.

    steve.lopez@latimes.com

    Steve Lopez

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