Country Life

Show Only ...
Maps - Photos - Videos

Farmers Got Billions From Taxpayers In 2019, And Hardly Anyone Objected

|

Farmers Got Billions From Taxpayers In 2019, And Hardly Anyone Objected

In 2019, the federal government delivered an extraordinary financial aid package to America's farmers. Farm subsidies jumped to their highest level in fourteen years, most of them paid out without any action by Congress.

The money flowed to farms like Robert Henry's. When I visited in early July, many of his fields near New Madrid, Mo., had been flooded for months, preventing him from working in them. The soybeans that he did manage to grow had fallen in value; China wasn't buying them, in retaliation for the Trump administration's tariffs.

That's when the government stepped in. Some of the aid came from long-familiar programs. Government-subsidized crop insurance covered some of the losses from flooding. Other payments were unprecedented. The U.S. Department of Agriculture simply sent him a check to compensate him for the low prices resulting from the trade war.

 

Monsanto Attempts Defense That Would Negate All Glyphosate-Causes-Cancer Lawsuits – Modern Farmer

|

Monsanto Attempts Defense That Would Negate All Glyphosate-Causes-Cancer Lawsuits – Modern Farmer

If this challenge is successful, it will create a precedent that will be extremely difficult to overcome; if Monsanto was legally unable to warn customers about the carcinogenic nature of glyphosate, how can they be held responsible for that? This of course does not address the basic issue of whether glyphosate can in fact cause cancer, nor does it address the decades-long campaign to discredit opposing research, but none of that might matter.

EPA Shuts Down Shops Who “Delete Diesel Trucks”

|

EPA Shuts Down Shops Who “Delete Diesel Trucks”

Up until now, shops were able to get away with removing the devices under the guise of them being for “race use only.”

However, the EPA certainly isn’t stupid. They are very aware that these “race use only” vehicles have been finding their way to the streets. Because of that, they have now deemed any tampering with the emissions devices will be completely illegal.

It’s hard to pin down exactly how many diesel shops have been hit. However, from what we understand, the EPA has been making its rounds. These rounds will restrain the shops from selling tuning devices that tamper with the systems. Just as an example, as a part of a recent settlement, one diesel shop was permitted from selling current tuning devices and will need to prove that their future tuning devices won’t violate the emissions standards.

I think it's stupid to enforce emissions limits in areas that are in-compliance with emission standards.

NPR

|

A Christmas Tree Thrives On Farms, Struggles In The Wild : NPR

Adelgid aside, this stand of firs is pretty rare, Cory says. At the end of the last glaciation, about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, the area was a lot colder and the firs lived all up and down the mountain. As the area warmed, the trees had to move farther and farther to the top of the mountain. Today, the Fraser firs live on just seven mountain peaks in the southern Appalachians, and Roan Mountain is one of them.

Cory runs his fingers through a fir's soft needles — one of the characteristics that makes it a desirable Christmas tree — and says that, genetically, the trees that grow on Roan Mountain are the same as the ones on farms.