Pruning Highbush Blueberries
Growing - 1/31/2013. By Vern Grubinger - Pruning is essential to maintaining a productive planting of highbush blueberries over time. Yet many blueberry growers fail to prune in a timely fashion, while other growers, or their workers, prune the plants without fully understanding what they are trying to accomplish. |
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Don’t Put a Fork in It
Other Words - 1/30/2013. By Wenonah Hauter - While most Americans were enjoying the holiday season or stressing out over the nation’s imminent leap off the so-called fiscal cliff, the Food and Drug Administration delivered some big news as quietly as possible. On December 21, the agency announced that AquaBounty’s genetically engineered salmon had cleared the final hurdle before clinching FDA approval. |
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The End of the Farm Bill?
Other Words - 1/30/2013. By Jim Harkness - The Farm Bill is the nation’s largest piece of agricultural legislation. It’s the usual vehicle for far-reaching programs to boost crop production, protect farmers, advance rural development, conserve energy, provide for international food aid, and, notably, run nutrition assistance programs. And it’s in limbo. |
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Beginning Farmers and Ranchers at a Glance, 2013 edition
USDA - 1/30/2013. By Mary Ahearn - In 2011, beginning farms or ranches (farmers or ranchers who have operated their businesses for 10 or fewer years) accounted for 22 percent of the 2 million U.S. family farms, 10 percent of the value of agricultural production by family farms, and 11 percent of the acres operated by family farms, according to USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). These numbers are down from 1982 figures. |
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