Now that the E coli virus has ripped through the UK and has left in its wake widespread illness and plenty of finger pointing, authorities are being questioned on why it took them so long to respond. The 0157 e coli strain, which could lead to fatalities, was the worst outbreak in UK history, and professors from various universities are saying that government regulations regarding petting farms or petting zoos aren’t strong enough to prevent a repeat of the outbreak. With nearly 5 million British visitors to such open-farm operations, the threat of a recurrence is all too real.  Read More…

Running a farm operation requires walking a fine line sometimes between business operations and regulations. While most farm owners do a great job maintaining proper operating procedures and animal handling, some farmers find themselves cutting corners that put them squarely at odd with regulators and animal rights activists. One Maine-based farm found themselves paying large fines for failing to provide adequate food and shelter for a few of their hens, not to mention animal cruelty allegations.

The hen supplier Maine Contract Farming was recently handed an invoice for $25,000 in animal cruelty penalties and $100,000 to help the state monitor hen and egg operations throughout the state. The charges came after undercover video revealed allegations of animal cruelty, showing animals being mistreated and left to die in trash bins. Read More…

It’s not just crop growers who have to be concerned with the damages caused by deer. Livestock growers feel the effects of the Bambi invasion nearly as heavily as do those farmers raising cash crops. Deer not only chew through feed crops and water supplies, they bring down fences and introduce disease to livestock.

How extensive the damage is remains to be seen, but the West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture, Gus Douglass, has requested cooperation from the agriculture community and urban residents to determine the levels of damage caused by deer throughout the state. The state will measure direct crop losses; property losses; increased costs to deter deer, and; changes to what farmers plant in order to attract fewer deer.  Read More…

When you hear the word “antitrust” it’s often associated with large corporations such as airlines, software companies, and financial corporations. Until recently, no one would have thought that antitrust laws would be breached at the agribusiness level.

Yet that’s exactly what one former tomato grower is charged with. Frederick Scott Salyer has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to inflate the price of tomato products. Of all tomatoes grown in the US, 95 percent is grown by five companies based in California. At the moment, there are no charges brought against Salyer’s alleged co-conspirators.

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Farmers used to adopting their risk management plan around a federal failsafe may soon find that failsafe gone. That’s because the current USDA negotiating draft of the Standard Reinsurance Agreement has a huge hole in it the size of $6.9 billion.

The proposed cuts come from the crop insurance program and are three times that of past proposed cuts that were rejected by Congress. Worse, the Congressional Budget Office, having seen the proposal, has reduced the budget available for use in the next farm bill budget by a staggering $3.9 billion. With skyrocketing crop insurance liabilities – $80 billion in 2009, up from $31 billion in 1999 – farmers will be hard pressed to find essential coverage for all farm business risks.  Read More…