Tag: farms

Flesh-Eating Screwworm Outbreak Threatens Texas Cattle Industry as Critical Sterile Fly Facility Faces Multi-Year Delay

A dangerous New World screwworm outbreak has been confirmed in Texas livestock for the first time in decades, raising serious concerns for the already struggling cattle industry, while an important domestic sterile fly production facility remains years away from full operation.

The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the first case in early June in a calf in Zavala County, Texas.

Additional cases have since been detected in cattle and a goat in Texas, and in a dog in New Mexico.

“This is believed to be an isolated case; however, because the dog’s recent travel and exposure history remain unknown, USDA and state partners have initiated inspection of additional animals in the dog’s home and increased outreach in the area while continuing to investigate the animal’s movement history,” the USDA said in an announcement.

The parasite, whose larvae burrow into the flesh of warm-blooded animals and feed on living tissue, poses a major threat to livestock, wildlife, and potentially pets.

While no human cases have been reported in the current outbreak, the screwworm can infest people in rare instances.

The U.S. cattle industry herd is already at its lowest level in 75 years due to droughts, high feed costs, and other factors.

The added expense of increased monitoring, quarantine measures, and treatment for infected animals is expected to further strain operations and could push beef prices higher for consumers.

According to a wire from Nerve News, “The most effective method to combat screwworm involves breeding sterile flies to disrupt the parasite’s reproductive cycle. However, a facility under construction at Moore Air Base in Texas will not begin producing sterile flies until November 2027, with full capacity not expected for several years. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins acknowledged the delay, stating that the US will not be able to eradicate the parasite until the facility reaches full production, but expressed optimism about containment efforts.”

“We’re not going to be able to eradicate it until we’ve got the couple hundred million more flies coming in, but we will be able to contain it,” Rollins said.

Once complete, the facility is expected to breed up to 300 million sterile flies per week.

In an effort to contain the outbreak, quarantines have been placed in multiple Texas counties, and surveillance efforts have been expanded.

USDA APHIS has begun releasing sterile flies in affected areas using existing inventory from Panama and Mexico.

Canada has implemented temporary restrictions on certain livestock imports from Texas as a precaution.

The USDA urged, “While not common in people, if you notice a suspicious lesion on your body or suspect you may have contracted screwworm, seek immediate medical attention.”

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300 Studies Link This Neurotoxic Pesticide to Multi-Organ Damage, Chronic Disease

For decades, regulators viewed chlorpyrifos — a pesticide widely used in the U.S. and around the world — primarily as a neurotoxin that disrupts signaling in the brain and nervous system.

But as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reconsiders whether to continue to allow its use on foods like apples and soybeans, a new review indicates other insidious harms.

Published in April in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, the review synthesizes findings from nearly 300 studies worldwide published up to this year. These include laboratory experiments, animal studies, epidemiological research, regulatory documents and risk assessments.

Growing evidence suggests chlorpyrifos may damage the brain, hormones, liver, gut microbiome, muscles, reproductive organs and bones. Studies also link the pesticide to DNA damage and lasting changes in gene activity that may increase the risk of chronic disease.

Together, the findings portray chlorpyrifos as what the reviewers call a “multi-system toxicant” that poses a more significant threat to public health than previously understood.

It suggests the pesticide acts on the body in ways far beyond disrupted nerve signaling or obvious poisoning. Pregnancy and early childhood are especially sensitive periods for chemical exposure.

“What has genuinely evolved over time is our understanding that chlorpyrifos causes harm in ways that go beyond its effects on the nervous system including damage to DNA, changes in how genes are switched on or off, interference with hormones, and disruption of the healthy bacteria that live in the gut,” said Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D., a professor at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and past president of the International Society of Exposure Science.

The authors warn that current regulatory systems may not fully capture the complexity of chlorpyrifos’ dangers to the body. Many occur at levels too low to be detected by current safety testing, which looks for the disruption of an enzyme involved in nerve cell communication.

The review links chlorpyrifos exposure to:

  • Biological changes associated with inflammation, chronic disease and cancer.
  • Brain and nervous system damage, including lower IQ and developmental harms in children, neurodegenerative disease, and disrupted cell growth, survival and communication.
  • DNA damage and altered gene regulation that hinders normal cell repair and changes how genes are switched on and off during development (epigenetics).
  • Hormone disruption involving thyroid, estrogen and testosterone pathways.
  • Liver injury, gut bacteria disruption and metabolic dysfunction are linked to obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
  • Reproductive, muscular and skeletal harm, including reduced sperm quality and bone loss.

Industry pushback despite reported harms

The review comes as the EPA reassesses whether the pesticide’s remaining uses meet the statutory standard of “no unreasonable adverse effects.” The action follows years of official stalling, prior bans, policy reversals and legal challenges.

Meanwhile, agrichemical companies are lobbying federal and state lawmakers to shield pesticide manufacturers, including Bayer and its subsidiary Monsanto, from some lawsuits involving Roundup weedkiller. The suits allege their products cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma, among other cancers.

In February 2020, Corteva Agriscience — then the world’s largest producer of chlorpyrifos — announced it would stop production, citing declining demand.

But existing stocks continued to be used. The chemical remains approved for several major crops in the U.S., including apples, strawberries, soybeans, citrus, wheat and peaches.

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We Are 6 Months From Global Food Shortages Because Farmers Are Facing A Quadruple Whammy Crisis

We have never faced anything quite like this. Diesel fuel and fertilizer have become far more expensive as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, and extreme weather is playing havoc with crops all over the planet. Here in the United States, we just experienced the driest first three months of a year in recorded history. No, that isn’t an exaggeration. Now a “Super El Niño” is coming, and that means that drought conditions are going to get even worse in many areas of the world. The “Super El Niño” of 1877-1878 resulted in widespread droughts that killed more than 50 million people, and now we are being warned that the upcoming “Super El Niño” could be even worse. Our farmers have never faced a “perfect storm” of this magnitude, and global food production is going to be way down in the months ahead.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is publicly warning that a severe global food crisis could strike about 6 months from now if something really dramatic does not happen…

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a severe global food price crisis within six to 12 months unless governments act quickly, the Food and Agriculture Organization warned Wednesday.

Decisions now by farmers and governments on fertilizer use, imports, financing and crop choices will determine whether food prices spike later this year or in early 2027, the agency said.

I don’t know what national governments around the world are supposed to do.

They can’t create fertilizer out of thin air.

Thanks to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, millions of farmers all over the northern hemisphere didn’t get the fertilizer that they needed for the spring planting season.

UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo is telling us that as a result “many places in the world will have problems of food shortage” once harvest season arrives…

Food shortages are expected to hit many parts of the world from September or October following a fertilizer production plunge, the U.N. Development Program’s head said on Monday.

“In September, (or) October, many places in the world will have problems of food shortage,” as agricultural production is expected to be much lower following the fertilizer production slump resulting from high oil prices amid Middle East conflicts, UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo said in an interview in Tokyo.

Even if fertilizer is available, many farmers simply cannot afford it.

In fact, one recent survey discovered that 70 percent of U.S. farmers could not afford to buy all of the fertilizer that they needed for the spring planting season because it has become so expensive.

Meanwhile, diesel has become painfully expensive as well.

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Israelis with dual nationality behind ‘large-scale’ acquisition of Syrian agricultural lands: Report

Israel is expanding its control over territory in southern Syria, not merely through military means, but also through the purchase of agricultural lands by individuals of Jewish descent holding multiple nationalities, Al-Akhbar reported on 4 May.

According to a local source in the Deraa Governorate of southern Syria, extensive purchases of agricultural land are underway in the Yarmouk Basin, an area with significant water resources bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

These transactions are reportedly being orchestrated by individuals linked to Jewish agencies and holding passports from various countries, including Canada, Australia, and the UK.

The reports specifically name an organization called the “Pioneers of Bashan” as one of the key parties involved in the land purchases.

According to these sources, the total land area involved in these transactions amounts to approximately 200,000 dunams (200 square kilometers).

The sales have been formalized through official contracts, amid apprehension among local residents regarding the suspected links between some of these deals and Jewish entities.

The sources speaking with Al-Akhbar also reported that an Israeli delegation recently visited archaeological sites in the region – including several hills believed to contain ancient Jewish burial grounds.

In a related context, reports indicate that former Syrian army military sites in the Deraa countryside – including the headquarters of the 61st Brigade and the 128th Battalion (part of the 5th Division) – have been purchased by an Australian businessman. This individual is reportedly acting on behalf of a Jewish agency dedicated to expansion and settlement activities.

Since Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government was toppled by formerly Al-Qaeda-linked Salafist extremists in December 2024, Israel has expanded its occupation of the Golan Heights and other territories in southern Syria.

Jewish settler groups in Israel say it is their goal to occupy land in southern Syria and southern Lebanon in a bid to expand the borders of Greater Israel through military conquest and Jewish settlement.

Israeli forces carry out nearly daily incursions into southern Syria, facing no resistance from Syria’s new government, led by the former ISIS commander Ahmad al-Sharaa.

Sharaa’s new army has instead been targeting Syria’s religious minorities, including carrying out major massacres of the country’s Alawites and Druze, as well as at times against Christians and Kurds.

In the 2024 documentary “In Israel: Ministers of Chaos,” Israeli Finance Minister and settler leader Bezael Smotrich stated, “It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus.”

Smotrich claimed that Israel would expand “little by little” and eventually encompass all occupied Palestinian territories as well as Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

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‘Major Win’: House Strips Pesticide Liability Shield From Farm Bill in Bipartisan Vote

The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to strip controversial pro-pesticide provisions from the Farm Bill and adopt a bipartisan amendment that removes liability protections for chemical manufacturers, The Hill reported.

Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Elijah Crane (R-Ariz.) co-authored the amendment that removed language that would have shielded companies like Monsanto from certain state-level failure-to-warn lawsuits. The amendment, which passed in a 280-142 vote, preserves states’ authority over pesticide labeling and safety standards.

“I do not support giving blanket immunity to corporations at the expense of American families,” Luna wrote on X.

“Today we secured a major win,” said Children’s Health Defense Senior Advocacy Manager Stephanie Locricchio. “It proves that when people unite around a common goal, change is possible. But the fight isn’t over. We must stay vigilant, push our government to prioritize public health — especially our children — over corporate profits, and continue to hold industry accountable.”

Support for the amendment crossed party lines. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who has long opposed similar provisions, emphasized the breadth of that coalition.

“Democrats, Republicans, and citizens across this country agree: Keep the pesticide liability shield language OUT of the Farm Bill!” Pingree posted on X.

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Corn Belt Politicians Are Using High Gas Prices To Push Even More Carveouts for Ethanol

With the average price of gasoline in the U.S. reaching its highest level since the start of the Iran war, lawmakers are thinking about giving energy producers special treatment to supposedly cut costs at the pump.

As part of the negotiations over the Farm Bill, which is expected to be voted on by the House of Representatives this week, a bipartisan group of Corn Belt lawmakers is proposing a measure to authorize the sale of E15—gasoline with an ethanol content up to 15 percent—year-round. This fuel is typically not allowed to be sold in the summer months because it evaporates easily, which contributes to air pollution and smog. (The Trump administration waived requirements last month to allow for E15 to be sold this summer, citing high gas prices.)

The proposed amendment would also limit blending exemptions for small refineries under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)—the federal law that requires refiners and fuel importers to ensure that a certain percentage of the transportation fuel sold in the U.S. comes from renewable fuels, the most common of which is ethanol. Compliance with the RFS is estimated to cost refineries about $70 million in both 2026 and 2027, according to the energy consulting firm Turner, Mason & Company.  

“At a time when consumers are acutely sensitive to energy prices, this amendment represents a pragmatic solution that balances energy affordability, rural economic strength, and regulatory certainty,” said a coalition of agricultural and energy groups in a support letter for the measure. Additionally, its reforms to RFS exemptions “will help restore transparency and predictability for all parties subject” to that law. 

It doesn’t seem like “all parties” are on board. 

Last week, the National Corn Growers Association published a press release calling out a group of “oil corporations” for attempting to “derail legislation that lowers fuel prices.” 

“There is a tiny minority of major energy corporations – like Delek U.S. Inc., Cenovus Energy, CVR Energy, HF Sinclair, Parr Pacific Holdings and Suncor Energy Inc. – that are masquerading as small refineries to get Renewable Fuel Standard exemptions they don’t need,” said the association’s president, Jed Bower. “Their greedy actions are holding up legislation that would help farmers who are struggling during tough economic times.”

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Soon after massive honeybee deaths, Trump moves to close the nation’s premier bee lab

Mark Welsch is no stranger to the difficulties of beekeeping.

The Omaha beekeeper has been caring for hives for the last nine years — and he understands that not every colony makes it through the cold winter months. But the winter of 2024-2025 was particularly brutal for him.

“I had 12 hives going into the winter,” Welsch said. “I lost nine of them.”

He wasn’t the only one. About 1.6 million colonies died across the U.S. between June 2024 and March 2025, according to surveys from bee research nonprofit Project Apis m.

The losses hit commercial beekeepers as well as backyard honey producers, with many losing 60% to 80% of their colonies.

“Last year there was a really swift and sudden cry for help from beekeepers,” said Danielle Downey, executive director of Project Apis m.

For decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has been the one to answer such cries for help — a place where beekeepers turn when major disasters happen. Six months after the massive die-off, scientists from the USDA facility identified a likely cause: viruses spread by pesticide-resistant mites. But now, the Trump administration plans to close the research lab, leaving beekeepers to question the future of federal research.

‘A really deep history’

The Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has been the site of major developments in food and farm research in its 100-plus-year history. The Thanksgiving turkey was developed at Beltsville, as well as the first methods used to keep butter cold and fresh. Researchers there linked trans fat consumption to increased cholesterol and uncovered the smallest known plant disease agent.

The facility opened in 1910 as the “Government Farm,” but the history of its bee research laboratory begins earlier. Federal honeybee research in the Washington, D.C. area started in 1891, and the lab was relocated multiple times before permanently landing at Beltsville in 1939.

“There’s a really deep history of that station for supporting U.S. agriculture that’s unique,” Downey said.

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Iran War Hikes Fertilizer Prices, Squeezing Farmers in Planting Season

Much of the economic focus during the war in Iran has been on oil and gas supplies, but the interruption of an essential byproduct, fertilizer, may soon affect farmers as planting season begins.

Fertilizer that farmers use in crop production is derived from natural gas or is processed using natural gas.

About 30 percent of the world’s fertilizer product passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has constricted, according to an April 1 report by the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The United Nations reports that the rate of shipping through the strait has fallen to fewer than 10 ships daily from an average of more than 100.

Consequently, over the past month, prices rose sharply for five of the eight major fertilizer types, according to DTN, an agriculture data analytics firm. Prices for urea were up by 35 percent over the past month, jumping from $677 per ton to $826 per ton in the past week alone, and anhydrous ammonia and UAN32 fertilizers were both up by 20 percent over the previous month.

“The world is now learning just how important the Strait of Hormuz is,” Caleb Jasso, a policy expert at the Institute for Energy Research, told The Epoch Times. “A great deal of trade of all kinds goes through that choke point, including a very sizable portion of the fertilizer market for the world.”

Gulf States a Critical Source

The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that 36 percent of all global urea exports and about 29 percent of global ammonia exports are shipped through the strait, as well as 26 percent of diammonium phosphate fertilizer and 13 percent of monoammonium phosphate fertilizer.

“A large share of globally traded urea, ammonia, sulfur, and [liquefied natural gas-linked] feedstock moves through the Gulf, so the war’s effect is being felt primarily through shipping disruption, marine insurance costs, and vessel delays, rather than outright destruction of production facilities,” Peter Earle, senior economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, told The Epoch Times.

“The conflict is coming at nearly the worst possible time, the spring planting season, when Corn Belt growers are locking in nitrogen purchases for the highest-input crop in the U.S. agricultural system. If the bottleneck were to persist for several months, a likely outcome would include renewed food inflation pressure in the second half of the year, especially in protein-heavy and grain-based categories.”

Cyndie Shearing, American Farm Bureau Federation communications director, warned that “unless the delivery of critical farm inputs such as urea, ammonia, nitrogen, phosphate, and sulfur-based products is strategically prioritized, the U.S. risks a shortfall in crops.” She called the supply interruptions “a threat to [U.S.] food security—and by extension … national security.”

American farmers are struggling with shrinking margins and say that fertilizer prices were already rising before the Iran war started, with many blaming what they say is a “duopoly” in the fertilizer supply market.

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The New York Times Runs Sob Story About a WI Dairy Farmer Who Might Lose His ‘Undocumented’ Laborers

Democrats have made it very clear that one of the reasons they support unfettered illegal immigration is that they want to import a slave-labor class that they can pay cheaply and keep in deplorable working conditions. They prove this every time they argue that, sans illegals, we wouldn’t have anyone to clean our toilets or cut our grass and the price of our produce would go up because farmers would have to pay people a living wage to harvest crops (a lot of which is automated these days, anyway).

Now the New York Times is playing that card again, this time with Wisconsin, where a farm that made the choice to hire “undocumented workers” is worried deportations will hurt their business.

Here’s more:

That worker, who came from Mexico as a teenager, knew that a calf that was sick in the morning could be dead by evening. He knew this because he has worked in the dairy industry in Wisconsin for his entire adult life, and on this family farm for about 20 years. Now in his 40s, he has mastered the intricacies of milking, birthing and inseminating, and logging it all onto a computer. This February morning, he was passing down his knowledge to the 19-year-old grandson of the family who employs him.

“We’re a little bit behind today, so you can hear everybody’s kind of angry at us,” said Sullivan O’Harrow, the grandson, who motioned toward the bellowing calves as he walked beside the worker training him.

Immigrant workers are the lifeblood of the O’Harrow farm, a four-generation family enterprise with 1,600 cows in northeastern Wisconsin. But many of them will not travel to Mexico to see dying parents, or drive to nearby towns to visit siblings, or let journalists use their names in newspapers, because they are afraid of being swept up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

That they need to hide strikes the O’Harrow family as morally wrong, but also as potentially bad for the country: These workers oversee America’s milk. By one estimate, dairies that employ immigrant workers produce 79 percent of the nation’s milk supply and the price of milk would double without them.

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Labor group cancels Cesar Chavez events over ‘profoundly shocking’ new allegations

Cesar Chavez has been lauded by Mexican-Americans as an iconic labor leader who fought for farmworkers’ rights in the 1960s, but his legacy may be marred by growing allegations of “profoundly shocking” behavior.

Several celebrations of Cesar Chavez Day, which is observed March 31, have been canceled across the country by the United Farm Workers, an organization Chavez co-founded.

The union said in a letter Tuesday that the claims against Chavez were “incompatible” with the organization’s values.

“Some of the reports are family issues, and not our story to tell or our place to comment on,” the group said. “Far more troubling are allegations involving abuse of young women or minors. Allegations that very young women or girls may have been victimized are crushing. We have not received any direct reports, and we do not have any firsthand knowledge of these allegations.”

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