Local control and keeping our families together – essential aspects of The Good Life in Nebraska – are threatened by LB 662.
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Regenerative agriculture is a key solution to our climate, health, and water crises. Visit regenerateamerica.com today to sign the #PetitionToRegenerateAmerica and demand that Congress support regenerative agriculture in the farm bill!
In a letter, Air Force assistant secretary Andrew Hunter said the Air Force view “is unambiguous: The proposed project presents a significant threat to national security w/ both near- & long-term risk of significant impact to our operations in the area.”
Finally, the farm bill presents a rare opportunity for federal officials to get a handle on climate pollution from agriculture, which has been rising for decades and, unlike other sectors, shows few signs of peaking.
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"The changes this bill will make to the cottage food law, will allow producers to sell non-refrigerated foods like cheesecakes and other time-temperature controlled foods, like non-meat casseroles.
Zoning regs that are written and enforced in the counties that have the capacity to write them and then implement them. Without nuisance as a backstop, it places even more pressure on these institutions that scrap by in many places already. /
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I hope the house of delegates meeting involves a position on this bill. LB662. It closes the courthouse doors for many rural residents (who already have access to lawyer issues) and places a tremendous amount of pressure on county zoning regulations. /
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This bill flat out says you can't sue unless you are an owner (no tenants) within 1/2 mile of the operation (just buy some more land with another entity if you operate) AND the operation is materially violating local, state, or federal law (nobody regulates flies, odor, dust). / twitter.com/anthony_schutz…
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Edison McDonald of GC Resolve, which supports regenerative agriculture, said the bill might also rule out any local regulations against odor or runoff from ag facilities.
The average age of principal NE farm or ranch operator: 56.4 years old, according to the census.
The worry: There won’t be a next generation to carry on family farms – even in an era where large machinery & new technologies have reduced manpower needed.
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After more than six decades of irrigating the family's grain field, he shut the well down for the last time.
“I just took a deep breath,” Leonard said, “knowing this is the last crop that I’m going to have here that has water on it.”
Washington County emergency manager Randy Hubbard said that he isn’t aware of any laws that require TC Energy to reimburse a local government, but the company has vowed to do so.
The biggest & most documented disaster to hit Nebraska last year was the ongoing drought that has affected most of the state. The worst areas of drought have subsided some in the past few weeks, but overall, nearly the entire state is still in a drought
The claim that the USMCA requires Mexico to approve goods produced using agricultural biotechnology is wishful thinking on the part of agribusinesses.
"There's no commitment from anyone to enforce it," Walter Schweitzer, president of the Montana Farmers Union, told NPR.
While state-level estimates weren’t immediately available, Nebraska’s most impactful disaster will be the ongoing drought — its worst in 10 years, since 2012 when drought caused an estimated $4 billion in damage.
“[The memorandum] ensures that our farmers can repair their equipment and have access to the diagnostic tools and product guides so that they can find the problems and find solutions for them,”
The year will go down as the 2nd driest of the 21st century thus far in Lincoln & the 3rd driest in the past 45 years, with just less than 20 inches of rain. That's more than 9 inches below the annual average & the 15th-lowest yearly amount ever recorded.
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“You need a tree that’s going to survive the weather of today and the climate of the future,” said Pete Smith, urban forestry program manager with the Arbor Day Foundation, a Nebraska-based nonprofit that supports tree planting and care.
This has the potential to reduce the need for more emissions-intensive building materials and replace them with a circular alternative, which the researchers say can be can be reused again and again.
That’s because, experts say, generations of corn growing, feedlot runoff and oft-unwitting nitrogen overuse has left a sobering legacy buried in the Nebraska soil. It’s nitrate, creeping slowly downward towards our water supply.
A recent study led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has found that the rate of soil erosion in the Midwestern U.S. is 10 to 1,000 times greater than pre-agricultural erosion rates.
In exchange for a yearly rental payment, farmers enrolled in CRP agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality.
Adopted at a UN biodiversity conference called COP15, the agreement contains 23 targets that countries must achieve within the decade.
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For those following the Poultry Litter & Stream Health conversation, here is the video from the Convention in which lead author Matt Sutton, and GC Resolve President report on the analysis findings and recommendations.
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Canada-based TC Energy estimated the spill on the Keystone system at about 14,000 barrels and said the affected pipeline segment had been “isolated” and the oil contained. It did not say how the spill occurred.
Two-thirds of respondents to the poll — an annual survey of rural Nebraskans conducted by the — say they are “somewhat concerned,” “concerned” or “very concerned” about contaminants in their water supply impacting their health.
Republicans are skeptical of making the farm bill a climate bill, but a group of lobbyists thinks they’ve struck gold with a message even the most skeptical can't hate: Regenerative agriculture will make farmers richer.
"As fields become saturated, as they apply more litter, the plants are going to be unable to utilize the excess phosphorus, and our water is going to become more and more contaminated," Sutton explained.
“This does alert us that we need to do enhanced studies and we no longer need to pretend this isn’t happening,” said of GC Resolve, a regenerative agriculture group that sought the report.
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A new 3-year analysis released by the Nebraska Farmers Union Foundation at their annual convention this weekend raises awareness to add'l water quality concerns arising in Nebraska, this time from increased poultry litter applications from the Costco poultry network in Eastern NE
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We are excited to share with you our latest collaboration!
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Hansen noted, “In addition, we will set our NeFU state policy, elect one member to our NeFU Foundation Board, two NeFU Board of Directors, and three delegates to National Farmers Union Convention. We are pleased to once again be meeting in person.
The amount of the country covered in drought and abnormal dryness this fall, Gutzmer said, is the most in the history of the Drought Monitor. More than half of the continental U.S. is now covered by some level of drought.
He says Pillen is a “known environmental polluter,” but said he remains hopeful Pillen will provide leadership to address these challenges.
“The first signs of life were lady bugs, spiders, different types of worms, and now you can see there are butterflies,” Francisco said. “It means that the crops are cultivating.”
But in Nebraska, there’s little way to enforce rules already in place, rules meant to protect our groundwater.
There’s no one to stop the other driver, the one barreling 90mph down the highway, crossing the centerline, putting everyone in danger.
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“This is a psychological scheme that has been deployed over and over on good rural Nebraska people and beyond, in order to allow business to go forward as is,” said
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“The workers, the farmers, we’re all just cogs in the machine. We’re expendable resources,” said Craig Watts, a former poultry contract grower turned whistleblower.
Having more people on the planet puts pressure on nature, as people compete with wildlife for water, food & space. How much they consume is equally important, suggesting policymakers can make a big difference by mandating a shift in consumption patterns
