On the heels of the first anniversary of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has seen record interest in the conservation and clean energy programs that received funding from the law. As a key part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the Inflation Reduction Act is the nation’s largest-ever investment to combat climate change.
The U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), resolved longstanding litigation covering over 1,000 pesticide products, allowing EPA to fulfill its obligations to protect endangered species while conducting reviews and approvals of pesticides in a safe and protective manner. In 2011, the Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network filed a complaint in Federal Court in California against EPA alleging that it was violating the Endangered Species Act when it registered or reevaluated the registration of 382 pesticide active ingredients, which was ultimately reduced to 35 active ingredients covering over 1,000 pesticide products containing one or more of these active ingredients. This became known as the “megasuit” because of the number of pesticides it covered. The settlement entered by the Court last week resolves all outstanding claims.
Stratovation Group, fresh off releasing landmark research about the sentiments of traditional row-crop farmers on the use of agricultural biologicals, is engineering a new study to look at how specialty-crop growers perceive agricultural biologicals for vegetable, leafy greens and fruit and nut crops. The new study, “Biologicals: Specialty Crop Growers’ Perceptions, Values and Potential,” will be conducted in collaboration with Western Growers, the Agricultural Retailers Association, DC Legislative and Regulatory Services, and The Fertilizer Institute.
To meet the increasing demands and projected future growth for its industry-leading MycoApply arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) products, Valent BioSciences LLC has announced the construction of a new manufacturing facility in White City, Oregon. This new plant will complement the existing headquarters and manufacturing operations for its subsidiary company, Mycorrhizal Applications LLC, in Grants Pass, Oregon.
John Deere and DeLaval have joined efforts to create the Milk Sustainability Center, a digital ecosystem to help dairy farmers improve the efficiency and sustainability of their operations. The ecosystem will be open for partners to join, with the objective of providing farmers with data needed for a holistic view of the dairy operations.
The upcoming seventh annual VISION Conference is returning to Glendale, AZ from January 22-24, 2024.
Camryn Hyde has joined the Concept AgriTek team as an Executive Assistant specializing in data report and analysis.
Best-in-class research and innovation requires top notch lab facilities and AgXelerators has found it in the Purdue Technology Center (PTC). Owned and operated by the renowned Purdue Research Foundation, the Purdue Research Park is the largest Certified Technology Park (CTP) in the state of Indiana. More than 250 high-tech companies call the park home, including those working in a wide array of market segments.
New Zealand-based agritech company Robotics Plus has launched Prospr, an autonomous, multi-use, hybrid vehicle designed to carry out a variety of orchard and vineyard crop tasks more efficiently and sustainably while reducing reliance on labor. Prospr is now commercially available from Robotics Plus, a specialist in the design and build of innovative agricultural robotics.
