Missed some ag news this week? Here’s 7 stories to catch you up.
1. Foreign investors control at least 28.3 million acres in the U.S., an area about the size of Ohio, according to USDA data. Maine and Texas have the most land under foreign ownership. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is running for president, said she supports making Iowa’s law banning foreign ownership of farmland. Hawaii, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Dakota and Oklahoma also have laws banning foreign ownership of farmland. - Minneapolis Star Tribune
2. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced he is moving the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture to Kansas City. However, he won’t be realigning the ERS under the Office of the Chief Economist. – Kansas Farmer
3. British online grocer and technology group Ocado is investing $22 million in the emerging vertical farming industry, forming a joint venture called Infinite Acres with 80 Acres Farms and Priva Holding. Vertical Farming involves producing food indoors, with crops grown on a series of stacked levels in a controlled environment. – Reuters
4. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed June 7 that genetically modified wheat resistant to glyphosate was found in an unplanted agricultural field in Washington state. There are no genetically engineered wheat varieties for sale in the United States and APHIS has not deregulated any varieties. – Western Farmer Stockman
5. Indigo Agriculture is launching a new program to pay farmers $15 per metric ton of carbon they trap in their soil, which the company says will control the greenhouse gas. – Boston Globe
6. More than half of rural voters are sticking with Trump even as the ongoing trade war with China and tariff threats on Mexico provoke the nation’s largest soybean and corn buyers. – Farm Futures
7. President Trump signed an executive order on June 11 to ‘modernize’ agricultural biotechnology regulations. The American Farm Bureau Federation and American Soybean Association praised the move. – Wallaces Farmer
And your bonus.
Meet young entrepreneurs who are on the cutting edge in agricultural innovations. - Forbes
