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TOP HEADLINES
Cheap wheat puts farmers in a bind:
Wheat prices have dipped to consistent lows not seen in a decade, leaving farmers with stockpiles of dirt-cheap grain to pay for an expensive harvest [Journal Record].
Oklahoma Commissioners of Land Office distributes record school funds:
The Oklahoma Commissioners of the Land Office distributed a record $102.2 million to Oklahoma’s K-12 public schools throughout fiscal year 2016, the agency announced Friday [NewsOK].
Wildfire in Kansas, Oklahoma is called ‘ecological cleansing’:
The wildfire that scorched nearly 600 square miles of land in Oklahoma and Kansas in March cleared out more eastern red cedars in a week than local efforts to eradicate the invasive species could have accomplished in decades, conservation experts say [The Oklahoman].
Panel set to evaluate $110 million worth of state tax incentives:
The state of Oklahoma shells out millions of dollars in tax incentives to different industries every year. Now, the newly formed Oklahoma Incentive Evaluation Commission is evaluating some of those incentives to see if they are still needed [KOCO].
Washington Week Ahead: Senate faces historic debate over GMO labeling:
The Senate this week will decide the fate of a landmark compromise on biotech labeling, with food and agriculture looking to preserve the large bipartisan majority that supported a pivotal procedural move to bring up the legislation [Agri-Pulse].
VT supermarkets lose 3,000 products over GMO law:
Many popular brands from every corner of the grocery store will no longer send certain items, ranging from Pepsi Wild Cherry to whole wheat hot dog buns [WCAX].
Farm labor shortage vexes farmers:
A new video produced by the American Farm Bureau Federation shines a spotlight on the frustrations of the nation’s farmers in finding workers to harvest their crops [American Farm Bureau Federation].
Food commodity prices to remain stable over next decade:
Higher agricultural productivity and slightly larger crop areas in the coming decade will cover rises in food demand, leading to stable prices and a period of more restrained agricultural markets, the FAO and OECD said on Monday [Reuters].
Beef industry mixed on what effects of corporate agriculture could be:
Few people argued that North Dakota’s beef industry needed help staying relevant when a bill arose in the 2015 Legislature that would have loosened the state’s anti-corporate agriculture law [Bismarck Tribune].
Economic crisis bares hunger problem in Venezuela:
This socialist country is suffering from severe food shortages that are making it hard to get enough to eat, even though Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world [Washington Post].
