Sales of Kentucky hemp products surged in 2018
Kentucky’s resurgent hemp sector flexed more economic clout in 2018, with processors reporting sharply higher sales and farmers reaping more than twice as much income from their crop, the state’s agriculture commissioner said.
The state’s hemp processors reported $57.75 million in gross product sales last year, compared with $16.7 million in 2017, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles said. Processors spent $23.4 million in capital improvements and employed a total of 459 people in 2018, he said.
Processors paid Kentucky farmers $17.75 million for harvested hemp materials in 2018, up from $7.5 million the year before, Quarles said.
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Last year’s surge in processor sales and the amount paid farmers came before hemp was legalized as a farm commodity as part of the new federal farm bill. The measure approved in late 2018 removed hemp from the list of federally controlled substances. It treats the low-THC version of the cannabis plant like any other agricultural crop. THC is the cannabis compound that gives marijuana its high. Read More
Nearly One-Third of US Farmland is Managed or Co-Managed by Women Farmers
Nearly 301 million acres of US farmland, or one-third of American farms, are managed or co-managed by women, according to a new report from the American Farmland Trust’s Women for the Land Initiative. Women landowners hold title to at least 87 million additional acres, meaning they own the property but may retain other persons to manage it or lease it to non-owner farmers. Read More
‘It’s Probably Over for Us’: Record Flooding Pummels Midwest When Farmers Can Least Afford It
VERDIGRE, Neb. — Ice chunks the size of small cars ripped through barns and farmhouses. Baby calves were swept into freezing floodwaters, washing up dead along the banks of swollen rivers. Farm fields were now lakes.
The record floods that have pummeled the Midwest are inflicting a devastating toll on farmers and ranchers at a moment when they can least afford it, raising fears that this natural disaster will become a breaking point for farms weighed down by falling incomes, rising bankruptcies and the fallout from President Trump’s trade policies. Read More
‘Farm to table’ takes on a new twist at this Des Moines dinner series at an urban farm
The 2019 growing season is coming and we can already taste it. A new dinner series will feature four ways you can enjoy the freshest produce in Des Moines.
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"Here at the farm, we're in the process of hosting more events and making it more of an agritourism destination," said Jenny Quiner, co-owner of Dogpatch Urban Gardens. "And all the chefs that we have lined up also buy products from us for their restaurants and we have a good relationship. It was kind of a no-brainer for them to say yes to an event at the farm." Read More
Beer war escalates: MillerCoors sues Anheuser-Busch over Super Bowl corn syrup commercial
MillerCoors says Anheuser-Busch is preying on health-conscious consumers who have negative connotations of corn syrup, sometimes confusing it with the high-fructose corn syrup in sodas. MillerCoors wants a judge to order Anheuser-Busch to stop the ads and to give MillerCoors any profits it earned as a result of the campaign.
“A-B’s campaign contains false and misleading statements about Coors Light and Miller Lite,” the lawsuit states. “Specifically, the ‘Special Delivery’ commercial implies that Coors Light and Miller Lite beers are primarily made with corn syrup, which is false.”
Anheuser-Busch contends that the ad campaign is truthful and intended to point out Bud Lights’ differences compared with Miller Lite and Coors Lite. “Those beers are brewed with corn syrup; Bud Light is not,” A-B spokeswoman Gemma Hart said in a statement. A-B has no plans to change its advertising, she said Thursday. Read More
