News From AgFax.Com
Several farmers I know have kicked around the idea of using infrared trail/game cameras to capture photos of people stealing from them. So far, the only one I know who has followed through on the plan is a friend in Sweden, Matts Pettersson, who posted this photo on my favorite ag forum, NewAgTalk.Com. These...
Owen Taylor, my spouse and business partner, recently asked what was the worst (or maybe he meant to say most unusual) present he ever gave me. I probably surprised him when I answered a little too quickly. But, really, who could forget a luxuriously appointed, handcrafted, 32-quart plastic ice chest that (I’m not lying)...
Elton Robinson with Delta Farm Press wrote a touching article about a cotton field — silted over by the 1927 flood — becoming visible again after the flood of 2011 receded. It was a bit like a view into the past, temporarily revealed after the flood of this century.
The 59-year-old National Cotton Council Building in the Midtown section of Memphis will be converted into an apartment complex, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported this morning. The National Cotton Council (NCC) moved from the 59-year-old building several years ago during a period of staff reductions and took up residence in an outlying part of...
With its recent purchase of 60% of the stock in Makhteshim Agan Group (MAI), the Chinese ag chemical industry gained a potential marketing arm in the U.S. where MAI operates through MANA, its stateside subsidiary. If Chinese researchers have new chemicals in the pipeline – a likely situation – MANA provides an established marketing...
The palm oil industry is having a tough time hitting a sustainability target set for 2015 by multinational food companies. After that, the firms will only buy the oil from verified, sustainable sources. As Sara Schonhardt reports today in the New York Times, palm oil producers will have to push harder in the next...
The tiny two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) causes much anxiety for farmers and has been, to date, a scientific mystery. It feeds on over 1,100 species of plants, including 150 greenhouse plants and crops, such cotton, corn, soybean and a host of vegetables and permanent crops. By one estimate, farmers spend $1 billion a...
As reported this week by Inhabitat, a Chevy S10 has set a new world land speed record for a truck powered by biofuel — in this case, a blend of cottonseed oil and sunflower oil. The vehicle, tricked out with a Cummins diesel, hit 155 miles per hour at El Mirage Dry Lake in...
I read the article  Women Own or Jointly Operate 30 Percent of U.S. Farms with more than a little interest. Because of my work as a photographer specializing in agriculture, I have spent many hours with farmers. Most of them have been male. The more successful they were, the more credit they gave to...
Hot, sticky and swarming with mosquitoes, that’s what the Mississippi Delta feels like on a random summer morning at 5:30. This week, I was excited to read that there is a new “gun in town” to fight the Mosquito Wars. EPA has granted registration approval for a new killer that is supposed to take...