A grocery supplier's federal lawsuit filed in Kansas alleging United Potato Growers of America and some cooperative members artificially inflated prices through cartel-like efforts to limit supply has been moved to Idaho and combined with another similar class-action lawsuit.
Wyandotte County, ...
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 9:35 AM
Washington State University is celebrating 50 years of commercial potato seed lot trials and its longstanding partnership with the Washington State Potato Commission.
The WSU potato field day begins at 8:30 a.m. June 27 at the WSU Othello Research Center at 1471 W. Cox Road, Othello.
WSU Extensi ...
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 8:34 AM
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Weeks before a Chinese conglomerate agreed to buy Smithfield Foods Inc. in the largest such takeover of a U.S. business, Missouri lawmakers quietly approved legislation removing a ban on foreign ownership of agricultural land.
The northern Missouri legislator whose a ...
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 8:04 AM
Joel Salatin, local-food advocate, farmer and author, will deliver an all-day workshop from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 29 at the Latah County Fairgrounds in Moscow, Idaho.
During his morning presentation, "Ballet in the Pasture," Salatin will talk about his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Va., and the relation ...
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 8:34 AM
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Smithfield Foods Inc. said Tuesday that it is laying off 120 more workers as part of its previously announced closure of a Virginia facility that makes hot dogs and deli meat.
The Smithfield, Va.-based pork producer plans to close the Portsmouth plant in the middle of August, ...
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 8:04 AM
The Weyerhaeuser Co. expects to significantly increase its footprint in the Northwest by taking over a competing landowner with 645,000 acres in the region.
The company has struck a deal to buy Longview Timber in a deal worth $2.65 billion, increasing its land holdings in Oregon and Washington ...
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 3:53 PM
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., has requested a timeline for the USDA investigation into genetically engineered wheat found in northeast Oregon in May.
In a letter to Kevin Shea, acting administrator of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS,) McMorris Rodgers requested a m ...
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:53 AM
National Potato Council leaders will determine their organization's next direction during the summer meeting, June 26-28 in Walla Walla, Wash.
Council CEO John Keeling said the mid-year meeting allows growers to get together and make adjustments to policy issues the council is working on, an ...
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:42 AM
Representatives of three Spokane area agricultural companies shared their stories with local business leaders during a recent forum.
Tom Stachecki of Angus Meats, Craig Higashi of Spokane Produce and Mike Conway of Latah Creek Wine Cellars spoke during a program put on by Greater Spokane Inc., th ...
Monday, June 17, 2013 10:41 AM
PENDLETON, Ore. -- Northwest researchers are advising farmers who plant their canola earlier to take care in when they apply nitrogen fertilizer.
Oregon State University Extension soil scientist Don Wysocki and University of Idaho professor, plant breeder and geneticist Jack Brown offered their t ...
Thursday, June 13, 2013 9:13 AM
LIND, Wash. -- Researchers say growers may want to weigh the benefits of applying biosolids -- treated Seattle sewage -- as fertilizer on their fields.
Washington State University soil scientist Craig Cogger, based in Puyallup, has researched the use of biosolids for 20 years, including on drylan ...
Thursday, June 13, 2013 5:04 PM
HERMISTON, Ore. -- The United Farm Workers union plans to mobilize farm workers and their supporters to bolster support for the Senate immigration reform bill.
On June 25, farmworkers from California, Washington and Oregon will text members of Congress from the fields to "share a glimpse of their ...
Wednesday, June 12, 2013 1:12 PM
PENDLETON, Ore. -- An Oregon State University wheat expert hopes to help farmers make the best choices as they select which varieties to plant next.
Mike Flowers, extensions cereals specialist, and Bob Zemetra, wheat breeder, teamed up during the Pendleton Field Day June 11 at OSU's Columbia Basi ...
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:01 PM
Washington State University officials have sent a letter to farmers with several recommendations on the possibility of finding genetically modified wheat.
If farmers observe wheat plants surviving a glyphosate treatment they should make a second spot application to the plants, said Jim Moyer, asso ...
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 10:41 AM
Researchers will recommend herbicide strategies to help farmers fight the season's biggest weed problems at upcoming field events.
Washington State University's Weed Science Field Tour begins at 1 p.m. June 19 at the Plant Pathogen farm building adjacent to WSU's Cook Agronomy Farm on Whelan-Al ...
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 5:40 PM
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) -- A group of religious, education and community activists is pushing for a ballot initiative that would raise Idaho's minimum wage from the federal minimum of $7.25 to $9.80 an hour over the next four years.
The Spokesman-Review (http://bit.ly/12ATR1Y) reports that ab ...
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:39 AM
WENATCHEE, Wash. -- The hot new place in Wenatchee these days is a public market with a historic past.
Crowds have packed Pybus Public Market most weekends since it opened May 11. A parking lot for 150 vehicles and 50 bicycles fills up, as does borrowed parking lots to the south and north.
"I di ...
Monday, June 10, 2013 9:49 AM
KENNEWICK, Wash. (AP) -- For the first time, people seek out Gary Middleton to buy his organic fruit.
That's something that has taken Middleton, who farms about 100 acres of organic apples, cherries and blueberries near Eltopia, about 13 years to accomplish, and is among the reasons he plans to co ...
Monday, June 10, 2013 9:58 AM
E.T. "Tom" Pybus came from a line of blacksmiths in England and immigrated with his parents to the United States a decade or so before arriving in Wenatchee in the summer of 1911.
He worked in a blacksmith shop that became his business by 1914. The shop built delivery wagons for merchants and bega ...
Monday, June 10, 2013 9:47 AM
FAIRMOUNT, N.D. (AP) -- Wallie Hardie is a Richland County farmer, but in the past two years, he and his son Josh have become farmers in Africa, too. They say they hope they're becoming smart farmers because surviving in frontier-style farming requires it.
Wallie has been pushing frontiers for yea ...
Monday, June 10, 2013 10:17 AM
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- A building supplier phoned Pollard Lumber Co. about providing wood for a large government construction project in Georgia, but the deal broke down over a single question about how the family-owned sawmill has committed itself to environmentally friendly practices.
The mill ...
Monday, June 10, 2013 10:20 AM
GEORGE, Wash. -- Gabriel Valverde says it's his favorite block in the vineyard and one glance tells you why.
Sun glistens off fresh green foliage of Sangiovese vines just beginning to bloom. Leaves hide the prize -- those still tiny clusters of wine grapes. Downslope, some 900 feet lower in eleva ...
Friday, June 07, 2013 9:36 AM
The Washington Department of Agriculture will not limit the use of neonicotinoid insecticides on ornamental plants.
The department announced its decision June 6 in reply to a petition by the Thurston County Board of Commissioners. Citing concerns about honey bee colony health, the commissioners i ...
Friday, June 07, 2013 9:36 AM
The attorney for a Washington farmer who was accused of defrauding the government over crop insurance hopes prosecutors will decide not to retrial his client after a jury earlier this week cleared him of one count but could not reach a verdict on three others .
The government alleged growers Ly ...
Friday, June 07, 2013 11:47 AM
MOSCOW, Idaho -- About 700 Idaho FFA members are on the University of Idaho campus this week for career development event competitions.
They have been working in the classroom all year, said Daniel Heikkila, state vice president for Idaho FFA.
"This is the progress report for the year," Heikkil ...
Thursday, June 06, 2013 11:02 AM
QUINCY, Wash. -- Cold Train, a refrigerated rail service from Quincy to Chicago and farther east, has added destinations in Canada, service from Portland, Ore., and is looking to double its rail siding, storage yard and loading and unloading capacity in Quincy.
The company, operated by Rail Logis ...
Thursday, June 06, 2013 11:12 AM