Environment

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Just one day after President Donald Trump made a historic speech at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 99th annual convention, the organization’s 353 delegates approved a hard-fought dues increase and a vast array of new policy positions.

The importance of pollinators was a hot topic in agriculture and beyond in 2017, as initiatives to protect bees and butterflies continued to emerge.

Pesticide manufacturers and applicators are examining the impacts of a California decision to “freeze” uses for neonicotinoids while the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation re-evaluates their effects on pollinators.

Farm and environmental groups are sparring over the number of animal feeding operations subject to new emissions reporting requirements and how extensive those requirements should be, as a reporting deadline approaches.

Partially offsetting today’s low commodity prices, there’s good news for farmers and the U.S. economy: By 2030, the U.S. could triple its use of “readily available non-food biomass resources from our nation’s farms, forests, and waste streams” to produce “transportation fuels, electricity, commercial products, and high-value chemicals.”