By Mayhah Suri
Here are some news clips and event announcements from this week. Enjoy the weekend!
World Food Day Today, October 16th, is World Food Day, a day to reflect on international hunger and food security. The theme this year is “Social Protection in Agriculture,” emphasizing the role social protection can play in reducing chronic hunger and food shortages. Connecting smallholder farmers to credit, technological information, and health services is critical to producing more food. Here are some facts about world hunger in 2015:
One in nine people on Earth do not have enough food to lead an active, healthy life – around 795 million people
Poor nutrition causes nearly half of all deaths (45%) in children under the age of five – which is around 3.1 million children every year.
If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million fewer hungry people.
In 2014, 14 percent of all U.S. households were food insecure. To view the hunger statistics in your county or state, please visit: http://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2013/overall
Are you willing to walk away high cash rents? Agweb.com reported on the release of a survey late last week focused on producers willingness to walk away from high cash rent farmland. Forty percent of respondents said they had some willingness to walk away from rented farmland with high cash rents. The remaining sixty percent expressed willingness to stick out this cycle of high cash rents and low commodity prices. To view the survey results, click here http://bit.ly/1Qxscmx. Gary Schnitkey with Farmdoc Daily this week looked at a risky strategy for those producers willing to take losses on rented farmland with high cash rents. To take a look at that strategy, click over to Farmdoc Daily (http://bit.ly/1Rd2F26).
Register today for the Nov. 5th Webinar: On Nov. 5th join us for a webinar covering the recent ruling invalidating Idaho’s “ag gag” law. Presenters that day will include Erin Hawley of the University of Missouri covering the First Amendment portion of the ruling and our own Ashley Newhall covering options left available for producers. The webinar starts at 1pm (EST) and is free to attend. Register today at go.umd.edu/AgGagWebinar.
Crop Insurance Publication Available: For those producers utilizing the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) remember that the Maryland Crop Insurance Education Program has released a publication covering the changes to NAP in the 2014 Farm Bill. The 2014 Farm Bill allowed NAP producers to buy-up coverage levels and moved the product to be more like crop insurance. To check out how this program operates, please see go.umd.edu/NAP.
Register Today for the 2015 Agricultural Policy and Outlook Conference on Dec. 16: The Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics will host their annual Policy and Outlook Conference on Dec. 16th in Annapolis MD. The conference will feature a grain marketing outlook, dairy market outlook, and an overview of regulations impacting the usage of drones. The cost to attend is $30/person. To see the complete agenda and to register, please see go.umd.edu/AREC2015.
Business and Ag Show Up To Criticize State Regulations. The Maryland Regulatory Reform Commission held its last regional meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 13, in Cambridge, and over the course of about four hours the panel heard from a series of politicians and business owners and representatives about how specific state regulations are negatively effecting them. Agriculture industry representatives also made a push in front of the panel on Tuesday for a different approach to regulations. Kurt Fuchs, government affairs officer for MidAtlantic Farm Credit and president of Delmarva Poultry Industry, said there needs to be a true cost-benefit analysis for proposed regulations as they make their way through agencies, as opposed to the current cost-benefit analysis process. Click here for the full story: http://www.stardem.com/news/general_assembly/article_7b51c69f-21c0-5c18-93d5-77cb2581eb46.html
Southern Maryland Farm Estate Planning Workshop on October 27th at the American Legion Hall-Hughesville, MD: Having an up-to-date succession and estate plan is an important part of any farm operation. The workshop will cover the features of the formation of a succession and estate plan, tax considerations and what you need to consider before developing the plan starting with family communications. The workshop will include strategies for including non-farming beneficiaries into the family succession and estate plan. The workshop is co-sponsored by the Maryland Crop Insurance Education Program and the Agriculture Law Education Initiative. To register online, go to https://eventbrite.com/event/17659154005/