Blogriculture

The Capital Press and Blogriculture are about to lose a key member of our team. If you have been a regular reader of this blog, you know that Elaine Shein, the executive editor of Capital Press, has been the primary contributor here for quite a while. Well, Elaine is soon to be moving on to other pastures. I know not everyone who reads this site also reads the Capital Press, so you may not...

The Capital Press has the wrong deadline for reporting agriculture news to our print readers. I'm not sure what the right one is, but I know it's not the one we've got. Today, minutes after all of our news pages were done and gone, a pretty big story broke. Korea lifted its ban on U.S. beef. That's an international story with economic and political ramifications. Korean citizens have...

As the nation once again tries to pinpoint the source of salmonella-tainted food, the agricultural industry in the West probably let out a collective sigh of relief that this time the problem did not originate here. However, as investigations into the source of the problem continue, Western vegetable growers will remain cautious about how to better prevent this from happening here. They...

A farmer in Tennessee has resorted to using a pair of mules to pull a tractor rake to harvest hay. T.R. Raymond says the mules are slower than a petroleum-powered tractor, but there are benefits. "This fuel's so high, you can't afford it," he said. "We can feed these mules cheaper than we can buy fuel. That's the truth." There's also video of the modified equipment, buy you'll have to...

During the week when temperatures hit 100 in the West, it would have been hotter if Congress hadn’t finally hammered out a long-awaited farm bill agreement with solid support. When the final farm bill version passed the House 318 to 106, and the Senate 81 to 15, it ensured enough strength to override the threatened veto by President George W. Bush. The votes by Congress were needed....

Perhaps the only surprise about this week’s election was it took at least 13-15 minutes before most news organizations officially declared Barack Obama the winner over Hillary Rodham Clinton in Oregon’s Democratic primary. With the majority of precincts reporting late election night, Obama claimed 58 percent of the vote versus Clinton’s 42 percent. This gave Obama 1,961 pledged...

Near the end of May, a media training workshop is being held in Portland to help people in the ag community understand the media better but also prepare them for doing interviews. The idea first was suggested last November, and eagerly embraced even by those who quite regularly are interviewed by journalists. Everyone felt you can never get enough training in this area of communication....