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Agribusiness

Floods fill some of California’s summer strawberry fields

As river water gushed through a broken levee, thousands of people in a California farming town were forced to evacuate as their homes were flooded and businesses destroyed. Yet another potential casualty of the powerful rainstorms that drenched coastal California: hundreds of acres of fresh strawberries slated for America’s supermarket shelves this summer. Industry experts estimate about a fifth of strawberry farms in the Watsonville and Salinas areas have been flooded since the levee ruptured late Friday about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of San Francisco and another river ...

Sleepy Eye FFA celebrates Nat’l FFA Week

SLEEPY EYE — National FFA Week was celebrated by FFA members nationwide from February 17-25, 2023. The Sleepy Eye FFA Chapter was very active throughout FFA Week and after due to the big storm during FFA Week. To start out the celebration, we hosted a Blacklight student dance for all ...

Region FFA interviews held

The Region VI FFA interviews were held on Thursday, Feb. 16 for Region Office, State Degrees, and Region Star Awards. This year, eleven Sleepy Eye FFA members applied for State FFA Degrees. The State FFA Degree is the second highest degree attainable in FFA, behind the American FFA ...

Half of California freed from drought thanks to rain, snow

LOS ANGELES — Tremendous rains and snowfall since late last year have freed half of California from drought, but low groundwater levels remain a persistent problem, U.S. Drought Monitor data showed Thursday. The latest survey found that moderate or severe drought covers about 49% of the state, nearly 17% of the state is free of drought or a condition described as abnormally dry. The remainder is still abnormally dry. “Clearly the amount of water that’s fallen this year has greatly alleviated the drought,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, ...

Missouri lawmakers back ban on Chinese ownership of land

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri House voted Thursday to ban entities from China and four other perceived adversarial countries from purchasing land in the state, citing a need to protect farms from the possibility of falling under hostile control. The Missouri legislation, which now heads to the Senate, is one of several similar bills moving through state capitols this year amid international tensions that were peaked by the trek of a Chinese balloon across the U.S. “The balloon was just over this Capitol” in February, Missouri House Speaker Dean Plocher said Thursday. “We ...

4-H workshops explore young people’s leadership journey

MARSHALL — Minnesota 4-H held the Southwest BLU and TEEL leadership workshops on Feb. 18 at Southwest Minnesota State University for 58 youth from across the southern Minnesota region. In February, youth from across Minnesota gathered to participate in the annual 4-H Building Leadership ...