The Farm Post eNews

Friday eNews from the Pike and Scott County Farm Bureaus
 

AUGUST 21, 2015

Foundation goes back to school
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With the back-to-school season underway, the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture reminds members about its new educational tools to help teach children about the importance of agriculture in our everyday lives. Access new games Dive In and Thrive on the My American Farm website and the Farm a Month educator's guide at www.agfoundation.org.
Take the Ag Safety Pledge
The Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center has launched an Ag Safety Pledge campaign to raise awareness and promote farm safety. The pledge, which started Aug. 1 and runs through the end of September, builds on the 2015 theme for National Farm Safety and Health Week, "Ag Safety is not just a slogan, it's a lifestyle." The pledge includes a list of 11 safety reminders that can be followed to make ag safety part of one's lifestyle. Everyone involved in agriculture is invited to take the pledge on the UMASH website and encouraged to share it with others to raise awareness and encourage conversations about farm safety.
RFS change threatens ag
The proposed reduction in the amount of renewable fuels that must be blended into the nation's gasoline supply strikes a blow to conventional ethanol production and dampens the prospects for the further development of advanced biofuels, AFBF warned in comments to the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Since the RFS2 was put in place in 2007, the U.S. has seen tremendous growth within the agricultural sector," Farm Bureau noted. "If the proposed rule requirements are finalized, this decision will stall growth and progress in renewable fuels, as well as the broader agricultural economy."

AFBF weighs in on Monarch
AFBF has submitted comments to EPA on its white paper "Risk Management Approach to Identifying Options for Protecting the Monarch Butterfly."

Environmental organizations, particularly those opposed to the use of pesticides, appear to be using the monarch butterfly as a way to attack the use of pesticides and, in some instances, GMOs. Proposals to assist the monarch butterfly were included in the administration's May report on pollinators.
On This Day
AUGUST 21, 1897
OLDSMOBILE BORN
 
Ransom Eli Olds of Lansing, Michigan, founds Olds Motors Works-which will later become Oldsmobile-on August 21, 1897.Born in Geneva, Ohio, in 1864, Olds went to work for his family's machine-repair and engine-building business in 1883. In 1896, Olds completed his first gasoline-powered vehicle, and the following year he founded Olds Motor Works with financial backing from Samuel L. Smith, who had made his fortune in lumber.
  
After the company moved from Lansing to Detroit in 1900, a fire destroyed all of its cars except its small, one-cylinder curved-dash model. Light, reliable and relatively powerful, the curved-dash Oldsmobile (as Olds had renamed his company) became a commercial sensation after appearing at the New York Auto Show in 1901. Olds returned to Lansing in 1902 and began large-scale production of the car.
  
In 2004 GM finally discontinued the brand. At the time of its demise, Oldsmobile was America's oldest continuously operating automaker.
 
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