By Tham Choy Lin URUMQI (China), Sept 8 (Bernama) -- The two places may appear worlds apart but for Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, there is plenty of room for the Malaysian southern state and China's north-western Xinjiang region to become economic partners for the world market. By Tham Choy Lin URUMQI (China), Sept 8 (Bernama) -- The two places may appear worlds apart but for Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, there is plenty of room for the Malaysian southern...

Hilgedicks family farm is growing 1,600 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat as their primary crops, and is one of the many farms in Boone County receiving crop subsidies. In Mulch, the blog that accompanies the database, Cook pointed out that districts represented by the 18 subcommittee members received about a quarter of all crop subsidies. The uneven distribution of government subsidies the top 1 percent on Boone Countys list received 23 percent of total subsidy dollars is not a local...

The second is the renewal of the Marin Countywide Plan/2007 with deliberate onerous regulations to wound Marin Ag, and the third is the attempt by the local superintendent of the National Park Service to get rid of agriculture grandfathered onto local parkland. This latest 3-part threat to the largest part of local agriculture is just the latest reincarnation of threats to the existence of ranching in West Marin; it is not new, only a ratcheting up of a process openly advocated behind the...

As industrial farming has increasingly invested in a small number of crops and in genetically modified produce, older varieties of fruits and vegetables have disappeared. They believe that the agricultural practices of our time, restricted to so few plants, are vulnerable to potentially devastating diseases and infestations. The supermarket tomato, for example, is perfectly designed for shipping and storage, but its taste and texture are a far cry from homegrown varieties. Yet other lost...

Westar Representative Bill Birnel said the city s request to retain the ability to generate power caused Westar to do quite a bit of rethinking as they wrote new contracts. The also approved the city s budget, which is expected to decrease by about three mills this year, with one potential complication. Birnel said the council at that time could look at the option of being a green city, and purchasing a share of wind power, or green energy. One stipulation of the contract is the city would...