Hydroponics Ban Rejected and NemaStrike Pulled From Shelves
From the Ag Information Network, I'm Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.**The National Organic Standards Board has rejected a proposal to prohibit hydroponics in organic production, disappointing growers who want organic certification restricted to crops grown in soil.
According to Agri-Pulse, the vote was held during NOSB's semiannual meeting in Florida, after two full days of stakeholder comment.
The 15-member board also rejected a motion to prohibit aquaponics, a system for farming fish and plants together, while approving a proposal to withhold the organic label for aeroponics, or crops grown in an air-mist environment.
**American Farm Bureau's tax policy specialist says new business rates in the House Ways & Means tax bill will have the greatest impact on farmers' taxes.
Pat Wolff tells Brownfield the measure proposes a new way of taxing business income, lowering the rate for corporations. But she says the impacts to pass-through businesses, which are the majority of the nation's farms and ranches, are still unknown.
The president of National Council of Farmer Cooperatives Chuck Connor believes most of their members will see a significant tax increase with the elimination of Section 199, the Domestic Production Activities Deduction, in the proposal.
**Monsanto is pulling its new nematode control seed treatment, NemaStrike, from the market after finding cases of skin irritation associated with the handling and application of the product.
Monsanto says it's stopping commercialization of the product "out of an abundance of caution" while it reviews the situation.