By Stephen K. Pytak |  Republican Herald

PITMAN – For Brett Stehr, walking through his family’s orchards, the disorder in nature is evident.

“We’ve never seen flies in the orchard this time of year. There are lots of black flies stuck to the tractor. There are insects moving,” Stehr, a partner in Kenny Stehr & Sons Farm, said Monday.

Meanwhile, the buds on the some of his fruit trees are starting to bloom.

“Mother Nature’s got us up against the wall,” said Stehr, who was not happy with the 70-degree temperatures. “I don’t want it. It’s too early.”

The warm weather will continue, according to the website for National Weather Service at State College. Sunday will be mostly sunny with a high near 66. And from Monday through Thursday, the high temperatures will be in the low 70s.

The mild winter has presented local farmers with a series of challenges, insects included, said Elizabeth Hinkel, district manager of Schuylkill Conservation District, Pottsville.

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USDA Office of Communications | Funding to Improve Rural Electric Grids

SAN DIEGO, Calif., March 7, 2012 — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that rural electric cooperative utilities in eight states will receive funding to install smart grid technologies and make improvements to generation and transmission facilities. The announcement was made on the Secretary’s behalf by Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager during the 2012 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Annual Meeting in San Diego.

“President Obama is taking an all-of-the-above approach to meet our energy challenges by developing new domestic energy sources, expanding oil and gas production, and reducing our overall reliance on oil through fuel efficiencies and renewable energy development,” Vilsack said. “By supporting electrical system improvements, the Obama Administration is not only improving the reliability of America’s electric grid, it’s creating jobs and promoting business expansion. These investments in smart grid technologies give rural electric utilities and their consumers one more tool to better manage their use of electricity, improve efficiency, increase reliability of the electric grid and lower overall costs.”

In less than a year, USDA Rural Development is more than halfway toward reaching Secretary Vilsack’s goal to fund more than $250 million for Smart Grid technologies. Today’s announcement includes support for about $25 million in Smart Grid technologies.

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By Bob Herman | IPAB Repeal

Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, according to a report from The Hill. 

The IPAB, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, would be a 15-member panel, effective in 2014, composed of physicians, nurses, scientists and other clinicians that would monitor and ensure savings in the Medicare program without affecting coverage or quality.

Peter Carmel, MD, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement the AMA applauded the House committee’s decision to repeal the IPAB in the wake of the continued sustainable growth rate problem. “The IPAB would have far too little accountability and the ability to make across-the-board Medicare cuts,” Dr. Carmel said. “This is not what we need at a time when Congress is already struggling to eliminate a failed formula that threatens access to care for seniors and military families.”

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By Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) | Future Impact of Farm Bill

American agriculture always seems to get a bad rap. We are demagogued as huge, impersonal agribusiness that exploits workers. Nothing could be further from the truth. American agriculture is an innovative and diverse industry focused on healthy food production, community building and economic development.

My home state of Oregon is a prime example. We produce traditional agriculture crops, such as wheat and cattle, but we are primarily a state of family farms that grow specialty crops. Specialty crops, like vegetables, fruits, nursery crops and organics, account for less than five percent of harvested crops across the country. They receive only a fraction of funding from existing farm bill programs, yet represent nearly half of all domestic farm gate crop value.

In a twenty first century global economy it is going to be difficult for American agriculture to compete with countries that do not have our environmental standards, pay subminimum wages and receive significant national subsidies. However, we can compete by innovating, encouraging value added production and illustrating to everyday folks the dietary and economic value of buying American crops. American agriculture is beginning to realize that old methods of direct payments to not grow something make less and less sense to the public.

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By Barry Levine | Verizon Broadband to Rural Areas

If you live or work in a rural area and bemoan the lack of affordable, high-speed Internet, things might be changing. On Tuesday, Verizon Wireless announced a new service that offers in-home broadband access in rural areas, through the company’s growing 4G LTE network.

Called HomeFusion Broadband, the service requires a cylindrical antenna which captures the LTE service, and then feeds it to a broadband router in the home. The router provides high-speed service for as many as four wired and at least 20 wireless devices in the home, via Wi-Fi.

5 to 12 Megabits Per Second Download

The company said that average download speeds should be 5 to 12 megabits per second, and 2 to 5 Mbps up. Tami Erwin, vice president and chief marketing officer, said in a statement that HomeFusion Broadband gives customers “a simple, fast and effective way to bring the most advanced wireless from Verizon into their homes.” Several usage plans are offered, starting at $59.99 per month for up to 10 GB of data, plus a one-time equipment fee of $199.99. There’s no charge for installation.

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A new phone app is honoring some of Vermont’s unsung heroes.

Some people spend their days tapping away on an iPhone, others spend it tapping their cows for their latest milk, but today those two worlds have come together — sort of.

The lastest iPhone app, Reward Volunteers, created by The Cabot Coop and a social media entrepreneurs, is looking to reward those who go above and beyond for good causes in their communities.

“Volunteers can log their time, in order to earn rewards for themselves, and for the organizations that they serve,” says Jen Neary with Cabot.

Farmers may be the last group of people you would expect to see carrying an iPhone, but the folks at Cabot say their farmers are the reason they followed through with creating the app.

“Our farmers they volunteer in their communities, they are local firefighters, they drive school buses, they are in their communities volunteering. We wanted to be able to honor that,” Neary says.

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WASHINGTON — Today, 643 organizations, representing tens of millions Americans, expressed strong support for the Conservation Title of the U.S. Farm Bill in a letter sent to Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee Frank Lucas (R-OK), as well as the ranking members of those committees.

The letter urges the committees to provide the greatest possible priority for conservation programs in the funding and structuring of Farm Bill reauthorization.

The letter states that, “In our vast collective experience as landowners, farmers, ranchers, forest managers, agricultural and forest businesses, hunters and anglers, local and state government officials, and non-profit organizations representing a wide range of interests, we can say, without any doubt, that the programs within the Conservation Title work cost-effectively to serve the short and long term interests of the American people.”

Read more here.

By Ellen Thompson | National Teach Ag

This year, when agricultural leaders from all across the nation converge on Washington D.C. for National Ag Day, a group of agricultural education students and teachers will have a very special mission.

Six current agricultural education majors and three mentor teachers will prepare and teach an agriscience lesson in a DC public school on National Ag Day,  Thursday, March 8. Their activity and the agricultural education profession will also be highlighted to legislators and industry representatives at the Ag Day luncheon on Thursday.

“This activity is important on so many levels,” said Ellen Thompson, National Teach Ag Campaign coordinator. “We’re giving urban students an opportunity to experience agriculture, pre‐service teachers an opportunity to work with experienced mentor teachers, and Washington decision‐makers the chance to see up close what agricultural education is all about.”

Read the full story here.