United States

BOISE — Federal regulations intended to protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure and drift seemed to fail to protect a group of Idaho farmworkers last year. Now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a series of changes that advocates say would weaken those protections. In November, the EPA announced plans...

Oregonians for Food and Shelter, OFS is gearing up for an unpredictable short session! Next week, legislators return to Salem for a fast-paced 35-day session where they will take up controversial policies, including cap-and-trade, 2nd amendment issues, pesticides, and forest practices. The short session was originally billed to voters as...

Wildfire restoration got a huge boost in both safety and speed thanks to a recent FAA approval for Seattle-based DroneSeed. The privately held startup obtained an additional amendment to its already unprecedented FAA Part 333 exemption that enables them to operate their seed-planting drones Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) in forested...

The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) is hosting 18 informational open houses for people living in areas scheduled to receive aerial treatments to prevent the spread of the destructive gypsy moth. These meetings, hosted by ODA plant health staff members, will offer attendees the opportunity to speak directly with those...

ALEXANDRIA, VA – JANUARY 13, 2020 – The National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA) is pleased to announce Montana native Darrin Pluhar has been elected its president for 2020. Pluhar owns Plu’s Flying Service Inc., an aerial application business in Ekalaka, Montana, that operates three aircraft. Since establishing the business in...

Caleb St. Hilaire suited up and arrived early to the Inverness Airport on Friday morning and took to the clear sky in a Piper one-seater to continue his training to become a crop duster. Only don’t call him that. The term "crop duster" has fallen out of favor and the...

The Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame plans to induct six individuals for their contribution to the state’s largest industry. Induction ceremonies for Class XXXIII will be held Friday, March 6 at 11:30 a.m. at the Embassy Suites ballroom in Little Rock. The newest inductees include agri aviator and longtime chairman...

Last week, the EPA for the first time approved 10 products for application to hemp. In September of 2019, when the EPA first received the applications to add hemp as a new use for these existing products, NAAA reviewed the applications and found seven of them had labels that allowed...

As many of you are aware, our good friend David Duch of Hazen passed away.  Visitation will be at the Hazen Community Center at 906 East Front Street in Hazen on Wednesday, January 8th from 5 to 7 p.m. Rosary will follow. The funeral service will be Thursday, January 9th at 10...

Nick Yoder says he occasionally deals with perceptions of people who are convinced his planes are causing them problems. Yoder, owner of Nick’s Flying Service, LaGrange, Ind., says it’s not a huge problem, but goes with the territory of running an aerial application business. “Once, we had a Michigan state...