Friday, Jan. 11, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) submitted a proposal to list the Gunnison sage grouse as endangered under the ESA. Along with this listing proposal comes an astounding 1.7 million acres in western Colorado and the eastern edge of Utah proposed as critical habitat for the bird.

The most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report was issued by USDA on Friday, Jan 11. The report showed several good things for beef, such as increased production estimates and reduced import projections, and also a number of surprising things for corn.

The interplay between technology and trust is a delicate and important relationship, and one that is too often off balance in the conversation about beef. Our technology can feed the world, but the issue of trust in that technology needs more attention.

The designated acres come from all types of land— public federal and state, tribal, and private—and well exceed earlier amounts of land earlier designated as critical habitat. This move comes following a lawsuit from the Center for Biologic Diversity (CBD) and years of legal battles.

Federal officials have moved forward again on relocating the NBAF into central Kansas by signing a land transfer agreement for the facility earlier this month. The new location will eventually replace the Plum Island location off of New York, which has long needed updating or replacing and has suffered damage from the recent Hurricane Sandy.

Buford noted that 2012 didn’t differ much in what drove sellers and potential buyers—the same economic and environmental pressures and political uncertainties existed—but that there was a lot more buyer confidence in 2012 than in 2011.

Though LFTB had been cleared as safe by FDA and been part of the food chain for many years, the damage to consumer confidence was already done once the initial ABC report was aired. Petitions were signed, outraged parents complained to USDA, and grocery stores tried to get rid of it as fast as they could.

21. Because of surprising placement numbers—down compared to last year, but not as down as expected—the report is being called bearish for live cattle futures by CME analysts. On-feed numbers were almost dead-on to pre-report expectations and marketings were slightly below expectations.

At the end of last month, Sen. James Inhofe, R-OK, and Chicago-based nonprofit research organization The Heartland Institute circulated a citizen’s petition to “rein in the Environmental Protection Agency.” The petition was tendered to Congress by Inhofe with over 16,000 signatures.

Friday, Dec. 14 saw the Washington State Fish and Wildlife Commission of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) move on amendments proposed last month to its state administrative code (WAC). The amendments, which provided renewed and expanded loss compensation to livestock producers due to wolves and other large predators, were approved.