The Environmental Protection Agency is removing 72 inert ingredients from the list of ingredients approved for use in pesticides. Any manufacturers who want to use those ingredients in the future will need to first demonstrate their safety to the EPA, either through studies or other information. The EPA will then decide whether or not to approve the request. EPA is taking this action in response to a petition filed by the Center for Environmental Health, Beyond Pesticides, and others. The groups initially asked the EPA to disclose up to 371 inert ingredients in pesticides. In response, the EPA then said it will evaluate the risks found in each inert ingredient and make changes as appropriate. Pesticide ingredients that directly control weeds or insects are called active ingredients. Those that don’t directly affect pests are called inert ingredients. Many of the 72 inert ingredients were included on the original list of 371.

37 women are heading to Hormel for work after the company settled a hiring dispute with the Department of Labor. A Meating Place Dot Com article says Hormel will hire the women with retroactive seniority and pay back over half a million dollars in back wages to 403 female job applicants who were denied entry-level jobs at its Fremont, Nebraska plant. Hormel’s fine and retroactive hiring agreement bring to a close a case filed by the Labor Department after it found Hormel discriminated against the women in its hiring process. Hormel is a federal contractor so it’s required to hire according to anti-discriminatory rules set forth in an executive order. Hormel has a federal contract to be a food supplier for the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Defense. The Department of Labor found that Hormel was discriminatory in its hiring practices from February of 2008 to February of 2009. Hormel Foods said in a statement, “While we disagree with the Department of Labor, we believe a settlement now will avoid an unnecessary distraction.” Other meatpacking companies have faced similar suits over hiring practices, including Pilgrim’s Pride and JBS.

The search for an Agriculture Secretary has turned its attention to Susan Combs. She’s a former Commissioner of Agriculture and state comptroller of Texas. Combs met with Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Tuesday, which may have been due to the endorsement of House Ag Committee Chairman Mike Conaway of Texas. He told Politico’s Morning Agriculture report that he’s “been working to put her name into consideration” with President-elect Trump’s transition management team. The team didn’t comment publicly, but Combs is the first publicly acknowledged candidate for Ag Secretary to meet with Pence or Trump since North Dakota Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp on December 2. Combs grew up on a west Texas cattle ranch, but some are questioning her fit with the Trump administration. As Texas Ag Commissioner, she pushed nutrition policies in line with Michelle Obama’s and backed two of Trump’s rivals in the primaries. Conaway said her accomplishments as a comptroller stand out, saying she streamlined tax processes, recaptured $600 million in unpaid taxes, and cut $400 million dollars in government purchasing by making the process more efficient. Conaway says, “The federal government needs more people with that kind of expertise.”

A Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak is taking a toll on wild and domestic poultry flocks in Asia while another outbreak is just beginning in the United Kingdom. The outbreak has left authorities in Asian and European nations scrambling to deal with the disease and prevent further trouble. U.K. officials are now dealing with the first case that’s been recently found on the mainland. Japan is culling another 200,000 birds at a poultry farm after an outbreak killed another 30 birds. Japan had already culled over a half million birds in the last month. South Korea has already culled a record 16 million birds after a series of influenza outbreaks, representing a total of 20 percent of the nation’s flocks. Meating Place Dot Com says another 30,000 turkeys and ducks were culled last weekend in Germany after officials discovered another strain of the H5N8 influenza virus at two additional farms. Several reports in the United Kingdom this week confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza at a turkey farm. Threats of arrest and imprisonment are still in place to prevent the movement of poultry and eggs around the U.K.

The National Ag Statistic Service released the results of its first-ever Local Food Marketing Practices Survey this week. Over 167,000 U.S. farms locally produced and sold food through direct marketing practices. That resulted in $8.7 billion in revenue in 2015. Farmers who sold directly to institutions and intermediaries like wholesalers who would locally brand the product brought in the most money at $3.4 billion. Roughly 115,000 American farms sell their products direct to consumers, through on-farm stores or farmers’ markets. That segment of producers took in $3 billion in sales. A group of farmers also sold to retailers, pulling in $2.3 billion in profit. The top five states in direct food sales were California, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Pennsylvania led the nation in farms selling their products directly to consumers with over 6,000 operations. Only eight percent of U.S. operations were selling directly to consumers through an online market. The survey also concluded over 80 percent of all direct marketing food sales were made within 100 miles of the farm. Most farms selling to consumers were within 20 miles of their largest grossing marketplace.

Panera announced it will be adopting practices outlined in the Global Animal Partnership’s Broiler Chicken Standard. A CNBC Dot Com article says the non-profit organization created a five-step program it says promotes effective animal livestock care. The Standard requires no cages or crowding crates be used on animal farms. It also requires outdoor access for animals, as well as pasture centered farms, which means animals are brought indoors during bad weather. The overall goal is to improve the environment of livestock on farms. Global Animal Partnership also wants no alterations to the livestock, including beak trimming, de-spurring, or toe trimming. Panera is the first chain to adopt these standards and wants more to follow them. The CEO of Panera says, “It is our hope that leadership by companies like Panera will continue to be a catalyst for animal welfare across the industry.” The company wants these standards in place by 2024.

Wind turbines that often dot fields throughout the Midwest may benefit row crops, according to new research by Iowa State University. A climate researcher with the university says air turbulence from wind turbines affects temperatures and helps reduce moisture that can lead to disease. The university tells the Des Moines Register wind turbines have “an overall healthy impact on plants.” However, it is difficult to determine if those benefits improve crop yields. The research says wind turbine turbulence leads to temperatures about a half-degree cooler during the day and between a half degree to a full degree warmer at night. And the turbulence and associated changes in air pressure at ground level may enrich the carbon dioxide content in the air surrounding crops, which could make the plants grow more efficiently. Air movement rustling the plants also allows sunlight to reach lower corn and soybean leaves, encouraging photosynthesis, according to the study.