Tagged: agriculture

Kansas House will take a final vote to merge KDOT with KTA; Kansas lawmakers begin talks on a bill that allows corporate farming; Mindstorms challenge encourages STEM education.

Kan. House To Take Final Vote On Turnpike Measure

The Kansas House has given first-round approval to a limited merger between the Kansas Department of Transportation and the Kansas Turnpike Authority, which manages the state's 236-mile toll road.

Feedlots, dairies and big farms in Kansas have complained for years about the lack of workers. Now, they have a high-profile advocate for their cause. 

Gov. Sam Brownback's administration may ask state legislators to repeal laws that restrict corporate involvement in farming.  

State Agriculture Secretary Dale Rodman told freshmen legislators Tuesday that the state's anti-corporate farming laws need to be repealed. He added later that the state can't expand agriculture as much as it could because of those restrictions. 

Also, Attorney General Derek Schmidt recently told Secretary Rodman that some of the restrictions are likely unconstitutional.

Governor Sam Brownback says Kansas could benefit from an Environmental Protection Agency decision that says grain sorghum ethanol qualifies as a renewable fuel under federal standards.

Kansas grows more of the grain than any other state. Brownback noted in a news release 60 percent of Kansas-produced ethanol comes from sorghum. The Renewable Fuels Standard program requires the U.S. to produce 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022, with an increasing requirement for renewable fuels from non-corn sources.