Dad of girl electrocuted on Illinois farm files suit
ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — The father of a northwestern Illinois girl who was electrocuted while removing tassels from corn filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against the company that hired his daughter.

Brian Kendall’s lawsuit against St. Louis-based Monsanto Corp. says his daughter’s death could have been prevented. Hannah Kendall and Jade Garza, both 14 years old and from Sterling, were killed July 25 when they came into contact with a field irrigator while working near Tampico.

“The information that we have so far is that there was an appreciated, understood, electrical problem with connections to the irrigation system there and nothing was done about it obviously, prior to the kids going out there and as a result two deaths and serious injuries have occurred,” said Todd Smith, Brian Kendall’s attorney.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the incident. Monsanto denied the Kendall family’s claims in a statement and said crews wouldn’t have been allowed to work in the cornfield if the company knew there was an electrical hazard.

“Until OSHA’s accident investigation is complete, we believe that any comment regarding the cause of this event is premature and unjustified,” the statement read.

The suit also names ComEd, which runs the electric meter hit by lightning, and Matthews and his wife, who own the farm.

Young worker killed in Dyer agricultural accident
DYERSBURG, Tenn. (AP) — A young irrigation construction worker from Texas was killed on a Dyer County farm when a heavy piece of equipment fell onto him.

A three-person crew was righting the rig that had been knocked over by flooding in April when 19-year-old Austin Torres was killed. Torres was from San Antonio and was working on a contract crew. The Dyersburg Regional Medical Center alerted police that Torres had been brought in Monday and had been pronounced dead, according to the State Gazette.

Dyer County Sheriff’s Investigator Terry McCreight said the crew was trying to right a section of a 1,435-foot-long crop sprinkling system when it fell, striking Torres in the head. McCreight said the coroner examined the body and the death is expected to be ruled accidental.

Iowa sheriff says woman died after bull attack

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A sheriff said a 53-year-old woman died three days after she was attacked by a bull in eastern Iowa.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen reported Edna Miller died July 31 at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said Miller was attacked by the bull the previous Thursday morning as she was separating it from other cattle on her family farm near Kalona.

Pulkrabek said the bull had been aggressive previously. It’s been sent to a sales market.

Cuba chops agricultural costs for private farmers

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban authorities have ordered cuts of up to 60 percent in prices for agricultural equipment and other farm items to stimulate newly authorized private farmers who are cultivating state land under an economic overhaul.

Officials said Thursday the reductions took effect Aug. 1 and address complaints from farmers that their costs were too high. The announcement came during the nightly roundtable show “Mesa Redonda.”

Interior Commerce Ministry official Sara del Pilar Vidal said the government decided to lower prices because of feedback from farmers and after studies showed the merchandise was not selling at the earlier “elevated” prices. The 93 items covered include things like hoes, machetes, milk canisters, hoses and rakes, she said.

Agricultural Ministry official Alfredo Rudio mentioned 60 other kinds of equipment such as plows and added that what he called an “explosion” in land handed over to private farmers made the reductions necessary.

President Raul Castro began a land reform process in 2008 that turns over fallow fields to private cultivators. The government wants to boost farm production and reduce Cuba’s reliance on costly food imports. The law provides for parcels of 32-98 acres to be allotted for 10 years to individuals and up to 25 years for cooperatives. Both kinds of contracts are renewable.
National Land Control Center director Pedro Olivera said 171,000 people have requested farmland in the last three years and 143,000 were approved. More than 2.5 million acres were turned over, he said.