Articles Tagged with ''Zach Ducheneaux''

The commission studying discrimination in Agriculture Department programs says USDA should look closely at eliminating the county committee system that has historically played a large role in the Farm Service Agency’s management of farm programs.

The Agriculture Department’s tracking of foreign land ownership relies heavily on investors to voluntarily report acquisitions, but enforcement cases have dropped dramatically even as the number of transactions has surged over the past decade, according to an analysis of USDA data.

Producers have signed up in increasing numbers to protect grasslands, adding more of a “working” element to the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers for employing conservation practices on their land.

USDA is increasing the amount of funding available for the Spot Market Hog Pandemic Program (SMHPP) to help pork producers who were hard hit during the pandemic.

President Biden’s bid to induce more double cropping of wheat and soybeans would likely have just a modest impact on production, according to an analysis by the American Soybean Association.

A New York Times video opinion piece attacking U.S. agriculture has caught the attention of top USDA officials as well as farmers. The video’s title, which pretty well describes the tone and thrust of the piece, is “Meet the People Getting Paid to Kill our Planet.”

The Agriculture Department is shifting the way it promotes the Conservation Reserve Program, placing greater emphasis on allowing farmers to use enrolled land for haying and grazing, according to recent comments by Farm Service Agency Administrator Zach Ducheneaux.

Minority farmers and producers considered to be historically underserved by federal programs, including beginning farmers, received less than 4% of the payments provided by the Trump administration’s Market Facilitation Program, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Producers and landowners will be able to start signing up for the Conservation Reserve Program at the end of the month, USDA announced Monday, as the department tries to expand the acreage to reach the 2018 farm bill’s goal for fiscal 2022.