Articles Tagged with ''USDA''

The Agriculture Department plans to relocate “much of” the Foreign Agricultural Service’s Washington D.C.-based workforce to Kansas City, Missouri, and Beltsville, Maryland, as part of its reorganization plan, the agency announced Wednesday.

USDA and the Department of Education announced $125 million in annual funding to improve agricultural research facilities for land-grant universities and other colleges of agriculture. 

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins used her time with the International Fresh Produce Association to highlight the administration’s deregulation push, as well as efforts to reshape federal nutrition policy, expand export markets, lower labor costs and support specialty crop producers.

Federal and state officials are scrambling to respond to a growing list of New World screwworm cases in Texas, but face a key constraint in their goal of re-eradicating the pest: the U.S. isn’t producing enough sterile flies. 

The Government Accountability Office is recommending Congress tighten a law designed to protect livestock while they are being transported.

USDA has confirmed two more cases of New World screwworm in Texas and another in a dog in New Mexico, bringing to five the number of detections since the first two cases were announced last week.

It’s another big week as Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins grapples with a threat to livestock, senators work on a farm bill, and President Donald Trump says he’s focused on ending war with Iran and lowering costs for ag producers and other Americans. A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction barring the Agriculture Department from withholding funding from a group of states through a terms and conditions framework that seeks to comply with Trump administration policies on gender, immigration and diversity.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says while no one has a crystal ball, emergence of New World screwworm in Texas shouldn’t significantly diminish the U.S. cattle herd. Several lawmakers criticized USDA’s funding for specialty crop programs as inadequate, even though program assistance was raised to $1.6 billion last week.

The safety of glyphosate, cuts in federal food aid and farm income losses were the focus of tense exchanges between Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Democrats during a House Ag Committee hearing on Thursday.