Articles Tagged with ''Agriculture Department''

Georgia’s runoff election on Tuesday featuring a Senate Agriculture Committee member and the cousin of Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue will decide control of the U.S. Senate and go a long way in determining the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda.

A federal judge is blocking the Trump administration from carrying out changes to the H-2A minimum wage rates that would hold down annual pay increases.

Richard Rominger, deputy secretary of agriculture during the Clinton administration and former secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, died Sunday of a heart attack suffered at a restaurant in Winters, Calif., his home town. He was 93.

Farmers who were facing a steep drop in government payments in 2021 will instead see a third round of coronavirus relief payments and other producers and ag processors left out of previous aid programs this year will get help this time, under a massive stimulus package and government funding bill.

Congressional leaders reach agreement with the White House on a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package that will include a new round of aid to various agriculture sectors while also ensuring the deductibility of expenses used to get forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program loans.

A first-of-its kind study will pull together massive amounts of USDA farm data to assess the impact of conservation practices, and the department is separately considering a new crop insurance product designed to encourage growers to limit nitrogen usage.

Joe Biden's decision to nominate Tom Vilsack to run the Agriculture Department for a second time will give Biden a policy veteran who shares his passion for addressing climate change and already has relationships with critical lawmakers and farm groups.

The recent boom in commodity prices is likely to continue through 2021 and into 2022, with supplies historically low worldwide at the same time Chinese demand for animal feed is growing and a worsening drought grips Brazil and Argentina, according to a top ag economist.

The House on Wednesday cleared a five-year extension of the law that authorizes inspections of grain and oilseeds, facilitating a major amount of U.S. agriculture exports.

The incoming Biden administration is expected to take a new look at using crop insurance to encourage farming measures that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect water quality, but the effort will face an old challenge — finding the data to prove that the practices don’t increase program losses.