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USDA probationary employees who were abruptly fired from their jobs last month have gotten a temporary reprieve. The chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board ordered that they be reinstated in their jobs for 45 days while the case against the department is stayed.

Donald Trump is doubling down on his prediction that farmers are going to sell a lot more of their crops domestically because of his trade wars. Trump imposed higher tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico on Tuesday. And in his speech Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress, Trump reiterated his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs starting April 2.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that the president is willing to consider additional tariff exclusions, after announcing a temporary carve-out for automobiles from Canada and Mexico.

The Supreme Court has declined to block a lower court order requiring the Trump administration to pay $2 billion in foreign assistance that had been held up by a funding freeze.

Main Street Produce, also known as Freshway Farms, hired Steve Circle as director of sales. Tom Schultz, former director of the Idaho Department of Lands, was named chief of the U.S. Forest Service. 

The California Table Grape Commission hired Jackie Nakashian as director of community service and health programs. Tom Schultz, former director of the Idaho Department of Lands, was named chief of the U.S. Forest Service. He succeeds Randy Moore. 

Manufacturers and distributors of agricultural inputs tell Agri-Pulse they're already thinking about how to mitigate added costs from tariffs and bracing for difficult conversations with suppliers.

President Donald Trump's nominee to head FDA hasn't attracted nearly the attention that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has, but members of Congress and individuals in the Make America Healthy Again movement say Martin Makary and RFK Jr. are fully in line. 

Buyouts and firings have shrunken staffs at USDA field offices as the Trump administration works to downsize the federal workforce. Leases for some locations will soon be terminated.

The agricultural industry is more optimistic than it was in the summer of 2023 that producers will be able to live with new requirements to protect endangered species from pesticides. 

Corn and soybean growers meeting at this year’s Commodity Classic wrestled with the potential impacts of President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions on trade and federal spending cuts.