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A coalition of U.S. agricultural groups representing pork, rice, wheat and dairy producers is urging the Obama administration to reach a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) without Japan unless Tokyo agrees to provide significant market access for their products.

After the Senate Finance Committee easily approved a package of what Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., suggested would be the “last” package of one-year tax extenders, the focus this week turned to the House Ways and Means Committee which appears headed down a very different path.

Representative Frank Lucas says term limits may be ending his tenure as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee at the end of this term, but he says he’ll keep serving on the panel as long as he’s in Congress. Why?

The Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing yesterday to examine the role advanced biofuels play in the rural economy – and to gather evidence to persuade the EPA not to follow through on its proposal to cut the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

A top executive in the cellulosic biofuel industry says farmers as well as manufacturers will lose a major economic opportunity if EPA adopts the blending requirements proposed for 2014 under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says there’s little USDA can do to compensate hog producers for losses to the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus that’s killed millions of piglets since being discovered in the U.S. a year ago.

USDA has yet to determine which of the approximately 2,500 Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices it will propose to close, agency Administrator Juan Garcia told the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Tuesday.

The USDA s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) launched a process three years ago to cut the time it takes to approve biotechnology crop products, but industry stakeholders are still scratching their heads over what s taking so long.

A bipartisan group of 45 senators warned Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman last week that a wide-ranging free trade agreement with Europe could limit market access for U.S. producers of bologna and black forest ham.

Ordinarily, Jerry Cope would be loading between 100 and 125 rail cars with grain at this time of year, moving outbound from Dakota Mill and Grain in western South Dakota to flour mills and birdseed processors on the East Coast.