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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Friday, April 19, 2024
David Bernhardt, who has served in a variety of senior positions in the Interior Department, was confirmed as secretary by the Senate on Thursday, a victory for cattle producers, energy companies and other interests who see him as an ally on public land management and endangered species regulation.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue suggested to lawmakers that his department could soften the definition of able-bodied adults who are subject to food stamp work requirements, but he declined to budge from a USDA reorganization plan to relocate two research agencies out of the nation's capital.
The latest forecast from the University of Missouri’s Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute projects farm earnings will be lower this year than what USDA economists are expecting.
The Agriculture Department this week releases the eagerly anticipated 2017 Census of Agriculture, which will provide fresh clues to consolidation trends in farming and measure the growth of small-scale and urban production and beginning farmers.
House Democrats say they are sympathetic to farmers who are struggling to find sufficient labor, but a compromise on fixes to the H-2A visa program will likely require support from farmworkers.
The Farm Credit Administration will issue guidance as soon as next week to system institutions on lending to producers who are clamoring to get financing for industrial hemp, but the commodity’s future remains clouded by regulatory hurdles.
The U.S.-China trade negotiations return to Washington this week amid signs of progress, while Senate Republicans seek to move forward with a long-stalled package of disaster aid eagerly awaited by a growing list of farmers.
The Senate is expanding a long-stalled disaster assistance bill to aid farmers and ranchers swamped by recent Midwest floods, but it’s still not clear when Congress will pass the legislation due to a dispute between the White House and House Democrats over funding for Puerto Rico.
U.S. negotiators head to China this week to resume face-to-face trade talks, and the Senate is expected to consider a long-stalled disaster aid bill amid demands to expand it to include assistance for losses from the Midwest flooding.
More than eight years after Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act, the Food and Drug Administration, industry and outside scientists are still struggling to figure out the best way to ensure the water used for irrigating and packing fresh produce is safe.
