Daniel Enoch

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2014 -- Government support for agriculture in the 34 member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development continued to trend downward in 2013

The board of the National Farmers Union has voted to pull out of a working group seeking changes in the beef checkoff, calling the process a “waste of time and money,” and urging USDA to step in and reform the system.

USDA is awarding Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels LLC a loan guarantee for $105 million to build a biorefinery to produce jet fuel from municipal solid waste.

Zoetis Inc. has been granted a conditional license by USDA for a vaccine to help fight the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), which has killed millions of piglets in the U.S. since being found in the nation’s herd in the spring of 2013.

A USDA Inspector General’s review has determined that the department was not sufficiently prepared to handle the mountain of cash – more than $28 billion -- that it was handed by the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association says it is setting up a database of information on the chemicals commonly used in processed foods to ensure the Food and Drug Administration has access to information about ingredients the food industry determines to be “generally regarded as safe (GRAS).”

A state judge in Mississippi today dismissed Tea Party-backed Chris McDaniel's challenge to U.S. Senator Thad Cochran's June Republican Party primary victory.

EPA has provided the House Science Committee with detailed maps that the panel’s chairman, Lamar Smith, R-Texas, says show the agency’s “plan to control a huge amount of private property across the country” by defining the waters of the U.S. that fall under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act (

USDA announced today the rollout of the Margin Protection Program (MPP) and an online tool giving the nation’s 46,000 dairy producers easy access to the program’s 126 possible coverage options.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) said Mexican sugar subsidies are giving the country’s sugar mills an unfair trade advantage and imposed duty deposits on their shipments into the U.S.