Articles by Bill Tomson

- More than 60 catfish exporting companies from China, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar have registered with the USDA in an effort to qualify to continue shipping to the U.S., but government records show that past food safety violations may make it a challenge for some.

Chinas much ballyhooed economic slowdown is real, but the countrys internal policies and a strong U.S. dollar are often causing bigger disruptions to U.S. agricultural trade with the Asian nation, according to Fred Gale, a senior economist at USDAs Econom

The drop in commodity prices since 2013, falling farmland values and the ongoing decline in agricultural income is making it harder for farmers to repay operating loans and could make credit more difficult to get for many next year, Nathan Kauffman, assistant vice president and Omaha b

The markup scheduled for Thursday for Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts voluntary biotech labeling bill has been postponed until sometime next week.

Agricultural scientists are pushing gene editing to do everything from create pigs that can t catch the flu to produce corn with increased yields, but government regulators are scrambling to update antiquated regulations that threaten to hamper the technology.

The prospect for another year of low commodity prices has farmers scrambling for safer revenue in the USDA@s Conservation Reserve Program, but there@s less space than ever in the land-idling program thanks to recent cuts by Congress.

USDA€s Food Safety Inspection Service is now willing to consider setting up a voluntary country-of-origin labeling program for beef and pork after Congress abolished the mandatory law in December, but it could be more than a year before the agency makes a decision, according t

Its not just food manufacturers who are having to deal with FDAs major food safety overhaul. Nearly every biodiesel plant in the U.S. is on a tight deadline to rework its protocols to meet new industry regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA),

the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has already begun its lobbying effort in Congress to convince lawmakers to stop subsidizing biodiesel imports.

The National Biodiesel Board annual Conference & Expo is underway this week in Tampa, Florida, and one of the hottest topics is formulating a new game plan to get Congress to listen to the industrys needs when it comes to tax credits.