Articles by Bill Tomson

The U.S. ag sector really wants to know what’s coming next for the tenuous trade situation with China, but farmers and ranchers may have to settle for the status quo in the near future as the Biden administration takes its first steps toward dealing with the communist country.

President Joe Biden is set to announce his infrastructure plan on Wednesday, and it looks like he will also propose the tax increases he wants to use to pay for it. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed on Monday that the cost of the infrastructure package would be offset dollar for dollar.

The U.S. on Monday suspended a formal trade tie with Burma two months after a military coup and the arrest of the country’s elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and others in her National League for Democracy party. The U.S. action comes after years of increasing agricultural trade with Burma amid warming relations between the two countries, but that progress is now threatened.

President Joe Biden will announce his infrastructure plan this week during a trip to Pittsburgh. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Fox News Sunday this is the follow-up to the American Rescue Plan. “What the American people will hear from him this week, is … the first step of his plan toward recovery, which will include an investment in infrastructure," Psaki said.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott says he’ll be working with Republicans on a landmark bill to help Black farmers, following on the debt relief that was part of the new stimulus package.

USDA is re-starting the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program and providing $6 billion in new forms of pandemic aid, tapping additional authority provided by Congress in December.

USDA announced Wednesday plans to spend at least $6 billion on new pandemic aid programs that reach a broader swath of producers than previous efforts, while putting “a greater emphasis on outreach to small and socially disadvantaged producers, specialty crop and organic producers (and) timber harvesters.”

USDA’s top climate adviser, Robert Bonnie, says agriculture and forestry are going to figure in any new climate commitments that the United States makes to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., when adjusted for productivity, are down by 24% over the past 30 years, but farmers can do better if Congress and the Biden administration amp up assistance, says American Farm Bureau Federation Chief Economist John Newton.