Articles by Sarah Gonzalez

President Barack Obama’s Feed the Future initiative reached almost 7 million farmers last year by providing access to new technologies and management practices on about 10 million acres of land, according to a progress report released Monday.

Biodiesel producers joined a group of Democrat senators at a press conference Wednesday, calling for Congress and the Obama Administration to restore the biodiesel tax incentive and change the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed requirements for the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

The Senate Agriculture Committee focused on the world of high frequency trading during a hearing Tuesday where Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow sought to clarify how high speed traders affect agricultural futures markets and whether regulators have the capacity to keep up.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) released a letter it sent to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy urging EPA to maintain a lower ethanol requirement as it reviews and finalizes its 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) proposal.

A research coalition representing agricultural groups, businesses and universities asked Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., to have USDA representation at a hearing the committee is holding next week on federal research spending.

Advocates for local and healthy foods are hoping new farm bill funding will create a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that encourages healthier purchases for the more than 46 million people in the program.

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) today asked its members to resist a proposed rule from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to define “waters of the U.S.”

USDA is funding a multi-institutional grant project to develop a national clearinghouse for a standardized farm safety and health curriculum for young workers, after the Labor Department last year withdrew a set of proposed regulations amid heavy criticism.

Less than 30 days after President Obama’s ink started to dry after signing the 2014 Agricultural Act, farm organizations and land grant universities are already rolling out some key decision making tools to help farmers and landowners understand their new options. And there are plenty.

Now that USDA officials are promising that new livestock disaster aid will be among the first new farm bill programs out of the shoot, ranchers are rushing to decode the language laying out the programs in the new Farm Bill to see how it differs from the aid available in the 2008.