Items Tagged with 'Bill Northey'

If current environmental trends continue through the end of the century, the world could see corn production decline by 40 percent but wheat yields gain 30-40 percent, according to a top NASA scientist.

The USDA Equity Commission is recommending a study into the potential termination of the Farm Service Agency county committees and is recommending USDA stand up a program to ensure county committee minority advisers have direct access to the FSA administrator.

Conservation groups and the Biden administration  are betting big that the promise of direct payments to farmers will supercharge their interest in cover crops, a practice relatively few have tried despite documented benefits to soil health, greenhouse emissions and water quality.

Now that farmers and the companies and consultants who support them have embraced the need for field-level data collection and have adopted myriad methods for gathering it, ag leaders say the industry has reached the critical juncture of figuring out what to do with all that information.

Democrats are preparing to pour money into federal conservation programs as a key way to pay farmers to address climate change. Converting marginal croplands to grass through the Conservation Reserve Program is one way to do it, but the question is whether USDA can get landowners interested in it again.

USDA officials tell Agri-Pulse they are working “amicably” with the Biden transition team, which is paving the way for the incoming administration next week. On the international front, the transition team has been pressing USDA for details on the impacts of the “phase one” trade deal with China.

Hundreds of business leaders, including some in the ag industry, are calling on Congress not to delay confirming the results of November’s presidential election. Congress is set to meet today to count the electoral votes.

The Agriculture Department is working to get some new coronavirus relief assistance to farmers as soon as possible, but much of the work may not be completed before President-elect Joe Biden takes office in two weeks.

The 117th Congress is officially underway with the swearing in of new members Sunday. The House includes a number of new members who could play a role in shaping food and agriculture policy, considering its importance to their districts.