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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Sunday, April 11, 2021
President Joe Biden released a fiscal 2022 budget outline Friday that includes a $3.8 billion increase for the Agriculture Department that is heavily directed toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and making farms and forests more resilient to climate change.
New regulations in Mexico threaten to disrupt more than $100 million in organic food trade with the U.S., and the Biden administration has less than three months to address the situation before the requirements take effect.
In this opinion piece, Lloyd Ritter with the Agriculture Energy Coalition discusses how USDA can expand and improve already existing programs to be climate focused.
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.”
Lawmakers are looking to pass the first child nutrition reauthorization bill in more than a decade this year by building on the political momentum behind measures to expand access to federally funded meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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.
Domestic meat consumption rose again in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread disruptions to restaurants and food service, and the industry is watching to see if stimulus checks and the ongoing economic recovery can boost sales again this year.