Former USDA Chief of Staff and White House ag advisor Ray Starling, who served under President Trump, and Obama-era Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack engaged in a civil back-and-forth Wednesday to extoll the virtues of their particular candidates of choice.

CDFA finalized its hemp plan and yesterday submitted it to USDA for review.

USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box program needs to eventually give way to more established government nutrition practices, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue told a virtual gathering of the nation’s produce farmers Tuesday.

The European Union’s proposed overhaul of agricultural production methods is not just bad for Europe — it threatens food security in the poorest of nations that look to the EU as role model for farming and a trading partner, according to an onslaught of criticism released Monday by Trump administration officials.

The Department of Agriculture has announced $268 million in rural drinking water and wastewater infrastructure grants and loans that are expected to impact about 267,000 residents.

Democrats reached a deal with the White House and congressional Republicans to replenish the Agriculture Department’s Commodity Credit Corp. account in exchange for banning CCC payments to oil companies and extending some pandemic-related nutrition assistance.

Democratic congressional leaders refused to allow replenishment of a key Agriculture Department account, charging that the White House is employing it as a “political slush fund.” Senate Republicans quickly criticized the measure.

Lawmakers look to move a compromise stopgap funding bill this week to keep the government operating until December, even as much of the nation's attention is focused on the Supreme Court opening created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The Agriculture Department is launching a new round of coronavirus relief payments worth up to $14 billion that will be spread over more commodities with new methods of calculating the assistance.

President Donald Trump used a campaign event in Wisconsin to announce the administration's plan to distribute about $13 billion in additional payments under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.