Democratic presidential candidates are trying to make agribusiness consolidation into a campaign issue, and some Republicans as well as farmers also worry that recent mergers are increasingly making it harder for growers to make a profit.

Harden begins new role with Dairy Management Inc. and USDA's Rural Development appoints new leadership.

In an analysis of dairy supply management policy, American Farm Bureau Chief Economist John Newton says industry coordination to manage the dairy supply “could prove beneficial in the short-run, some reflection should be given on the long-run.”

Climate change and regulation of greenhouse gases are hot topics in Washington again, and Democratic presidential candidates are pledging to make them major issues in the 2020 election. That’s raising questions for the first time in a decade about the role that farmers could be asked to play in reducing carbon emissions, and how growers could benefit.

The National Farmers Union argues that despite hard-fought gains scored in the 2018 farm bill, it’s urgent to build on these gains by launching new federal incentives to curb U.S. ag production in order to raise farm income.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has at times been a critical ally for farm groups and rural Democrats. They hope they can count her again, this time to get the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement approved, and to keep her caucus from being pulled too far to the left. 

Opposition to moving the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture out of Washington, D.C., continues to mount, with the National Farmers Union the latest to voice concern about USDA's proposal.

Some Republicans say the best thing Congress could do to help farmers withstand the turmoil in trade policy is to pass a new farm bill. But economists say the legislation is unlikely to offer much relief to farmers, especially soybean growers, even if commodity prices don’t recover from their current tariff-induced slump.