Farmers are still struggling to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. So, nearly 170 farm groups are calling for federal help in getting personal protective equipment and COVID-19 testing resources for farmworkers “as we continue to promote the health and safety of our farm employees and rural communities.”

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer recently called the World Trade Organization “a mess,” but some of the largest U.S. agricultural groups and companies are speaking out in a new letter to stress the importance of the WTO to American farmers.

South Korea, in a deal struck with the Trump administration last November, agreed to buy at least 132,304 metric tons of U.S. rice annually and the country is getting close to meeting that promise for 2020, according to U.S. government and industry officials.

A former chief economist for USDA, Joe Glauber, warned recently that the billions of dollars in payments to farmers to offset trade wars and COVID-19 impacts would “attract attention” on an international level. And that’s exactly what’s happening.

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.

Republicans and Democrats clashed over legislation that would give states a larger role in recovering endangered species at a hearing before the Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday.

Rural Democrats are expressing relief at a deal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reached with Republicans to ensure USDA can continue making farm payments in the coming months. A stopgap funding bill that includes a provision to replenish USDA’s Commodity Credit Corp. account passed the House easily Tuesday evening, 359-57.

For the second straight year, Democrats threatened but ultimately backed down from blocking Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue from getting a fresh pot of money to make payments to farmers.

President Donald Trump famously tweeted that trade wars “are good and easy to win.” It was a brash statement, but emblematic of his first term in which he either threatened or hit trade partners like China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Canada and the European Union with tariffs.

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.