Iowa to use coronavirus money for livestock, biofuel grants
Livestock producers in Iowa will be eligible for grants of up to $10,000 and biofuel producers for grants of up to $750,000 to offset the impact of the pandemic on agriculture in the state, announced Gov. Kim Reynolds on Tuesday, the same day she was expected to speak at the Republican National Convention.
Trump boosts food-box funding by $1 billion
Hours after he was nominated for a second term, President Trump announced at a produce packing house in North Carolina an additional $1 billion on Monday for the food-box giveaway program that is his administration's answer to hunger during the pandemic. Nearly 71 million boxes of food have been delivered since the program began on May 15 but critics question if it is a fair and efficient way to help families.
Farm management rule is a step toward equity, say reformers
Although the USDA adopted a stricter rule on who qualifies for crop subsidies, farm-program reformers said on Monday there was more work to do. The new rule, which applies to people who say they deserve a payment because they help manage a farm, should be applied across the board to all USDA programs and it needs to have teeth, they said.
On the calendar, week of Aug 24, 2020
USDA tightens eligibility rules for farm subsidies
Loopholes remain, but the USDA is tightening its crop subsidy rules by limiting who can collect a payment for managing a farm, historically one of its most porous definitions. The new regulation, to be published on Monday, requires people to perform at least 500 hours of management or at least 25 percent of the management work required annually to merit a subsidy check — "a very major advancement," according to a small-farm advocate.
House chair: USDA coronavirus aid process ‘risks public distrust’
The Trump administration should be more forthcoming on how it decides which commodities qualify for its $16-billion coronavirus relief program, said House Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson. "Without consistent public clarity ... the program is at risk of public distrust and other commodities seeking future program eligibility are placed at a disadvantage," said Peterson in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
U.S. and EU resolve lobster tensions
The EU will remove tariffs on imports of live lobsters and frozen lobster products from the United States under an agreement that calls for lower U.S. tariffs on a variety of European goods, including prepared meals. "These tariff reductions are the first U.S.-EU negotiated reductions in duties in more than two decades," said a joint statement by EU and U.S. trade officials.
More money for agriculture to flow from Washington
Federal payments to farmers are forecast at a record $32 billion this year, with additional outlays all but certain due to the pandemic and economic recession, said two farm policy experts in gauging potential action in the near term.
Meatpackers ignored warnings to plan for a pandemic, report finds
Experts and federal agencies repeatedly urged meatpackers to prepare for a potential future pandemic as far back as the Bush administration, yet none of the major packers had stocked personal protective equipment or trained personnel on pandemic response before the novel coronavirus began to spread in 2020, an investigation from ProPublica found.
Survey shows a drop in farmer support for Trump
Farmers, in overwhelming numbers, said they would vote to re-elect President Trump this fall, but the landslide margin was smaller than in April, according to a telephone survey by DTN/Progressive Farmer.
Cover crops a boon for weed control, says report
Often cited as a way to reduce erosion or improve soil quality, cover crops are also useful in controlling weeds that have developed an herbicide tolerance, said a survey of farmers by the Conservation Technology Information Center on Wednesday.
Trump visits derecho-hit Iowa, talks about China
Beef slumps while pork exports surge
In Oregon, an effort to build grassland biodiversity while helping ranchers succeed
In eastern Oregon, an experiment is underway to determine whether conservationists and ranchers, two groups often at odds, can work together to stave off development, support ranch economies and preserve biodiversity on the Zumwalt Prairie, America's largest remaining native bunchgrass prairie.<strong>(No paywall)</strong
Former education secretary joins calls for school food flexibility
The Trump administration should immediately extend two waivers that allow schools during the coronavirus pandemic to serve meals at no charge to students, whether in the cafeteria, the classroom, or as grab-and-go meals at the curbside, said former education secretary Arne Duncan on Monday.
Few states release data about Covid-19 in the food system
Over the past six months, Covid-19 has spread rapidly through the workforces of farms, food processing facilities, and meatpacking plants in nearly every state, infecting tens of thousands. Yet determining the exact number of workers who have contracted or died from the virus is virtually impossible, because few states are publicly reporting case and death data in the food and farm sectors.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Four months after ‘Trump postcard,’ the Trump food box letter
Four dozen House Democrats warned the USDA against using its food box donation program "to distribute a self-promoting letter from the president" ahead of the Nov. 3 election, criticizing the idea as a political use of federal resources.
Coronavirus payments leap by $2 billion in one week
In its largest payout since the program began, the USDA sent $2 billion in coronavirus aid to farmers and ranchers last week, most of it going to producers who had received a prorated payment earlier this summer.
China buys corn and soybeans ‘to keep me happy,’ says Trump
The expected six-month review of the Sino-U.S. trade agreement failed to materialize on Saturday but President Trump expressed satisfaction with the increasing pace of farm export sales to China. During a news conference, Trump said, "China has been buying a lot of — a lot of things, and they're doing it to keep me happy but they're dreaming about Joe Biden."
Sam Clovis, tainted in Russia probe, resurfaces in Trump campaign
A national co-chair of the 2016 Trump campaign, Sam Clovis, is a member of the newly announced Farmers and Ranchers for Trump, according to the organization's website. Clovis withdrew his nomination for USDA chief scientist on Nov. 2, 2017, after investigators said he encouraged a campaign staff worker to try to contact Russians claiming to have harmful information about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.