Lippman awarded NAS prize for research into hardier crops
Genetics professor Zachary Lippman is the winner of the 2020 Prize in Food and Agricultural Sciences, announced the National Academy of Sciences on Wednesday. The honor is awarded annually to a mid-career scientist making extraordinary contributions to agriculture or biology.
Young farmers face heightened risks from climate change
Farm group supports higher THC limit for industrial hemp
States will gain power over water in WOTUS replacement, says Trump
More trade-war payments ‘coming very quickly,’ Trump tells farmers
In his third appearance in three years before the largest U.S. farm group, President Trump told cheering farmers that they will get a final round of $3.6 billion in trade war payments despite trade deals intended to spur money-making ag exports. Trump pointed to an upturn in farm income, aided greatly by federal subsidies in 2018 and 2019, and predicted on Sunday, "the big stuff is yet to come."
Where Perdue sees ‘flexibility’ in school food, critics see junk food
On his sixth day on the job in 2017, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue made chocolate milk safe for schools again, along with white flour and salt, in the name of regulatory flexibility. Those revisions to the school food program became final in late 2018. The USDA will propose a new round of "common-sense flexibility" for school meals this week, says Perdue. Skeptics said it will mean more pizza, burgers and fries and fewer servings of fruits and vegetables.
States ask federal court to stop Trump limits on food stamps
A Trump administration regulation that would eliminate food stamps for 688,000 people is being challenged in U.S. district court by 14 states and the District of Columbia. Their lawsuit, filed on Thursday in Washington, asks for the rule to be overturned as unlawful and for an injunction to keep it from taking effect on April 1.
Oceans could provide far more food in the future, reports say
Oceans could provide far more protein for the world’s food supply than they do now, especially from aquaculture, but aggressive action is needed to better manage fisheries and mitigate the impact of climate change, according to two reports released Thursday.
As Senate passes USMCA, Trump tells farmers to remember the trade war money
As President Trump scored his second trade victory in two days, Senate approval of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, he asked farmers on Thursday to remember the billions of dollars they had received in trade war payments.
Farmers borrow less, and tariff payments may be why
Agricultural lending declined during the second half of 2019, and while that reflected lower production costs, it “likely also was due to an increase in revenue from government payments (Market Facilitation Program) connected to trade disputes that lingered through the year,” said the Federal Reserve on Thursday.
Ag purchases from U.S. will hinge on Chinese demand, says vice premier
The “phase one” trade agreement with China assures sales of “up to $50 billion in agriculture alone,” said President Trump at a White House signing ceremony on Wednesday, although Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said sales would depend on domestic demand and U.S. prices. A senior administration official said later that the pact did not require China to remove retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farm goods — a potential barrier to exports.
USDA payments on corn and wheat more likely with PLC
After looking at the latest USDA price projections for corn, wheat, and soybeans, and taking into account price patterns for the crops, five university economists say the Price Loss Coverage subsidy is a better choice for growers than the Agricultural Risk Coverage subsidy for corn and wheat grown this year.
Senate to give Trump a trade victory days before impeachment trial
Grassley says he will blow the whistle if Chinese backslide on trade deal
When USDA stops paying rent, idled land usually goes back into crops
In Minnesota, study finds drinking water tainted with nitrates
Hundreds of thousands of Minnesota residents are drinking water contaminated with elevated levels of nitrate, according to a new analysis from the Environmental Working Group. The state is rolling out new rules to regulate nitrogen fertilizer application and protect groundwater, but advocates say they may not go far enough to keep residents safe.
Reduced-price meals should be free, says school food group
Congress can remove a roadblock to good nutrition by eliminating the reduced-price category for school lunches and breakfasts, and making the meals free for lower-income children, said the School Nutrition Association on Monday. Roughly 6 percent of lunches and 9 percent of breakfasts served at schools nationwide are sold at reduced prices of 40 cents for lunch and 30 cents for breakfast.
As the Salton Sea shrinks, a toxic mess looms
The Salton Sea, the largest lake in California, is drying up, revealing a bed packed with toxic chemicals, the residue of a century of runoff from Imperial Valley farms. Public-health experts worry that those chemicals pose a grave risk to the health of people who live nearby, mostly farmworkers, the elderly and families too poor to relocate, as Lindsay Fendt reports in FERN's latest story, published with The Weather Channel. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
In harsh year, U.S. crop acreage shrinks 5 percent
The rainiest spring in a quarter-century slowed the planting season and helped limit U.S. farmers to their smallest crop area in five decades, said the government in assessing 2019 production. Early snowfall and icy autumn weather prevented growers from harvesting more than 600 million bushels of corn, and the USDA said it would update estimates of corn and soybean supplies, if warranted, "once producers are able to finish harvesting remaining acres."
USDA proposes new criteria for fair play in livestock marketing
More than two years after killing an Obama-era proposal to make it easier for livestock producers to prove unfair treatment at the hands of meat processors, the Trump administration said it wants to use four criteria to determine whether packers give undue or unreasonable preference to one producer over another. The proposal was greeted by small-farm advocates as a small step forward while insisting that broader reform was needed.