Hunger worsens in global hot spots
From Haiti to Zambia, the world’s hunger hot spots will see rising food insecurity in the months ahead, said a United Nations report, urging prompt action to mitigate the crises. “We must ... act now to stop these hot spots from igniting a firestorm of hunger,” said Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program.
Next up in FERN’s special food-waste series: grocery stores and schools
House farm bill is built on ‘voodoo economics,’ says analyst
The House Agriculture Committee is relying on made-up math to pay for a huge increase in crop subsidy and crop insurance spending, said analysts during a think tank discussion on Wednesday. “It makes voodoo economics look great,” said moderator Josh Sewell of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group.
Bird flu infects dairy herd in Iowa, 10th state to be hit
A dairy herd in northwestern Iowa is infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus, said state agriculture secretary Mike Naig on Wednesday. He called on dairy and poultry farmers to “harden their biosecurity defenses” against the virus.
FERN launches special food-waste series
It seems like a simple problem. Nearly a pound of food per day in every household gets tossed in America — a country with some 44 million food insecure people. Can’t we just send would-be-wasted food to hungry mouths? Unfortunately, our food systems are notoriously complex with waste found on farms, in grocery stories, schools, and our refrigerators. This special series, produced in partnership with Inverse, looks at how data, technology, ingenuity, and common sense can be used to fight this waste. With all these ingredients, and a handful of worms, the solution may be within reach.
Stabenow says farm bill passage is within reach this year
Congress can enact a new farm bill this year, despite being months behind schedule, if lawmakers respect "the needs and interests of the broad farm and food coalition," said Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow on Tuesday. "I know we can build on bipartisan cooperation and finish a 2024 farm bill."
Farmer interest in solar leasing doubles since winter
One in five U.S. farmers has actively discussed leasing land for a solar project — twice as many as in February, according to a survey released by Purdue University on Tuesday. Developers offered high payments in many cases and, overall, 6 percent of landowners have signed a solar energy lease, according to the monthly Ag Economy Barometer.
USDA aims to isolate, exhaust H5N1 virus in dairy herds
The USDA's strategy against bird flu in dairy cattle is to identify infected herds and wait for the virus to die out within the herds, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Monday. "I'm confident we have a good understanding of the virus and how it is being transferred," he added.
USDA proposes base pay rule for poultry-grower contracts
Poultry processors would be barred from making deductions from the base prices that they list in contracts with growers under a rule proposed by the Agriculture Department on Monday. The USDA said the proposal aims to curb abuses of the so-called tournament system that determines a farmer's revenue and processors' demands for growers to make additional investments in their facilities.
Report: An ‘interventionist’ approach is needed to decarbonize agriculture
Congress should double agricultural research funding, now running at $4 billion a year, and direct the Agriculture Department to take a "more interventionist" role in decarbonizing agriculture, said a California think tank on Monday. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Solar storms a potentially costly risk for GPS agriculture
The solar storms that knocked out GPS networks in early May — prime planting time in the Midwest — cost farmers a "nontrivial" amount of revenue that depends on how long their equipment was sidetracked, said Terry Griffin, a Kansas State University professor.
In a first, farmworker infected with bird flu has respiratory symptoms
A farmworker in Michigan is the first person to experience respiratory symptoms after contracting bird flu from dairy cows infected with the H5N1 virus, said Michigan officials on Thursday. It was the third U.S. case of cow-to-human transmission and the second in Michigan. The Centers for Disease Control said the risk to the general public remained low.
FDA reorganization elevating food oversight is approved
A reorganization of the FDA that included the appointment of its first deputy commissioner for human foods has been approved after months of preparation and is targeted for implementation on Oct. 1, said the agency on Thursday.
China falls to third place as U.S. ag export market, USDA says
U.S. food and ag exports to China will fall by $6 billion this fiscal year in the biggest slump in sales since the Sino-U.S. trade war, forecast the Agriculture Department on Wednesday. Mexico and Canada will surpass China as the top customers, while the agricultural trade deficit will widen to $32 billion.
Higher commodity prices soften farm income decline, say banks
Springtime increases in corn, soybean, and wheat prices brightened the outlook for the agricultural sector amid expectations of lower farm income this year than in 2023, said Federal Reserve regional banks in the Beige Book report on Wednesday. The Chicago and Dallas banks said the discovery of bird flu in dairy cattle was a cause for concern.
Bird flu hits large Iowa egg farm
Bird flu was confirmed at an egg farm with 4.2 million hens in Sioux County in northwestern Iowa, the first outbreak in the state this year, said agriculture officials. The Sioux County farm is one of the largest egg farms in Iowa, the No. 1 egg-producing state.
Idaho alpacas are first in the world to be infected with bird flu
Four alpacas in a small Idaho herd were infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus — the first known infection of alpacas in the world, said the Agriculture Department on Tuesday. The alpacas were on the same backyard farm that culled its poultry earlier this month due to an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).
Feed ingredient that reduces methane from dairy cows is approved for U.S. sale
With FDA approval in hand, Elanco Animal Health said on Tuesday it will sell throughout North America its feed ingredient that reduces methane emissions from lactating dairy cows by 30 percent, with sales beginning in the third quarter of the year. Farmers could use carbon contracts to offset the cost of the ingredient, "a few cents a gallon of milk," the company said.
H5N1 virus particles found in meat from dairy cow
Meat from a dairy cow sent to slaughter contained particles of the H5N1 avian influenza virus — the first such finding since the virus jumped to cattle from birds a few months ago, said the Agriculture Department. The USDA also confirmed infections in five additional herds — three in South Dakota and two in Colorado — raising the U.S. total to 63 herds in nine states.
Solar and wind farms generate controversy but occupy a sliver of rural land
Local governments have imposed at least 2,600 restrictions on wind and solar power projects in their jurisdictions, with local opposition seeming to rise with the size of the project, said a USDA report on wind and solar development in rural areas. Wind and solar projects had a combined footprint of 423,974 acres in 2020, or 0.05 percent of the nation's 870 million acres of farmland, said the four economists who wrote the report.