USDA moving ahead on agency relocations
A British consulting company will whittle down the list of potential relocation sites for two USDA research agencies in coming weeks with an eye to making a final recommendation after April, the USDA said on Wednesday.
Headed for the Heartland? Midwest, Plains dominate USDA semifinal list
A day after asking for $25 million in moving money, the USDA said on Tuesday that at least 67 sites, predominantly in the Midwest and Plains, are being considered for the new homes of two Washington-based research agencies. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue insists he has the power to move the agencies despite resistance from lawmakers.
With summer near, EPA sets short comment period on E15 sales
The EPA intends to approve the year-round sale of E15 in time for the summer driving season, said administrator Andrew Wheeler on Tuesday. In proposing an end to the ban on summertime sales, the EPA set a 45-day comment period on its proposal.
To replace proposed food stamp cuts, USDA raises Harvest Box, again
The White House proposed a $19 billion cut in food stamps for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1, achieving the 25 percent reduction in SNAP mainly by putting forward, once again, "America's Harvest Box" of canned and nonperishable food. The administration also proposed on Monday to apply SNAP work requirements more broadly and to include older Americans in them. Both ideas were rejected last year by lawmakers.
With trade war, sorghum stockpile set to hit a 13-year high
A year ago, half of the U.S. sorghum crop was exported. This year, only a quarter of it is headed overseas due to the U.S.-China trade war, which means the sorghum stockpile will double by the time the new crop is ready for harvest this summer. USDA's monthly Grains: World Markets and Trade report says the sorghum inventory will be the largest in 13 years.
Trump seeks 31-percent cut in crop insurance
Farmers would pay a far larger share of crop insurance premiums — 52 percent instead of the current 38 percent — under the fiscal 2020 budget proposed by President Trump on Monday. The White House also wants to deny farm program benefits to people with an adjusted gross income above $500,000 a year vs. the current cutoff of $900,000 AGI.
GE salmon cleared for U.S. dinner plates
More than three years after the FDA approved, for the first time, a genetically engineered animal as safe to eat, the government opened the door for AquaBounty Technologies to grow and sell its GE salmon in the United States. A biotech trade group said the fish, which developers say grows twice as fast as as conventional Atlantic salmon on 25-percent less feed, will "contribute to a more sustainable food supply."
Wildlife group says ethanol mandate should be lowered
The Renewable Fuel Standard, which guarantees biofuels such as corn ethanol a share of the gasoline market, has prompted farmers to plow under wildlife habitat and has contributed to agricultural runoff, said the National Wildlife Federation on Thursday.
Farm income below $70 billion — a new average for U.S. agriculture?
The USDA forecast net farm income of $69.4 billion this year. If accurate, the total would be the third year of net income below $70 billion since 2015. “We’re starting to see ... a new average coming out here,” said USDA economist Carrie Litkowski on Wednesday.
As USDA and FDA agree on oversight, aggies rail against ‘fake meat’
In a step that moves a new industry closer to commercial reality, the premier federal food-safety agencies agreed on Thursday on how to jointly regulate cell-based meat, a laboratory-grown protein that farm groups call “fake meat.” The FDA will oversee cell collection and growth, while the USDA will oversee harvesting and processing, and have final say over labeling.
After Nebraska governor steps in, community board OKs a Costco-linked CAFO
Last week, a Nebraska county board reversed its decision to block a poultry CAFO from coming to a small town. The reversal came soon after Gov. Pete Ricketts had expressed his support for such operations and challenged the county to better serve farmers. It also arrives as a new piece of right-to-farm legislation aims to restrict lawsuits against farming operations. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
GAO urges more government attention to food safety
Congress may need to intervene to assure the high-level coordination of food safety efforts, said the Government Accountability Office on Wednesday in a report listing three dozen “high-risk” areas throughout the government.
Ethanol exports set a record of 1.7 billion gallons
Roughly 11 percent of U.S. corn ethanol was exported in 2018, a record 1.7 billion gallons worth $2.7 billion, said ethanol trade groups on Wednesday. Exports were nearly 25 percent higher than the previous record of 1.4 billion gallons, set in the preceding year, said the groups.
Academy of Medicine underlines advice for Americans to consume less salt
A new buyout path for mission-driven businesses
A new consortium is launching a non-profit at a major natural foods trade fair Wednesday, trying to help mission-driven companies transition ownership to future generations without selling out their values to win venture capital or corporate ownership.
New market planned to pay farmers for soil carbon, water quality
General Mills, ADM, Cargill, McDonalds, and The Nature Conservancy are among 10 companies and nonprofit organizations that are forming a national market by 2022 to incentivize the adoption of farming practices that build soil carbon and improve water conservation.
USDA tells ERS and NIFA staff who stays and who moves
Fewer farmers aim to expand their operations
Ag ‘risks losing much of the trade gains achieved over the past three decades’
The U.S. food and agriculture sector would lose nearly $22 billion in exports, equal to 15 percent of this year's sales forecast, if the United States scrapped NAFTA without a replacement on top of withdrawing from TPP, said three Purdue economists in a report on Monday. "Under this more pessimistic outcome, the negative trade impacts would be reflected in lower incomes for U.S. farmers, reduced land returns and labor displacement."
Reporting on rural America: Pamela Dempsey talks about what’s missing.
On March 8th, I’ll be moderating a panel in Austin at SXSW on the challenge of Reporting on Rural America Under Trump. In the lead-up to the event, I asked Pamela Dempsey, executive director at the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, a non-profit newsroom that covers environment, agriculture, and energy in the Midwest, for her take.