After years of decline, rural population shows modest growth
For the first time in six years, rural America is gaining population rather than losing it, although the increase was a slender 0.1 percent, or 33,000 people, said the annual USDA report Rural America at a Glance.
House elections stamp expiration date on GOP ‘welfare reform in the farm bill’
The midterm elections on Tuesday, giving Democrats control of the House beginning in January, effectively ended a Republican push for stricter SNAP work requirements in the 2018 farm bill. The elections could also be the jolt that breaks the stalemate in Senate-House negotiations over the bill. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Trump remains on top in farm country
In the end, election night turned into a gentle blue wave, showing the nation as divided as ever. As expected, suburban voters pushed back against President Trump, giving control of the House back to the Democrats, while voters in rural areas doubled down on their support of the president, flipping the Senate seats in three ag-heavy states to the Republicans. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
California votes to go cage-free; Oregon and Washington State split on local soda taxes
Californians approved welfare standards for farm animals in a landslide on Tuesday. In Oregon and Washington State, voters delivered a split decision on measures affecting soda taxes. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
‘New NAFTA’ helps alleviate farm income fears
Six in 10 respondents to a Purdue poll on farmer confidence said the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement had either completely or somewhat relieved their concerns about their income over the next year.
As China tightens its belt, U.S. soybeans feel the pinch
The giant of world soybean trade, China, will slash its soy imports by 10 percent this trade year under the dual effects of trade war with the United States and an outbreak of African swine fever, said the U.S. agriculture attache in Beijing. At the same time, USDA data show a sharp decline in soybean exports to all markets and a trade group said tit-for-tat tariffs are putting pressure on pork sales to China and Mexico.
Six months to sow ideas for voluntary organic checkoff
Rebuffed by the Trump administration, the Organic Trade Association turned to the public on Monday for ideas on how to design a voluntary checkoff program to raise research-and-promotion money for the sector and where to put the money. "The need for more investment in organic is widely agreed upon," said OTA chief executive Laura Batcha.
Trump’s trade war knocks soybeans out of running for top U.S. crop for a decade
The neck-and-neck race between soybeans and corn for the title of No. 1 U.S. crop is over after one lap, with corn the victor and soybeans out of the running due to trade war with China. The USDA says corn will be the acreage king for years to come while soybeans recover slowly from the loss of sales to China, which used to buy one of every three bushels of U.S. soybeans.
Inspector general to review USDA relocation of two agencies
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue aims to announce the new homes for two USDA research agencies in early 2019, potentially relocating them as far away as California to save money and make it easier to recruit workers. The inspector general, however, will review whether Perdue can act on his own, announced two lawmakers.
In northwestern Iowa, King’s cruise to re-election hits a pothole
Anti-immigrant Rep. Steve King has suddenly found himself fighting his toughest re-election contest in years in the reliably conservative northwestern quadrant of Iowa, with an online poll showing his Democratic challenger trailing him by just a single point. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Low prices, Hurricane Florence batter sweet potato farmers
North Carolina’s sweet potato farmers, already facing lower prices for their crop, were dealt a powerful second blow in September, when Hurricane Florence flooded the state’s top sweet potato-producing counties.
Four times more tariff pain than financial gain in ‘new NAFTA’
Although President Trump declared the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement a big win for U.S. farmers, a study released on Wednesday says U.S. farm exports will fall by $1.8 billion due to retaliatory tariffs by Mexico and Canada. That would be four times larger than the gains the trade pact would produce.
EPA would exempt CAFOs from right-to-know reporting of manure gases
The EPA has proposed a rule that would exempt industrial livestock farms from a requirement under a “community right-to-know law” that they notify state and local officials of gases produced by the manure on their farms. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Federal court finds Wyoming’s ag-gag laws unconstitutional
The U.S. District Court in Wyoming ruled Monday that the state’s ag-gag laws are unconstitutional. The ruling comes after several years of litigation between the state and plaintiffs who argued the laws were written solely to deter monitoring of the effects of agriculture on the state’s water, land, and air.
Trump campaigning for farm-state Republicans in tight races
Trump to send second round of tariff payments to farmers by year end
With no end in sight for the trade war, the Trump administration will begin a second, multibillion-dollar round of payments to soybean, cotton, pork, dairy, sorghum, wheat and corn producers by December, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday. The administration does not plan a 2019 bailout.
Animal populations fall by 60 percent in four decades
Global populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians have declined, on average, by 60 perent since 1970s, said the World Wildlife Fund in its Living Planter Report 2018 on Monday. "The top threats to species identified in the report are directly linked to human activities, including habitat loss and degradation and over-exploitation of wildlife," said WWF.
In CDC report on ‘fast food,’ Sweetgreen and McDonald’s are treated as equals
A much-publicized report from the Centers for Disease Control released earlier this month found that more than a third of Americans eat fast food daily. But what wasn't included in the media coverage was that the study’s definition of "fast food" includes fast-casual restaurants, such as the custom-salad chain Sweetgreen, as well as coffee, bagel, and even ice cream shops. Such a broad definition, well beyond the burger-centric drive-through that the term "fast food" calls to mind, raises questions about how much the CDC data actually reveal about American eating habits.
Trump: ‘We don’t have enough votes’ for stricter SNAP rules
Banking on Republican gains in the midterm elections, President Trump said Congress could wait until next year to pass the farm bill because "we don't have enough votes" now for stricter work requirements for millions of SNAP recipients. Trump, who signed an executive order in April calling for new and stronger work requirements for social programs, has sided with House Republicans on the major dispute of the 2018 farm bill, now nearly a month overdue.
Trump heads for farm country as midterms near
Ten days ahead of the midterm elections, President Trump will tout his agricultural record to a pared-down crowd of 7,000 teenagers at the FFA national convention in Indianapolis and campaign in southern Illinois for an imperiled Republican member of the House Agriculture Committee.