House panel votes to keep SNAP retailer data secret
A May court ruling that would allow the release of SNAP sales data may not be the end of a South Dakota newspaper’s seven-year battle for access to the information. The House Appropriations Committee voted on Wednesday to keep the data confidential.
Legislation would renew support for ‘socially disadvantaged’ farmers
Five senators and two representatives introduced legislation this week that would reauthorize and expand the Outreach to Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program, the only USDA program tailored specifically toward minority and veteran producers.
White House backs House farm bill as ‘meaningful welfare reform’
With the farm bill facing a test vote in the House today, the Trump administration called the bill "a step toward meaningful welfare reform" with its stricter work requirements for SNAP recipients. "The administration believes that work reforms like those in HR 2 are a critical component of any multi-year farm bill reauthorization," said the White House on Tuesday.
Grassley urges House to cap farm subsidies, says he expects Senate to agree
The House farm bill opens the door to unlimited subsidies, said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley on Tuesday, urging adoption of a $125,000 per person limit available only to actual farmers. Grassley told reporters that he will seek the same limit in the Senate version of the farm bill.
Rider puts USDA in charge of lab-grown meat
More than a century ago, Congress put the USDA in charge of meat safety, including regulation of slaughterhouses and packing plants. A rider on the USDA-FDA funding bill for fiscal 2019, scheduled for a House Appropriations Committee vote on Wednesday, would expand the USDA's food safety portfolio to cover lab-grown meat, variously called clean meat by proponents and fake meat by ranchers.
Civil rights groups ask for House defeat of farm bill
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of 200 national groups, asked U.S. representatives on Monday to vote "no" on the farm bill, saying stricter work requirments for food stamp recipients "would increase food insecurity and hardship" among poor people. "Imposing barriers to food assistance will not incentivize or equip people with what they need to seek and maintain work," wrote coalition president Vanita Gupta.
Environmental groups call for ban on new factory farms
Leaders from Food & Water Watch, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, and Des Moines Water Works gathered in Iowa Monday to call for a national ban on large-scale industrial, or “factory,” farms. In calling for the ban, the groups cited the negative impacts that confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have had on farmers, animals, eaters, and the environment.
Report: ‘Growing epidemic’ of toxic algal blooms across the United States
Some 169 toxic algal blooms were reported in 40 states in 2017, compared to only three blooms in 2010, says the Environmental Working Group in a report released today that names agricultural runoff as a primary factor. The EWG says farmers should be required to meet basic standards for control of nutrient runoff because voluntary efforts are insufficient.
Can Syrian seeds save climate-challenged U.S. wheat?
When the seed bank in Tal Hadya, Syria, was threatened with destruction in the civil war that has engulfed that country, the seeds were smuggled out. Now, some those seeds — from wild wheat relatives in the Fertile Crescent — are being planted in the American Midwest in the hopes that they can protect the U.S. wheat crop from the pests and disease brought by a changing climate, according to FERN’s latest story, published with Yale Environment 360. <strong>No paywall</strong>
USDA kills the proposed organic checkoff program
The Agricultural Marketing Service of the Department of Agriculture issued a preliminary notice Friday morning terminating the proposed organic checkoff program. The program, which was controversial among organic industry stakeholders, would have funded research and marketing for organic products. <strong>No paywall</strong>
In House, ‘a lot of undecideds’ on farm bill
While ready to move on the farm bill, House Republican leaders are giving Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway time to persuade "a lot of undecideds" to vote for tougher work requirements for SNAP recipients and looser subsidy rules for farmers. A sizable number of Republican lawmakers say Conaway wasn't tough enough on either group and want to tighten the access to federal support.
New leaders for USDA meat inspection, crop subsidy and marketing agencies
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Carmen Rottenberg will lead USDA's meat inspection agency, Richard Fordyce will head the Farm Service Agency, and Bruce Summers is the new chief of the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Trump urges speedy work on farm bill; GOP sets House debate
House Republican leaders have scheduled the farm bill for debate next week, confident that when the time comes, a majority will vote for its combination of tougher work requirements for SNAP recipients and looser subsidy rules for farmers.
Smallest U.S. winter wheat crop in 16 years
Searing drought in the central and southern Plains will result in the smallest winter wheat crop since 2002 and the second smallest in 47 years, said the USDA in its first estimate of the summer harvest.
For forest fires, a ‘new normal’
After a record-setting fire season in 2017, this year “is showing all signs of another historic year,” said interim Forest Service chief Vicki Christiansen on Thursday. “I will say above normal is our new normal.”
Trump turns up the heat on work requirements in the farm bill
President Trump’s preference for work requirements in social welfare programs is expected to come up today in a meeting to discuss the farm bill with the chairmen of the House and Senate Agricultural committees.
‘America’s Harvest Box’ is stamped ‘Return to sender’
In a quiet subcommittee vote, Congress declined on Wednesday to take delivery of “America’s Harvest Box,” the Trump administration’s headline-grabbing idea of sending a monthly box of nonperishable foods to SNAP recipients.
In novel filing, U.S. says India grossly over-subsidizes wheat and rice production
It is clear that India violates WTO limits on trade-distorting farm subsidies, said the Trump administration on Wednesday in announcing a “counter-notification” that could be the first step to a formal challenge of India’s wheat and rice subsidies.
The farm bill expressway slows down in the House
The route to House passage of the farm bill is nothing like the speedy trip that Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway envisioned early this year. Instead of motoring to a floor vote immediately after committee approval of the legislation, Conaway is crawling along in the parliamentary slow lane, trying to round up enough Republican support to pass the most partisan farm bill in years.
House rider would take the ‘added sugars’ out of honey and maple syrup
The FDA would be forced to modify its updated Nutrition Facts label, and give a break to producers of honey and pure maple syrup, under a 10-line rider in a House Appropriations subcommittee bill unveiled on Tuesday. Section 764 says the FDA cannot implement the new label if it continues to say honey and maple will be listed as added sugars.