Seven national groups announced support for doubling the beef checkoff to $2 a head. The process would begin with passage by Congress of a bill allowing the $2 checkoff and would be followed within a year by a referendum among beef producers and importers whether to increase the checkoff, which as been $1 a head since 1986. Proponents say the $2 checkoff would offset the effects of inflation and the shrinkage in U.S. cattle numbers.

The answer to hunger in America is for government and charities to work together, said House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway, who said it is "confusing and disingenuous" to suggest food stamps are the only source of meals for poor people. Food stamps "are designed to be supplemental, leaving [the] household responsible for the remaining needs," Conaway said in opening remarks at a hearing on food assistance provided by charities. "Many do so with the help of local organizations ...."

Working families get 38 cents of each $1 in food-stamp benefits, says the UC-Berkeley Center for Labor Research in a research brief, "The high public cost of low wages." The paper says hourly wages for the median American worker "were just 5 percent higher in 2013 than they were in 1979" when adjusted for inflation. For the bottom 10 percent of workers, wages fell by 5 percent from 1979-2013. With low wages, people rely on social-welfare programs; "the taxpayers bear a significant portion of the hidden costs of low-wage work in America," says the report.

U.S. growers intend to plant a record amount of land with soybeans this spring, and to boost the acres of sorghum, now in high demand for export to China, according to Farm Futures magazine's survey of 1,297 growers in 41 states during the first half of March. Its estimates of 87.25 million acres of soybeans and 8.4 million acres of sorghum are higher from forecasts by Kansas State University and the think tank FAPRI.

Some 14.8 billion kilograms of antibiotics were sold or distributed for use in food animals in 2013 and six of every 10 kg were classified as medically important antimicrobials, said the FDA. The government aims to reduce that ratio to maintain the efficacy of antibiotics to treat human illness. The agency launched a three-year drive in 2014 to end the use of antibiotics as a growth promotant. "This summary report reflects sales and distribution information from the year prior" to the campaign, the FDA said.

The fiscal 2016 budget resolution proposed by Senate Budget chairman Mike Enzi calls for large cuts in discretionary spending outside of the military, which could include food stamps, but does not specifically ask for cuts in the farm program. During committee debate, Democrat Debbie Stabenow said 400 farm, conservation, anti-hunger and rural-development groups were on record against any cuts beyond the $23 billion required by the 2014 farm law.

The United States, traditionally the No 1 wheat exporter, will take a back seat to the European Union for the second year in a row, says the Grains: World Markets and Trade report. The EU is forecast to export a record 33.5 million tonnes of wheat this year, some 9.5 million tonnes more than the United States, which would tie for second-place with Canada. Last year, the EU edged the United States by half-a-million tonnes for the top spot. For Canada, this would be the first time its wheat exports match the U.S. volume, says USDA.

For only the second time in 15 years, a portion of Oregon is under "exceptional drought" - the most severe rating - as state officials face widespread dryness east of the Willamette Valley. Some 82 percent of the state is rated in drought conditions ranging from moderate to extreme. The weekly Drought Monitor listed a sliver of the state, 0.12 percent in south-central Oregon along the California border, in exceptional drought.