Inflation means longer lines at food banks
Americans are turning to food banks for help in the face of rising food, fuel, child care and housing costs, the chief executive of the Atlanta Community Food Bank told lawmakers on Tuesday. "Our distribution volumes are rising again" and now match the early months of the pandemic, when hunger was on the rise, said Kyle Waide, the chief executive.
Temporary silos to speed Ukraine grain exports — Biden
The United States will build temporary grain silos on the border of Ukraine and Poland to help overcome a logistical barrier to exporting Ukrainian grain by rail, President Biden announced on Tuesday. "I'm working closely with our European partners to get 20 million tons of grains locked in Ukraine out onto the market to help bring down food prices," he said.
Rising heat snuffs out plant fertilization
Pollination is at the heart of a plant's reproductive system, but climate change and rising heat are wreaking havoc on the process, according to FERN's latest story by Carolyn Beans, produced in collaboration with Yale Environment 360. "One point is becoming alarmingly clear to scientists: heat is a pollen killer. Even with adequate water, heat can damage pollen and prevent fertilization in canola and many other crops, including corn, peanuts, and rice," Beans writes.
House Republicans oppose USDA meat investigator as poison pill
Colorado infections push HPAI losses above 40 million birds
More than 40 million birds in domestic flocks, mostly chickens and turkeys, have died in the worst outbreak of bird flu since the 2014-15 epidemic, according to USDA data released on Monday. The outbreaks, which have killed 6 percent of the egg-laying hens in the country, were blamed for an Eastertime spike in egg prices.
Grocery prices rise 11.9 percent in a year, worst increase since 1979
Led by meat, grocery prices are rising rapidly, up 11.9 percent in the past 12 months — even faster than the overall U.S. inflation rate of 8.6 percent, said the government in the Consumer Price Index report. "We're going to live with this inflation for a while," said President Biden over the weekend, despite administration efforts to reduce prices.
As heat wave scorches India, global wheat outlook tightens
The world wheat crop is trending downward, due to a brutal heat wave in India and dry weather in Spain and France, said the Agriculture Department in its monthly WASDE report. Although Russia is expected to sharply increase its exports, more than 12 million tonnes of wheat would be liquidated from global stockpiles over the next year in the face of unrelenting demand for food.
Lawmakers mull margin protection, permanent disaster program for crops
Concerned by rising production costs and the longevity of sky-high commodity prices, farm-state lawmakers floated margin protection for crop growers and standby farm disaster programs on Thursday for inclusion in the 2023 farm bill. However, farm bill funding may be tight, which could limit Congress’ ability to add new features to the farm program.
House Democrats unveil ‘lower food and fuel costs’ bill
The House could vote as early as next week on an omnibus bill that would allow summertime sale of E15, create a special investigator’s office at the USDA to enforce fair-play laws in meatpacking, and help farmers adopt so-called precision agriculture technology.
SNAP costs too much, program needs revisions, say House Republicans
Warning that “pandemic aid is morphing into endemic aid,” the Republican leader on the House Agriculture Committee said on Wednesday that it was time to rein in food stamp spending. Other farm-state Republicans called for stricter eligibility rules as a way to push people into the workforce and said SNAP “promotes a perverse business of poverty.”
Vilsack adviser nominated for U.S. chief agricultural negotiator
In his second attempt to fill the post, President Biden nominated Doug McKalip on Wednesday to be the U.S. chief agricultural negotiator, working with U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai. The post has been vacant since Biden took office, to the increasing dismay of farm-state lawmakers and the agribusiness sector.
Valadao leads Trump acolyte in California primary
With most of the votes still to be counted, California Rep. David Valadao, who voted to impeach President Trump in 2021, was 1,100 votes ahead of the former Fresno city councilman who vowed vengeance for the former president on Wednesday morning. Democrat Rudy Salas held 48 percent of the vote in the "jungle" primary and was assured to advancing to the general election.
High commodity prices lure double-crop farmers — Survey
Nearly three of every 10 farmers with experience producing wheat and soybeans in one growing season say they will sow more winter wheat this fall, said a Purdue University poll on Tuesday. The practice, known as double-cropping wheat and soybeans, would mean larger wheat production in the United States and would help buffer the disruption in world food supplies created by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Cover crops struggle to overcome conventional soil management
Cover crops can help farmers build healthier soil, but they may not work well on fields where farmers have continuously grown corn for decades and applied large amounts of nitrogen fertilizers, according to two new studies. “In the Midwest, our soils are healthy and resilient, but we shouldn’t overestimate them. A soil under unsustainable practices for too long might reach an irreversible threshold,” said Nakian Kim, a doctoral graduate student in the University of Illinois’s Department of Crop Sciences who led the studies.
Jacobs-Young wins Senate approval as USDA chief scientist
Few vote early in Trump-tinged primary in Central Valley
Although the former president stayed out of the race, his name might as well have been the first words uttered by Chris Mathys, a conservative challenging Rep. David Valadao in the Republican primary in a U.S. House district in the Central Valley. "I will do everything in my power to defeat Congressman David Valadao, who voted to impeach President Trump," says Mathys on his campaign website, while Valadao offers "strong, practical leadership in Congress" on his.
Nationwide waivers for infant formula
To increase access to infant formula for low-income families enrolled in WIC, the Agriculture Department offered on Monday nationwide waivers to states to receive and distribute imported formula. The waivers were part of administration responses to formula shortages.
Highest-ever ethanol mandate will boost homegrown biofuels, says EPA
As part of an effort to "re-set and strengthen" the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the EPA set the corn ethanol mandate at its highest level ever, 15.25 billion gallons, for this year. Ethanol is cheaper than gasoline at present, so biofuel backers said consumers would benefit at the fuel pump with more ethanol in the gasoline supply.
Claim: Grazed grasslands trump cover crops on long-term carbon sequestration
In the debate over how to use agricultural lands to sequester carbon and help mitigate climate change, no-till and cover cropping get most of the attention. But studies are starting to show that grazed perennial pastures, where the soil is rarely disturbed and continuously covered, may be the best strategy for locking carbon in the soil long-term, according to experts on a recent Environmental Working Group webinar.
FERN’s live Ag Insider briefing coming June 8. Don’t miss it!
On Wednesday, June 8th at 1pm ET please join FERN for an exclusive, subscriber-only LIVE Ag Insider briefing featuring our amazing reporting team — Chuck Abbott, Bridget Huber and Teresa Cotsirilos — moderated by FERN Editor-in-chief Samuel Fromartz on Zoom. Q&A to follow.