Tim Walz knows rural America. J.D. Vance, not so much.
In FERN's latest story, published with The New York Times, senior editor Ted Genoways unpacks the GOP's hollow embrace of rural America over the last quarter century and makes the case that Tim Walz can help Democrats win back some farm country voters.
USDA says land near solar and wind farms tends to remain in agriculture
Solar and wind farms occupy a sliver of rural land — an estimated 424,000 acres in 2020 — but the large majority of renewable energy projects installed in recent years are located on agricultural land. USDA researchers, who looked at land cover three years before and three years after construction of energy projects, found that cropland or pasture-rangeland usually stayed in the same land cover even after the addition of solar or wind development.
Vilsack: Reference price increase is pivotal in farm bill negotiations
The salient question in farm bill negotiations is how large an increase to allow for so-called reference prices that trigger crop subsidy payments, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. When that issue is resolved, it would be “relatively simple” to wrap up work on the legislation this year after months of deadlock, he said.
Food prices are not going to decrease, says analyst
Despite the attention the cost of food is getting in the presidential campaign, “food prices are not going to decrease,” said Aaron Smith, a University of California professor of agricultural and resource economics, in a blog on Thursday. “In a healthy economy, the prices of individual products go up and down, but the general price level only goes up.”
Stabenow insists on balancing agriculture and nutrition in farm bill
With time running short for action on the new farm bill, Senate Agriculture Committee chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said on Wednesday that the legislation has to consider public nutrition and agricultural programs equally. While lawmakers have disagreed for months on SNAP funding, higher crop subsidy spending, and climate mitigation, they hope to reach an agreement in the near term.
Lawsuit challenges ‘climate-smart’ beef claims
Tyson Foods, one of the largest meatpackers in the world, cannot credibly say it produces “climate-smart” beef and should be stopped from making such marketing claims, said a lawsuit filed Wednesday under the District of Columbia’s consumer protection law.
Farmers need emergency assistance to offset lower income, says Boozman
The government should provide emergency aid to farmers to help them weather sharply lower commodity prices, said Arkansas Sen. John Boozman, the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, on Tuesday. Prompt action on emergency aid should be coupled with enactment of a new farm bill yet this year, he said.
One in three consumers expect inflation to worsen this fall
The U.S. inflation rate is the lowest in three and a half years, but six of 10 consumers say inflation affects them more now than it did three months ago, and more than one-third of them expect inflation will be worse in November than it is now, according to a University of Illinois survey. Republicans held the gloomiest views.
Farm sector is in a downturn, say economists
After seeing record profitability in 2022, the U.S. farm sector is in a downturn for an indefinite period, said a band of agricultural economists on Monday. Congress could feel pressure to provide a bailout to buffer the decline in income, at the same time that producers try to pare their costs, they said at a conference sponsored by the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City.
Third year of farm income decline is on the horizon
Lower market prices for many crops and for poultry will pull down farmer income in 2025, bringing the third year in a row of declining net farm income, said the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) on Monday. Net farm income, a gauge of profitability, would fall by 6 percent in 2025 and rebound modestly in 2026, said the University of Missouri think tank.
CDC: High obesity rates in 23 states
New population data show that in 23 of the 50 states, at least 35 percent of adults are obese, a startling increase in a decade, said the Centers for Disease Control. Before 2013, adult obesity did not reach these rates in a single state.
Bird flu spreads among California dairy herds
Five of the six dairy herds infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus this month are in California, all in the past week and all in the Central Valley. State officials said those herds were part of a group of farms targeted for testing because of outbreaks in three other herds at the end of August.
Political polarization makes farm bill extension more likely, says analyst
The traditional urban and rural coalition that carried the farm bill to passage in the past is losing its appeal, said farm policy expert Jonathan Coppess on the farmdoc daily blog, pointing to partisan polarization and "negative-sum factional polarization."
Trump reminds farmers of trade war aid; Harris would fix ag labor shortages
Former president Donald Trump said in a questionnaire released on Thursday that he would use “every tool at my disposal,” including tariffs, to expand U.S. food and ag exports if he is re-elected. Vice President Kamala Harris would not tolerate unfair trade practices from China or other competitors, said senior aides to the Democratic nominee.
Exports boom as bumper corn crop pulls down farm-gate prices
U.S. corn exports are climbing for the third year in a row and will be the fourth largest on record this trade year, thanks to the mammoth crop now being harvested and falling market prices, said the Agriculture Department on Thursday. The 15.2 billion-bushel crop would be just a hair smaller than the record set last year.
House votes to limit foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land
The Republican-controlled House swept aside Democratic objections to pass a just-written bill on Wednesday to restrict the purchase of agricultural land by citizens of China, Russia, North Korea, or Iran. “It is the beginning of the effort to keep our greatest adversaries from being able to purchase any American farmland,” said sponsor Rep. Dan Newhouse.
Support for regenerative agriculture drops if food costs more
Consumers like the goals of regenerative agriculture, but they don’t want to pay more for food produced with the climate-friendly practices, said a Purdue University survey released on Wednesday.
Rural poverty rate dips to pre-pandemic levels
Aided by surging household incomes, the poverty rate in rural America fell to 13.5 percent, the lowest since 2019 and the second-lowest in two decades, said the Census Bureau on Tuesday. Rural conditions improved far more rapidly than did the country overall, according to the annual measurements of poverty and income.
Limiting 45Z credits to U.S. feedstocks has risks, says Vilsack
U.S. food and ag exports might suffer if the government denies 45Z tax credits to foreign feedstocks used in making sustainable aviation fuel, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday. The Biden administration intends to issue regulations for the tax credits, worth up to $1.75 a gallon, before leaving office in January, Vilsack told a biofuels group. "I'm confident that we're going to get her done."
For rural America, election is ‘certainty vs. chaos’ or Trump as defender, say advocates
Vice President Kamala Harris bears the blame for high prices and declining farm income, said Indiana farmer Kip Tom on Monday, pushing for the reelection of Donald Trump as president. On the contrary, said Harris advocate Rod Snyder, calling the Nov. 5 election "a choice between certainty and chaos," like the Sino-U.S. trade war that cost farmers billions of dollars in lost export sales.