Conservation Reserve shifts toward working lands
With 22.1 million acres enrolled, the Conservation Reserve is often described as the largest federal land retirement program, paying landowners an annual rent in exchange for taking fragile land out of crop production for 10 or 15 years. "Over time, it has evolved more toward a working farmland program," said four university economists at the farmdoc daily blog.
Bioenergy build-out in Chesapeake Bay region spawns controversy
Bioenergy plants are rolling out across the nation, taking organic waste and turning it into energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But the approach is not without controversy in regions like the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, where biogas is closely tied with the poultry industry, according to FERN's latest story, by reporter Leanna First-Arai. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
A salad, a glass of wine, a bit of time and U.S. will be a food importer
The American preference for fresh foods year-round, often washed down with a glass of wine—or something stronger—will drive a $100 billion increase in food and ag imports in the years ahead, according to the Agriculture Department. It would turn the United States into a net importer of food in the long term and question the proud sentiment in farm country that America feeds the world.
White House points inflation finger at meatpackers
Grocery prices are climbing at their fastest pace since 2008, with beef, pork and poultry leading the way — up nearly 13 percent since last November, said the government's new inflation report. The White House pinned the blame for surging meat prices on meatpackers "taking advantage of their market power to raise prices while increasing their own profit margins."
Labor Department says potato grower systematically violated workers’ rights—again
Blaine Larsen Inc.—one of the largest potato growers in the country—must pay hundreds of farmworkers more than $1.3 million in back wages, after a Department of Labor investigation found it had systematically underpaid employees. It is at least the third time the DOL has investigated the company for labor violations in as many years.
Report: Intense pressure on land and water for agriculture
One-third of agricultural land worldwide, more than 2 million square miles in all, suffers from soil degradation caused by human use, said an FAO report on the mounting pressure on land and water for food production. "The pressures on soil, land and water are now intense and many are stressed to a critical point," wrote FAO director general Qu Dongyu in a foreword.
Nine cases of lethal bird flu in eastern U.S.
State and federal officials have killed tens of thousands of broiler chickens and turkeys on poultry farms in Indiana and Kentucky, and backyard flocks in three other states, while fighting outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). They are the first cases of the viral disease, which can quickly wipe out flocks, among domestic flocks in two years.
On the calendar, week of Feb. 22, 2022
Few employees out of compliance, as USDA vaccination rate rises
Seven of every eight USDA employees are partially or fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and there are few holdouts against President Biden's order to get vaccinated or seek a waiver, said the White House on Thursday. Slightly more than 2,000 of the USDA's 92,000 employees have not responded to the presidential directive, according to White House data.
Despite push to sign more hungry college students up for SNAP benefits, barriers persist
With increasing attention in recent years to the problem of food insecurity on college campuses, anti-hunger advocates have pushed to sign more students up for SNAP benefits. But many students still don’t realize that they may qualify for the program, said Michelle Fausto, a fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center.
Guaranteed loan program would expand capacity of food supply chain
The Biden administration will provide up to $1 billion in loan guarantees to expand capacity "in the middle of the food supply chain," with the end result of fairer prices for farmers and more consumer access to healthier foods, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday.
As drought conditions worsen, California braces for ‘worst-case scenario’
Some of California’s agricultural areas are bracing for water cuts later this year after the chair of the state’s Water Resources Control Board said escalating drought conditions will require the state to prepare for the “worst-case scenario.”
Higher prices, smaller exports for U.S. wheat
U.S. wheat exports are slowing due to high prices and rising global production, said the Agriculture Department on Thursday. "U.S. export prices are expected to remain elevated [for] the rest of 2021/22, further diminishing U.S. competitiveness," said the USDA's monthly WASDE report.
Native American food sovereignty means ‘rebuilding our nations and our food systems, one taste bud at a time’
When Covid-19 hit, intensifying hunger rates and limiting food access across the country, tribal communities drew on ancestral knowledge to mount a resilient response, said A-dae Romero-Briones, who directs Native agriculture and food systems programs at the First Nations Development Institute. “These long-buried behaviors would come up, and it was like honoring our ancestors,” she said. “To me, it was a renaissance.”
Demand for food aid stays high in second year of pandemic
The pandemic sent millions of Americans to food banks for help last year and the crush continues this year, said a food bank leader at a House hearing on USDA food donation programs on Wednesday. Feeding America, the largest food bank network in the nation, asked for a 45 percent funding increase for The Emergency Food Assistance Program, which buys U.S.-grown food and gives it to food banks to alleviate hunger.
Scholar describes how high-end restaurants are riven with race and class divisions
When Eli Revelle Yano Wilson applied for a job as a server at a white-tablecloth restaurant in Los Angeles, management had plenty of questions for him. “Name three brands of IPA,” he remembers them asking. “How would you explain béarnaise sauce to a customer?” At a webinar hosted Wednesday by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor & Employment, Wilson, now a sociology professor, confessed to the audience, “I still don’t really understand what béarnaise sauce is.“
House advances cattle marketing reform bill
By large, bipartisan majorities, the House passed bills on Wednesday to introduce more transparency in cattle marketing and to keep in force a law that requires meatpackers to report purchase prices of livestock. The bills now go to the Senate for action.
Biofuels sector rankled although EPA proposes highest ethanol mandate ever
The Biden administration said it would set the ethanol mandate at its highest level ever in 2022 and reject 65 requests from small refineries for exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Both were welcome steps for biofuel backers, but they rebelled at companion proposals to retroactively set the RFS for 2020 and this year below the maximum possible — "a betrayal" of rural America, said a Nebraska senator.
Extend pandemic aid for school meals for another year — survey
School food directors overwhelmingly say they have trouble acquiring nutritious foods and meal supplies due to supply chain disruptions, according to a survey released by the School Nutrition Association (SNA) on Wednesday. The SNA said the results underscored the need for regulatory relief and increased funding from the USDA for the upcoming 2022/23 school year.
More farmers worry about large increases in input costs
More than half of America's big farmers expect prices for inputs such as fertilizer and fuel to soar by more than 12 percent in the coming year, a sign of inflation fears felt across the economy, said a poll released by Purdue University on Tuesday. The latest government report pegged inflation at 6.2 percent, the highest in three decades.