Ag leaders seek Chesapeake Bay cleanup funds
The presidents of six state farm bureaus asked the USDA to share the cost with farmers of reducing sediment and nutrient runoff into Chesapeake Bay. "We are now at a critical stage in the Chesapeake Bay cleanup," with a 2025 deadline for reducing pollution, said the farm leaders in a letter.
Boozman on Democrats: ‘Shattering the farm bill process’
The polarized debate over President Biden's $3.5 trillion "build back better" bill may imperil the drafting of the 2023 farm policy law, said the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday. Arkansas Sen. John Boozman blamed Democrats for a breakdown in bipartisanship, saying they were "shattering the farm bill process and putting our farmers' futures in jeopardy."
One in seven rural Americans lived in poverty during 2020 pandemic
Nearly 6 million people in rural America had incomes below the poverty line during the pandemic year of 2020, an increase of 315,000 from the preceding year, according to a Census Bureau estimate released on Tuesday. The annual Income and Poverty report indicated that one in seven rural residents lived in poverty, compared to the national average of one in nine.
Food prices rise as U.S. inflation moderates
Beef prices were 12 percent higher than a year ago, helping to drive overall food prices upward, said the Labor Department on Tuesday. The monthly Consumer Price Index report said food prices were 3.7 percent higher but the U.S. inflation rate slowed slightly in August.
Big drop in farm income forecast as pandemic aid ends
After reaching its highest level since 2013, U.S. net farm income would tumble by one-fifth next year, despite continued high crop and livestock revenue, said the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute on Tuesday. "Under current policies, farm income could drop again in 2022, as government payments decline and production expenses continue to rise," the think tank said.
House panel approves $66 billion ag bill; change in ‘stepped-up basis’ is abandoned
The Democratic-controlled House Agriculture Committee approved its $66 billion part of President Biden's $3.5 trillion "build back better" bill on a party-line vote Monday, with Chairman David Scott saying he was confident that $28 billion will be added later for land stewardship and climate mitigation by farmers. Meanwhile, House Democrats said they would not alter a tax break that helps farmers pass land from generation to generation.
Conversion of grasslands accelerates in Great Plains
After slowing with the collapse of the commodity boom nearly a decade ago, the conversion of grassland to row crops is accelerating in the Great Plains of the United States and Canada, said the World Wildlife Fund.
Long appointed FNS administrator
The Biden administration appointed Cindy Long as administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service on Monday, a position she has held on an acting basis since early January.
Price tag for new nutrition and ag spending nears $100 billion
During congressional committee work on the Biden administration's $3.5 trillion "build back better" bill, majority-party House Democrats approved a $35 billion expansion of child nutrition programs last week and were expected to vote on Monday for an additional $66 billion for forestry, rural economic development and agricultural research.
Grassland enrollment adds 2.5 million acres to Conservation Reserve
The USDA said it accepted offers from landowners to enroll 2.5 million acres under the Grassland option of the Conservation Reserve, double the amount accepted last year. Nearly 45 percent of the new land will enter in two priority zones set by USDA, the Greater Yellowstone Elk Migratory Corridor in the West and the Historical Dust Bowl Region, still at risk of wind erosion, in the central and southern Plains.
China to be world’s leading corn importer even with record crop
A favorable growing season and government policies that encourage crop rotations will result in a record corn crop in China, estimated the USDA. China is second to the United States as a corn producer and will be the world's largest corn importer for the second year in a row, according to the monthly World Agricultural Production report.
USDA to invest $464 million in renewable energy infrastructure in rural communities
The USDA will invest $464 million to strengthen electric service in rural communities through smart-grid technology and help agricultural producers and businesses add renewable energy systems to lower energy costs and build climate-smart energy capacity in 48 states and Puerto Rico, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced yesterday.
Critics say a lack of diversity among nutrition professionals skews America’s understanding of dietary health
In the U.S., the field of dietetics and nutrition — and, accordingly, the corps of professionals who shape how Americans understand dietary health, in part by helping draft the national dietary guidelines — has a diversity problem. Over 71 percent of the country’s registered dietitians are white, and unpaid internships and high tuition costs create barriers to entry that have made the field an increasingly elite profession. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Q&A: Yolanda Soto says Covid-19 helped boost the market for imperfect produce
The Covid-19 pandemic upended the food supply chain in 2020, but massive quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables from Mexico kept flowing into the border town of Nogales, Arizona. Not all of it made it to American tables, however, or even out of Nogales. Instead, as is the case every year, millions of pounds of misshapen or otherwise imperfect produce was diverted to the landfill. Despite the pandemic, Borderlands Food Rescue managed to keep up its longtime work of salvaging those less-than-perfect tomatoes, cucumbers, mangoes, and watermelons for people in need.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
House ag committee details spending for massive budget bill
Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee released details of their spending plan on Thursday, including $23 billion to combat wildfires and millions more to battle climate change. The committee is set to mark up the legislation on Friday, part of the budget reconciliation, or Build Back Better bill, expected to total $3.5 trillion.
ERS report: Despite pandemic, U.S. food insecurity remained flat in 2020
One in 10 U.S. households were food insecure in 2020, the same level as a year earlier, the USDA's Economic Research Service reported Wednesday. The flat rate of food insecurity provided evidence that government and charitable programs during the Covid-19 pandemic tempered a rise in hunger despite the deep recession.
IUCN Congress dispatch: A paradigm shift for the food system
In the face of climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing global food insecurity, conservationists, farmers, and policymakers called for a “paradigm shift” in global food production at the IUCN World Conservation Congress on Tuesday. To get there, they urged the expansion of agroecology as a way to build a food system that can help protect and restore the environment while feeding the world.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Vilsack sets $700-million program to help farm and meatpacking workers
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new $700 million grant program to provide direct financial relief to U.S. farm and meatpacking workers hit hard by Covid-19. But it was unclear whether undocumented immigrants, who make up roughly half of all farmworkers and nearly a quarter of meatpacking workers, would be eligible.
IUCN Congress: Crop wild relatives in peril; food giants’ regenerative-ag push
The wild relatives of some of the world’s most important crops are at risk of extinction, threatening efforts to breed plants with greater resilience to climate change and improve yields, according to a new paper presented Tuesday at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
A bio-economy in the Amazon to prevent deforestation
In the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, a nascent but significant movement is underway to protect the rainforest by connecting small-scale producers tapping rubber trees with multinational brands, report Brian Barth and Flávia Milhorance in FERN's latest story, produced with The New Republic.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>