Get FERN’s Ag Insider Daily
Bird flu spreads among Colorado farmworkers, with nine infected in two weeks
Nine farmworkers at two egg farms in Colorado have contracted mild cases of bird flu since mid-July while killing and disposing of millions of infected chickens, said public health officials on Thursday. “These preliminary results again underscore the risk of exposure to infected animals,” said the Centers for Disease Control, which added that the risk to the general population remains low.
Already low, food inflation to slow in 2025, says USDA
Grocery prices will rise by a scant 0.7 percent in 2025, the smallest increase in seven years, said USDA analysts on Thursday in their first forecast of food inflation in the new year. Grocery price inflation was forecast at a below-normal 1 percent this year.
Today’s quick hits, July 26, 2024
Recess delays farm bill: With the House in recess until early September, the chances of passing the new farm bill this year are increasingly slim, said Georgia Rep. David Scott, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, adding, “Farmers need results, and Republicans are failing to …
Post-pandemic, global hunger remains stubbornly high
One in 11 people worldwide — some 733 million overall — faces hunger, as global hunger rates have plateaued since the pandemic, said an annual report by five UN agencies on Wednesday. The lack of progress added urgency to warnings that the world would fail to meet the goal of zero hunger by 2030.
Colorado orders weekly bulk-milk tests for H5N1 virus
Colorado is the first state in the nation to require dairy farmers to submit a weekly sample of milk to be tested for the H5N1 avian flu virus — “the best next step” to protect its poultry and dairy industries from bird flu, said Maggie Baldwin, the state veterinarian.
Today’s quick hits, July 25, 2024
Deere cuts workforce: The world’s largest agricultural equipment maker said it is laying off workers at its factories and reducing its global salaried workforce because of declining sales and rising costs, though it did not say how many employees were affected. (WVIK-FM) PFAS in pesticides: …
House Ag chairman blasts ‘one-sided’ farm bill coalition and ‘meddling Senate Democrat’
The farm bill coalition — the rural and urban alliance credited with carrying farm bills to enactment — "is a one-sided talking point," said House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson on Tuesday in insisting on a $53 billion increase in farm subsidies and cuts in SNAP. Time is running out for passage of the new farm bill this year, and farm groups, silent for weeks, are now calling for prompt congressional action.
Massachusetts animal welfare law is legal, says federal judge
Rejecting arguments by a Missouri pork processor, U.S. District Judge William Young upheld the legality of a voter-approved Massachusetts state law that requires farmers to give breeding sows room to move around and bars the sale of pork cuts produced outside the state on farms that do not meet the Massachusetts standard. Triumph Foods filed the lawsuit a year ago, soon after the Supreme Court ruled that a similar California law was constitutional, and said it offered a new avenue to challenge the constitutionality of such laws.
Today’s quick hits, July 24, 2024
Kamala Harris, ‘climate champion’: The presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, has a strong track record on climate and clean energy policies, including passage of the 2022 climate, healthcare, and tax law, said environmentalists; one called her “a climate champion.” (Los …
Poultry worker at second Colorado farm has bird flu
A farmworker on an egg farm in northeastern Colorado is the ninth person in the state, and the 12th in the nation, to be diagnosed with the H5N1 avian flu virus, said state public health officials. The new case was confirmed in Weld County, where six laborers were infected at a different farm in the past week.
EPA allots climate pollution grants for natural lands and agriculture
Illinois will encourage the adoption of no-till farming while Minnesota aims to restore 10,000 acres of degraded peatlands with their share of $931 million awarded to agricultural and natural lands projects by the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday. The money is part of $4.3 billion in Climate Pollution Reduction grants for 25 projects in 30 states.
Today’s quick hits, July 23, 2024
Veto threat for USDA funds: The White House listed more than a dozen objections to the fiscal year 2025 USDA-FDA funding bill, from inadequate WIC funding to limits on livestock-marketing reforms and FDA regulation of tobacco, and threatened to veto the bill. (White House) ‘Extension …
Agricultural guestworker debate lurks amid GOP plans for mass deportations
U.S. agriculture has turned increasingly to short-term guestworkers to relieve a labor shortage in recent years. Farm groups and farm-state lawmakers want to expand the program. The Republican platform does not mention agricultural workers while pledging strong immigration laws. Project 2025, which describes itself as a blueprint for a new Trump administration, says the H-2A agricultural visa should be phased out over the next 10 to 20 years.
Seventh poultry worker in Colorado with bird flu
An additional worker became infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus while culling sick hens at a Colorado egg farm, said state public health officials, raising the U.S. total of infected workers to 11, all with mild symptoms. Eight of the cases, seven involving poultry and one involving dairy, have occurred in Colorado.
Today’s quick hits, July 22, 2024
Pipeline moratorium: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation creating new regulations on carbon capture and sequestration, including a two-year moratorium on construction of carbon dioxide pipelines in the state. (Springfield State Journal-Register) Biden and climate-smart agriculture: …
Analyst: Farm bill prospects nearly nonexistent this year
Except for the “lame duck long shot” of a post-election compromise, the slim chances that Congress will pass a new farm bill this year “have become nonexistent,” said farm policy expert Jonathan Coppess on Thursday. The primary reason is the “long-unspecified demand” by Republicans for higher crop subsidy spending without providing details, wrote Coppess, a USDA official during the Obama era, at the farmdoc daily blog.
Per capita meat consumption, now a record, to dip in 2025
The U.S. appetite for meat continues to grow. Ten years ago, Americans consumed an average of 200 pounds of meat per person annually. This year, it will be a record 227.6 pounds, thanks to larger pork and poultry supplies, before ebbing next year.
Today’s quick hits, July 19, 2024
Fairness for farmers: Ursula von der Leyen, just re-elected president of the European Commission, said she would work for a fair income for European farmers, saying they “should not be forced” to sell their products at a loss. (Euractiv) Ag grows in Puerto Rico: The value of agricultural …