More food-stamp shoppers at farmers markets
Food stamp recipients spent $18.8 million of their benefits at farmers markets, roadside stands and in direct purchases from growers, six times larger than redemptions in 2008, said the USDA.
States, tribes will test ways to reduce rural child hunger
Five pilot projects will test ways to reduce child hunger in rural America, with approaches that range from home delivery of food to providing three school meals a day, says the Agriculture Department. The USDA awarded $27 million in grants for the demonstration projects in Virginia, Kentucky and Nevada, and the Chickasaw and Navajo nations, from money provided in the 2010 child-nutrition law.
Cost of raising a child – $37 a day for 18 years
A middle-income family will spend an average $37 a day to raise a child from birth to age 18, according to government figures on food, housing, health care, child care, education and other expenses.
Canada says U.S. senators are wrong about voluntary meat labeling
Canada's agriculture minister, Gerry Ritz, said two U.S. senators are wrong to say their proposal for a voluntary country-of-origin label (COOL) for beef, pork and chicken is similar to the "Product of Canada" label available in his country.
Senate bill would label GE salmon, block beef imports
Retailers would have to identify transgenic salmon as genetically engineered and imports of raw beef from Brazil and Argentina would be barred under the USDA/FDA funding bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Voluntary COOL bill “a risky strategy” – Canada cattle official
A Senate proposal to switch to a voluntary U.S. country-of-origin labeling (COOL) system for beef, pork and chicken is "a risky strategy" that would not satisfy free-trade rules, says a top official of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association.
Two COOL vehicles could collide in the highway bill
Congress is clearly on its way to repealing the law that requires packages of beef, pork and chicken sold in supermarkets to carry labels that say where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered. But there are rival plans on how to do it.
New lender dedicated to Native American producers
The Native American Agriculture Fund, a trust created by the settlement of the Keepseagle class action lawsuit against the USDA, said on Wednesday it would invest $12 million to set up a lender dedicated to working with Native American producers.
Financial stress rising in farm sector
The margin for error is shrinking in the farm sector as financial stress, measured by rising debt loads and the erosion of working capital, is rising, said Todd Van Hoose, chief executive of the Farm Credit Council on Wednesday.
What farm credit mergers mean to family farmers
The latest in a series of mergers that are remaking the business of farm credit in America will, in early July, bring together three lenders in the upper Midwest, AgStar Financial Services, Badgerland Financial, and 1st Farm Credit Services. The new Wisconsin-based institution, to be called Compeer Financial, will hold over $18 billion in assets and will be the country’s third-largest farm credit association.
Bankers criticize ag lending rival Farm Credit System
USDA agencies to collaborate on preservation of wildlife corridors
From the Forest Service to the Farm Service Agency, USDA agencies will work in concert to preserve wildlife corridors on public and privately owned land, said three senior officials on Monday. The collaboration would extend to state and tribal governments.
As bird flu losses mount, USDA advises ‘plan for elevated risk’
For the first time, researchers have tracked the movements of a wild duck infected with bird flu, information that could help them come up with disease mitigation strategies against the viral disease, said the U.S. Geological Survey on Wednesday. More than 47.7 million birds in U.S. domestic flocks have died in outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza since February.
Report: Biodiversity loss, climate change driving an ‘escalating nature crisis’
Wildlife populations plummeted 69 percent worldwide between 1970 and 2018, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Wildlife Fund. Food systems were a key driver of this biodiversity loss, responsible for 70 percent of the population decline of land animals and half of the decline in freshwater species. Conservation alone will not be enough to halt these declines, wrote the authors, who said that scaling up sustainable food production is crucial. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Neonicotinoid insecticides have broad reach, says EPA
Three widely used neonicotinoids are likely to adversely affect, in at least some way, most of the threatened and endangered species in the country, said the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday.
‘Lord God Bird’ among 23 species declared extinct
The ivory-billed woodpecker, America's largest woodpecker, with a 31-inch wingspan, is extinct, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ending years of lingering hopes that the "Lord God Bird" had survived deep in southern bottomland forests. The ivory-bill was one of 23 species declared extinct on Wednesday, 11 of them birds.
Farm-labor reform bill heads for House vote this week
Six weeks after sponsors unveiled their plan, the House is scheduled to vote on a bipartisan bill to provide legal status to undocumented farmworkers and to modernize the H-2A guestworker program. If passed, the bill has an uncertain future, with impeachment dominating the congressional agenda and the Republican-run Senate blockading legislation from the Democratic-controlled House.
ICE officers target upstate New York farmworker
Officers from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement targeted a farmworker in Rome, New York, in an early morning confrontation Wednesday. The officers detained the worker while his employer attempted to film the incident.
Rural Americans want a public lands transfer because they can’t get a public-lands job
The reason Americans rarely take timber jobs in public forests isn’t because they don’t like to work hard. It’s because a combination of immigration laws, tight federal budgets and divisive politics have turned forestry jobs into little more than low-paid servitude, writes Hal Herring in FERN’s story [LINK] with High Country News.
Canada’s guest farmworker program accused of human rights abuses
With Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking to Twitter to welcome immigrants to his country, Canada has gained a reputation for being friendly to new arrivals. But now the nation’s guest farmworker program has come under scrutiny for human rights abuses and treatment that is anything but hospitable.
California state fair holds farmworker exhibit for the first time
For the first time in it’s 164-year history, the California state fair will includes a farmworker exhibit, celebrating the people who have keep the state’s $47-billion industry running. “The exhibit features the stories of pioneers who founded the United Farm Workers of America: Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Filipino union leader Larry Itliong,” along with information on modern-day labor laws like the one signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year, guaranteeing overtime pay after an eight-hour workday for farmworkers, says Lake County News.
Farm-state Republicans consider raiding climate-change cookie jar
Agriculture’s meeting season will be mostly digital this winter
Farm groups, from local cooperatives to large national organizations, traditionally hold their annual meetings during the winter, when field work is at a minimum and a meeting in town mixes business with a social get-together. Many of the national meetings will be held online this time due to the pandemic.
Will a Blue Wave hit farm country? These races will tell the tale.
From the dairy farms of Pennsylvania and New York to the commodity growers in the Midwest and the produce fields of California’s Central Valley, the farm-country vote is very much in play as the midterms approach. In two new stories, FERN takes a closer look at a handful of contests that will determine whether Democratic challengers can flip the farmers who helped elect Donald Trump. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Cheeseheads fight to keep Wisconsin’s ‘dairyland’ reputation
Some in Wisconsin’s business community are calling for a change to the state slogan, “America’s Dairyland.” But when a news channel caught Kurt Bauer, head of the advocacy group Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, arguing for a more “contemporary” phrase at a statewide meeting for business leaders, the public outcry was quick and loud. So much so that Bauer refused to be interviewed for a story on NPR.
“Looking for the next Cantor”
That's the line used by Kyle Kondik of Sabato's Crystal Ball, referring to the rare defeat of congressional incumbents in a primary election, with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor being this year's headline example. Kondik says an average of six House incumbents and one senator lose a primary each election cycle. In surveying the states yet to hold primaries, Kondik tabbed two farm-state incumbents worth watching: Rep Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee Republican, and Sen Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican.
Cantor defeat chills immigration drive at least through fall
The defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Republican primary in Virginia "could have major implications for an immigration overhaul," says the New York Times.
House agenda: Yes to CFTC and USDA bills, no to immigration
The House could begin debate this week on the Agriculture Department funding bill for the fiscal year that opens on Oct 1, says Majority Leader Eric Cantor's office.
Turning up immigration heat on Cantor
Supporters and opponents of immigration reform cranked up the pressure on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, says Roll Call, "with less than two weeks to go before a closely watched primary race and the clock steadily ticking down on the 113th Congress."
Disaster package asks $24 billion for agriculture
One fourth of the $99 billion in disaster aid requested by President Biden would be funneled through the USDA, with the bulk of the $24 billion devoted to offsetting lost crop production and reduced quality of crops. Agriculture deputy secretary Xochitl Torres Small was to testify in support of the request before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
Senate proposes higher funding than House for WIC and food aid
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a USDA-FDA funding bill on Thursday that would spend $1.6 billion more on WIC and international food aid than the version approved by House appropriators one day earlier. The greatest difference, $1.1 billion, was in funding for Food for Peace, the leading U.S. food aid program.
White House threatens to veto USDA-FDA funding bill
House Republicans are "wasting time with partisan bills," said the White House in a three-page list of objections to the $198 billion USDA-FDA funding bill on Monday, including cuts to clean energy programs and a ban on over-the-counter sales of the abortion drug mifepristone. The GOP-controlled House may vote on the bill later this week.
Senate committee to vote on $7 billion in disaster aid for farmers
New Mississippi senator to join two panels overseeing agriculture
The newest member of the Senate, Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, will serve on two committees that her predecessor, Thad Cochran, chaired during his 40 years in the Senate.
The Army Corps’ $50 million Mississippi River restoration project
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing a new Mississippi River restoration project, starting with a 39-mile stretch near Memphis, Tennessee, that could help save threatened and endangered aquatic animals. The agency still needs to secure $50 million in funding.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
As historic drought worsens, Californians increase water use
So far, 2022 is California’s driest year on record — but that hasn’t stopped residents from watering their lawns. According to the state’s Department of Water Resources, Californians used almost 19 percent more water last March than they did in March two years ago, despite the state’s deepening drought and increasingly strapped reservoirs. Residents also used more water last March than they have in any March since 2015. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Despite heavy rain and snow, California braces for another dry year
An onslaught of rain and snow has pulled most of California out of exceptional drought, but experts warn that the state’s dry spell is far from over. Officials issued emergency water regulations this week — including a controversial exemption for agriculture — even as the northern part of the state braced for possible flooding from winter storms.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
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.”
Meat industry racks up low scores on water management
A report from the nonprofit Ceres said that "food companies need to do more" to manage risks to the water they use to grow and process their products. The 38 major food companies in the Ceres analysis had an average score of 49 out of 100 possible points, while the average score in the meat sector was just 18 points.
More states are incentivizing schools to buy local food
A growing number of states are reimbursing schools for buying locally grown and produced foods in an effort to improve children's diets while supporting local farmers. Before the pandemic, eight states and the District of Columbia had programs that subsidize local food purchases at schools — seven more states have added these programs since 2020.
Farm bill coming in a ‘timely manner,’ says House chairman
House Agriculture chairman Glenn Thompson acknowledged on Monday that time is tight for enactment of the new farm bill by Sept. 30, when current law expires. But he stuck to his frequent forecast of a bipartisan and bicameral bill "on time," which might mean a floor vote in the House.
Maine pulls plug on controversial salmon farm project
The Maine Department of Marine Resources on Thursday killed a proposal by a Norwegian-backed company to build two massive salmon farms in the middle of pristine Frenchman Bay, next to Acadia National Park. The decision ended a long-running saga that had generated considerable opposition in the community over fears that the farms would foul the water and ruin the local fishing and shellfish industries.
First-in-the-nation ‘right to food’ wins in Maine
Voters in Maine approved a constitutional amendment establishing a right to food in a landslide on Tuesday, despite disagreement over what it would mean, according to unofficial results. The amendment, the first such constitutional guarantee in the nation, was ahead by a 3-to-2 margin with votes counted in 507 of 571 precincts statewide.
Danone to terminate organic milk contracts in Northeast
Global food company Danone has given a year's notice to 79 organic dairy farms in the Northeast that it will stop buying their milk on Aug. 31, 2022. The decision is just the latest squeeze on organic dairy producers, who face rising costs and pressures to consolidate.