USDA nominee Perdue is accused of ethical lapses as governor
For weeks, the political sun beamed on former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, nominated for agriculture secretary, with the only complaint being the slow pace toward a confirmation hearing. Now, the Environmental Working Group faults Perdue for ethical lapses "that raise troubling questions about his fitness to run the department."
Pruitt expected to take a ‘scalpel’ to EPA
As head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt is working up plans to rewrite climate change rules, reduce staffing and close regional offices. But it’s likely he will use a “scalpel rather than a meat cleaver” to cut the agency’s authority, says The New York Times.
EPA scientists will face Trump scrutiny says transition team leader
Doug Ericksen, head of communications for President Trump's EPA transition team, says that during the transition period, agency scientists will have their work vetted on a “case by case” basis before it can be published and dispersed outside the agency.
Inauguration nears without nominee for agriculture secretary
Like other farm leaders, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says he's at a loss to explain why President-elect Donald Trump has waited so long to name his nominee for agriculture secretary. Trump "has met with numerous people," Grassley told reporters, so "you can't say he has ignored" the position although the long wait has inspired grumbling, and now rumors, in farm country.
Is Ivanka Trump a foodie?
A source close to Ivanka Trump has told the press that the first daughter is interested in childhood nutrition, reports Politico. Some are hoping that Ivanka will influence her father, who took pains during his presidential campaign to show that he’s a burger and pizza guy.
Congress sends grain standards bill to Trump
The House gave final congressional approval to the Grain Standards Reauthorization Act on a voice vote on Wednesday and sent the bill to the White House for President Trump's signature.
Obama signs extension of grain inspections, price reports
President Obama signed into law five-year extensions of the export-grain inspection program and a program that requires meatpackers to report the purchase price of cattle, hogs and sheep.
White House next stop for ag reauthorization bill
In less than four minutes, the House debated and passed bills to reauthorize for five years the export grain inspection program and require meatpackers to report the purchase price of cattle, hogs and sheep. Statutory authority for both expires on Wednesday. The Senate approved the reauthorizations last week in a single bill, so now that bill goes to the White House.
Report: An ‘interventionist’ approach is needed to decarbonize agriculture
Congress should double agricultural research funding, now running at $4 billion a year, and direct the Agriculture Department to take a "more interventionist" role in decarbonizing agriculture, said a California think tank on Monday. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Carbon pipelines’ fate still uncertain in Iowa
An Iowa House bill that would restrict the use of eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines in the state is effectively dead until the next session, in 2024, after the Senate late last month failed to advance it ahead of a legislative deadline. That leaves the issue for now with the Iowa Utilities Board, which can rule on eminent domain requests.
Poll: Ethanol is more popular than crude oil
More than half of Americans have a favorable view of ethanol as a fuel source, compared to 45 percent for crude oil, according to a poll commissioned by the Renewable Fuels Association. The trade group said the results "demonstrate that Americans strongly support expanded use of lower-cost, lower-carbon renewable fuels like ethanol."
Study: Southeast’s peat bogs have carbon storage superpowers
Rewetting drained coastal evergreen shrub bogs in the Southeast that were once used for farming could make a small but significant contribution to reducing U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, according to a recent study. The bogs, known as pocosins, can absorb and hold extraordinary amounts of CO2 because they contain antimicrobial compounds called phenolics that prevent the waterlogged peat from decaying rapidly, even during times of drought.
Farmers need ‘significant’ federal help to survive drop in income, say senators
“One in five farmers could be pushed out of business by the sharp drop in farm income this year,” said Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith at a Senate hearing on disaster aid, and Arkansas Sen. John Boozman asked how rural America could survive the combination of high production costs and lower commodity prices without “significant help” from the government.
Farm financial aid draws increased interest in lame-duck session
With little sign of a breakthrough on the farm bill in Congress, farm groups are shifting their attention to a proposed $21 billion bailout bill. Help is needed because high costs and lower commodity prices are sharply eroding farm income, they say.
Thanks to livestock revenue, farm income will be stronger than expected
U.S. net farm income will be a much better than expected $140 billion this year, the fourth-highest total on record, forecast the Agriculture Department on Thursday. Production expenses are down for the first time since 2018, while farmers are pocketing increased revenue from eggs, cattle, milk, and broiler chickens.
Lower corn production costs in U.S. than in Brazil
Although the cost of production rose in both countries in 2023, U.S. corn growers have an advantage over their Brazilian rivals with lower per-bushel costs, said four agricultural economists at the farmdoc daily blog. The United States grows three times as much corn as Brazil, but Brazil is forecast to be the world’s top corn exporter for the second year in a row.
Higher costs for farmers when interest rates rise
If the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, "it will mean higher costs for many producers" at a point when farm income is falling and growers are making increased use of credit, says Brent Gloy at Agricultural Economic Insights.
Deadly swine disease confirmed in Haiti
Disease experts confirmed a case of African swine fever in Haiti, the second known case in the Western hemisphere in two months and a potential risk to U.S. hog farmers. African swine fever is harmless to humans but has a high mortality rate among hogs; it wiped out nearly half of China's hogs in 2018 and 2019.
North Carolina advocate who successfully fought hog industry dies
Elsie Herring, who died this week, was the public face of the many rural North Carolinians who felt besieged by the proliferation of industrial hog farms. In a region where complaining about these operations was considered both risky and futile, she confronted the industry over its pollution for more than two decades and never let herself appear intimidated. <strong>No paywall</strong>
The battle to eradicate feral hogs
The most popular way to eradicate wild hogs is to shoot them, whether on gaming ranches, in the wild or from the door of a helicopter. But hunting has done little to stem the estimated 6-9 million hogs running wild across at least 42 states and three territories, as Stephen R. Miller writes in FERN's latest story, produced in collaboration with National Geographic.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Smithfield settles suits over North Carolina farms, after losing appeal
Smithfield Foods announced Thursday that it had reached a settlement with plaintiffs who had sued the company over the stench, flies, buzzards, and truck traffic coming from its industrial swine farms in North Carolina. The announcement came immediately after the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, rejected a call from the world’s largest pork producer for a retrial in a lower court case it had lost. <strong> (No paywall) </strong>
Mexico is on China’s heels as top U.S. food and ag export market
China was less than $500 million ahead of Mexico as the leading customer for U.S. food and ag exports as the fiscal year entered its final months, according to USDA data released Wednesday. The agricultural trade deficit, forecast to set a record this year, was already at $18.8 billion, with three months to go.
China falls to third place as U.S. ag export market, USDA says
U.S. food and ag exports to China will fall by $6 billion this fiscal year in the biggest slump in sales since the Sino-U.S. trade war, forecast the Agriculture Department on Wednesday. Mexico and Canada will surpass China as the top customers, while the agricultural trade deficit will widen to $32 billion.
Senators tell administration to ‘play offense’ on trade
The Biden administration is sitting on its hands when it ought to be knocking down trade barriers and negotiating new trade pacts for U.S. food and ag exports, said a bipartisan chorus of senators on Wednesday. Since President Biden took office in 2021, the administration has not initiated formal talks for a new free trade agreement anywhere, said members of the Senate Finance Committee during a hearing on the U.S. trade agenda.
Record ag trade deficit on course to be halved in five years
The U.S. agricultural trade deficit, forecast at a record $30.5 billion this fiscal year, will narrow in the near term as exchange rates improve and trading partners gain economic strength, said the Agriculture Department in its 10-year agricultural baseline.
Ag exports to dip 5 percent, trade deficit nearly doubles
U.S. farm exports will be the smallest in four years due to lower prices for wheat, corn, and cotton, said the Agriculture Department on Thursday. China would remain the No. 1 customer for food and ag products, with Mexico a close second.
Disease is factor in higher death rate in rural America
While the U.S. mortality rate is lower than in the 1960s, the urban rate has declined more rapidly than the rural rate, especially in the past generation. Three USDA analysts said a notable factor was a higher death rate from disease among working-age people in rural America.
Health insurance a major worry for nearly half of all farmers
Almost half of farmers (45 percent) said they worried they would have to sell off land or other farm assets in order to pay for healthcare-related costs, according to a survey of 1,062 farmers across the country by the University of Vermont.
Obamacare gives farmers options for health insurance
The Affordable Care Act gives farmers more options for health insurance than they had in the past, says Harvest Public Media. Farmers and ranchers traditionally are among the least likely to have insurance...
Roberts says “not productive…to open up the farm bill”
Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, who expects to chair the Agriculture Committee beginning in January, told National Journal, "It is not productive at all to open up the farm bill."
Corn losses in rainy spring will be “similar to a severe drought” in scope
Congress sets the rules but farm subsidies are ‘a great investment,’ says Perdue
As farm bill conference begins, Grassley says he may vote ‘no’ in the end
Senate and House negotiators will make little progress during a pro forma public meeting today despite expressions of determination to agree on, and enact, a compromise farm bill before the 2014 farm policy law expires at the end of this month. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, the dogged advocate of stricter farm subsidy rules, said on Tuesday that he might vote against the farm bill if his payment limit provision is cut.
Wheeler ‘working very hard’ on year-round E15, says Grassley
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is “working very hard to find a solution” for the year-round sale of E15, said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley on a conference call with reporters Wednesday. Grassley also said that an earlier proposal that would allow refiners to earn the credits called RINs for exports is “no longer on the table” at the EPA.
EPA: Breaking Trump’s promise or playing by the rules?
President Trump "promised to support home-grown biofuels and Administrator (Scott) Pruitt is breaking that promise," said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley on Monday following reports the EPA issued a "hardship" waiver exempting an oil refinery owned by billionaire Carl Icahn from complying with the ethanol mandate. The biofuels group Growth Energy said the waiver was "just one more example" of EPA "giving refineries everything they want."
EPA restores pesticide exclusion zones
A new regulation will restore so-called application exclusion zones intended to protect farmworkers and other people from exposure to pesticides as they are being applied, said the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday. The exclusion zones were created as part of a 2015 agricultural worker protection standard and were reduced in size in 2020 during the Trump era.
EPA moves to limit pesticides near 27 species in peril
The Biden administration said it would protect 27 endangered and threatened species, including some pollinators, through targeted limits on the use of pesticides in their habitats. The EPA proposal focused on species that have small populations and a limited range and that are highly susceptible to environmental stresses.
EPA proposal would shrink buffer zones around farm pesticides
In the name of making safety regulations easier to implement, the EPA proposed on Thursday to reduce the size of buffer zones intended to protect people from exposure to pesticides during their application on the farm. Environmental and farmworker groups said the proposal would increase the risk of pesticides being sprayed on or drifting onto workers, neighbors, and passersby.
An uneven record of tracking pesticide exposure in Midwest
Around 1 billion pounds of pesticides are applied to U.S. crops annually, said Harvest Public Media on Monday, in an investigation that found uneven tracking in the Midwest of incidents when farmworkers are exposed to the crop chemicals.
Fix ARC problems by using crop insurance data, say Farm Belt senators
Two members of the Senate Agriculture Committee filed a bill to require the USDA to use crop insurance data as its first choice in deciding whether farmers will get an Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) subsidy. Most corn, soybean and wheat growers are enrolled in the insurance-like ARC program but there are recurring complaints of wide variation in payment rates among adjoining counties.
Big baseline possible for crop subsidies in new farm bill
Farm-state lawmakers could have a "quite large" baseline for crop subsidies, "even approaching $100 billion" over a decade, when they write the 2018 farm bill, says economist Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University. In a blog, Zulaug rebuts speculation, based on the decline in pay-out for the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) subsidy, that the House and Senate Agriculture Committees could have a small amount of money available to confront an era of low commodity prices.
Ag outlook dour, wrong time to cut farm supports
In preview of issues for the 2018 farm bill, the leaders of the two largest U.S. farm groups argued against cuts in farm subsidies as the agricultural sector endures years of low commodity prices and income that is a fraction of the record set in 2013 at the end of a seven-year boom.
Payments to vary widely among counties in new ARC program
Subsidy payments under the new Agricultural Risk Coverage program will vary by as much as $90 an acre among counties in the same state for 2014 crops, said economists Carl Zulauf of Ohio State and Gary Schnitkey of U-Illinois.
Rice is likeliest crop to trigger U.S. subsidy this year
Commodity prices are down sharply this year for major crops yet wheat and soybeans may not trigger subsidies under the new farm law, says economist Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University in a blog.