USDA funds to help schools buy food
The Biden administration said it would provide an additional $943 million in USDA funds to schools so they can purchase American-grown food for their meal programs.
Biden signs school nutrition extension, averting potential ‘summer hunger crisis’
Before leaving Washington for summit meetings in Europe, President Biden signed into law a $3-billion extension of school nutrition waivers. Proponents said the extension would prevent "a summer hunger crisis" and called for Congress to expand the school food program, rather than limit access.
Lawmakers agree on slimmed-down version of school nutrition waivers
Congress would give schools an additional $3 billion to help them run meal programs this summer and during the next school year under an agreement announced by key lawmakers on Tuesday. The agreement would scale back the number of children who receive meals for free — at present, all of them do — and set reimbursement rates for meals at higher rates so schools can cope with rising food prices.
Advocates say a hungry summer looms if Congress can’t extend school meal waivers
Summer is always the hungry season for America’s children — when school is not in session, many students don’t get enough to eat. But anti-hunger groups are warning this summer could be worse than usual, since many schools have been forced to scale back or eliminate their summer meals programs because the waivers that vastly expanded access to school food during the pandemic are set to expire on June 30, unless Congress takes action.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Many farmers expect cost increases will last into 2023
A significant number of America's biggest farmers expect this year's sharp increases in the price of fertilizer, pesticides and machinery parts to continue in 2023, said Purdue University on Tuesday. Three of every four producers polled for the monthly Ag Economy Barometer said they expected farm input costs to rise by at least 20 percent this year, while more than one-third said they expected 2023 crop input prices to be at least 10 percent higher.
Farmers growing skeptical of victory in Sino-U.S. trade war
American farmers were dogged supporters of President Trump's trade war with China, accepting as "patriot farmers" the pain of retaliatory tariffs in the belief Beijing would be forced to alter its trade practices. But they are becoming skeptical of victory: Only half of them believe the trade war will be resolved to their benefit and even fewer believe China will meet its "phase one" commitments negotiated with the Trump administration.
Farmer optimism is record high in a pandemic year of extremes
Farmers doubt China will meet phase-one target for ag imports
Many water wells in Iowa tainted by farm runoff, report finds
More than 40 percent of private wells tested positive for coliform bacteria at least once over a 16-year period, according to a new study of Iowa state records by the Environmental Working Group and the Iowa Environmental Council.
Understanding the microbiome is the ‘next frontier in medicine’
Most of the trillions of bacteria and other organisms that live in and on our bodies — our microbiome — are in our intestinal tract, “where they are capable of influencing virtually every aspect of our health,” writes Rene Ebersole in FERN’s latest piece, published with Cooking Light. <strong>No paywall</strong>
More samples of salmonella in humans show resistance to multiple types of antibiotics
Federal researchers say multi-drug resistance has increased to 12 percent of salmonella bacteria found in the digestive systems of ill people, up from 9 percent in the previous year. Salmonella is a common type of food-borne illness estimated to affect 1 million Americans annually and to cause 380 deaths a year.
Scientists study microbiome of sourdough bread starters
More than 500 people from the U.S. to Thailand have sent their sourdough bread starters to be analyzed by microbiologist as part of the Sourdough Project, led by biologist Rob Dunn at North Carolina State University. “The project is trying to answer many questions,” says NPR. “How does a starter's microbial ecosystem vary with different flours? How does a new starter compare with one that's 200 years old, filled with tradition and lore? Do they change with geography, as some claim? And, of course, how can you bake a more delicious loaf?”
American farmers react as trade tensions flare
Once again, farmer groups expressed concern over the heated rhetoric coming out of the White House over trade agreements. The American Soybean Association and U.S. wheat groups were especially critical as a result of indications that the White House would withdraw from the free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea as early as Tuesday.
Trump’s war bluster has people stocking up on food, supplies
As the Trump administration spars with North Korea with threats of nuclear attacks, Americans are turning to so-called prepper businesses to stock up on food, water, and other supplies, reports The New York Times.
Crop shortfall in North Korea will worsen food security
Dry winter compounds chronic food shortages in North Korea
"Markedly lower" rainfall is raising concern about the winter wheat and barley crops in North Korea, says the Washington Post. The winter grains supply only 5 percent of North Korea's food but are a vital bridge, the so-called barley hump, during the spring...
Biden re-nominates Dean and Schlanger to key USDA posts
President Biden nominated Stacy Dean, a member of his administration since its first days, for the second time to serve at Agriculture undersecretary for nutrition, a post that has been vacant since the Obama era. The president also re-nominated Margo Schlanger, a long-time civil rights activist, for assistant secretary for civil rights at USDA.
Nominee would build ‘civil rights culture’ at USDA
Declaring "there is no place at USDA for discrimination," University of Michigan law professor Margo Schlanger told senators on Wednesday that she would build "a civil rights culture" at the USDA if confirmed as assistant secretary for civil rights. At the same confirmation hearing, Chavonda Jacobs-Young said she would be an advocate for advanced technology, such as gene editing, if confirmed as undersecretary for research.
Schlanger nominated as USDA civil rights leader
President Biden selected law professor Margo Schlanger, a longtime civil rights advocate, to serve as assistant secretary for civil rights at the USDA, said the White House on Thursday.
In Missouri, lawmakers are poised to eliminate local regulation of CAFOs
Communities in Missouri have been fighting the expansion of large-scale livestock operations in the state for years. But a controversial pair of bills moving through the state legislature would make community oversight of those farms even harder. The bills would eliminate local ordinances that regulate industrial animal farms in the state, or make it impossible to enforce those ordinances. The bills mirror trends in other states where legislators have moved to undermine local control of large-scale livestock farms.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Pruitt resigns at EPA, a deregulator brought down by scandal
President Trump announced the resignation of scandal-plagued Scott Pruitt as EPA administrator on Thursday but said that the agency’s No. 2 official, Andrew Wheeler, “will continue with our great and lasting EPA agenda.”
Wisconsin Republicans push for wetlands deregulation
In Wisconsin, legislation is moving through the statehouse that would roll back the state’s wetlands development regulations, according to The Cap Times. The bill was proposed by Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke and in its original form proposed opening up one million acres of wetlands to development.
USDA invites ideas from the public on regulatory reform
Multiple lawsuits allege price-fixing by big beef companies
Just a few months after news broke that the nation’s top attorneys are investigating Big Chicken for alleged antitrust violations, similar allegations are piling up against Big Beef. Consumers, ranchers, and a meat distributor have now filed lawsuits alleging that the country’s biggest beef companies have broken antitrust law by conspiring to raise the price of beef and lower the amount paid to producers.
Court documents show beef checkoff sends millions to cattle lobby
Newly released documents in a lawsuit between a group of independent Montana cattle ranchers and the USDA show that millions of dollars from an industry marketing fund are being diverted to the top cattle lobby, which some ranchers have long claimed misappropriates those funds for political use. The case could reshape how the beef checkoff, as the marketing program is called, is administered.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Ranchers suit claims packers conspired to deflate beef prices
Last week, several Midwestern feedlot owners along with the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that dominant meatpackers conspired to depress cattle prices starting in 2015. The case argues that JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef strategically cut back on open market cattle bids, closed plants, and imported costly foreign cattle in order to force farmers to accept lower prices and manipulate spot market cattle values.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Beef packing merger threatens last competitive cash cattle market in U.S.
Last month, the nation’s fourth-largest beef packer, National Beef, announced plans to take over Sysco-owned Iowa Premium, a regional packer focused on processing Black Angus steers for the Upper Midwest. National Beef is majority-owned by the Brazilian firm Marfrig. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
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>
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>
‘Nobody wants another Flint, Michigan,’ judge tells Smithfield in hog-case appeal hearing
The rural residents who took on the world’s largest hog producer – and won
Trump, Congress make it harder for CAFO neighbors to know what they’re inhaling
Recent actions by the GOP-controlled Congress and the Trump administration have exempted big livestock operations from reporting air emissions, according to the latest story from FERN, published with Mother Jones. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
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.
Drought imperils production of corn, a vital food, in southern Africa
Hot and dry weather has reduced corn yields throughout southern Africa, “threatening food security for millions of households depending on this key staple for a significant share of calories consumed on a daily basis,” said the IFPRI think tank. In South Africa, the region’s major corn grower, the harvest could fall by 18 percent from the previous crop, said the USDA on Thursday.
Rice prices are up as India restricts exports
The global rice market is still feeling the impact of India’s decision last August to limit its rice exports in the name of battling high domestic food prices, said two IFPRI analysts. “Rice-importing countries in sub-Saharan Africa have felt the greatest impacts, scrambling to find alternative sources even as global rice prices have risen more than 20 percent since India imposed its restrictions,” they wrote in a blog.
U.S. announces $2.9 billion in global humanitarian aid
With world hunger rates rising, President Biden announced Wednesday at the United Nations an additional $2.9 billion in U.S. humanitarian assistance, including funds to feed schoolchildren and expand food production. We’re “taking on the food crisis head-on,” said Biden in a speech that denounced Russia for invading Ukraine and called for action on global warming.
Koch Foods indicted as part of poultry price-fixing conspiracy
A federal grand jury in Denver indicted Koch Foods, the fifth-largest U.S. poultry processor, for taking part in a nationwide conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for poultry products, announced the Justice Department on Thursday.
Tyson to pay $221.5 million to settle price fixing claims
The largest U.S. poultry producer, Tyson Foods, said on Wednesday it would pay $221.5 million to settle antitrust litigation that accuses it of price fixing in the sale of broiler chicken meat.
Big poultry processor to pay $75 million to resolve antitrust lawsuit
Pilgrim’s to pay $110.5 million fine in U.S. price-fixing investigation
The second-largest poultry processor in the country, Pilgrim's Pride Corp., said on Wednesday that it will pay a $110.5 million fine as part of a plea agreement with the Justice Department, which is investigating price fixing in broiler chicken products. Pilgrim's announced the plea deal one week after a second former chief executive was indicted on charges of being part of a multiyear conspiracy among industry executives to rig bids and fix prices. <strong> (No paywall) </strong>