Trump says it’s hard to bring down prices
President-elect Donald Trump, who recently told an interviewer, “I won on groceries,” said in a Time magazine transcript released on Thursday, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up.” Meanwhile, a Purdue University poll found that consumers have lowered their expectations for food inflation.
Trump picks Kennedy, vaccine skeptic, for health secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will head the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration, said President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to public health,” said Trump in announcing the nomination.
Republicans elect farm-state Sen. Thune for majority leader
Republican John Thune of South Dakota prevailed over two rivals in closed-door voting on Wednesday and will become Senate majority leader in January. A supporter of biofuels, Thune, No. 2 in GOP leadership since 2019, will be the first majority leader from a farm state since Democrat Tom Daschle, also from South Dakota, in 2002.
Rural landslide is part of ‘historic realignment’ in Trump victory
President Trump rolled up 63 percent of the vote in rural America, a larger margin than in 2016, on the way to winning a second term in the White House on Tuesday. Farm groups offered to work with him on Wednesday to pass the new farm bill, now 14 months overdue, and to bring high costs under control.
Food inflation’s ‘remarkably small’ bite and consumer perception
Americans are spending a greater share of their income on food than they did before the pandemic, but the increase is less dramatic than some commentators are making it appear in an election year, said two think tank analysts on Wednesday. Food is the second-largest consumer expense, accounting for about 13.4 cents of the consumer dollar.
House Republicans press leaders for a farm bill vote
Six of every 10 House Republicans signed a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson asking for a floor vote on the new farm bill during the lame-duck session of Congress, arguing that the legislation is a “must-pass item.” The letter was released on Thursday, a day after House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries listed the farm bill as one of his three top priorities for action after the Nov. 5 general election.
Food prices are not going to decrease, says analyst
Despite the attention the cost of food is getting in the presidential campaign, “food prices are not going to decrease,” said Aaron Smith, a University of California professor of agricultural and resource economics, in a blog on Thursday. “In a healthy economy, the prices of individual products go up and down, but the general price level only goes up.”
Trump reminds farmers of trade war aid; Harris would fix ag labor shortages
Former president Donald Trump said in a questionnaire released on Thursday that he would use “every tool at my disposal,” including tariffs, to expand U.S. food and ag exports if he is re-elected. Vice President Kamala Harris would not tolerate unfair trade practices from China or other competitors, said senior aides to the Democratic nominee.
Poll: ‘Walz is more country than Vance’
Americans generally find Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be more “authentic” than Ohio Sen. JD Vance, according to an Axios Vibes poll about the Democratic and Republican nominees for vice president released on Wednesday. And by 41 percent to 35 percent, they say Walz, the Democrat, understands the issues affecting rural and small-town America better than Vance, the Republican.
Vance misidentifies Granholm as agriculture secretary
At a campaign stop in Michigan, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said on Wednesday, “We’re going to fire the agriculture secretary, right? She’s not doing a very good job.” Vance seemed to confuse the energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2010, with Tom Vilsack, who is serving his third term as agriculture secretary.
Farm-state governor Walz is Harris’s choice for vice president
Second-term Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former schoolteacher who signed a law in 2023 providing school meals free of charge to all students, is a biofuels advocate who also supports a shift to carbon-free electricity in the state. Walz, 60, represented a rural Minnesota district in the U.S. House for six terms before running for governor in 2018.
‘Most vulnerable’ list includes five House Ag panelists
The race for control of the House in 2024 begins as a toss-up, with five members of the House Agriculture Committee—three Republicans and two Democrats— on the bubble, said Sabato's Crystal Ball.