Can $3 billion convince Black farmers to trust the USDA?
In FERN's latest piece, produced in partnership with NPR's Climate Desk, Amy Mayer scrutinizes the likelihood that USDA's climate-smart partnerships will meet its ambitious equity goals.
In Minnesota, Biden says rural revival is his plan
President Biden said he is responding to decades of decline in farm numbers and "hollowed out" rural communities with projects to diversify farm income and to encourage local food production and marketing. "It's about making things in rural America again," said Biden on a farm in southern Minnesota on Wednesday.
COP27: Funding doubles climate and ag project, U.S. says
In one year, membership in the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate nearly quadrupled, while funding for the project doubled to $8 billion, said the Biden administration. AIM for climate, launched at COP26, intends to increase agricultural production and incomes worldwide, while adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Midterms are likely to scorch Biden climate agenda for agriculture
Republican lawmakers, who have chafed and balked at President Biden's climate initiatives for months, would use their expanded strength from the midterm elections to hobble the administration's climate agenda for agriculture. Two members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture already have hinted at a crackdown on USDA's spending powers. (No paywall)
White House to hold conference on ending hunger in America
With more than 38 million Americans food insecure, President Biden announced on Wednesday the White House will hold a conference on hunger and nutrition in September. It will be the first hunger conference since 1969 and would launch a national plan on ending hunger in the United States, said the White House.
More competition will reduce meat prices in fight against inflation, says Biden
Acknowledging "we need to get inflation under control" as part of the economic recovery from the pandemic, President Biden said on Wednesday that the administration will inject competition into the highly consolidated meat industry to bring down prices at the grocery store. Meat prices soared by 14.8 percent during 2021, part of overall food inflation of 6.3 percent.
‘Let’s get it done,’ Biden asks Congress on immigration
President Biden called on Congress to update the immigration system to provide a pathway to citizenship for "Dreamers, those on temporary status, (undocumented) farmworkers and essential workers" on Tuesday. Immigration reform has been on the Capitol Hill back burner for months.
‘Build back better’ bill would pay farmers to plant cover crops
House Democrats, acting in concert with President Biden, proposed a $1.75 trillion social welfare and climate change bill on Thursday that would combat global warming by paying farmers up to $25 an acre to grow cover crops on their land during fallow seasons. The bill also would help low-income families buy food for their children during the summer and make nearly 9 million students in high-poverty areas eligible for free school meals.
Biden names first woman to lead FCC
The Federal Communications Commission is chaired by a woman, Jessica Rosenworcel, for the first time in its 87-year history, said the White House on Tuesday. President Biden appointed Rosenworcel as FCC chair at the same time he nominated her for another five-year term on the regulatory agency.
Do conservation subsidies really battle climate change?
The Conservation Reserve Program, which will pay farmers more than $1.8 billion this year to take land out of crop cultivation, has become a linchpin of the Biden administration's climate mitigation program for agriculture. But critics question just how effective the program is in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions generated by agriculture, says FERN's latest story, produced in collaboration with The American Prospect. (No paywall)
House chairman proposes $50 billion for rural broadband
The government would spend $50 billion to assure broadband access throughout rural America under a bill sponsored by House Agriculture chairman David Scott, seven times the amount proposed by Republicans on the panel. Scott scheduled a committee vote on his bill for Wednesday. “This bill …
USDA is given large role in Biden plan to restore competition
Siding with farm activists, President Biden said "Big Ag is is putting a squeeze on farmers" and signed an executive order telling the USDA to rejuvenate the livestock, seed, fertilizer and retail food markets. The executive order on competition, reaching from the FDA to the Pentagon, called on the FTC to enact right-to-repair rules so farmers can fix their own tractors rather than take them to the dealership when software malfunctions.
After months of waiting, labor advocates disappointed new OSHA rule excludes food system workers
After months of delay, the Biden administration on Thursday released a rule dictating how employers in the healthcare sector should protect workers from the spread of Covid-19. The exclusion of meatpacking, food processing, farm, and grocery retail workers from the new workplace standards sparked an outcry from worker advocacy groups and unions.(No paywall)
Biden proposes 16 percent increase in child nutrition outlays
The Biden administration’s proposals to expand a summer food program for school-age children and to encourage schools in high-poverty areas to provide meals for free to all students would add an average $4 billion a year to the cost of USDA’s child nutrition programs. Headlined by …
Land stewardship would get a modest increase from Biden
President Biden’s months-delayed budget calls for small increases in land stewardship spending, around $300 million a year in the near term, by USDA to mitigate climate change. The administration also proposed a $65 million increase in funding for USDA’s ReConnect program to deploy broadband …
Stronger protections needed for farmworkers as pandemic stretches into second year, argue researchers
Farmworkers face serious occupational risks that the pandemic has only exacerbated, and better policies are needed to protect them from exposure to heat, chemicals, and Covid-19, say two new related reports on social and health conditions in the sector.
A plan to make Denmark’s food system carbon neutral by 2050
Two years ago, Denmark’s farming sector announced a bold goal: Its food industry would become carbon neutral by 2050 and serve as a model for the rest of the world. This week, a new report commissioned by a Danish agriculture industry trade group lays out a strategy for how the country can reduce emissions while producing significantly more food. No paywall
Farmers worried by possible new capital gains, estate tax liability
Very few farm families pay estate taxes but almost all large-scale farmers are worried that changes in the tax code will increase their exposure to capital gains or estate taxes, said a Purdue University survey released on Tuesday. The poll was conducted before the White House said nearly …