Covid-19
USDA’s coronavirus payments to farmers creep to $7 billion
With 18 days left for to apply for coronavirus aid, farmers and ranchers have received $7 billion of the $16 billion earmarked for assistance, an increase of $218 million from the previous week, said the USDA on Monday. <strong> (No paywall) </strong>
Pandemic pummels farm income in Midwest and Plains, say ag lenders
The government's coronavirus relief programs are an important shield for farmers and ranchers battling a sharp drop in income in the central Plains, ag lenders said in a Kansas City Fed survey released on Thursday. A similar survey of ag bankers in the Midwest by the Chicago Fed "revealed the broad financial distress from the Covid-19 pandemic in rural areas."
In pandemic year, cropland values in Farm Belt are steady to slightly lower
The coronavirus pandemic may be the defining event of 2020, driving the United States into a recession and pummeling commodity prices, but cropland values in the Farm Belt have been relatively unaffected — stable to slightly softer, said the USDA on Thursday.
Children of workers led virus-driven protests in meatpacking town
This past spring, as meatpacking plants across the nation quickly became invisible hotspots for Covid-19, a group of young adults whose parents work at the massive Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Crete, Nebraska, launched a series of protests that were unprecedented in an industry that likes to keep a low profile, as Esther Honig and Mary Anne Andrei report in FERN's latest story, a multimedia partnership with Latino USA.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Pandemic aid is too constricted and too slow, ag groups and lawmakers tell USDA
The USDA should immediately release the $1.4 billion of coronavirus payments it's holding in reserve for farmers and change the rules — particularly on eligibility, payment limits and the deadline for applications — that are keeping aid from producers, said 28 farm and agribusiness groups.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
[Updated] U.S. agricultural trade balance shrivels to historic low during pandemic
Apparently due to the pandemic, the United States was running its smallest agricultural trade balance at the nine-month mark in a fiscal year, $1.7 billion, since the turn of the century, according to USDA data. The sector ordinarily is a bright spot in U.S. trade data, with annual surpluses that can run into the tens of billions of dollars.
Lawmakers seek USDA aid for sheep ranchers
The USDA needs to step in to help sheep ranchers in the West following the bankruptcy of the second-largest U.S. sheep processor, said leaders of the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.
Coronavirus fears ease, but many farmers expect a worse year financially
Opinion — Smithfield’s media attack shifts attention from its own lack of disclosure
In a full-page ad in the Sunday edition of the New York Times, Smithfield Foods, the nation's largest pork company, alleged that the media and other "critics" have targeted the company with "accusations fueled by misinformation and disinformation" about its response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In doing so, Smithfield is ignoring its own role in limiting public discourse about the pandemic and eluding its efforts to promote a more friendly regulatory environment. <strong> (No paywall) </strong>
EU dabbles in agricultural protectionism, says Perdue
European barriers to some U.S. food and ag exports — derided as "hormone beef," "chlorine chicken," and GMO "Frankenfoods" — smack of protectionism and could color already acrimonious U.S.-EU trade relations, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue during a trans-Atlantic discussion on Wednesday.
Advocates implore Congress to increase spending on anti-hunger programs
In a largely positive review of government programs to address mounting hunger during Covid-19, a panel of experts and advocates speaking at the National Food Security Conference on Wednesday encouraged Congress to boost spending on the anti-hunger programs it has developed since the pandemic began. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Food-box giveaway to run through Oct. 31, says USDA
The Farmers to Families Food Box giveaway program, the Trump administration's response to hunger during the coronavirus pandemic, will run through Oct. 31 to use up the last of its $3 billion in funds, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
Surge in grocery prices will bring a 5 percent increase in SNAP benefits
Food stamp benefits will rise by 5.3 percent in October, to a maximum of $680 per month for a family of four in the continental United States, said the USDA Food and Nutrition Service on Wednesday. The cost-of-living adjustment was announced even as anti-hunger groups are calling for a temporary 15 percent increase in SNAP benefits during the pandemic.
As Covid-19 rises, Alaskans crowd rivers for wild salmon
Senate bill would block faster line speeds at meat plants during pandemic
White House cites USDA ‘poison pills’ in threat to veto $260 billion spending bill
The White House listed five dozen objections to parts of a $260 billion government funding bill, including bans on implementing two Trump regulations to narrow SNAP eligibility, on Thursday, and threatened a presidential veto. As the House debated the appropriations bill, Republican senators worked on coronavirus relief legislation expected to include billions of dollars of new agricultural assistance.
Survey finds high risks faced by California farmworkers in pandemic
Farmworkers in California face increased vulnerability to the coronavirus, due to working conditions and lack of access to healthcare, according to a survey released Tuesday by farmworker advocates. In Monterey, one of the top farm counties in the state, the survey found that farmworkers were three times as likely to become infected by the coronavirus than people employed in the county’s non-agricultural industries.
Signs of Covid-19 slump in Indiana farmland prices
Farm managers, land brokers, appraisers, and other professionals attribute a modest decline in Indiana farmland values in the first half of the year, a trend expected to continue into the winter, to disruptions accompanying the coronavirus, said Purdue University on Thursday. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
California finds bird flu virus in raw milk
Public health officials in California's Silicon Valley said tests found the bird flu virus in a container of raw milk purchased at a local store and warned consumers on Sunday not to consume the milk. The supplier, Raw Farm, of Fresno County, issued a recall of the batch of milk that was involved.