Senate committee to vote on $7 billion in disaster aid for farmers
Farm-state senators celebrated the first step of including $7 billion for disaster relief in the annual USDA-FDA funding bill, with a crucial vote looming on Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Action in the Senate mirrored efforts in the House last week to help farmers and …
USDA to allocate nearly $2 billion in coronavirus aid to contract growers
Contract growers of hogs, poultry and eggs are eligible for an estimated $1.98 billion in coronavirus aid, announced the USDA. The payments, along with a “top up” of aid to hog farmers, are the first to flow from the $13 billion earmarked for agricultural assistance in the pandemic relief …
Federal funding barrier: Billions more for farmers
President Trump wants a pre-election slush fund of up to $30 billion at USDA that he can spend with no strings attached, said the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday as agricultural aid blossomed into a potential roadblock for a government funding bill. Republicans …
Record USDA support flowing, but farmers say more federal assistance will be needed
With signup underway for $16 billion in coronavirus payments, farmers overwhelmingly say more federal aid to agriculture is needed this year, according to a Purdue University poll released on Tuesday. Farm spending is headed for a record this year and could exceed $30 billion from an amalgam of …
House ag leader backs one-time aid for flooded grain
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said farmers ought to be considered for federal compensation for grain lost in flooded bins this spring. Perdue gave conditional support to compensation at nearly the same time the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee called for a one-time grain …
Tally for Trump aid to ag in trade war nears $9 billion
With the USDA purposely stretching out its purchases of food for donation, its outlays to mitigate the impact of trade war on U.S. agriculture will rise slowly in the months ahead. Roughly $8.8 billion has been spent since last fall with the bulk of it, $8.1 billion, on Trump tariff payments …
Districts of House farm bill conferees draw over $9 billion in food and farm aid
A new analysis of USDA data by the Daily Yonder found that the districts of the 47 members of the House of Representatives who are serving on the farm bill conference committee receive over $9 billion in food and farm aid through nutrition programs and farm payments. The conferees will work to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the farm bill over the coming weeks.
Lawmakers who got farm disaster aid voted against hurricane aid
Three lawmakers who personally received federal disaster aid packages for their farms over several years were among the handful of representatives who voted on Sept. 8 against federal relief for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, said a post by the blog Republic of Awesome. The assertion is based on publicly available farm payment data published by the Environmental Working Group in its Farm Subsidy Database.
As farm income slumps, debate over the future
If there was any doubt, the agricultural boom ended in red ink for relatively large-scale Illinois farmers last year — an average loss of $2,971 per farm just one year after they notched a net farm income of $107,290, say three University of Illinois economists. Low crop prices were the culprit in Illinois, and across the nation, with comparatively low farm income expected for several years to come.
Farm Aid chooses DC suburb for its annual concert
Born during the agricultural recession of the mid-1980s, Farm Aid said its annual concert and food festival will be Sept. 17 in Bristow, Va, on the western fringe of the Washington, DC, area. The organization says it has raised $50 million from the concerts since 1985 to help further its goal of "a vibrant family farm-centered system of agriculture in America."