USDA issues fair play rule on livestock marketing, part of White House competition drive
Farmers will have stronger protections against deceptive contracts and retaliatory tactics from meat processors under a new USDA rule on market integrity, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The new rule, which takes effect on May 6, is part of a USDA initiative for transparency and fair play in livestock marketing.
For livestock groups, USMCA and year-round labor visas are top priorities
Congress should overhaul the U.S. guest worker program so it allows foreign laborers to work year-round on farms and in meat processing plants, rather than just seasonally in the fields, said U.S. poultry and livestock groups on Tuesday. Representatives of six groups also supported prompt …
Access to safe and healthy food is in peril, says food movement group
The Trump administration is imperiling access to safe and healthy food, throttling organic farmers and siding with meatpackers on livestock sales regulation, said the Food Policy Action Education Fund in a "State of the Plate" report. "This administration’s regulatory rollbacks, political appointments, and executive orders have affected everyone within our food system–from workers to producers to consumers," said Monica Mills, head of the group.
Farm groups sue USDA in hopes of reviving GIPSA rule
In one of USDA's biggest decisions in the Trump era, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue killed the so-called GIPSA rule on fair play in livestock marketing. Two months later, the farm group Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) filed suit in the U.S. appeals court in St. Louis for reinstatement of the rule, issued in the closing weeks of the Obama administration.
Small-farm group proposes $50,000 limit on premium subsidies for crop insurance
The Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs says the 2018 farm bill should improve USDA land stewardship programs, expand programs for rural economic development and beginning farmers, and target crop insurance toward small and medium-sized farms.
Perdue makes Codex a trade office, dismembers GIPSA
After a pause for additional discussion, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue signed a reorganizational memorandum that puts the U.S. Codex Office under the control of USDA's chief trade officer and eliminates the Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration as a stand-alone agency, with its duties absorbed by the much larger Agricultural Marketing Service. Both moves were protested as undue kowtowing to agribusinesses when Perdue announced them during the Labor Day lull.