Loan guarantees for ‘middle of the supply chain’
The USDA will create a $100 million loan-guarantee program to expand processing capacity in the meat industry and improve the infrastructure of the food chain, announced Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Monday. The program is "focused on the middle of the supply chain," he said, such as mobile processing units, new cold storage equipment and formation of cooperatives to gather, process and market farm goods.
Farmers’ markets survived 2020, but the Delta variant poses new challenges
Many vendors who sell at farmers' markets saw a huge boost in sales last year, even as markets themselves struggled with the higher overhead costs of pandemic safety measures. This season, the growing threat of the Delta variant looms over a market experience that was nearly back to normal, say market managers and advocates.
Bipartisan coalition of House members urge inclusion of local agriculture program in farm bill
A bipartisan coalition of 43 members of the House urged farm bill conferees to include the Local Agriculture Market Program (LAMP) in the final version of the farm bill. In a letter sent Tuesday, the members expressed support for permanent mandatory funding for LAMP, a provision included in the Senate version of the bill.