Mississippi chicken farmers protest proposed pay cut they say is tied to merger
When Sanderson Farms announced a base pay cut for its growers throughout Mississippi in early August, farmers claimed it was an effort to undercut wages in the wake of a merger between Sanderson and Wayne Farms, another major producer in the state, as Marcia Brown reports in FERN's latest story, produced with The Capitol Forum. (No paywall)
Trump acolyte presses ahead in Mississippi Senate race
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a member of President Trump’s agriculture advisory committee in 2016, is following the president’s no-apology campaign style in the Senate runoff election against former U.S. agriculture secretary Mike Espy, a Democrat. Hyde-Smith is the front-runner in strongly Republican Mississippi.
New Mississippi senator to join two panels overseeing agriculture
The newest member of the Senate, Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, will serve on two committees that her predecessor, Thad Cochran, chaired during his 40 years in the Senate.
The cattle farmer who became the newest U.S. senator
The Senate is in recess so it will be another week before cattle farmer Cindy Hyde-Smith, a veteran of state politics, formally succeeds Thad Cochran as U.S. senator from Mississippi. She already has a Republican challenger in the November special election to serve the final two years of Cochran's term, and had a get-acquainted meeting with top White House officials last week.
Former agriculture secretary has ‘strong intention’ to run for Senate
Mississippi lawyer Mike Espy, the first black U.S. agriculture secretary, has a "strong intention to run" for the Senate seat being vacated by seven-term Republican Thad Cochran, reported the Jackson (Miss) Clarion Ledger.
As drought spreads, the South prays for rain
At the same time rainfall is slaking drought in the Pacific Northwest, the southeastern quadrant of the United States faces intensifying drought, with the worst conditions in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and eastern Tennessee. Georgia's state agriculture director, Gary Black, is to take part in a rally to "discuss the drought facing Georgia's agricultural community and to pray for the rain Georgia so desperately needs" on Monday.
Catfish farming loses its lure
U.S. fish farms are producing only one-quarter as many catfish this year as they did when the industry peaked in 2002, according to USDA data. The decline has been blamed on higher feed costs, a change in consumer tastes, and imports from Asia.
Mississippi town sees gigabyte network as economic stimulus
With a population of 2,300, Quitman, Mississippi, will be one of 10 communities in the state to get a 1 gigabyte per second broadband network, says the Daily Yonder.
Roberts says little about agriculture in Kansas Senate race
Sen Pat Roberts, potentially Agriculture Committee chairman if Republicans win control of the Senate, rarely mentions his record on agriculture - defender of crop insurance and author of the 1996 Freedom to Farm law - on the campaign trail.
Risk of biofuel crops turning invasive; controls needed
There are few federal or state safeguards against the introduction of an invasive species as a biofuel crop, say researchers at the University of Illinois in two newly published papers.
Mississippi GOP tells Tea Party challenger to go to court
The Mississippi Republican Party chairman, Joe Nosef, says there is too little time to examine all the materials in the party's contested Senate run-off election and told challenger Chris McDaniel to go court instead, says the Los Angeles Times.
A Mississippi hangover in Kansas for conservatives
The protracted battle over the Republican nomination for the Senate in Mississippi distracted activist conservatives and boosted the chances of third-term Sen Pat Roberts in Kansas, says Roll Call. Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has a Tea Party challenger, Milton Wolf. "Outside spending in Kansas has been on a much smaller scale compared to the Mississippi race.
Cochran rebounds to win Senate runoff in Missssippi
Six-term incumbent Thad Cochran, the Republican leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee, won the GOP run-off in Mississippi by 2 percentage points over state Sen Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party favorite.
Mississippi primary at hand, what about the Democrat?
By Tuesday night, former Rep Ronnie Childers "could suddenly become one of the party’s vitally important Senate candidates for 2014 – and a rare Democratic nominee who clashes sharply with his national...
Mississippi Senate primary becomes nastiest in the nation
The Republican Senate primary election in Mississippi "has become the nastiest, and most personal, in the nation," says the New York Times with one week left until election day. The race between six-term incumbent Thad Cochran, the Republican leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee, and state Sen Chris McDaniel "represents the last chance for Tea Party activists to topple an incumbent."
Stabenow is for Clinton, is Mississippi for Cochran?
In an essay for CNN, Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow endorsed former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for president. She described Clinton as "extremely competent, extremely intelligent" and "someone who understands what middle-class families have been going through and how to give every family a fair shot to get ahead in life."
McDaniel surges to lead Cochran in Mississippi poll
Two weeks ahead of the Republican Senate primary in Mississippi, a new poll puts challenger Chris McDaniel ahead of incumbent Thad Cochran, the GOP leader on the Senate Agriculture Committee, 43-40, with 15 percent undecided. The poll of 505 likely voters is the first in six weeks and was conducted last week, says Pollster.