Perdue sitting on food box details, say House Democrats
The USDA’s food-box giveaway program has been the Trump administration’s answer to hunger during the pandemic but officials have failed to answer questions about alleged shortcomings and political machinations of the $4 billion program, said Democrats on the House Agriculture subcommittee on …
USDA final hog slaughter rules imperil consumers and plant workers, advocates say
The Department of Agriculture released final rules Tuesday that will shift some inspection responsibilities at hog slaughter plants from USDA inspectors to meatpacking workers and allow plants to speed up processing lines. The overhaul of hog inspection, the agency’s first in 50 years, was …
Poultry companies subpoenaed in DOJ investigation of chicken industry
Tyson Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Perdue Farms have all been subpoenaed by the Department of Justice in the agency’s grand jury investigation into the poultry sector. FERN broke news of the investigation in June. The Wall Street Journal reports that the three poultry companies will cooperate …
Corn losses in rainy spring will be “similar to a severe drought” in scope
Heading into the final week of May, U.S. farmers have planted only 46 percent of the corn and soybean acreage that they intended this year, due to the rainy spring. Economist Todd Hubbs of the University of Illinois said on Tuesday the setback to the corn crop “appears set to hit a level …
Capitol Hill pours cold water of relocation of two USDA research agencies
In nearly identical wording, the House and Senate Appropriations committees told the USDA to delay the relocation of two research agencies outside of the Washington area because of insufficient justification of the proposal. The bills, due for votes this week, potentially derail Agriculture …
Congress sets the rules but farm subsidies are ‘a great investment,’ says Perdue
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue steered clear of a farm bill squabble on Tuesday that has Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley considering a vote against the bill because it would relax crop subsidy limits. Perdue said the farm program is “a great investment” that keeps U.S. food prices low and that …
Reorganization is an internal matter, Perdue tells inquiring senators
The USDA will need only a couple of months to pick the new homes for two research agencies that are being moved out of the Washington area, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in a letter. He also told the leader of the Senate Agriculture Committee that "this is an internal operational decision" so there was no requirement to seek public comment before deciding to relocate the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
‘It’s really up to China,’ says Perdue in assessing course of trade war
The USDA began preparing for a trade war with China last fall, before President Trump confronted Beijing over unfair practices or imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Tuesday. Perdue said he would prefer a speedy settlement of the tit-for-tat battle of tariffs, but, "It's really up to China."
Senators protest using farmers as pawns in China-U.S. trade battle
The White House ought to be expanding agriculture export markets rather than disrupting relations with leading trade partners, said farm-state senators during a hearing with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Tuesday. Sales to the three largest export markets—China, Canada and Mexico—are …
Perdue’s spotty past presents ongoing ethics concerns, advocacy group says
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue brings with him a legacy of ethics violations, climate denialism, and deregulation, all of which could threaten the future of the Department of Agriculture, argues a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report, out today, gathers information from Perdue’s past political career and his current administrative and policy choices to analyze whether and how the Secretary’s tenure could have a long-lasting negative affect on agricultural research and policy.
USDA says it again: No costly reviews for gene-edited plants
Emphasizing that "USDA seeks to allow innovation when there is no risk present," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue reiterated that USDA does not regulate nor plan to regulate plants developed through new breeding techniques such as gene editing. The exception would be plants that pose a pest or noxious weed threat or are developed using plant pests.
Perdue doubles down on support for SNAP Harvest Box program
At the annual USDA Ag Outlook Forum, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue doubled down on his support for the recently proposed “Harvest Box” food stamp program. Perdue provided some elaboration on his vision for the program but offered little evidence of growing support. (No paywall)
Top poultry producers face second price-fixing lawsuit
Two grocers last week filed a price-fixing lawsuit against the country’s top poultry processors. The suit alleges that the processors, including Tyson Foods, Koch Foods, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Perdue Farms, have conspired to fix the price of broiler chickens over the course of several decades.
Perdue gets high marks from activists on its chicken reforms
The 21-day-old chicken — white-feathered, dark-eyed, with a brush-cut of pale yellow bristles above its beak — climbed carefully up a ramp, teetered briefly at the top, then launched itself into space. It landed on another bird, flapped hard, and gave its accidental landing pad an apologetic peck. Then it wandered off into a crowd of more than 49,000 chickens just like it that were hopping into boxes, poking their beaks into straw bales, and settling in pools of sunlight for a snooze.
Interview: Perdue finds animal welfare makes a better bird
Animal-welfare measures created last year by giant poultry company Perdue Farms Inc., in a break with traditional poultry raising practices, are starting to show results, Perdue executives said last week. In an interview in Atlanta at the International Production and Processing Expo, the largest annual meeting of the poultry business, Perdue chairman Jim Perdue and Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, senior vice president of food safety, quality and live operations, told FERN’s Ag Insider the measures, which focus on “what a chicken wants,” are producing more active, higher quality birds.
Humane Society: Perdue leads the pack on animal-welfare
The Humane Society of the U.S. praised Perdue, the country’s fourth-largest poultry producer, for a series of animal-welfare reforms that it called “meaningful and precedent-setting.” The reforms include installing windows in poultry houses to allow more natural light; giving each bird more space; putting the birds to sleep before slaughter; and testing slower-growing breeds.
Perdue nixes contract clause that ‘gagged’ farmers
Perdue will no longer require farmers to request permission before visually or audibly documenting their chicken operations, says Tom Philpott in Mother Jones.
Oxfam: Poultry workers forced to wear diapers on processing line
Poultry workers say they are routinely denied bathroom breaks, according to a report by Oxfam America, based on interviews with workers at some of the nation's biggest poultry companies, including Tyson Foods, Perdue and Pilgrim's over the last three years.