U.S. inflation fight darkens economic outlook, ag lender says
The Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates into 2023, "and the outlook for the coming year grows increasingly gloomy," said agricultural lender CoBank on Monday. The strong dollar "will pressure U.S. exports as the global economy struggles and U.S. goods remain expensive," it said, with warfare in Ukraine injecting additional volatility into world food supplies.
U.S. sees lowest food insecurity rate in eight years
Fewer Americans are skipping meals or running short of money to buy food than any time since the 2008-09 recession, says the annual USDA report on food insecurity. Some 13.3 percent of Americans, or more than one in eight people, were food insecure in 2015, the lowest rate in eight years, while child food insecurity, at 9.4 percent, was the lowest in nearly two decades of recordkeeping.
Americans eating the most meat per capita since recession hit
The United States is a meat-eating nation — one of the biggest consumers in the world — and is chewing its way toward its highest per-capita consumption since the recession of 2008-09. The USDA estimates Americans will consume an average 214.7 pounds per person of red meat and poultry this year, an increase of 3.8 pounds per person from last year due to larger livestock production.
Rural America not hatching new businesses
In the long recovery from the recession of 2008-09, one big thing is missing in rural and small-town America: new businesses. "Rural areas have seen their business formation fall off a cliff," says the Washington Post, citing a net loss of businesses in nearly two of every three rural counties from 2010-14, a much worse situation than what happened in the wake of previous recessions.
Time runs out for many on food stamps
As part of the 1996 welfare reform law, unemployed adults without children are limited to three months of food stamp benefits in a three-year period, unless they live in an area with high unemployment.
Recession’s surge in food stamps reflected economic misery
The 2008-09 recession drove up food stamp enrollment by 19 million people, with the major increases clustered in regions with the greatest dislocation, such as Arizona, Florida, Michigan, and Nevada, rather than...
House passes CFTC bill, Stabenow says more is needed
The House passed, 265-144, its bill to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulator of the vast derivatives market.