Government funding bill has $1.5 billion for ag disaster relief
The House will vote as early as Tuesday on a mammoth government funding bill that allots an additional $1.5 billion for disaster relief for agriculture and rejects the 25 percent cut in SNAP benefits proposed by President Trump. The disaster funding is a 50 percent increase from $3.1 billion appropriated in June to help producers hit by hurricanes, wildfires, volcanoes, freezes and floods.
As U.S. sugar production plunges, USDA may allow larger imports
Freezing wet weather in the northern Plains has pummeled the sugarbeet crop and cut deeply into domestic sugar production. The USDA said it "fully intends to take appropriate actions to ensure an adequate supply of sugar," language likely to mean it will allow larger than usual imports of foreign-grown sugar.
Colorado county votes to bar GMO crops on public land
Over the next few years, farmers who rent land from Boulder County, CO, will have to phase out genetically modified corn and sugarbeet crops, said the Boulder Daily Camera. County commissioners voted 2-1 for the ban, and said research into the benefits and drawbacks of GMOs and conventionally bred seeds can proceed concurrently with the phase-out.
Growers embrace some GMO crops, but only give GMO alfalfa a handshake
Two decades after the first GMO crops were approved for cultivation, nearly half of U.S. cropland is planted with genetically engineered seeds, chiefly corn, soybeans and cotton. Farmers have greeted GE canola and sugarbeets with ardor, but alfalfa is the wallflower at the GMO party, says a USDA report.
Idaho aggies mull bill to prevent GMO food labeling
Led by sugar growers and processors, farm groups in Idaho are considering whether to push for a state law against labeling food made with genetically modified organisms, says Capital Press.