Tom Vilsack

For weeks, the ag world has buzzed with rumors that the new edition of the Dietary Guidelines would downplay the role of meat in healthy diets or even delete red meat from its recommendations. The 2010 Guidelines say at one point, "Choose a variety of protein foods, which include seafood, lean meat and poultry, eggs, beans and peas, soy products, and unsalted nuts and seeds." House Agriculture Committee chairman Mike Conaway raised the issue with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, saying...

At the first House Agriculture Committee hearing of the year, chairman Mike Conaway told Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, "With commodity markets plummeting and crop producers struggling to find financing, now is precisely the wrong time to weaken crop insurance." It was the latest rebuff from the farm sector of White House proposals to reduce crop insurance spending by 17 percent through a lower premium subsidy on revenue policies that insure the price at harvest time, and by adjusting payment rates for prevented-planting claims.

"School breakfast continues to make significant gains in communities across the United States," says the antihunger Food Research and Action Center, summarizing two new reports that it issued. FRAC says 53 percent of children who qualified for free or reduced-price school lunch also participated in school breakfast, up 1 percentage point from 2013 and 10 points higher than a decade ago.

President Obama has proposed creating a new agency at the Health and Humans Services Department that would consolidate the food-safety activities of FDA and USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. "The new agency would be charged with pursuing a modern, science-based food safety regulatory regime drawing on best practices of both agencies, with strong enforcement and recall mechanisms, expertise in risk assessment, and enforcement and research efforts across all food types based on...

Two crop insurance reforms would cut the cost of the federally subsidized program by about 17 percent under the fiscal 2016 budget proposed for the Agriculture Department. The program is a routine target for cuts, most of which are rejected. This time, the administration proposed a lower premium subsidy for so-called revenue policies based on prices at harvest time, and reforms to prevented-planting coverage. Together, the changes would save $16 billion over 10 years.

A program that provides free school meals to all pupils in high-poverty neighborhoods will be the main driver in boosting participation in the school lunch and school breakfast program, says the Agriculture Department. In its proposed budget for fiscal 2016, USDA forecasts average lunch participation of 30.3 million students daily, up 100,000 from the current year, and school breakfast of 14.6 million students daily, up 600,000.

The Senate proposal to place a $50,000 cap on premium subsidies for farmers buying crop insurance "could potentially impact participation" in the program, says Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The government pays an average of 62 cents of each $1 of premium, although the subsidy rate is as high as 80 percent on some policies. During a tele-conference, Vilsack said, "We don't want to go back to the days of ad hoc (disaster relief) legislation. That could potentially be much more expensive."

Swamped by proposals, USDA selected 115 "high impact" projects to receive $370 million in funding in the initial awards through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program. The projects range from improving habitat for endangered birds to preventing a "dead zone" in Long Island Sound and reducing runoff in the lush wheat-growing Palouse regionof the Pacific Northwest. Federal funds will be matched by $400 million from "partners" that include governmental units and conservation groups such as Ducks Unlimited.

USDA chief economist Joe Glauber, whose job required him to translate dry data into the story of U.S. agriculture for policymakers, is leaving USDA to become visiting senior fellow at a Washington think tank. His deputy, Robert Johansson, "will assume the duties of chief economist beginning January 1," said USDA. Glauber is shifting to International Food Policy Research Institute after 32 years with the federal government.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says if the United States loses its WTO appeal over country-of-origin labels (COOL) on meat sold in grocery stores, the only choice left will be repeal of the law or extensive changes in it. "That's the deal," Vilsack said during a news conference in San Diego. Lawmakers instructed USDA last month to report by May 1 on how to bring the COOL into compliance with world trade rulings.

Congress will have to resolve the international snarl over U.S requirements for labels on beef, pork and chicken meat that identify where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. U.S. law requires the so-called country of origin labels (COOL) but the World Trade Organization has ruled three times that U.S. regulations discriminate against Canada and Mexico.

Canada "has not stepped up" in negotiations for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. He singled out Ottawa when asked if Japan should be dropped from the discussions because of unwillingness to open its agricultural markets to imports. The question, during a meeting of the CFTC's agricultural advisory committee, came from Paul Penner of the National Association of Wheat Growers.