USDA
Fertilizer projects get $35 million in USDA grants
Seven projects, from Oregon to New York, will receive a combined $35 million to expand independent domestic fertilizer production, with one-third of the money going to an aluminum sulfate producer in Virginia, said the Agriculture Department on Wednesday.
USDA deregulates GM wheat, says it is safe to grow in U.S.
For the first time, the Agriculture Department approved cultivation of genetically modified wheat in the United States on Tuesday, deregulating a drought- and herbicide-tolerant variety developed by an Argentine company. A U.S. wheat industry official said it would be years before the HB4 wheat from Bioceres Crop Solutions was successfully commercialized in the country because of the need to gain acceptance on the domestic front and by wheat-importing nations.
Ag trade deficit to set back-to-back-to-back records
The U.S. food and ag trade deficit will soar to a record $42.5 billion in the fiscal year opening on Oct. 1, fueled by steadily growing consumer demand for imported fresh produce, alcohol, coffee, and sugar, said USDA economists on Tuesday. It would be the third year of largest-ever deficits while export sales, hobbled by the strong dollar, retreat from the record set in fiscal 2022.
Grasslands share of Conservation Reserve grows larger
An ever-larger share of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve will be devoted to grasslands — nearly 4 of every 10 acres — with the results of this year's signup for the long-term land stewardship program, said the Agriculture Department on Monday. With the new enrollments, the Conservation Reserve is near the 27-million-acre limit set by the 2018 farm law.
USDA plans one-year test of culled dairy cows for H5N1 virus
At the same time that the FDA said a second round of tests showed pasteurization kills the bird flu virus in dairy products, the USDA said it would test beef from culled dairy cows for the H5N1 avian flu virus for the coming year. Nearly $2 million has been paid to dairy farmers since July 1 as compensation for milk production lost to bird flu.
Bumper U.S. crops this fall will drive farm-gate prices lower, says USDA
Farmers will reap their largest soybean crop ever this year, and the third-largest corn crop, said the Agriculture Department on Monday in its first forecast of the fall harvest. The mammoth crops will outpace demand and drive down prices, it said. Corn and soybean inventories would balloon to the largest size in six years and weigh on commodity markets far into 2025.
Biden accelerated racial divisions, says Vance, using USDA as example
The Biden administration "certainly accelerated" federal bias in favor of racial minorities, said Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, on Sunday, arguing that the Agriculture Department "handed out farm benefits to people based on skin color" rather than on merit. The USDA recently sent $2 billion in payments to 43,000 farmers who suffered discrimination when they applied for USDA farm loans.
USDA to be more flexible on farm loans
The Agriculture Department will amend its farm loan rules, effective Sept. 25, to allow more flexibility in repayment terms for producers and to reduce the collateral required when they borrow money. “Implementing these improvements to our farm loan programs is the next step in our ongoing commitment to removing lending barriers,” said Zach Ducheneaux, administrator of the Farm Service Agency, on Wednesday.
Biden announces $2 billion in USDA discrimination payments
The government has issued $2 billion in payments to more than 43,000 farmers who suffered discrimination when they applied for USDA farm loans in the past, said President Biden on Wednesday. More than half of the recipients were producers in Mississippi and Alabama, who received a combined $905.5 million.
USDA awards $110 million to expand independent meat processing
Five dozen independent meat processors will receive a combined $110 million in grants to go into business or expand their processing capacity, including a new plant in Texas that would create 1,500 jobs, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday.
House Democrats sink pilot project to limit SNAP purchases
On a voice vote Wednesday, minority-party Democrats deleted from the annual USDA-FDA funding bill a pilot project to block SNAP recipients from buying “unhealthy foods.” Democratic members of the House Appropriations Committee said the pilot project, authored by Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, was paternalistic and impractical.
USDA recommends paying farmers more for fresh milk
Dairy processors would pay farmers more for fresh milk that is destined for table consumption — perhaps totaling $800 million a year — under a set of recommendations from the Agriculture Department on Monday. The "recommended decision" to update the milk marketing system needs USDA final approval after a comment period and must win in a referendum by milk producers to take effect.
Farm bill should insist on stewardship — Des Moines Register
"Congress needs to take the plunge" in the new farm bill and "insist on conservation practices where it has, up until now, asked for cooperation while dangling a bit of cash," said the Des Moines Register, published in the No. 1 corn and hog state. USDA's soil and water conservation programs traditionally have relied on voluntary cooperation from farmers, aided by cost-sharing funds, but progress is unacceptably slow, said the newspaper in an editorial.
USDA offers 90 percent compensation for bird flu losses in dairy herds
The government will compensate farmers for 90 percent of the value of milk lost as a result of H5N1 avian flu infections in their dairy cows, announced Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. “We want to assist our producers every way we can to help them as they combat this emerging animal health disease,” he said.
FDA begins new round of tests for H5N1 virus in dairy products
As part of research into milk safety, the FDA will conduct a second round of tests for the H5N1 avian flu virus in dairy products, aiming at a broader range of goods, such as aged raw milk cheese and butter and ice cream, the agency announced on Tuesday. The USDA said it intended to eradicate bird flu in dairy cattle without resorting to a yet-to-be-developed vaccine.
USDA proposes fairness-in-marketing livestock rule
Re-entering a battle that dates from the Obama era, the USDA said on Tuesday it would modify its livestock marketing regulations to make it easier for producers to win complaints that they were treated unfairly by meatpackers. At present, producers must show a harm to the market in general. The revision would allow harm to one producer to be sufficient proof of an unfair practice.
Dean to lead year-old Global Food Institute
Stacy Dean, a key Biden administration figure in public nutrition policy, was named executive director of the Global Food Institute, announced George Washington University on Tuesday. Dean will join the institute in mid-July.
Nutrition advocate Stacy Dean to leave USDA
Stacy Dean, a key figure in U.S. public nutrition programs since the early days of the Biden administration, whose tenure included the lightning-rod increase of SNAP benefits in 2021, will leave USDA in mid-July. President Biden twice nominated Dean to serve as Agriculture undersecretary for nutrition but the nomination never advanced in the Senate.
Ten RECs get $4.4 billion in New ERA clean energy funding
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $4.37 billion in grants and loans to 10 rural electric cooperatives on Thursday for clean energy projects that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.1 million tons a year. With the awards, the USDA has allocated nearly $9 billion of the $9.7 billion available in the Empowering Rural America program.