USDA
Can Trump budget find traction on the cold shoulder of Capitol Hill?
Farm-state lawmakers were chilly to icily dismissive of President Trump's proposals for large cuts in programs helping agriculture and rural communities. North Dakota Republican John Hoeven, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee in charge of the USDA and FDA budget said the proposal was unfair given the three-year slump in the farm economy.
White House would end McGovern-Dole school food program for poor
The Agriculture Department would see a 21 percent cut in discretionary spending under President Trump's budget proposal, including elimination of the McGovern-Dole programs that provide food for schoolchildren in poor countries and a grant and loan program for water and sewer projects in rural communities.
Census of Agriculture will begin at end of the year
The USDA says it will mail survey forms at the end of this year for its Census of Agriculture, conducted every five years. The census is "the only source of uniform, comprehensive and impartial agriculture data for every county in the nation," said administrator Hubert Hamer of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which conducts the census.
Perdue assets top $11 million. Will he debut at USDA in April?
Seven weeks after President Trump selected Sonny Perdue for agriculture secretary, the White House formally transmitted the nomination to the Senate, opening the way for the long-awaited confirmation hearing for the former Georgia governor who faces minimal opposition so far. He could be in office in April, based on the Senate's handling of other cabinet nominees.
Seven weeks of waiting for a slam-dunk USDA Ag nominee
Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is meeting an "unprecedented" number of senators while waiting for the administration to send to the Senate his nomination for agriculture secretary, says a transition official, who is hopeful the process will begin moving "in the next couple of days." Perdue's selection was announced on the day before President Trump's inauguration, so he's the last one to go through the FBI background check.
High tech and biotech say they’re the route to rural development
Rural America, home to 15 percent of the U.S. population, "is still feeling the effects of the Great Recession" in the form of slow growth in wages and slow economic growth overall, a Minnesota official told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Rural electric and telecommunications groups, joined by the biotechnology industry, said their industries represent the path to rural growth, with the help of seed money in the 2018 farm bill.
USDA nominee Perdue is accused of ethical lapses as governor
For weeks, the political sun beamed on former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, nominated for agriculture secretary, with the only complaint being the slow pace toward a confirmation hearing. Now, the Environmental Working Group faults Perdue for ethical lapses "that raise troubling questions about his fitness to run the department."
Clayton Yeutter dies; trade negotiator, USDA chief, White House counselor
Nebraska native Clayton Yeutter, who held a handful of high-level jobs during the Reagan-Bush era, died on Saturday of cancer at age 86. Energetic and engaging, Yeutter was U.S. trade representative for President Reagan and became agriculture secretary following the election of George H.W. Bush in 1988, moving at Bush's request to chair the Republican National Committee in 1991 and becoming counselor to the president a year after that.
USDA projects 5-percent leap in record soybean plantings
U.S. farmers are projected to plant 88 million acres of soybeans, up 5 percent from the record set last year, while cutting back on corn and wheat, said USDA chief economist Robert Johansson. Futures prices indicate soybeans will be more profitable than corn and wheat this year.
Sonny Perdue ‘having the time of his life’ waiting for USDA vote
President Trump's nominee for agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue of Georgia, is "having the time of his life" in meeting senators ahead of his confirmation hearing, said a transition official. The paperwork on his nomination, including the results of an ongoing background check, could be in the hands of the Senate Agriculture Committee in early March, the official estimated.
Will Trump end four decades of fragmented oversight of food safety?
U.S. food safety relies on the piecemeal work of 16 federal agencies, four Democratic senators said in asking President Trump for White House leadership in writing a national strategy on food safety and assuring agencies follow it. The request was not as sweeping as past proposals for a single food-safety agency but it faces many obstacles.
This West Virginia town built a model school-lunch program. The GOP wants to tear it down.
In 2010, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver aired a reality show, "Food Revolution," about Huntington, W.Va., which had been ranked by the Centers for Disease Control as the nation's most unhealthy metropolitan area. The city's schools were at the center of the story. In the latest story from The Food & Environment Reporting Network, published in partnership with The Huffington Post's Highline, reporter Jane Black tells the story of what happened in the Cabell County cafeterias after Oliver left town.
U.S. farm income to be half of 2013 peak, farm debt to rise by 5 percent
The government forecast U.S. net farm income at $62.3 billion this year, the lowest since 2009 and only half of the record income of 2013 at the crest of the agricultural boom. In inflation-adjusted terms, 2017 net farm income would be the lowest since 2002. Farm debt was forecast to increase by $19.4 billion this year, part of a 25 percent increase since commodity prices collapsed four years ago.
Celebrity chef sounds the call: ‘Food is politics’
José Andrés, co-owner of a dozen U.S. restaurants, urged foodies to stand up to painful food and immigration policies that he expects to see from the Trump administration. Speaking at the Food Tank Summit, Andrés told the overflow crowd "Food is politics," reported Quartz.
Heitkamp is first Democratic senator to back Perdue for USDA
The Trump nominee for agriculture secretary, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, has the support of North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, the first Democrat to endorse him. A Democrat-turned-Republican, Perdue has attracted none of the controversy dogging other cabinet nominees. But as the last of President Trump's selections, he still awaits a confirmation hearing.
Humane Society: USDA’s removal of animal-welfare information violates ruling
After USDA removed investigation files from its website on some 9,000 animal facilities, including circuses, dog breeding operations and scientific labs, animal rights activists are crying foul, says the Humane Society of the United States. The society notified USDA that it would re-open a similar public access lawsuit it filed and won in 2005 if the agency doesn't immediately bring the documents back online.
Sonny Perdue, third USDA chief to work in agriculture as an adult
An array of food, farm and agribusiness groups and companies asked in a letter to Senate Agriculture Committee leaders for "expeditious confirmation" of former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue as agriculture secretary. "Though some (agriculture secretaries) were raised on a farm, only two actually lived and worked in agriculture as adults," says the letter. "If confirmed, Sonny Perdue will be number three."
Vilsack backs Perdue as his USDA successor
On the same day that Senate Democrats toughened their opposition to President Donald Trump's cabinet nominees, former agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack said he supports Sonny Perdue as his successor at USDA. With Vilsack, Perdue "is the only cabinet nominee to secure the support of his predecessor in the Obama administration," said the Trump transition team.
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.