USDA
A foe of farm subsidies, think tank would remove food stamps from USDA
The conservative Heritage Foundation, which wants to eliminate crop subsidies and revenue insurance policies, also is gunning for food stamps, the largest federal anti-hunger program. In its recent "Blueprint for reform" paper, the foundation says control of food stamps should be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services and that Congress "should introduce work requirements" for able-bodied adults.
Global grain cushion to be ‘even more comfortable’ than expected
Farmers around the world will harvest record-setting wheat, corn and rice crops, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, citing improved prospects for the Russian wheat crop, larger rice plantings in Asia and the mammoth U.S. corn crop nearly ready for harvest. With huge amounts of grain flowing into warehouses, supplies will be "even more comfortable than predicted at the start of the season."
USDA awards conservation grants for urban farming, rural runoff
Some 45 projects across the country will share $27 million in Conservation Innovation grants to reduce farm runoff, improve water quality and preserve farmland, announced the USDA. Recipients range from the City of Chicago to public universities and the National Corn Growers Association.
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.
Undersecretary Avalos to leave USDA at mid-month
Ed Avalos, the agriculture undersecretary in charge of marketing and regulatory programs, will leave USDA in mid-September, said The Hagstrom Report. Given the short time before a new administration takes office, a spokesman told the newsletter that USDA would try to promote someone already in office to handle the job for the next few months.
A long-term streak: Americans won’t eat their vegetables
The United States is one of the five largest vegetable producers in the world, yet Americans have for decades disregarded the advice to eat more vegetables, say USDA economists Hodan Wells and Jeanine Bentley. "For Americans to meet the (Dietary) Guidelines' recommendations, their intake of overall vegetables, including legumes, would need to increase by 50 percent," or 0.84 cup per day per person, they write in a special article in the Vegetables and Pulses Outlook.
Democrats see chance to oust House ag appropriator
Due to voter distaste for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Democratic strategists say their party may have chances to win in up to a dozen GOP-held seats in the House, including the district held by Kevin Yoder, reports the New York Times. Yoder, a fiscal conservative who represents the suburbs of Kansas City, is a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for FDA and USDA.
USDA closes offices in five states due to threats; most re-open today
The Agriculture Department closed offices in six locations in five states, including its mammoth research center in Beltsville, MD, on Tuesday because of anonymous but serious threats. Four of the locations, including Beltsville, were to re-open today with stronger security measures in place, said The Associated Press.
Who will regulate lab-grown meat?
As a handful of companies scale up their operations in anticipation of bringing plant-based meat and other bioengineered foods to market, the question looms of how to fit these 21st-century products into a 20th-century regulatory framework, says Science.
Test your food-group IQ
The USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion has created a series of quizzes on the five food groups that are "designed to challenge, teach, and even entertain," says Feedstuffs.
Farm-gate value of crops dips with corn and soybean records
The first U.S. corn crop to top 15 billion bushels would carry a $1.7 billion penalty of sorts for growers, according to USDA data, because of the lower average price expected for this year’s harvest.
Dairy farmers ask $100–$150 million in USDA cheese-buying
To bolster milk prices and help keep dairy farmers in business, the USDA should buy up to 90 million pounds of cheese and donate it to food banks, says the National Milk Producers Federation.
Spending falls as U.S. farm income contracts
Farmers and ranchers slashed their production expenditures by nearly 9 percent last year, driven by the end of a seven-year agricultural boom and a collapse in farm income, said USDA. After falling by 54 percent since 2013, U.S. net farm income is forecast to stabilize this year with a small decline; cash expenses also are expected to contract slightly.
USDA chased rogue GMO wheat for weeks before announcing incident
The tip that led to discovery of rogue GMO wheat in the Pacific Northwest reached the USDA on June 14, more than six weeks before the incident was made public. Officials spent the time in verifying it was a genetically-engineered variety from Monsanto and to begin testing all the wheat grown on the farm in Washington State where 22 stalks of wheat survived a dose of herbicide that should have killed them.
Huge U.S. corn crop could top 15 billion bushels, as prices sink
The U.S. corn crop could be far larger than the record harvest projected by the government, according to analysts whose estimates range as high as 15.1 billion bushels, based on continued good weather in the Midwest. The prospect of a mammoth crop is driving corn prices well below the cost of production, said Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley.
Senators say food-stamp store rule needs better balance
A near-majority of the Senate told the USDA to rewrite a proposal for stores that participate in the food stamp program. The agency’s proposal would require stores to stock a greater variety of healthy foods and would bar retailers that sell a lot of hot food.
Brazil, U.S. say they will import beef from each other
Brazil will remove barriers to U.S. beef and beef products that were imposed in 2003 in the name of preventing mad cow disease, said the Agriculture Department, pointing to “excellent long-term potential for U.S. beef exporters.”
Rogue GMO wheat found in Washington state; third U.S. discovery since April 2013
Genetically engineered wheat, developed by Monsanto but not approved for sale, was confirmed growing in the wild for the third time in a little more than three years, said the Agriculture Department, this time in a fallow field in Washington state.