USDA

Congress should overhaul the school meals programs to allow some local flexibility in serving healthy food, said Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts, who plans to hold down the pricetag - no new spending without an offset. "Our budgetary constraints are real," Roberts said during the committee's first hearing on reauthorization of child-nutrition programs costing $22 billion a year. The chairman said he intended to have a new law in place before the Sept. 30 expiration of the current programs, a fairly tight schedule to move legislation through both chambers of Congress and to the White House, with time out for the summer recess.

During a 45-minute telephone call, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked his Chinese counterpart to scale back the ban on imports of U.S. poultry imposed because of avian influenza in the western half of the country. Agriculture Minister Han Changfu demurred, saying Chinese law required a full-country ban, Vilsack told the North American Agricultural Journalists. "They will have a team come to the United States in the summer" to see firsthand U.S. biosecurity controls designed to spot outbreaks and prevent them from spreading.

The error rates for the school lunch and school breakfast programs "remain unacceptably high," said the USDA, although there are signs of improvement, such as a lower overall error rate. In a report, the department said schools had an error rate of 15.8 percent for the $11.8-billion lunch program and 23.1 percent for the $3.3-billion breakfast program - a total of $2.7 billion for the 2012-13 school year that included over- and under-payments.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton declared a state of emergency because of avian influenza that has hit nearly four dozen poultry farms in the state and resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of turkeys, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "It also has hit the first Minnesota chicken farm," J&A Farms, near Detroit Lakes, which has 300,000 egg-laying hens. Owner Amon Baer said federal compensation for the loss of the flock will not cover the expense of cleaning and disinfecting the laying houses.

Warm spring weather is the surest cure for the worst outbreak of avian influenza to hit the U.S. poultry industry in three decades, said USDA chief veterinarian John Clifford. Some 7.3 million chickens, turkeys and other poultry in 13 states have been infected or killed by the flu, or destroyed as a precaution against spread of the virus. Minnesota, the No. 1 turkey state, has recorded 41 cases.

Turkey processor Jennie-O, owned by Hormel Foods, said it will lay off 233 workers at its plant in Faribault, 50 miles south of Minneapolis, because bird flu has reduced the number of turkeys available for slaughter, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Avian influenza has hit 80 poultry farms in Minnesota, with losses of more than 3.8 million turkeys. More than half of the 76 turkey farms with an outbreak appear to be Jennie-O suppliers, says the Star-Tribune. The layoffs in Faribault will take effect on May 26. The company said, "We do not have an anticipated return-to-work date at this time."

"The House Agriculture Committee is prepared to lead" for repeal of the law requiring country-of-origin labels (COOL) on packages of beef, pork and chicken if the World Trade Organization rejects a final U.S. appeal, said chairman Michael Conaway. The WTO has ruled against the mandatory labels three times and says it intends to rule by May 18 on the last appeal allowed in the case. Canada and Mexico say COOL is a trade barrier in disguise that has reduced shipments of livestock into the United States.

U.S. growers intend to plant a record amount of land with soybeans this spring, and to boost the acres of sorghum, now in high demand for export to China, according to Farm Futures magazine's survey of 1,297 growers in 41 states during the first half of March. Its estimates of 87.25 million acres of soybeans and 8.4 million acres of sorghum are higher from forecasts by Kansas State University and the think tank FAPRI.

The United States, traditionally the No 1 wheat exporter, will take a back seat to the European Union for the second year in a row, says the Grains: World Markets and Trade report. The EU is forecast to export a record 33.5 million tonnes of wheat this year, some 9.5 million tonnes more than the United States, which would tie for second-place with Canada. Last year, the EU edged the United States by half-a-million tonnes for the top spot. For Canada, this would be the first time its wheat exports match the U.S. volume, says USDA.

The USDA awarded $31 million to three-dozen projects that will experiment with ways to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among food-stamp recipients. Many of the projects will offer financial incentives to buy produce at farmers markets. Two of the awardees, Fair Food Network and Wholesome Wave, run "double up" programs that will match spending on fruits and vegetables up to a specified amount. Food-stamp recipients, like other Americans, do not eat the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables.