USDA
Growers plant 30 percent of US corn in one week
Farmers planted an eye-popping 30 percent of the corn crop, or more than 43,000 square miles of land, in the week ending on Sunday, according to USDA's Crop Progress report. After lagging for weeks due to rain, planting surged to reach the average pace of nearly 60 percent for this time of year. It is a remarkable leap but not uncommon.
Time limit on food stamps will disqualify 1 million people
Roughly 1 million people - 2 percent of current enrollment - will be cut off of food stamps during 2016 as states re-impose the three-month limit on benefits to unemployed adults from ages 18-50 who are not disabled or raising children...
Large cotton surplus, low prices are a multi-year problem
The world cotton surplus will top 21 million tonnes at the end of this marketing year, an 87 percent stocks-to-use ratio, says the International Cotton Advisory Council.
Women are getting counted as farmers
Sondra Pierce, who grows sugar beets, hay and sunflowers on a Colorado farm, "doesn't look like the average American principal (farm) operator," says Harvest Public Media, but she is emblematic of a change in agriculture and its data-keeping.
Companies pursue genetic technology free of US review
Seed companies such as Scotts Miracle-Gro and Cellectis Plant Sciences are utilizing techniques to genetically modify crops that are outside of federal jurisdiction or use methods that were not imagined when the regulations were created, said the New York Times.
Canada harvests bumper oilseed crops
Canadian farmers harvested their sixth record soybean crop in a row and their second-largest canola crop, said Statistics Canada, with the harvest season over. The canola crop was 11 percent larger than the previous StatsCan estimate in October and was 1 million tonnes more than traders expected. Canola is Canada's major oilseed, at 15.6 million tonnes this year, down from 18 million tonnes last year. Soybeans totaled 6 million tonnes this year, up 13 percent from 2013.
Earliest date for mechanically tenderized meat labels – 2018
Food Safety News says "the earliest consumers will see labels on mechanically tenderized beef in grocery stores will be 2018" because the administration failed to complete work on the regulation during December.
Cereal, baked goods prices flat in 2014, pork to ease in ’15
Prices for cereal, flour and bakery items will finish the year unchanged from 2013, an indirect effect of record wheat crops worldwide, according to government forecasts, and pork prices will fall by 15 percent in the new year after soaring this year. "Many items in the center aisles of grocery stores/supermarkets have seen lower than average inflation or even deflation year-over-year," said USDA in its food price report.
Beginning to farm but not young farmers
The average age of U.S. farmers is a frequent topic of concern because it is fairly high - 58 years in 2011, according to a new USDA report on the structure and finances of family farms.
FDA, USDA need more coordination of food safety-Report
The government lacks an over-arching performance plan for food safety nor do USDA and FDA engage in broad-based collaboration of their overlapping food safety programs, said the Government Accountability Office.
Corn and soybean harvests enter final stages
Only a fraction of the corn and soybean crops are still in the field, says the weekly Crop Progress report. It says 89 percent of corn and 94 percent of soybeans have been harvested.
House panel formally sets hearing on GMO labeling
The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health scheduled a hearing for next Wednesday on labeling of GMO foods. The session, "Examining FDA's role in the regulation of genetically modified food ingredients," is expected to provide a...
Auditors find errors in USDA disaster relief payments
Livestock disaster aid cost more than $4 billion this year, more than expected, says Agri-Pulse, "even as auditors were finding that earlier payments under the program were rife with errors."
USDA mulls “reverse auction” to preserve fragile land
USDA proposes use of a reverse auction to maximize the environmental benefits of targeted enrollment of land into the Conservation Reserve, according to a Federal Register notice.
Soybean plantings may climb despite downturn in price
U.S. farmers are likely to plant more land to soybeans in 2015 than they did this year despite lower commodity prices, says economist Dan O'Brien of Kansas State University.
Lower corn, soy and wheat prices for 2015 crops?
Analysts at the Congressional Budget Office are penciling lower prices for corn, wheat and soybeans into their budget assumptions, according to documents that circulated among commodity traders. The preliminary estimates are prepared for consultations with other agencies and will be refined in coming weeks.
Bird flu found in second state in Pacific Northwest
The highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza virus was confirmed in a backyard poultry flock in Winston, Oregon, said USDA in a "stakeholder announcement."
Toledo mayor asks federal action to prevent algae blooms
The government should give priority to protecting water quality in Lake Erie's watershed including a standard on blooms of toxic algae, said Toledo Mayor Michael Collins, four months after explosive growth of algae shut down his city's water supply. "If we continue to delay, the harm may be irreparable," Collins said during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on voluntary work by farmers to control soil erosion and protect water purity.