Siding with farmers, Trump tells EPA to deny retroactive biofuel waiver requests With an eye toward shoring up Farm Belt support less than two months before the election, President Trump directed the EPA to deny dozens of oil refiner requests for retroactive waivers from U.S. biofuel laws, Reuters reported on Wednesday. TODAY’S QUICK HITS Glowing […]
Is America’s food supply safe from terrorist attacks? No. The United States spends more than $ 1 billion every year to keep America’s food supply safe, but even without terrorism, food-borne diseases cause about 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Former Secretary of Health […]
Administration prepares another multibillion-dollar aid package for agriculture The USDA aims to release a new version of its coronavirus relief program for farmers and ranchers in the next couple of weeks, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday, with at least $ 14 billion available. President Trump has suggested the new program will boost coronavirus […]
More growers, less hemp in industry slowed by uncertainty, pandemic The first year of nationwide cultivation of industrial hemp has been a mixture of retrenchment and optimism for growth in the longer term. “The industry isn’t going to go away,” said hemp entrepreneur Morris Beegle on Thursday. “It’s going to become more of a whole-plant […]
Vilsack highlights Biden’s support of ethanol Democrat Tom Vilsack, the former agriculture secretary and Iowa governor, made a virtual campaign sweep through the farm state last week on behalf of Joe Biden, emphasizing that the Democratic presidential nominee was a friend of ethanol. Pandemic paradox: As food poverty rises, so does obesity The Covid-19 pandemic […]
Perdue gets blank check for ag aid Senate Republicans proposed $ 20 billion in additional aid to agriculture in their new coronavirus package on Monday, leaving it to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to allot the money. The proposed increase in farm aid came as the USDA released figures showing that it has only spent a […]
Trump failed on trade and ethanol, says Democratic farm forum Rural America, and farmers in particular, voted overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2016 but have suffered rather than benefitted for it, said speakers on a “farmers and ranchers roundtable” organized by the Biden-Harris campaign. The forum, held 10 days ahead of the traditional fall campaign […]
In abrupt reversal, USDA extends summer school food waivers The Department of Agriculture said Monday that it would extend school meal waivers through Dec. 30—less than a week after Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue had said the programs would lapse by Sept. 30. The sudden reversal came amid an outcry from advocates and lawmakers from both […]
USDA to release coronavirus reserve funds, makes more products eligible More than half a million farmers and ranchers will get a second round of coronavirus relief payments, worth an estimated $ 1.4 billion, said the Agriculture Department on Tuesday as it made dozens of additional commodities eligible for aid and gave producers an additional two […]
Watch Farm Aid 2020 Online on Saturday, September 26th We’re excited to announce that Farm Aid 2020 will be available online at farmaid.org and on AXS TV on Saturday, September 26 from 8-11 p.m. EDT. This virtual at-home festival experience is going to be incredible and will allow more viewers than ever before to take part in our annual festival! For this year’s Farm Aid […]
Risk of ‘food nationalism’ as coronavirus pandemic sweeps world The world’s grain reserves are large, with a bumper crop on the horizon, but the coronavirus pandemic has already inspired agricultural protectionism in a small number of countries, said analysts in a think tank paper this week. Separately, former Agriculture Undersecretary Catherine Woteki said protectionist policies […]