Policy
California voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use — an issue that has sown deep division here among longtime growers. But many fear Proposition 64 will bring costly regulations and taxes and could put them out of business if corporate interests and big farms take over.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Public Lands Council government affairs office in Washington, D.C., are accepting applications for the fall 2014 public policy internship.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced $8.4 million in grants that will be used by organizations in 24 states to provide training, outreach and technical assistance for socially disadvantaged, tribal and veteran farmers and ranchers.
Kentucky’s U.S. Senate candidates differed sharply on federal farm policies Thursday, offering the most substantive policy discussion of the campaign in a race that so far has focused more on Rand Paul’s presidential aspirations and Jim Gray’s tenure as mayor of the state’s second-largest city.
If our farming ancestors could see what we’ve done with data, the dramatic changes would astonish them.
Six major farm organizations have declared that property tax reform, instead of a constitutional protection for a “right to farm,” should be the main priority for keeping agriculture in Nebraska strong.
In an 18-page letter to nine US Cabinet-level officials, Food & Water Watch joined the National Farmers Union to urge the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) to block a proposed acquisition of Swiss agribusiness Syngenta by the Chinese state-owned enterprise ChemChina.
With a failed ballot measure that sought changes to the state’s decades-old corporate farming law in the rear-view mirror, a potentially lengthy federal court battle over its legality has arisen.
U.S. crop area planted, harvested, yield and production in domestic units.
Demand and weather updates are two key factors ahead for most commodity markets. While this space would never try to forecast something harder than even this Congress, the weather, the following are highlights of the USDA Weekly Export Sales report for the week ended July 7, along with our comments:
This year, shortly before Memorial Day, signs identifying the various crops that are grown in Idaho and Lewis counties began sprouting up along U.S. Highway 95, State Highway 162 between Grangeville and Nezperce and in some spots beside U.S. Highway 12.
The Senate moved closer to final action on legislation later this week that would preempt a Vermont mandatory labeling law for certain genetically modified foods, advancing a bipartisan measure supported by the food industry but opposed by anti-GMO advocates. The 65-32 bipartisan vote on a procedural motion was delayed briefly by protesters against the GMO agreement but is expected to be approved by the Senate, perhaps yet this week.
Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payment rates for 2015 crops of wheat and oats have been set, with wheat at 61 cents per bushel and oats at 28 cents per bushel, according to USDA, with no payment for barley.
The Show-Me State is home to an abundance of resources, one of which has proven an underrated asset for USDA and its school food distribution costs. Can you guess what it is?
Chairmen of the House and Senate Ag Committees talked about major farm and food policy matters during a Bloomberg Government event today.
An eastern Indiana ministry that operates a children’s camp has sued local zoning officials, warning that a planned 1,400-cow dairy farm they approved for a nearby site will ruin the summer camp experience due to odors, dust and manure runoff.
On its face, the Clean Water Act is pretty simple. It prohibits “the discharge of any pollutant” into “the waters of the United States” without a permit. And the law sets substantial civil and criminal penalties for violating it. In practice, determining what counts as the “waters of the U.S.” isn’t simple at all.
Farmers and ranchers filing crop acreage reports with FSA and participating insurance providers approved by RMA now can provide the common information from their acreage reports at one office.
Australia’s deputy prime minister links issues in debate.
Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed a bill Monday that would send $40 million in aid to South Carolina farmers, saying farmers may complain loudly, but don’t need a bailout that isn’t being offered to all small businesses.
Genetically engineered (GE) crops have had “generally favorable economic outcomes” for producers and an extensive two-year review “found no substantiated evidence that foods from GE crops were less safe than foods from non-GE crops,” according to a report released today by the National Academies of Science (NAS).
It did not take long for reaction to come after EPA on Wednesday released its proposed Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) volume obligations.
Enrollment of more than 800,000 acres of land into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), including 411,000 acres via general signup 49, another 364,000 acres under continuous signup efforts and 101,000 acres via the new CRP Grasslands effort, has been announced by USDA.
We’ve seen this accelerating financial constraint environment in farming before. And it clearly is upon us. Key question: How long will it last? While some say two to three more years, others say longer.
My country’s government would rather see people starve than let them eat genetically modified food.
The worst thing we can do for people who struggle to feed their families is to make food more expensive.
Using technology and data-mining are two of the ways that USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is utilizing to make sure the integrity of the federal crop insurance program is intact.
Krysta Harden, the former U.S. deputy secretary of agriculture, will join DuPont as vice president of public policy and chief sustainability officer.
A bill that would relax weight and load restrictions for farm equipment on Nebraska’s roads has advanced out of a legislative committee.
Producers have taken out marketing assistance loans (MALs) an increasing amount of 2015-crop corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum, according to USDA data.