Hemp farming may be more pioneer life than Wild West For all its Gold Rush aura, hemp farming may be more like life on the frontier, where everything must be built from the ground up, said advocates of industrial hemp on Thursday. Hemp can require a lot of manual… Continue reading
Urban-rural poverty gap has widened since the Great Recession For decades, the poverty rate has been higher in rural America than in metropolitan areas, a situation often attributed to an older, lower-paid, and less-educated rural population. A new USDA report says the gap between rural and urban areas widened,… Continue reading
Senate Democrats slam inequities in Trump tariff payments The Trump administration should immediately reform its multibillion-dollar trade-war bailout for farmers and ranchers so money flows to the producers who are hurt the most and aid is focused on family-sized farms, said Senate Democrats on Tuesday. Dean Foods files… Continue reading
USDA stumbles on release of market-moving crop report The USDA was unable to deliver its market-moving crop report, often described as its premiere product, for 10 minutes due to a computer outage in Kansas City, prompting suspicions of profiteering in the grain market during the delay on Friday. When… Continue reading
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Perdue says second tranche of Trump tariff payments is on its way Farmers can expect a cash injection of billions of dollars in Trump tariff payments later this month or in December, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Thursday. “We hope that trade will supplant the need for aid… Continue reading
Consensus elusive for Senate reform of ‘national security’ tariffs Senate Finance chairman Chuck Grassley conceded one point this week: Steel and aluminum will be excluded from any reform of presidential power to impose tariffs based on national security interests. Even so, there is no agreement among senators on how… Continue reading
Farmers expect more Trump tariff payments in 2020 Although farmers and ranchers overwhelmingly believe they will emerge as winners from the Sino-U.S. trade war, they also expect the Trump administration will send them billions of dollars in trade-war payments on 2020 crops yet to be planted, according to a… Continue reading
Farmers support trade war despite their financial losses Farmers in three Midwestern states say the China-U.S. trade war is hitting them in the pocketbook, but they support President Trump’s policy of piling tariffs on the one-time top customer for U.S. agriculture exports, say Iowa State University researchers. Lawmakers… Continue reading
U.S. economy slows as corn and soy output soar, according to USDA projection With a return to normal weather, farmers will expand vastly their corn and soybean plantings next year — enough to produce their largest corn crop ever and the fourth-largest soybean crop, according to USDA’s agricultural projections…. Continue reading
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