Month: January 2020

Nearing end of review, EPA finds no risk to human health from glyphosate   Glyphosate, the most widely used herbicide in the world, poses no threat to human health when used as directed and is unlikely to cause cancer, said the EPA in an interim decision on Thursday. Environmental groups… Continue reading

Assessing the 2020 candidates on trade, from Trump’s unilateralism to ‘insular’ Warren and Sanders   President Trump employs a policy of “aggressive unilateralism” that views agriculture’s trade war losses as collateral damage that can be mitigated by a multibillion-dollar bailout, say the authors of a paper on the 2020 presidential… Continue reading

Conservation reserve program is ‘competitive’ this year, despite lower rental rates   Despite lower rental rates, enrollment in the land-idling Conservation Reserve Program is “competitive” this year, a USDA official said at a House Agriculture subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.   DOJ probes Dean Foods/Dairy Farmers of America proposed merger The… Continue reading

White House ‘public charge’ rule cleared for now by Supreme Court   The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration can enforce its new “public charge” immigration rule while challenges work their way through the judicial system. The new rule makes it easier to deny immigrants residency or entry… Continue reading

Trump plan lowers quality of school meals, say former ag secretaries Former agriculture secretaries Ann Veneman and Dan Glickman, co-chairs of an obesity prevention initiative at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the Trump administration proposals announced last week “would reduce the nutritional quality of foods served to children in both… Continue reading

At Trump’s direction, U.S. reduces upstream reach of clean water   Decrying what it called regulatory overreach, the Trump administration announced on Thursday that it will limit enforcement of clean water laws to oceans, rivers, core tributaries, and adjacent wetlands. Environmentalists said the move would leave half of U.S. wetlands… Continue reading

Trade war impact on ag exports was greater than it appears, say economist   An analysis by five economists says the Sino-U.S. trade war cut far deeper into U.S. farm exports to China than it appears in a simple tallying of sales before and after the tariffs were announced.  … Continue reading

Young farmers face heightened risks from climate change   With this season’s severe flooding, raging wildfires, and delayed planting, many of the country’s farmers are struggling to adjust as climate change sets in. Yet young and beginning farmers face unique challenges, farmers and advocates say, with tenuous finances, relatively small… Continue reading

More trade-war payments ‘coming very quickly,’ Trump tells farmers   In his third appearance in three years before the largest U.S farm group, President Trump told cheering farmers that they will get a final round of $3.6 billion in trade-war payments despite trade deals intended to spur money-making ag exports…. Continue reading