Month: September 2020

Economic recovery depends on ‘the path of the virus’ — Fed official The U.S. recovery from the pandemic will depend in part on success in managing the coronavirus through steps such as therapeutics and a vaccine, the president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank told an agribusiness conference on… Continue reading

Consumers will pay higher meat prices through 2020 Grocery store prices for meat are declining after their springtime coronavirus surge, but more slowly than expected, meaning that shoppers will pay noticeably more at the meat counter this year than in 2019, said USDA economists. In the monthly Food Price Outlook,… Continue reading

Perdue unwilling to use SNAP to fullest during pandemic, says think tank Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue shows more enthusiasm for cutting SNAP enrollment than in making full use of food stamps to alleviate hunger during the pandemic, said the think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) on Thursday. SNAP enrollment… Continue reading

Ethanol backers prod administration to ‘finish the job’ A week after the EPA denied 54 retroactive waivers from the ethanol mandate, farm and biofuel groups urged the Trump administration on Wednesday to take additional steps to assure ethanol’s role in the U.S. fuel supply. Their checklist included release of the… Continue reading

Very large farms collect one-fifth of USDA’s coronavirus payments The average USDA coronavirus relief payment to farmers is less than $16,000 but the biggest operators are getting payments that are 22-times larger, said an environmental group on Tuesday in questioning the fairness of the $10 billion program. Meanwhile, lawmakers agreed… Continue reading

Federal funding barrier: Billions more for farmers President Trump wants a pre-election slush fund of up to $30 billion at USDA that he can spend with no strings attached, said the senior Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday, as agricultural aid blossomed into a potential roadblock for a… Continue reading

Trump’s trade and coronavirus aid to agriculture could hit $50 billion With its new offer of $14 billion in coronavirus relief, the Trump administration could spend $50 billion — quadruple the cost of the auto industry bailout — in less than three years to buffer the impact of trade war… Continue reading

Trump announces $13 billion in additional coronavirus aid to farmers During a re-election rally in rural Wisconsin on Thursday, President Trump announced an additional $13 billion in coronavirus relief for U.S. farmers and ranchers, more than doubling assistance to the sector. The money will be available beginning next week, said… Continue reading

In ‘final report card,’ world fails to meet biodiversity goals, says UN In 2010, global leaders set 20 goals for preserving biodiversity worldwide in the decade ahead. Today, none of the targets has been met fully and only six are even partially achieved, said the United Nations in “a final… Continue reading

Coronavirus requires a ‘massive response,’ Pelosi tells the NFU Six months into the pandemic, America needs a “massive response” to the coronavirus to keep the economy running, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday speaking to the National Farmers Union. “You can’t have a skinny deal,” said Pelosi.   Rural… Continue reading