Month: January 2021

Voluntary mitigation is agriculture’s preference on climate change The incoming chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee said she will pursue “voluntary, producer-led” solutions, such as carbon markets, for agriculture’s contribution to fighting climate change, with the USDA providing expert advice to producers. Sen. Debbie Stabenow also said the USDA could… Continue reading

Ag role in climate mitigation: Net-zero emissions Before signing an executive order on fighting climate change, President Biden said on Wednesday that mitigation efforts would include net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by the agricultural sector, now responsible for 10 percent of U.S. emissions. “We see farmers making American agriculture first… Continue reading

Farmers are worried about climate change but skeptical of carbon markets Farmers in the largest corn-growing state are increasingly concerned about the potential impact of climate change on their operations but also dubious of carbon markets that would pay them to sequester carbon in the soil, according to the annual… Continue reading

Vilsack confirmation is slowed by Senate fight over rules The Senate scheduled confirmation hearings for half a dozen of President Biden’s cabinet nominees this week but Tom Vilsack, seeking to become agriculture secretary for the second time, was not among them. The Agriculture Committee cannot consider his nomination until Senate… Continue reading

Non-family farms take larger share of U.S. land and production America may still be a land of family farms — 96 percent of the 2 million farms in the country are owned by families, according to a new USDA report on farm types. Yet there are more and more non-family… Continue reading

With new Covid plan, Biden calls for OSHA to update workplace safety protections The nation’s top workplace safety enforcer, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, will explore issuing enforceable workplace safety standards to protect workers from the spread of Covid-19 as part of President Joe Biden’s new pandemic strategy. Labor… Continue reading

Biden proposes legal status, path to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers The estimated 1.25 million undocumented farmworkers in the United States would immediately gain legal status under the immigration reform bill unveiled by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, his first day in office. If passed, the bill would make the farmworkers… Continue reading

Over FDA objections, Trump administration says USDA can regulate GE livestock The Trump administration, in a move sought by the hog industry, pushed through an interdepartmental memorandum before leaving office that allows the USDA to regulate food-bearing GE livestock. FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn publicly objected on Tuesday and said his… Continue reading

iden chooses Virginia ag commissioner for deputy secretary at USDA A day before his inauguration, President-elect Biden selected Jewel Bronaugh, the Virginia state agriculture commissioner, as his nominee for deputy agriculture secretary, the No. 2 post at USDA. Bronaugh would be the first Black deputy secretary at USDA.   After… Continue reading