Month: July 2022

1) Fed hikes interest rate: Federal Reserve officials raised interest rates by 75 basis points for the second straight month on Wednesday. Chair Jerome Powell says a similar move is possible again. The back-to-back June and July increases are the biggest rate hikes since the early 1980s. Bloomberg Economics thinks… Continue reading

Ag trade nominee’s plan: ‘Break down the barriers’ Doug McKalip told senators that if he’s confirmed as U.S. chief agricultural negotiator, “it will be my duty to break down the barriers” to U.S. food and ag exports. During a friendly and relatively brief confirmation hearing on Thursday before the Senate… Continue reading

House panel votes to expand child nutrition programs More children would be eligible for free school meals and the WIC program would cover children up to age 6 under legislation approved on a party-line vote by the House Education and Labor Committee on Wednesday. While the bill’s Democratic sponsors claimed… Continue reading

School lunches: Shortages in supplies and labor With a new academic year on the horizon, school-food directors are ready with tricks to keep meals flowing, such as cutting pizza boxes and clamshell containers in half when lunch trays are not available, said a report by the School Nutrition Association on… Continue reading

Free crop insurance of conservation requirements, farm groups say Congress ought to sever the link between access to reduced-price crop insurance policies and the requirement to protect wetlands and highly erodible land, said the leaders of two major Minnesota farm groups on Monday. Federally subsidized crop insurance, now the largest… Continue reading

EPA finally sets date for RFS reset The EPA has a free hand in writing the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2023, but the agency could be 18 months late and operating under a court order when it finally issues its proposal this fall. A biofuel trade group says nailing down… Continue reading

Americans overwhelmingly connect climate change and extreme weather A report from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication released Thursday shows that Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it’s not happening by a ratio of six to one (72 percent vs. 12 percent). Nearly the… Continue reading

Frustrated conservationists release plan for wolves in Colorado In November 2020, Colorado voters approved a measure to reintroduce gray wolves to the state, 76 years after the last wolf was killed there. Now Colorado Parks and Wildlife is developing a plan to reintroduce wolves. But conservation groups say the process… Continue reading

Crop insurance cap could save billions Billions in taxpayer dollars could be saved over the next decade if the 2023 Farm Bill puts a cap on federal subsidies paid to farmers who purchase crop insurance, according to a special report published Tuesday by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). FDA… Continue reading

Food prices are high, but what lies ahead? Rising prices — especially for food — are grabbing headlines, but the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, slumping consumer demand, and supply chain disruptions are all feeding into an exceedingly muddy economic picture. Yet when it comes to… Continue reading