Month: October 2022

USDA ‘framework’ intended to reduce salmonella-related illness Poultry processors could be required to test birds for salmonella bacteria before slaughter and for so-called indicator organisms during processing under a USDA proposal aimed at reducing food-borne illnesses in raw poultry. Taste tops cost of food, male and female shoppers agree Whether… Continue reading

Farm Bureau seeks ‘unified’ farm bill of agriculture and nutrition aid The largest U.S. farm group believes “it makes perfect sense” to combine commodity supports and SNAP in the same piece of big-ticket legislation, said president Zippy Duvall in announcing the American Farm Bureau Federation’s farm bill priorities on Thursday…. Continue reading

Despite small crop, U.S. is top cotton exporter U.S. cotton exports will shrink by 14 percent this trade year, the result of a drought-stunted crop, but America will remain the No. 1 supplier to the world market, said the USDA on Thursday. Food stamp fights are possible in 2023 farm… Continue reading

Lawsuit tries to force EPA to respond on CAFO regulation A coalition of public interest and environmental justice organizations filed a lawsuit Friday to compel the EPA to respond to an earlier rulemaking petition, submitted to the agency in 2017, that asked the EPA to overhaul how large-scale animal production… Continue reading

Piggybacking onto a Supreme Court case over hogs With varying perspectives, the pharmaceutical industry, the Canadian Pork Council and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker hope to influence the Supreme Court in deciding whether an animal welfare law approved by California voters is an unconstitutional burden on the rest of America…. Continue reading

1. Traffic on the Mississippi River may come to a halt, if Mother Nature has her way. A logjam of more than 100 ships, tugboats and their convoys of barges in the shrinking Mississippi River is threatening to grind trade of grains, fertilizer, metals and petroleum to a halt. The… Continue reading

In race to control the House, three Agriculture Committee toss-ups A relative handful of contests in the Nov. 8 general election — one month away — will decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the House in 2023. Three of those toss-up races are in farm-state districts with seats on the… Continue reading

For farm bill, ag groups say, ‘We want some more’ Net farm income is at record levels, thanks to high commodity prices, and is expected to remain strong for two or three years, yet farm groups are telling Congress “that existing subsidy programs should be continued, their scope expanded, and… Continue reading

USDA awards $671 million for pandemic payments to frontline workers Fourteen nonprofit organizations and the Cherokee Nation will distribute $671 million in pandemic payments of $600 per person to farmworkers, meatpacking employees and frontline grocery workers, said the Agriculture Department on Tuesday. After a decade of decline, WIC participation rose… Continue reading

Supreme Court hears case to limit Clean Water Act The Supreme Court should restrict federal regulation of wetlands to marshy areas with a surface connection to a waterway — a dramatic reduction in coverage but a standard that would be easier to understand than the “significant nexus” test now in… Continue reading