Author: The Farm Report

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

In farm-state victory, EPA denies retro-exemptions from biofuel mandate The EPA rejected more than four dozen requests by small petroleum refiners for retroactive exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard, said agency chief Andrew Wheeler on Monday in a decision that potentially expands the sale of corn-based ethanol.   Half-a-billion dollars… Continue reading

Derecho blows away expectations of a record-setting U.S. corn crop The windstorm that blasted across Iowa — “basically a 40 mile-wide tornado,” in the words of Gov. Kim Reynolds — wiped out 9 percent of the crop in the nation’s No. 1 corn state and obliterated the chances for a… Continue reading