Category: Farm Report

Americans’ spending on food plunged during pandemic The pandemic and its accompanying economic slowdown prompted a dramatic 7.8 percent cutback in consumer spending on food in 2020, said two USDA economists. The reduction was more than double the impact of the Great Recession on food sales, partly because the pandemic… Continue reading

More farmers experiment with cover crops, a climate tool, survey shows Slightly more than half of the country’s biggest farmers say they planted cover crops this year, indicating a broadening acceptance of the crops’ benefits for soil health, even with the accompanying complication they bring to land management, said Purdue’s… Continue reading

Agriculture is ‘unpredictable sector’ in Sino-U.S. trade, says Tai The United States will press China to live up to its commitments in the “phase one” agreement, said U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai on Monday in unveiling the Biden administration’s “strategic vision for re-aligning trade policies toward China.” During a speech… Continue reading

USDA puts into action its pledge to expand meat industry capacity Three months ago, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the USDA would commit $500 million to expand meat and poultry processing capacity and create a more competitive livestock market. “I believe it is going to leverage literally billions of dollars… Continue reading

Rural America, mostly white, is becoming more diverse Three-quarters of rural Americans are white, a larger proportion than the roughly six in 10 for the nation overall, but the rural population is becoming more diverse, said a pair of analyses of Census data. The rural America of the future will… Continue reading

Climate mitigation is actually agricultural market development, says Vilsack The USDA will put a “significant” amount of money into large-scale pilot projects of climate-smart agricultural practices to create new markets for sustainably produced products, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday. In announcing the initiative, which would go into effect… Continue reading

‘Genius grant’ for prof. who created prairie strips to reduce farm runoff Iowa State University professor Lisa Schulte Moore, a creator of prairie strips in farm fields to markedly reduce soil erosion and nutrient loss, won a $625,000 MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’ on Tuesday. Schulte Moore, one of 25 winners… Continue reading

Burst of USDA top-up pandemic payments to farmers Farmers have received $4.8 billion in long-promised payments of $20 an acre on crops that range from corn, soybeans, and wheat to sorghum and sugar beets, said USDA data on Monday. It was the largest disbursement of coronavirus relief funds since the… Continue reading

Equity Commission to examine USDA programs and policies for bias Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jewel Bronaugh will co-chair a congressionally approved Equity Commission to address racial discrimination within the USDA and its programs, announced the Agriculture Department. The USDA has been called “the last plantation” because of racial bias in its… Continue reading

New $5 billion cover crop initiative in climate package Farmers and landowners would share a combined $5 billion in payments for planting cover crops to reduce soil erosion and nutrient runoff under a proposal written by farm state Democrats in the Senate and House. The package would also boost spending… Continue reading