Category: Farm Report

‘Fairness for Farmers’ campaign targets market power of big companies Buoyed by a Biden administration pledge to vigorously police agricultural mergers, the National Farmers Union launched the nationwide “Fairness for Farmers” campaign on Wednesday to restore competition in the marketplace. “This endeavor has clear goals: to curtail consolidation in agriculture… Continue reading

‘Rescue’ bill for county fairs wins committee support The House Agriculture Committee approved a bill on Tuesday to create a $500-million-a-year grant program to support local, county and state fairs that lost attendance and revenue due to the pandemic. An estimated 98 percent of the fairs were canceled last year… Continue reading

Labor Department starts work on heat safety rule Following what the White House called “a dangerously hot summer,” Labor Secretary Marty Walsh announced on Monday the first step toward a federal standard to protect workers from exposure to excessive heat on the job. The work on a heat safety rule… Continue reading

Major economies pledge to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent Eight countries plus the EU are supporters of the Global Methane Pledge, an initiative to reduce emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas by 30 percent by the end of this decade, said officials in Washington and Brussels over the weekend…. Continue reading

International contest of ideas: Farm to Fork vs. productivity coalition The United States will launch a “coalition for productivity growth” to promote the use of high-tech tools such as gene editing and precision agriculture to build a more sustainable food system, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. The coalition… Continue reading

House panel asks meatpackers how many Covid-19 infections and deaths they had at their plants The toll the coronavirus has taken on the meatpacking industry may be greater than currently thought, said a House panel on Wednesday in asking Cargill and National Beef, two of the largest U.S. meat processors,… Continue reading

One in seven rural Americans lived in poverty during 2020 pandemic Nearly 6 million people in rural America had incomes below the poverty line during the pandemic year of 2020, an increase of 315,000 from the preceding year, according to a Census Bureau estimate released on Tuesday. The annual Income… Continue reading

House panel approves $66 billion ag bill; change in ‘stepped-up basis’ is abandoned The Democratic-controlled House Agriculture Committee approved its $66 billion part of President Biden’s $3.5 trillion “build back better” bill on a party-line vote Monday, with Chairman David Scott saying he was confident that $28 billion will be… Continue reading

Price tag for new nutrition and ag spending nears $100 billion During congressional committee work on the Biden administration’s $3.5 trillion “build back better” bill, majority-party House Democrats approved a $35 billion expansion of child nutrition programs last week and were expected to vote on Monday for an additional $66… Continue reading

Critics say a lack of diversity among nutrition professionals skews America’s understanding of dietary health In the U.S., the field of dietetics and nutrition — and, accordingly, the corps of professionals who shape how Americans understand dietary health, in part by helping draft the national dietary guidelines — has a… Continue reading