Category: Farm Report

With new Covid plan, Biden calls for OSHA to update workplace safety protections The nation’s top workplace safety enforcer, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, will explore issuing enforceable workplace safety standards to protect workers from the spread of Covid-19 as part of President Joe Biden’s new pandemic strategy. Labor… Continue reading

Biden proposes legal status, path to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers The estimated 1.25 million undocumented farmworkers in the United States would immediately gain legal status under the immigration reform bill unveiled by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, his first day in office. If passed, the bill would make the farmworkers… Continue reading

Over FDA objections, Trump administration says USDA can regulate GE livestock The Trump administration, in a move sought by the hog industry, pushed through an interdepartmental memorandum before leaving office that allows the USDA to regulate food-bearing GE livestock. FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn publicly objected on Tuesday and said his… Continue reading

iden chooses Virginia ag commissioner for deputy secretary at USDA A day before his inauguration, President-elect Biden selected Jewel Bronaugh, the Virginia state agriculture commissioner, as his nominee for deputy agriculture secretary, the No. 2 post at USDA. Bronaugh would be the first Black deputy secretary at USDA.   After… Continue reading

    (AG Insider) Workers in food distribution, production, and logistics who are employed by temporary staffing agencies and other subcontractors should be prioritized for early access to the Covid-19 vaccine alongside other food system workers, argues a new report focused on the Chicago labor force.   States are generally… Continue reading

Farm sector rebounding but may need more aid, says Duvall The farm economy, battered since 2018 by a trade war and a pandemic, is rallying, though it is too early to declare a return to prosperity, said the president of the largest U.S. farm organization on Thursday, reserving judgment on… Continue reading

After refusing to overturn election, five House ag panelists oppose impeachment Although they defied President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, five Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee voted on Wednesday against impeaching Trump for inciting the deadly mob attack on the Capitol last week. They said that… Continue reading

Highest corn and soybean prices since commodity boom, says USDA U.S. farmers, who harvested some of their largest corn and soybean crops ever last fall, will reap the highest season-average prices for the crops since the heady days of the commodity boom that ended in worldwide surpluses seven years ago,… Continue reading

Big poultry processor to pay $75 million to resolve antitrust lawsuit Three months after a plea agreement with the government that included a $110.5 million fine, Pilgrim’s Pride, the second-largest U.S. poultry processor, said on Monday it would pay $75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by its customers.  … Continue reading

Agriculture must be part of climate change negotiations, says Farm Bureau Although blamed for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture has a “great track record” through land stewardship and biofuels in mitigating climate change, says Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, in looking ahead to… Continue reading