Huge federal payments will make up 36 percent of farm income this year
The government will send a record $32.8 billion in direct payments to farmers this year and federal supports will amount to 36 percent of farm income, its largest share since 2001, said the FAPRI think tank at the University of Missouri on Tuesday.
Coronavirus may boost sales of organic food, says trade group
Sales of organic food rose by 4.6 percent in 2019 and the coronavirus is expected to boost demand for staple foods — dairy, eggs, rice, pasta and bread — that carry the organic label, said the Organic Trade Association on Tuesday.
Iowa expands offer of hog disposal aid
Although the state has the money to pay for disposal of 600,000 hogs stranded by packing plant slowdowns, Iowa producers have applied for payments to cull a comparatively small 43,897 head so far. So the Iowa state Agriculture Department offered on Tuesday to pay for the cost of disposal of hogs killed weeks ago.
How did Europe avoid a Covid-19 crisis at its meatpacking plants?
In the United States, Covid-19 has been sweeping through meatpacking plants, infecting more than 24,000 workers and killing at least 92 of them. Those figures are more than nine-times larger than at meat plants in Europe, though the U.S. industry has only a third more workers.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Hemp checkoff in Montana (Hemp Industry Daily): Montana, one of the top states for hemp production, has launched a first-in-the-nation voluntary hemp checkoff program, set at 1 percent of a grower’s profit.
Mexican candidate for WTO chief (MercoPress): Senior trade officials Jesus Seade, Mexico’s lead negotiator in drafting the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is his country’s nominee for WTO director general.
Greenfield and Ernst neck-and-neck (Bleeding Heartland): Two polls show Democratic nominee Theresa Greenfield slightly ahead, but within the margin of error, of Sen. Joni Ernst, a Senate Agriculture Committee member, as Ernst runs for re-election in Iowa.
More EU action needed on insects (Associated Press): Environmental groups say the EU has to do more than its goals of halving the use of chemical pesticides and tripling the amount of land in organic farming if it wants to protect insect species from decline.
Lawsuit against beef processors (Meat and Poultry): The trustee for a bankrupt grocery co-op filed a lawsuit in federal court in Minneapolis alleging four major meat packers conspired to restrict beef supplies and drive up the price paid by wholesale customers.
