A Biden possibility: Tom Vilsack as three-term agriculture secretary
Tom Vilsack could be on the verge of competing with a fellow Iowan, “Tama Jim” Wilson, for the record of longest-serving cabinet secretary in U.S. history. But as soon as Vilsack was identified on Monday as the leading contender for agriculture secretary in the Biden administration, farm and consumer activists criticized him as a friend of Big Ag and a culprit in Democrats’ poor performance among rural voters.
Coronavirus outbreaks at two California chicken plants
Meat processor Foster Farms temporarily closed a poultry processing plant for deep cleaning following a coronavirus outbreak at the facility in Fresno, California. In the past two weeks, 193 of the 1,400 employees at the plant tested positive for Covid-19, reported the Fresno Bee.
Today’s Quick Hits
‘Protection from your neighbors’: Monsanto and BASF used defensive planting — “protection from your neighbors” — as a technique to sell the weedkiller dicamba and genetically engineered soybean and cotton seeds that tolerate the herbicide when the chemical was blamed for damaging vulnerable crops. (Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting)
Food banks feed far more Americans: The Feeding America network of food banks distributed nearly 57 percent more food in the third quarter of this year than in the same period in 2019, a result of job losses during the pandemic. (AP)
In China, world’s biggest hog farm: The largest hog producer in China, Muyuan Foods, has started operations at the world’s largest pig farm, an industrialized combination of 21 buildings that eventually will house 84,000 sows and produce 2.1 million pigs a year. (Reuters)
Big surge in farmer optimism: A rally in commodity prices and higher income boosted the DTN/Progressive Farmer Agriculture Confidence Index to a reading of 145.9, according to a survey of producers during the final two weeks of November, an increase of 52 points from August. (DTN/Progressive Farmer)
Hottest November on record: The Copernicus Climate Change Service, based in Europe, said November was the warmest on record, 1.4 degrees F (0.77 C) above the 1981-2010 levels and this calendar year is likely to beat 2016 as the hottest year on record. (Washington Post)
More time sought for dairy sign-up: In light of the strains created by the pandemic, the USDA should allow farmers until Jan. 30 to enroll in the Dairy Margin Coverage subsidy program, rather than the looming cutoff on Friday, said the National Milk Producers Federation. (NMPF)
