Attacks on SNAP could doom 2023 farm bill
Congress could fail to pass the upcoming 2023 farm bill if Republicans try to mangle the food stamp program, warned House Agriculture chairman David Scott on Monday. Speaking at a farm conference, Scott said the farm-and food-coalition of rural and urban groups was vital to enactment of the farm bill, panoramic legislation that ranges from farm and stewardship subsidies to SNAP, agricultural research and rural development.
Food-system change ‘startlingly absent’ from countries’ climate change commitments
Food systems account for roughly a third of global greenhouse emissions worldwide, yet a new analysis finds that strategies to reform how food is grown, processed and consumed are “startlingly absent” from most countries’ plans to tackle climate change.
One in eight of Iowa’s laying hens dies in bird flu outbreaks
In less than three weeks, more than 10 million egg-laying hens have died in outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) across the country. The casualties included 13 percent — one in eight — of laying hens in Iowa, the No. 1 egg-producing state, said the Agriculture Department on Monday.
Today’s Quick Hits
Playing biofuel football: Whatever Congress or the administration does in the short term on biofuels — waiving the RFS or making E15 available year-round — it is unlikely to have much impact on gasoline or food prices, says economist Aaron Smith. (Ag Data News)
Scott invites meat CEOs: Chairman David Scott said at a farm conference that he has invited the chief executives of “the four top meatpacking operations” and farmers to testify at a House Agriculture Committee hearing on competition on April 27. (FERN’s Ag Insider)
Irrigation water dries up: For a second year, the Central Valley Project in California said it will not deliver irrigation water to farms, leading the head of the Westlands Water District to ask, “Do we want to sustain irrigated agriculture in California?” (Washington Post)
Deere expands repair options: The world’s largest farm equipment maker said it would expand the ability of customers and independent repair shops to gain access to diagnostic tools and to download software updates to its power equipment. (Deere)
