House panel votes to block two Trump rules restricting SNAP access
The Trump administration would be barred from implementing two rules that would end SNAP benefits for an estimated 700,000 people during the coronavirus pandemic under a USDA-FDA funding bill approved by a Democratic-controlled House subcommittee on Monday. (No paywall)
Three Farm Belt states get a quarter of coronavirus relief money
Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin, strung across the Farm Belt from the Great Lakes to the Great Plains, have collected one-fourth of USDA’s coronavirus relief payments, said a weekly update on Monday.
AFR’s LATEST
Farmworkers in the Salinas Valley, photo by David Rodriguez.
As Covid-19 cases spike, an unprecedented alliance races to protect California farmworkers
An outbreak of the novel coronavirus among farmworkers in California’s Salinas Valley spawned a coalition of former adversaries that is racing to safeguard both the workers and the farms where they work.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
High food insecurity in Black, Hispanic households with children: Nearly four of every 10 Black and Hispanic households with children “are struggling to feed their families during the coronavirus pandemic,” twice the rate for white households with children and a wide racial gap that has persisted for weeks, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data. (Politico)
‘Essentially impossible’ to use dicamba: Four recent research papers show it is “essentially impossible to use current formulations of dicamba” without significant injury to nearby fields of soybeans that are not genetically engineered to tolerate the herbicide, says weed specialist Bob Hartlzer of Iowa State University. (ISU Extension)
Covid-19 kills 122 meat workers: At least 122 workers in meat plants have died of Covid-19 and at least 32,151 were infected with the coronavirus from outbreaks at 291 plants, according to data compiled by FERN as of Monday at mid-day. (Food and Environment Reporting Network)
Record-setting cereal crop gets bigger: World cereal production is forecast for 2.79 billion tonnes, 3 percent larger than the record set in 2019/20 on improved prospects for wheat, corn, and rice harvests this season. As a result, the stocks-to-use ratio at the end of 2020/21 would be the highest in 20 years at 33 percent. (FAO Cereal Supply and Demand Brief)
Not as bad in rural areas: Rural areas lost 9 percent of their jobs at the same time the largest U.S. cities lost 14.4 percent due to the coronavirus, and job losses were progressively smaller the farther a rural county was from a metropolitan area of more than 1 million, says a comparison of Labor Department data. (Daily Yonder)
RFS for 2021 on hold: The EPA has stopped work on its proposal for the biofuel mandate for 2021, expected to call for only a marginal increase from this year, amid coronavirus-caused contraction of gasoline demand, according to two unnamed sources. (Reuters)
