Inflation means longer lines at food banks
Americans are turning to food banks for help in the face of rising food, fuel, child care and housing costs, the chief executive of the Atlanta Community Food Bank told lawmakers on Tuesday. “Our distribution volumes are rising again” and now match the early months of the pandemic, when hunger was on the rise, said Kyle Waide, the chief executive.
Temporary silos to speed Ukraine grain exports
The United States will build temporary grain silos on the border of Ukraine and Poland to help overcome a logistical barrier to exporting Ukrainian grain by rail, President Biden announced on Tuesday. “I’m working closely with our European partners to get 20 million tons of grains locked in Ukraine out onto the market to help bring down food prices,” he said.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Biden gets ocean reform: President Biden said he looked forward to signing into law the ocean shipping reform bill passed by Congress to bar freight lines from unreasonably refusing to load U.S. cargo. (White House)
House GOP on ag agenda: To help the farm economy, President Biden should abandon a WOTUS re-write, allow more oil and gas drilling on federal land and adopt a friendlier stance on use of pesticides, said 96 House Republicans, including leader Kevin McCarthy, the senior Republican on the House Agriculture Committee. (House Agriculture Republicans)
Caterpillar headquarters to Texas: Five years after it moved its headquarters to the Chicago area after decades in downstate Peoria, the manufacturer of construction and mining equipment said it would move its offices to the Dallas suburbs. (Caterpillar)
Davids joins House Ag: Second-term Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids was appointed to the House Agriculture Committee and “will be a force for food security and economic opportunity,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Pelosi)
USDA, HBCUs sign MOU: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Paul Jones, chair of the 1890s Presidents Council, signed a memorandum of understanding to create a task force to inject energy into USDA collaboration with historically Black land grant universities created under a 1890 law. (USDA)
