Lawmaker says farm bill should be split in two: SNAP and agriculture
A decade after the House briefly put the idea into play, a senior Republican on the House Agriculture Committee said the far-ranging farm bill should be divided into two separate pieces of legislation: SNAP and everything else. SNAP, which cost $119 billion last year, has become “an emotional, political issue” that taints consideration of farm supports, said Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia.
Incentive payments help farmers start with cover crops
Nine out of 10 farmers say they definitely or probably will stick with cover crops after the expiration of financial incentives to add the crops to their operations, said a report based on a survey of 795 farmers nationwide. Half of the participants in the National Cover Crop Survey said they had received some sort of payment for cover crops in 2022.
Why are we paying for crop failures in the desert?
In mid-July in Phoenix, a man demonstrated to a local news station how to cook steak on the dashboard of his car. The city sweltered through a nearly month-long streak of 110-degree temperatures this summer, while heat records are tumbling across the Southwest. But despite the signs that this is the new normal, farmers in the region are planting the same thirsty crops on the same parched land in the desert, and watching them wither year after year. And why not? The American taxpayer is covering their losses.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Smithfield to shut down hog farms: As meatpackers face declining profits and lower demand for their products, Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor, said it would close 35 hog farm sites and lay off 92 employees in Missouri in October. (Reuters)
Climate change imperils food supply: A warming planet and extreme weather events, including heat waves and deadly floods, “are primed to strike commodities and the food supply like never before” through impacts such as lower crop yields. (Axios)
Clean air and right-to-repair: The Clean Air Act and EPA regulations “clearly support repair by parties other than manufacturers,” said EPA administrator Michael Regan in a letter that supported farmers’ right to repair equipment that includes pollution controls. (NFU)
Phillips, ADM talk about biofuels: U.S. petroleum company Phillips 66 and grain processor ADM are discussing a joint venture that would use ADM’s dry corn mills to produce grain alcohol for conversion into lower-carbon jet fuel, said three unnamed sources. (Reuters)
