Senate committee approves two livestock marketing reform bills – June 23, 2022

Senate committee approves two livestock marketing reform bills

The Senate Agriculture Committee quickly approved legislation on Wednesday that would require meatpackers to buy a portion of their slaughter cattle on the cash market — a step intended to ensure fair prices — and create a USDA special investigator to enforce fair-play rules in the highly concentrated meat industry.

As bird flu outbreaks slow, USDA urges readiness for autumn

While this year’s outbreaks of bird flu, the worst in seven years, are following the usual pattern of dissipating during hot weather, it’s too early to declare the threat over, said the Agriculture Department on Wednesday.

Farm payments doubled during subsidy flood

The government paid a record $41.6 billion in a variety of subsidies to farmers in 2020, double the amount they received in 2018, when the Trump-era cash gusher began flowing, said the Environmental Working Group on Wednesday.

TODAY’S QUICK HITS

Tester, Booker tackle consolidation: In a 67-second video that employs gleeful pratfalls and slapstick humor, Democratic Sens. Jon Tester and Cory Booker call attention to their bill for a moratorium on agricultural consolidation. (Tester)
West to face Bishop: In a runoff election in southwestern Georgia, Republicans chose real estate developer Chris West as their general election candidate against 15-term Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop, chair of the House subcommittee in charge of USDA and FDA funding. (Georgia Secretary of State)

Missiles hit Ukrainian terminals: Russian missiles set fire to a Ukrainian vegetable oil terminal owned by grain exporter Viterra and damaged a grain terminal owned by Bunge in the port city of Mykolayiv. (Bloomberg)

It’s ‘copi,’ not carp: A five-year, $600,000 campaign centered in Illinois will rebrand four species of invasive Asian carp as “copi” in hopes of developing a consumer market for the fish. (Associated Press)

Is it ‘greedflation’?: A team of Iowa State economists, examining the fertilizer industry at the request of the state attorney general, said they could not determine if companies had used inflation as an excuse to raise prices or if higher prices had resulted from increased production costs and supply chain issues. (CARD)

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