SNAP error rate soars to highest in years
The error rate of SNAP over- and underpayments — 11.54 percent — “is unacceptable and threatens the integrity of the program,” said the leaders of the Senate and House Agriculture committees, who oversee food stamps. The error rate in fiscal 2022 was the highest in years and 4 points higher than before the pandemic.
Biggest-ever corn crop is possible, thanks to a stampede into corn
U.S. farmers planted far more corn than expected — so much more that corn production could jump by a startling 14 percent from last year for the biggest harvest ever, according to USDA data. A bin-busting crop could weigh on market prices for months.
LATEST
Its crab fishery collapsed, a remote Alaskan village must decide whether it has a future
My small turboprop plane whirred low through thick clouds. Below me, St. Paul Island cut a golden, angular shape in the shadow-dark Bering Sea. I saw a lone island village — a grid of houses, a small harbor, and a road that followed a black ribbon of coast. Some 330 people, most of them Indigenous, live in the village of St. Paul, about 800 miles west of Anchorage, where the local economy depends almost entirely on the commercial snow crab business. Over the last few years, 10 billion snow crabs have unexpectedly vanished from the Bering Sea. I was traveling there to find out what the villagers might do next.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
File farmworker reform bill: Against long odds in the Republican-controlled House, a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed a farmworker reform bill that would give legal status to undocumented farmworkers and update the H-2A guestworker program. (Lofgren)
Midwest drought to wane: Above-normal rainfall will be widespread from the central Plains through the Midwest and into the Northeast during July, reducing drought in the region, said the U.S. Monthly Drought Outlook. (National Weather Service)
Pistachio farm flood disaster: The resurgent Tulare Lake has flooded hundreds of acres of trees on Makram Hanna’s pistachio farm in California’s Central Valley before the trees could bear their first crop: “To see everything we worked for going down the drain, it’s very hard,” Hanna said. (Los Angeles Times)
Basse heads Farm Foundation: Don Basse, president of AgResource Company, of Chicago, was elected to a two-year term as chair of the Farm Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that examines issues in the agriculture sector. (Farm Foundation)
Oppose Prop 12 override: In their zeal to obviate California’s Proposition 12 animal welfare law, farm-state lawmakers threaten the ability of states to pass laws to regulate the agriculture sector, said the Humane Society of the United States. (HSUS)
ON THE CALENDAR
Wednesday
Purdue University releases Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly gauge of the agricultural economy’s health.
Thursday
U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai and the trade ministers of Canada and Mexico attend the third annual USMCA Free Trade Commission, through Friday, Cancun, Mexico. “Ministers will review ongoing work by USMCA committees and working groups to continue implementation of the agreement,” said Tai’s office. Tai will meet Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng and Mexican Trade Secretary Raquel Buenrostro in separate bilateral meetings.
Friday
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization releases monthly Food Price Index, Rome.
Sunday
School Nutrition Association holds annual National Conference, through July 11, Denver.
