Vilsack: Transform food system with more processors and local marketing
The pandemic exposed the weaknesses of a food system built around large-volume production and national supply chains, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday. As a remedy, he said, the USDA would help independent processors start up or expand their operations and encourage local marketing.
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Flights to deliver 680,000 pounds of infant formula
The administration’s Operation Fly Formula will deliver 680,000 pounds of infant formula from makers in Great Britain and Australia beginning on June 9, said the White House on Wednesday. The deliveries would be the equivalent of 8.3 million 8-ounce bottles of formula.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Food crisis may ease: While calling for decisive action to keep food and energy flowing from the Black Sea region, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “I think there is progress” in the negotiations to mitigate a world food crisis. (VOA News)
Destructive moth in Napa: The grapeleaf skeletonizer moth, which devours the green matter in grape leaves, was found for the first time in the Pope Valley region of wine-producing Napa County, California. (Modern Farmer)
Volatile cotton prices: Pointing to “many variables and unknowns,” the International Cotton Advisory Council announced a temporary pause in its monthly forecast of season-average cotton prices and said it would decide in August whether to resume the estimates. (ICAC)
Thumbs-down on solar: Nearly half of farmers in a straw poll on solar power chose the response “We want nothing to do with it,” while 9 percent said they have solar power “for personal use” and 32 percent were considering it. (Farm Progress)
Costs are an organic challenge: Seven of every 10 organic farmers in California say that managing production costs is a substantial challenge and that farm labor is their leading non-production problem, according to a survey of growers. (Organic Farming Research Foundation)
Grasslands near hives = fatter bees: Large areas of grassy-herbaceous land around apiaries can moderate the detrimental effects of a warmer, wetter climate that threatens honeybees in the Midwest, according to new research. (Penn State University)
California ups composting game: The state’s new composting law requires communities to cut the amount of methane-emitting organic waste in their landfills by 75 percent by 2025. (InsideClimate News)
