Pandemic rages, but USDA’s food box program may end in eight weeks As it announced contracts for up to $1.47 billion to carry the Farmers to Families Food Box initiative through July and August, the USDA also said the program could end on Sept. 1, or soon afterward, as funding… Continue reading

We will resume our regular posts the week after July 4th. Happy Independence Day! Continue reading

Obstacles for Fischbach in her campaign to challenge Ag chair Peterson With an early endorsement from President Trump, former Lt. Gov. Michelle Fischbach is the GOP favorite to run against House Agriculture chairman Collin Peterson in western Minnesota. But other candidates were loath to clear the way for her at… Continue reading

Largest annual increase in grocery prices since 2011   Grocery prices will rise by a higher-than-average 3 percent this year, due largely to the coronavirus-propelled surge in the cost of meat, poultry, and fish at the supermarket, forecast the USDA on Thursday. It would be the largest annual increase since… Continue reading

  Senate bill would help farmers get into carbon markets, say backers   Farmers could combine environmental and economic sustainability through practices that lock carbon into the soil, but it’s dauntingly difficult to enter the carbon sequestration market and get paid for it, said the leaders of the two largest… Continue reading

  A grassroots push for higher SNAP benefits   Anti-hunger activists hope one-on-one conversations with senators on their home territory over the next couple of weeks will overcome opposition to a 15-percent increase in SNAP benefits during the coronavirus pandemic   Coronavirus pay raise proposed for farmworkers Farmworkers would gain… Continue reading

Farmland values constrained by falling income, pandemic   Farmland values across the Midwest and Plains are steady or lower than they were last June under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic and fears of declining farm income, said the largest U.S. farm management and real estate sales company. Farmworkers win… Continue reading

USDA offers few yardsticks for measuring its food-box program   For USDA, the most important number in its food-box giveaway program is how many boxes are donated — 18.4 million as of Friday, according to a tally on the homepage of the agency that runs the program. Officials declined to… Continue reading

  In new fuel clash, oil refiners ask for 52 retroactive ethanol exemptions   Oil refiners are attempting to evade an adverse appellate court ruling by asking the EPA for retroactive exemptions from the ethanol mandate, said biofuel trade groups on Thursday. Refiners have filed 52 petitions for exemptions stretching… Continue reading

  Lighthizer counts on wave of purchases to lift China to ag goal   China is closer than commonly realized to fulfilling its commitment to buy vast amounts of U.S. food and ag products this year, said U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer on Thursday, rebutting criticism that the “phase one”… Continue reading