Two sides of Washington: Trump bailout and China tariffs The Trump administration will hear hours of testimony about its proposed 25 percent tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese products on Monday, overlapping with the expected USDA announcement of up to $12 billion in aid for U.S. agriculture to offset the… Continue reading
Trump tariff bailout may be sunlight ahead of storm clouds over farm sector Crop and livestock producers are likely to learn on Monday how the Trump administration will allocate up to $12 billion in aid to offset the impact of retaliatory Chinese tariffs on the U.S. farm sector, said Agriculture… Continue reading
U.S. judge allows lawsuit against USDA withdrawal of organic livestock rule The USDA spent a decade writing livestock welfare rules for organic farms before, in a regulatory U-turn, it decided last December that it lacked the power to implement those rules. The decision sparked a lawsuit by the organic community…. Continue reading
Trump’s midterm campaign map mostly omits Midwest North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a farm bill negotiator, is a White House target for defeat in the mid-term elections. But President Trump will generally steer clear of the Midwest and races involving other members of the Senate Agriculture Committee during his upcoming… Continue reading
Dicamba takes a toll again on neighboring fields, say weed specialists Monsanto proudly says its low-volatility formulations of dicamba, coupled with cotton and soybean varieties genetically modified to tolerate doses of the herbicide, are an effective tool against invasive weeds. But weed scientists report that damage to neighboring fields and… Continue reading
Top Republicans in House and Senate press on SNAP work requirements A small group of negotiators will write the final version of the $87-billion-a-year farm bill in the weeks ahead, and they are under pressure from high-ranking conservatives in Congress to require millions of people to work at least 20… Continue reading
A new fish bill could hurt marine management Republicans claim the House version of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, a.k.a. the fish bill, would strike “a proper balance between the biological needs of fish stocks and the economic needs of fishermen.” Environmentalists disagree. As the fight moves to the Senate, the House… Continue reading
Wheeler ‘working very hard’ on year-round E15, says Grassley Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is “working very hard to find a solution” for the year-round sale of E15, said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley on a conference call with reporters Wednesday. Grassley also said that an earlier proposal that would allow refiners… Continue reading
Texas lawmakers to study declining monarch butterfly and bee populations The population of monarch butterflies continues to decline and are down about 15 percent from a year ago, according to numbers from a Texas A&M University monarch butterfly researcher. With that drop, there’s an overall 90 percent decline in the population… Continue reading
Wanted: Office space in a city with a ‘critical mass of intellectual capacity’ The Agriculture Department is willing to go far into the countryside to find office space for two agencies that it wants to move out of Washington. The new headquarters must have robust internet service, a “critical mass… Continue reading
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