USDA to release coronavirus reserve funds, makes more products eligible More than half a million farmers and ranchers will get a second round of coronavirus relief payments, worth an estimated $1.4 billion, said the Agriculture Department on Tuesday as it made dozens of additional commodities eligible for aid and gave… Continue reading

Biggest farmers stand solidly with Trump, poll shows Large-scale farmers and ranchers say they will vote in landslide numbers for President Trump this fall, applauding his handling of agriculture and foreign policy, said a Farm Futures poll released on Wednesday. Some 75 percent of respondents to the nationwide email poll… Continue reading

In abrupt reversal, USDA extends summer school food waivers The Department of Agriculture said Monday that it would extend school meal waivers through Dec. 30—less than a week after Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue had said the programs would lapse by Sept. 30. The sudden reversal came amid an outcry from… Continue reading

Trump failed on trade and ethanol, says Democratic farm forum Rural America, and farmers in particular, voted overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2016 but have suffered rather than benefitted for it, said speakers on a  “farmers and ranchers roundtable” organized by the Biden-Harris campaign. The forum, held 10 days ahead… Continue reading

More growers, less hemp in industry slowed by uncertainty, pandemic The first year of nationwide cultivation of industrial hemp has been a mixture of retrenchment and optimism for growth in the longer term. “The industry isn’t going to go away,” said hemp entrepreneur Morris Beegle on Thursday. “It’s going to… Continue reading

Administration prepares another multibillion-dollar aid package for agriculture The USDA aims to release a new version of its coronavirus relief program for farmers and ranchers in the next couple of weeks, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday, with at least $14 billion available. President Trump has suggested the new… Continue reading

U.S. Army Corps key to Trump’s move on Pebble Mine This week, the Trump administration placed a major hurdle in front of the company seeking to develop the largest gold and copper mine in North America. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday stated that the proposed Pebble Mine… Continue reading

Trump boosts food-box funding by $1 billion Hours after he was nominated for a second term, President Trump announced at a produce packing house in North Carolina an additional $1 billion on Monday for the food-box giveaway program that is his administration’s answer to hunger during the pandemic.   Farm… Continue reading

USDA tightens eligibility rules for farm subsidies Loopholes remain, but the USDA is tightening its crop subsidy rules by limiting who can collect a payment for managing a farm, historically one of its most porous definitions. The new regulation, to be published on Monday, requires people to perform at least… Continue reading