Farm bill passage in 2024, later than hoped
The new farm bill will not enacted until next year because of continuing disagreements over issues such SNAP benefits and higher crop subsidies, said Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow on Wednesday. “I am committed to passing a strong, bipartisan farm bill as soon as possible,” she said, but the process is taking longer than hoped.
Food insecurity soars 30 percent as pandemic aid ends
More than 44 million Americans experienced food insecurity last year, the highest number since 2014, at the same time that pandemic assistance was reduced, said a USDA report on Wednesday. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and anti-hunger groups called on Congress to protect funding for public nutrition programs, including WIC and SNAP.
USDA strengthens animal welfare standards for organic livestock
Organic farmers will have stronger and more consistent standards for treatment of their livestock under an animal welfare regulation that could take effect by the end of this year, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday.
How the H-2A visa program failed two farmworkers from Mexico
By the time the sun came up over the rolling green hills of Harrells, North Carolina, on June 23, 2021, a charred metal platform was all that remained of the old trailer. The trailer was where two cousins, Vicente Gomez Hernandez and Humberto Feliciano Gomez, were meant to spend the summer of 2021. They had traveled there from their Mixteco Indigenous community in Oaxaca. Now they’d be returning in body bags. Gomez and Feliciano were two of the hundreds of thousands of temporary agricultural workers who come to the U.S. each year through the H-2A visa program. It’s the federal government’s most important farm-labor pipeline. Yet for many visa recipients, the promise of steady work and decent pay quickly devolves into a nightmare of labor trafficking, wage theft, and unsafe living conditions that can lead to injury or even death.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Farm bill vote this year: Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, a SNAP critic, said in a letter to colleagues that he aims for House passage of a farm bill in December, soon after a vote on the USDA-FDA funding bill. (Politico)
Colorado River cuts are enough: Conditions on the Colorado River have improved enough that the voluntary water cuts planned by California, Arizona, and Nevada will keep the river basin stable for the medium term, said federal officials. (Associated Press)
Climate change aids pests: Populations of three major pests plaguing California specialty crops — the codling moth, peach twig borer, and oriental fruit moth — will increase because of rising temperatures, adding to pressure on walnut, almond, and peach farmers. (University of California)
Global hunger rising: The United Nations goal of zero hunger by 2030 is increasingly out of reach because of climate change and warfare, said speakers at the World Food Prize Symposium. (DTN/Progressive Farmer)
Food inflation holds steady: For the second month in a row, the Food Price Outlook estimated grocery prices would rise 5.1 percent this year from 2022 prices. Pork would be the only food category with a price decline. (USDA)
