Deputy secretary will be first Biden appointee to leave USDA Jewel Bronaugh, the first Black person to serve as Agriculture deputy secretary, said on Thursday that she would leave the USDA at the end of February “so I can spend more time with my family.” Bronaugh, who oversees the USDA’s… Continue reading

High food inflation to persist in 2023 The 9.9 percent food inflation rate of 2022 will be followed by a 7.1 percent rate this year, the highest rates in three decades, said USDA economists on Wednesday. Egg prices were forecast to rise 27 percent this year, on top of a… Continue reading

Food affordability remains a global challenge Fears of persistently high world food prices, sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and disruption of global supply chains, have subsided but food affordability remains a challenge at the household and macro-economic levels, said three analysts on Tuesday. “These risks will remain high” in… Continue reading

Dairy farmers to get up to $200 million in USDA aid The Biden administration expanded a pandemic relief program for dairy farmers on Monday to cover up to 9 million pounds of milk produced during the second half of 2020, up from the original 5 million pounds. The Agriculture Department… Continue reading

Growers to plant more wheat, pursuing war-boosted prices With U.S. wheat selling for a record-high average of $9.10 a bushel, growers say they will sow the largest amount of land to wheat in seven years, enough to bump up production by 17 percent. It is the latest reverberation of the… Continue reading

Lawsuit asks court to void Biden administration clean water rule Seventeen farm, construction, and mining groups filed suit in federal court to overturn the Biden administration’s definition of the upstream reach of water pollution laws. They argued that the new Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule was “so opaque,… Continue reading

Volatile commodity prices in the year ahead Economic growth and inflation will slow in the coming months, but commodity prices are likely to be volatile as the world’s farmers try to catch up with the global appetite for food, said two leading agricultural economists on Wednesday. “I think that 2023… Continue reading

Put more money into land stewardship The 2023 farm bill should expand funding for USDA soil and water conservation programs and allow payments to the so-called early adopters of climate-smart farming practices, said the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture on Tuesday. NASDA said the farm bill “must remain… Continue reading

Protect SNAP in new farm bill, says Scott When Congress writes the new farm bill, it should maintain the nutrition safety net that is headlined by food stamps, said Georgia Rep. David Scott, the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow has said for months… Continue reading

(AG Insider) — A plot of land in Connecticut, once a thriving tobacco farm where Martin Luther King Jr. worked as a college student in the 1940s, will be protected for its historic and cultural significance to the state’s civil rights history. Last month’s finalized sale of the 288-acre parcel… Continue reading