AgClips
Recent AgClips
3 reasons to support farm bill’s nutrition provisions
The Farmer | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Federal NewsProposed changes to the farm bill nutrition title threaten to hang up the conference committee. So, it is as important as ever for farm groups to band with their partners in the nutrition community in calling on Congress to protect the integrity of the consumer food safety net.For organizations such as ours, National Farmers Union and Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, there is little to commend in the House version of the farm bill, which was broadly condemned by progressive ag groups, conservationists and anti-hunger advocates.
While lawmakers laud compromise, Trump urges SNAP work requirements
The Food & Environment Reporting Network | Posted onSeptember 6, 2018 in Federal NewsFarm bill negotiators spoke smilingly of comity and compromise while budging not an inch on major issues such as SNAP work requirements on Wednesday during their first, and possibly last, public meeting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, after wryly saying, “I can’t remember the last time I appointed myself to a conference,” told his fellow negotiators that if they fail to enact the farm bill before the Sept.
Fifteen states want Supreme Court to rule on state livestock standard laws
The Progressive Farmer | Posted onSeptember 5, 2018 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsThe attorneys general of 15 states are waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a pair of cases by Missouri and Indiana against California and Massachusetts over what they see as a violation of interstate commerce by trying to regulate agricultural production in other states.
U.S. farm group would support supply management in NAFTA
The Food & Environment Reporting Network | Posted onSeptember 5, 2018 in Agriculture NewsAgriculture amounts to a small part of NAFTA trade volume but it is a major sticking point for U.S. and Canadian negotiators who are scheduled to resume negotiations on the new NAFTA on Wednesday. The second-largest U.S. farm group said the White House ought to adopt the dairy supply management system that it reportedly is trying to eliminate in Canada and reinstate country-of-origin labeling on beef. Canada is unlikely to yield on supply management, which has broad domestic political support, wrote associate professor Michael von Massow of the University of Guelph.
Questionable moves at USDA
National Journal Daily | Posted onSeptember 5, 2018 in Federal NewsWhen the House and Senate farm-bill conference committee meets Wednesday, there are some things they should discuss but probably won’t: the Trump administration’s decisions to place the Agriculture Department’s economic research functions directly under the secretary and to move most of the employees of the Economic Research Service and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture out of Washington. Perdue’s argument is that he plans to move the agencies so that the researchers will be closer to the farmers who benefit from their work.
With industry in decline, wild blueberries sing the blues
AP | Posted onSeptember 5, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe Maine wild blueberry industry harvests one of the most beloved fruit crops in New England, but it’s locked in a downward skid in a time when other nutrition-packed foods, from acai to quinoa, dominate the conversation about how to eat. And questions linger about when, and if, the berry will be able to make a comeback. The little blueberries are touted by health food bloggers and natural food stores because of their hefty dose of antioxidants.
Facing a glut, cranberry farmers want to dump part of the harvest so prices can rise
The Boston Globe | Posted onSeptember 5, 2018 in Agriculture NewsCranberry farmers buried under a glut of the tart fruit are seeking permission for a radical way to dig themselves out: destroying millions of pounds of their crops.
Corn to wheat, agriculture prices enduring near-perfect storm
Bloomberg | Posted onSeptember 5, 2018 in Agriculture NewsDespite another bin-busting U.S. corn-belt production year, trade tensions and the plunging Brazilian real, grain prices are relatively stalwart. For prices to sustain lower, it appears the near-perfect bear-market storm conditions need to endure — that’s unlikely. Led by wheat, the Bloomberg Grains Spot Index is up almost 2% in 2018 to Aug. 28. Broad agriculture is down almost 5% on the back of a 20% slump in the softs and real. Total returns are lower due to steep contangos but indicating improvement. The wheat one-year future curve leads major commodities moving toward backwardation.
The rise of the zombie small businesses
The Atlantic | Posted onSeptember 5, 2018 in Rural NewsImagine the farm that raised the chicken that produced the meat that sits in your sandwich: a few workers, thousands of birds, tens of thousands of pounds of white and dark meat, work that starts before dawn and ends after dusk, uncertain revenue, slim profits. There are thousands of these small farms in the United States, and they benefit from millions of dollars of taxpayer support each year. Chicken is America’s favorite protein, after all. Family farms are one of its most prized institutions. And farming is tough business.
NMPF Statement on USDA Trade Aid Package
National Milk Producers Federation | Posted onSeptember 5, 2018 in Agriculture News“Today’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on its tariff mitigation plan falls far short of addressing the losses dairy producers are experiencing due to trade retaliation resulting from the Trump Administration’s imposition of steel and aluminum tariffs.