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USDA will open some FSA offices

USDA | Posted on January 17, 2019

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced that many Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices will reopen temporarily in the coming days to perform certain limited services for farmers and ranchers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has recalled about 2,500 FSA employees to open offices on Thursday, January 17 and Friday, January 18, in addition to Tuesday, January 22, during normal business hours. The offices will be closed for the federal Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday, January 21.   In almost half of FSA locations, FSA staff will be available to assist agricultural producers with existing farm loans and to ensure the agency provides 1099 tax documents to borrowers by the Internal Revenue Service’s deadline. See complete list.


How the Farm Bill help spur a rural innovation renaissance

Pacific Standard | Posted on January 17, 2019

Rural and small towns in the United States have higher rates of self-employment than their urban and suburban counterparts. More than that, the more rural the county, the higher the rate of entrepreneurship—and these businesses tend to be more resilient because of their engagement with smaller communities. This entrepreneurial spirit, paired with the continued expansion of broadband into rural areas, means that we're now seeing the beginning of what you could call a rural innovation renaissance: The opportunities brought by the digital economy are coming to rural America through remote work opportunities, collaborative technological endeavors, and innovation—led by rural entrepreneurs.


Big winners in Trump rollback of wetlands rules? Developers

AP News | Posted on January 17, 2019

President Donald Trump pointed to farmers Monday as winners from the administration’s proposed rollback of federal protections for wetlands and waterways across the country, describing farmers crying in gratitude when he ordered the change. But under long-standing federal law and rules, farmers and farmland already are exempt from most of the regulatory hurdles on behalf of wetlands that the Trump administration is targeting. Because of that, environmental groups long have argued that builders, oil and gas drillers and other industry owners would be the big winners if the government adopts the pending rollback, making it easier to fill in bogs, creeks and streams for plowing, drilling, mining or building.  Government numbers released last month support that argument.Real estate developers and those in other business sectors take out substantially more permits than farmers for projects impinging on wetlands, creeks and streams, and they stand to reap the biggest regulatory and financial relief from the Trump administration’s rollback of wetlands protections.


Farmers are playing the long game with Trump, even as woes build up

Bloomberg | Posted on January 15, 2019

Donald Trump’s policies might be causing hiccups in the agriculture world, but the man himself is still enjoying the affections of his farming base. Speaking before the American Farm Bureau in New Orleans Monday, Trump drew applause and cheers as he lobbied for a border wall, while telling the audience that he’ll make it “easier” for migrants to work on farms. He also touted his administration’s approval of year-round sales of gasoline with higher ethanol content and said he’s making deals and regulatory changes that will benefit agriculture. The speech comes at a time when farmers are feeling the weight of almost a year of escalating trade tensions with China, which have reduced demand for American crop exports and weighed on commodity prices. Meanwhile, the partial government shutdown, the longest ever in U.S. history, has disrupted some aid payments that were meant to help ease the trade war’s blow. Shuttered federal agencies are also choking off key crop reports that farmers rely on to make planting decisions.

 


Trump's tone-deaf appeal to farmers hurting from trade war: 'Greatest harvest is yet to come'

The Hill | Posted on January 15, 2019

President Trump today appealed to America’s family farmers and ranchers, promising great things to come for the men and women who provide food, fuel and fiber for our nation. “The greatest harvest is yet to come,” he said. Yet, the sentiment could not have come off more tone deaf from a man who’s trade tactics have depressed an already troubled farm economy, pushing many family farmers into significant financial stress and even more out of business. “Before I got here, it was heading south,” Trump said, referring to America’s ability to export agricultural products. He said those exports had seen a continuous decline over the past 15 years, despite USDA data showing agricultural exports nearly tripling.The truth is, for the past two years, American family farmers have taken the brunt of the administration’s trade wars. Retaliatory tariffs, lost trade relationships and unstable markets have pushed the American farm economy to its brink. In fact, the majority of farms have earned negative farm income in recent years, and many are being forced to sell the farm. The president must right the ship immediately, as farmers can no longer afford to hold out hope for “the greatest harvest.”Trump’s trade tactics have alienated the United States. They have taken us from being a world leader to being a world agitator. From being a premier supplier to being a residual supplier. You see this embodied in the president’s go-it-alone approach with respect to encouraging fair trade with China. Rather than work with our top trading partners like Canada, Mexico, Japan and the European Union to address common grievances with China, we’ve offended all of our allies. Not only has this ruined positive trading relationships with trade allies, it has weakened our leverage to deal with the world’s shared trade aggressor, China.


Trump’s Shutdown Is a Sucker Punch for Struggling Farmers

The New York Times | Posted on January 14, 2019

Today President Trump will address the American Farm Bureau’s 100th annual convention in New Orleans. But any promises of help will be too late for many farmers. Had he set out to ruin America’s small farmers, he could hardly have come up with a more effective, potentially ruinous one-two combination punch than tariffs and the shutdown.The trade wars collapsed farmers’ markets. Now, with farmers down, he’s kicking them with a partial shutdown that has effectively slammed the door on farm payments, loans and more. It’s hurting rural Americans — those who formed a big part of the base of Mr. Trump’s support in 2016.


Medicaid ‘Buy-In’ Could Be a New Health Care Option for the Uninsured

Pew Trust | Posted on January 14, 2019

Even as calls for “Medicare for All” grow louder among Democrats in Washington, D.C., at least 10 states are exploring whether to allow residents to pay premiums to “buy in” to Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor. Currently, Medicaid recipients pay for their coverage in only a handful of states, and the buy-in plans that states are considering might not offer the full range of benefits available to traditional beneficiaries. But advocates say the policies might be an appealing option for people hard-pressed to pay for plans on the health care exchanges, and spur competition that could lower prices for everybody.The concept of enrolling all Americans in Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly, is probably a nonstarter in politically polarized Washington — at least for now. So, states have started looking at other ways to provide health care to more people at more affordable prices.Nevada’s legislature passed a Medicaid buy-in program in 2017, only to have its then-Republican governor, Brian Sandoval, veto it, saying the state needed more time to study the plan. Legislative supporters say they are planning to file a new bill shortly and are optimistic about passage. The state now has a Democratic governor. Studies of a buy-in option also are ongoing in California, Delaware, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. And newly elected governors in Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin have pledged support for Medicaid buy-in. 


Trump farm bailout money will go to Brazilian-owned meatpacking firm

The Washington Post | Posted on January 14, 2019

U.S. taxpayers will buy about $5 million in pork products from a Brazilian-owned meatpacking firm under President Trump’s bailout program, which was designed to help American farmers hurt by the administration’s trade war.  JBS. one of the biggest meatpacking companies in the world, will sell 1.8 million pounds of pork products through a Trump bailout program that buys surplus commodities from farmers and ranchers, say records published by the Agricultural Marketing Service. The administration has pitched its $12 billion bailout program as necessary to help farmers weather the long-running trade war with China, but critics have questioned whether funding will also enrich large and foreign-owned firms.


EPA backs down from plan that could have allowed youth farmworkers to handle pesticides

Los Angeles Times | Posted on January 13, 2019

The Environmental Protection Agency has abandoned plans to roll back a set of protections for farmworkers, including a proposal to ease Obama-era regulations requiring anyone working with dangerous pesticides to be at least 18 years old.Passed in 2015, the rules became a target of the EPA a year after President Trump’s election. The agency announced in late 2017 that it was reconsidering the minimum age requirements, opening the door to the possibility that it might lower the age limit or do away with it entirely.The agency cited as justification an executive order signed by the president calling for “reducing regulation and controlling regulatory costs.”But the EPA said recently that the effort to scale back those environmental and health regulations would not go forward, disappointing industry groups and pleasantly surprising environmental and farmworker advocacy groups.


Trump formally nominates Wheeler to deregulate at EPA

Politico | Posted on January 10, 2019

President Donald Trump has formally nominated Andrew Wheeler to be EPA administrator, cementing the no-nonsense former attorney as his pick to carry out his deregulatory agenda, the White House announced.


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