Ag Policy Blog

USDA under the Biden administration boosted the Conservation Reserve Program acreage by 4.4 million acres to hit roughly 25.9 million acres. USDA officials noted overall sign up for new enrollment is limited because of the farm bill cap of 27 million acres. Producers have until June...

The FARMER Act increases premium support for higher levels of crop insurance coverage. The bill would increase subsidy levels for Enterprise Units and Whole Farm crop insurance. The bill also would increas premium support and protection levels for the Supplemental Coverage...

While those of us in the U.S. have championed the potential gains that President Donald Trump and his administration rolled out, the reaction in England is notably different. News outlets have pointed out the that the British government has insisted that American hormone-treated...

The House Agriculture Committee plans to hold a markup next week to cut as much as $230 billion from the budget over the next decade. The cuts are expected to all come from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn...

Late last week, President Donald Trump released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026 that highlights plans to cut USDA's discretionary budget by more than $4.6 billion. The proposed cuts come after USDA last week detailed to lawmakers that 15,182 employees across the...

Rep. Glenn "GT" Thompson, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, told members of the North American Agricultural Journalists on Tuesday that he plans to integrate updates to reference prices and other safety net programs as part of the upcoming reconciliation bill...

The Mexican government committed to transfer water from international reservoirs and increase the U.S. share of the flow in six of Mexico's Rio Grande tributaries through the end of the current five-year water cycle, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a news...

Based on comments from a few commodity groups, perhaps the docking fees on Chinese ships might not be as bad as expected. Still, DTN ran some numbers on what a $50 per metric ton fee would look like if Chinese companies choose to impose the fee on outbound cargo.

The U.S. Trade Representative's Office concluded Thursday that the fees starting at $50 a ton were needed on ships that arrive at U.S. ports because China had targeted the maritime industry, harming U.S. ship manufacturing and U.S.-based maritime companies.

Pressing their focus to Make America Healthy Again, the secretaries of Agriculture and Health and Human Services were in Arkansas and Indiana on Tuesday as governors announced plans to ask USDA for waivers on SNAP to restrict some purchases.

Stating a review has been completed, USDA is canceling the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program started under the Biden administration. Still, grant recipients can continue the work under a new program, which will be called Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP...

President Trump discussed easing restrictions around undocumented farm labor during a Cabinet meeting Thursday. It was the first time the president had signaled a willingness to temper his mass deportation plans to help protect the labor pool for industries such as...

The Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act would create and empower a team of investigators at USDA to prevent anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industry by enforcing existing antitrust laws, in coordination with the Department of Justice and the Federal...

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Sunday vigorously defended the tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump, but she also said she is working with appropriators to make sure there are funds to pay farmers if export income goes down.

General farm groups are raising concerns about retaliation, but they also emphasized the need to press for greater market access as well. Within the cattle industry, two groups that seldom agree on anything both praised the president's actions.

The 400-page 2025 National Trade Estimate Report released by the U.S. Trade Representative's Office examines trade barriers in nearly 50 countries along with the European Union. The report comes as the Trump administration is preparing to release more extensive tariff plans...

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins spent Monday in Iowa touting investments in biofuels as a way to increase demand for farm products. Rollins acknowledged USDA is getting ready for possible trade retaliation as President Donald Trump readies his tariff announcement on...

USDA has announced the department will join the Department of Education in investigating whether a California law over gender identification violates federal law and Trump's executive orders against transgender policies. USDA made the same moves earlier this month in Maine.

After months of freezing funds for the Rural Energy For America Program (REAP), Empowering Rural America (New ERA) and Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) programs, USDA issued a news release late Tuesday stating Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins "will release...

A letter from Democratic senators to USDA challenges the department for freezing or canceling roughly $1 billion that would have provided more food to local food banks nationally. USDA has not responded to questions about the canceled food-bank and local-food contracts.