Ag Policy Blog

The country quickly weighed in Monday on social media, campaign calls and news releases about former President Donald Trump selecting Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate. The senator has little history in agricultural policy, but he grew up in rural America.

USDA announced $110 million for 57 various small processors across the country through two different programs, the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program (MPPEP) and the Local Meat Capacity (Local MCap) Grant Program.

Reflecting the partisan divide that exists right now, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee criticized Republicans for not bringing their farm bill up for debate on the House floor.

Democrats have ramped up criticism of Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project, an effort driven by the Heritage Foundation to lay out an agenda for Donald Trump if he wins the presidency. For agriculture, Project 2025 calls on the White House to use the bully pulpit to...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed a new rule on Tuesday meant to deal with heat-related illnesses and deaths. OSHA cites the rule would affect more than 105,000 agricultural operations. Farms with 10 or fewer employees are excluded by the rule...

The Federal Milk Marketing Order affects 321 dairy processing plants around the country at least one month out of the year. The draft recommendations summarize months of hearings. In a notice to stakeholders, USDA detailed five specific recommendations.

Speaking Friday at a summer meals program in Omaha, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack said the House Agriculture Committee farm bill's commodity title gives the biggest increases in support to 10% of the country's largest farmers. The bill is good for campaigning, but budget hawks...

USDA under the Biden administration has pushed to tighten enforcement of the 103-year-old Packers and Stockyards Act through a series of rules tied to fairness and market competition. The Supreme Court's ruling likely leads to more legal challenges of those rules.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made announced at the Clean Fuels Alliance America meeting that USDA wants more information to help guide the Treasury Department in drafting the regulations for the for the Section 45Z Clean Fuels Production Credit for SAF.

The Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets proposed rule would clarify the interpretation of "unfair" under the P&S Act and spell out in more detail conduct prohibited under the law. USDA stated the rule would help ensure livestock and poultry producers receive...

Agricultural exports are forecast to stay on pace, but Americans are increasing imports of fruits and vegetables. Challenges with U.S. agricultural growers suggest those produce imports will continue to rise.

The budget outlook from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released this week adds some fuel to the fire over the split in Congress when it comes to funding the farm bill.

The grants to farms range from as small as $25,000 to as large as $1.72 million. Most of the grant awardees note the challenge of finding workers and labor shortages they face. While most of the farms are involved in fruit and vegetable production, others also are custom...

Speaking to DTN on Thursday, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall said Republicans won't sign off on a bill led by Democrats without focusing more heavily on increasing farm programs and expanding crop insurance. Marshall said he expects the GOP will wait until they are in the Senate...

FDA officials are raising more concerns about raw milk. With sales of raw milk allowed in some form in most states, FDA is calling on state and local health officials to distribute more information to the public about health risks of consuming raw milk and monitor dairy herds more...

The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management and Trade on Tuesday heard from a Mississippi crop farmer, a Minnesota livestock producer and a Florida dairy farmer, as well as a Farm Credit lender. Each spoke about higher costs, higher interest rates and the need...

A new proposed rule announced Monday by USDA would how contract poultry growers are paid as well as demands by processors for growers to make expensive upgrades to their facilities as well. The proposal drew quick criticism from the National Chicken Council.

Along with new funding, USDA is creating a pilot program that would designate dairy farms as negative status for the H5N1 virus if they test negative for the virus three weeks in a row using on-farm bulk milk or similar milk samples. Herds that continue testing negative will be...

USDA's Food Safety Inspection System (FSIS) reported on Friday that viral particles were found in tissue samples of one out of 96 cows that were tested. Each of the cows tested were condemned and thus prohibited from entering the food supply.

As many as 1,500 other people were watching on YouTube at one point to see the House Agriculture Committee debate the farm bill. A lot of key votes all fell along the party lines of 29 Republicans and 25 Democrats. At times, Democrats seemed to surrender debate, but...