Washington Insider

The issue has taken on attention in ag circles, with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack releasing a statement praising a Federal Trade Commission move. USDA will complement the FTC's efforts with its own initiative on labeling for products such as beef, and other agricultural products regulated by the...

Dairy producers and others have complained that they did not see as much benefit from the pandemic aid efforts like the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2 (CFAP 2) which paid out more than $1.2 billion to dairy producers and the CFAP 1 effort saw payments of $1.8 billion.

The Biden administration had not submitted legislation to Congress to reauthorize TPA. President Joe Biden should be familiar with the current version of TPA because it was approved by Congress and signed into law in June 2015 by President Barack Obama.

About 39% of Chinese companies saw their investment in the U.S. drop so far in 2021, compared with 17% last year. Only 12% of the Chinese businesses increased their investment, Bloomberg reported, down from 23% in 2020 and 39% in 2018. The figures from 2018 are notable as that was just ahead...

The nation's top court ruled in the HollyFrontier Cheyenne Refining vs. Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in error when it invalidated three small refinery exemptions (SREs) for the 2016 compliance year. The ruling focused on the definition of...

The U.S. government continues to restrict companies in China where investigations have discovered the manufacturers are using forced labor. The latest order comes against Hoshine, a producer of silica-based products.

The Supreme Court ruled that a California regulation allowing union workers access to farm property essentially equivalent to the government taking private property for public use without justification, in violation with the Constitution's Fifth Amendment.

While global demand for goods produced in Asia is one factor, the New York Times reported that problems in the third largest container port in the world of Shenzhen is making the problems even worse.

Biofuel-backing Democratic lawmakers are eyeing a massive infrastructure package as a way to get some wins for the sector. Democrats are said to be looking at a $6 trillion infrastructure plan with at least $3 trillion in new spending that could be pursued if the party opts to push ahead...

President Joe Biden has been able to get most of his nominees to key positions confirmed by the Senate in a timely manner. As for Cabinet nominees, Biden actually moved quicker than either Trump or Obama as they took nearly a month longer to get officials confirmed into those roles.

The new holiday comes at the culmination of legislative action this week that saw the Senate approve legislation to declare the June 19 a federal holiday. The House followed suit Wednesday and approved the plan on a 415-14 vote.

The House Transportation Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee held a hearing on shipping issues, including many that have affected agriculture such as supply chain constraints that started in the COVID pandemic.

As more details began to come out about the action, it appears a little more nuanced that just an outright trade deal. Recall that the two sides had already agreed to in March a four-month suspension of the tariffs totaling some $11 billion in total on products traded between the two countries.

Lordstown Motors took over the Ohio plant with a plan to build electric pickups there, the Endurance. The operation has had several troubles and there are now investigations into financial issues at the facility.

The issue of defining dairy for labels is one that farm-state lawmakers, especially those from dairy states, have continued to focus on in the wake of the rise of plant-based food products that use terms like “milk” on the labels of the products.

Taking food and energy out of the mix as those typically are two of the most volatile price components, the “core” rate was up 3.8% from this point in 2020, the biggest jump since 1992.

EPA said it will embark on a new rulemaking to generate the new rule after undertaking a review of the Trump-era Navigable Waters Protection rule. That review, EPA said, indicated it was causing “destructive impacts” to “critical water bodies.”

The ransomware attack that hit global meatpacker JBS affected its Australianand U.S. IT systems, and Politico is reporting that the company has told the White House they think it was a "criminal organization likely based in Russia."

Loans for cars and student loans increased in April, and basically matched debt use in March. Consumers, however, have been more restrained when it comes to revolving credit such as store cards.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai sees a significant trade imbalance between the U.S. and China, but also said she is committed to the talks that began under the Phase One agreement.