Ag Policy Blog

The proposed rule released by USDA on Monday is called the "Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity Under the Packers and Stockyards Act." The notice defining and spelling out the rule is 180 pages long.

The Cultivating Revitalization by Expanding American Agricultural Trade and Exports (CREAATE) Act of 2022 introduced by four senators would increase MAP mandatory funding to $400 million annually and would increase FMD mandatory funding annually to $69 million. Multiple commodity...

Members of the Seante Agriculture Committee on Thursday supported swift approval for three nominees to USDA and the Farm Credit Administration board. Senators also noted it has taken a long time to fill some of the positions in the Biden administration.

President Joe Biden committed to boosting U.S. food aid on Wednesday in his speech at the United Nations. Most of the aid, about $2 billion, will come through the U.S. Agency for International Development, with the rest coming from USDA.

The cattlemen's groups have some issues with the Biden administration over fake meat grown in a petri dish after a senior administration official referenced "foods made with cultured animal cells. An Executive Order signed by President Biden requires USDA to issue a report on...

Since at least 2009, leaders at Solutions from the Land have been coming back from these United Nations "COP" meetings talking about climate-smart agriculture. They were talking about U.S. agriculture taking a lead on climate change and land management long before it was...

The deal, if culminated, would create a sigh of relief across the agricultural and biofuels supply chain. Agricultural groups this past week had increasingly called on Congress to prepare to step in to block a potential strike that would have gridlocked commodity supply chains at...

USDA on Wednesday announced 70 grants totaling up to $2.8 billion in potential funding under the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities. The program was initially expected to cost $1 billion, but USDA increased funding after receiving more than 1,000 grant proposals. More...

NFU members met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and several members of USDA's leadership team as the group's lobbying fly-in became the largest outside gathering at USDA's main office building since COVID-19 struck.

The Farm Service Agency paid out more than $31 billion to agricultural producers in 2020 and 2021 under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. A GAO report released Thursday showed the agency wasn't stringent enough in requiring producers to show proper records of their...

The ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack saying he's troubled over the handling of FAS weekly reporting data after the new system crashed last month. Traders are now without a key element needed for price...

USDA's Economic Research Service's latest update on farm income released Thursday shows farmers receiving higher cash receipts for a broad range of commodities in 2022, but also paying more for nearly every major production expense.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, both Democrats, had released a report Thursday that the electric power and navigation benefits provided by the four dams would have to be replaced or mitigated before the dams could be breached.

The disparity between disaster aid for livestock versus crop production was highlighted by FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux when he spoke Tuesday to a group of Midwest agribusiness people and farmers at an event in Detroit Lakes, Minn.

The funding for climate-smart agricultural investments in USDA's conservation programs won't require USDA to go through a rule-making process because the programs are already in place, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. The $19.5 billion will help deal with the backlog of...

NRCS will target funding, increase its program flexibilities and launch a new outreach campaign to promote nutrient management's economic benefits, along with expanding partnerships to develop nutrient management plans. This is part of USDA's broader effort to address future...

The National Farmers Union and National Council for Farmer Cooperatives were among the groups touting the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act for the investments in agriculture, biofuels and rural renewable energy projects.

The massive legislation contains $40 billion for agricultural conservation, credit, renewable energy and forestry programs. The bill also includes debt relief provisions for some farmers, though Black farmer groups say the bill reverses promises given to them in the American Rescue...

I'm clarifying a mistake in my reporting on the Inflation Reduction Act when it comes to debt relief for certain farmers. When I detailed some of the debt-relief provisions in the bill, I didn't realize I was looking at text that had not been updated.

Members of Congress have introduced a bill to extend the USDA Emergeny Relief Program (ERP) to cover 2022 disasters. The program right now was authorized to cover losses in 2020 and 2022.