Ag Policy Blog

Reports are piling up about governors choosing to opt out of a new nutrition program for low-income public-school children, Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, or Summer EBT. Governors so far have opted not to offer the program to families with roughly 6.9 million children.

When the Senate returns on Monday and the House on Tuesday, members will have to work quickly to reach agreement before funds run out for several agencies, including USDA, on January 19. The House Freedom Caucus, which represents a large block of House Republicans, also...

USDA continues to take actions suspending debt collections or other actions against producers who have delinquent loans. A provision of the Inflation Reduction Act allows USDA continue to delay debt collections or foreclosures even though nearly all pandemic-era programs have...

Missouri's governor issued a ban on the sale of land to foreign adversaries -- China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela -- within ten miles of all staffed military facilities in the state. The focus, given Missouri's land holdings, is China.

The typical decisions for the 2024 crop year are going to look a little different for ARC and PLC than in the past because the escalator for the effective reference price finally kicks in. While USDA recommends farmers "avoid the rush," they might want to see how their local...

In 2022, foreign investors acquired more than 3.4 million acres of land, and now hold interest in more than 43.4 million acres of agricultural land, which is considered both forests and farm ground. That equates to about 3.4% of all privately held agricultural land in the U.S.

The four dams on the Lower Snake River support about 100 million bushels of wheat exports out of the Pacific Northwest. Grain groups are concerned about moves in the Biden administration that could boos salmon runs, but hurt navigation

Sen. Roger Marshall brought up H.R. 1147, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which passed the House on Wednesday with a bipartisan 330-99 vote. A unanimous consent nod in the Senate would have immediately sent the bill to President Joe Biden's desk. That didn't happen.

A bill passed the House Wednesday that would allow the sale of fluid whole milk to schools nationwide. The bill would overturn a dietary guideline from 2012 that replaced whole milk in schools with low-fat milk. The dairy industry has pushed to overturn that USDA decision ever...

While senators push for a congressional vote to block the rule allowing the importation of beef from Paraguay, the secretaries of Agriculture from eight states send their own letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also raising their concerns as well.

With more than 80% of all payments coming in at $30,000 or less, nearly 170,000 farmers received higher payments than they otherwise would have collected. About 40,500 farmers -- likely with higher losses -- are receiving lower payments than expected.

Farm groups are asking the International Trade Commission to end countervailing duties on Moroccan phosphate fertilizer. In November, the Commerce Department agreed to lower the duties from 19.97% to 2.12% after retroactively examining the price of shipments and other...

Lawmakers and some major farm groups are complaining about the payment design for the 2022 Emergency Relief Program (ERP), though USDA counters Congress gave the department $3.74 billion to deal with a $10 billion or larger problem.

Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced a bill Monday that would immediately halt the import of beef from Paraguay and create a new working group to examine both the risk to food safety and animal health by importing beef from Paraguay. A group of House...

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told USDA staff and a group of industry stakeholders Wednesday that USDA and the Biden administration will show up to the COP laying out a series of investments in conservation and renewable energy. There will be "significant...

Documents first published Monday by the Centre for Climate Reporting lay out some briefing points by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) climate-negotiating team for Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), who also will serve as president of this year's...

The farm property at KC Farm School at Gibbs Road goes back decades with different owners and leaders, reflecting how urban agriculture has evolved in recent years. As programs from the 2018 farm bill have developed, more urban and alternative farms have started tapping...

The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Farmers Union typically offer different perspectives on the average costs of Thanksgiving meals. Consumers will pay less this year, but prices remain higher than they were before the pandemic hit. Farmers still receive cents...

On the farm bill, the extension, with the backing of the leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees, extends the 2018 farm bill until Sept. 30, 2024.

Speaking to reporters after a hearing, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said that in 2013, when farm bill negotiations were dragging on and on, there was a sense of urgency in the agriculture community, but that she does not get that sense of urgency now. Congress right now is...