With the Senate Agriculture Committee set to start writing a new farm bill on Tuesday and the House Agriculture Committee ready to follow a day later, Congressman Collin Peterson offers his views on how a new farm bill can hopefully get passed by both chambers this year. As the ranking Democrat, he talks about the compromises he’s worked out with …
Report Reveals Improper Payments at USDA
A guest post by Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant When lawmakers talk about reducing “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal programs, they usually target the food stamp program, more recently called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In fact, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., introduced legislation recently that he said would “restore integrity” to the SNAP program, while saving $36 billion in …
Insider Look at 2013 for Food & Agriculture
How about some Farm to Fork Politics? That’s what we got to kick off 2013 National Ag Day activities in Washington, DC. Here are the panelists for the session that was sponsored by Agri-Pulse just prior to their annual reception. Seated l-r are Dr. Keith Collins, former USDA Chief Economist, B. Hudson Riehle, Senior VP of the Research & Information …
Farm to Fork Politics
The first in the series of 2013 National Ag Day activities is an Agri-Pulse sponsored session titled, “Farm to Fork Politics: An Insider’s look at the year ahead for food and agriculture” Join us for this panel discussion moderated by Sara Wyant of Agri-Pulse and featuring J.B. Penn of John Deere, former USDA Chief Economist, Dr. Keith Collins and B. …
New USDA Rural Definition Stirs Controversy
A guest post by Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant A proposed definition of the term “rural” submitted by the Department of Agriculture to Congress last month could have broad implications for small towns across America and not everyone is happy about it. The report, delivered two and one half years late after it was required by Congress to be delivered by …
Can You Count on Calorie Information?
A guest post by Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant Current high rates of obesity in the United States and frequent discussions about eating healthy have many people counting their calories. But researchers say cooking and processing food can make a significant difference in the number of calories consumed – making current nutrition labels systematically misleading. The American Association for the Advancement …
Agri-Pulse Hires New Associate Editor
Agri-Pulse Communications Inc. has named Aarian Marshall to serve as Associate Editor, based in Washington, D.C. “Aarian initially joined us as an intern last fall to assist with our election coverage, but she has quickly grasped a wide variety of the farm, food and rural issues that we cover. We are delighted to have her join our growing team of …
Agri-Pulse Hires New Senior Editor
Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc. announced that Derrick Cain has joined the company to serve as Senior Editor. Cain brings more than eight years of experience, reporting about news from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and agriculture-related legislation in the U.S. Congress, including detailed coverage of the 2002 and 2008 farm bills. As a congressional reporter for more than 12 years who …
Agri-Pulse Poll Favors Romney
A poll for election day shows way more farmers say they are voting Romney over Obama for president. According to the Agri-Pulse Farm and Rural Poll released today, 78 percent of farmers polled are voting for Mitt Romney in the presidential election and a majority blame Democrats for failure to pass a new farm bill. “We wanted to see not …