Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced details this week on eligibility for a new USDA disaster program, 2017 Wildfires and Hurricanes Indemnity Program (2017 WHIP). USDA will also provide $340 million through a block grant to the State of Florida specifically for Hurricane Irma losses to citrus production expected during the 2018 through the 2020 crop year to provide reimbursement …
Farmer Share of Food Dollar Dropped Again in 2016
According to the USDA-ERS Food Dollar Series, “For every dollar spent in 2016 in the U.S. on domestically produced food (food dollar), U.S. farmers sold 14.8 cents of farm products to non-farm establishments (farm share), down from 15.5 cents in 2015. The farm share is at its lowest recorded level between the years 1993 and 2016.” Some additional points of …
Perdue Celebrates Anniversary With Senate Ag Committee
Tuesday was the first anniversary for Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Agriculture and he spent it briefing the Senate Agriculture Committee on The State of Rural America. “It’s a fascinating job,” said Perdue. “Even more broad and vast and deep and wide and impactful than I could have ever imagined.” Most of the questioning for the secretary revolved around trade …
Launch of E-Connectivity Listening Sessions
This morning U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue provided opening remarks to a coalition of stakeholders to launch a series of regional listening sessions targeting the expansion of broadband access in rural America. You can watch the recording here or listen below. USDA has had programs for years to assist with local and regional broadband efforts but there is still …
The U.S. Soybean in Southeast Asia
USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s Chris Rittgers has called Jakarta, Indonesia home for nearly a year, but is a veteran when it comes to the role of agricultural counselor. Prior to this three-year position, Rittgers worked for the USDA in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Malaysia, Iraq, Egypt and Spain. Naturally, he was the perfect person to share the role of Indonesia …
Farmers Intend to Plant Less Corn and Soybeans in 2018
U.S. farmers are expected to plant more soybean acres than corn but overall intentions are down slightly from the record year in 2017, according to the Prospective Plantings report released today by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Producers surveyed across the United States intend to plant an estimated 89.0 million acres of soybeans and 88.0 million acres of …
USDA Has No Plans to Regulate Gene Edited Plants
USDA has no plans to regulate “plants that could otherwise have been developed through traditional breeding techniques as long as they are not plant pests or developed using plant pests,” according to an announcement yesterday from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). This includes a set of new techniques that are increasingly being used by plant breeders to …
ZimmCast 578 from Ag Week in DC
Last week was a busy one in Washington, DC with National Ag Day Activities, the Agri-Pulse Ag & Food Policy Summit and American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) annual Fly-in. It was a week of crazy weather, including six inches of snow the second day of spring, but all events went as planned and were all very successful and well attended. …
Administration Shows Support for Ag Day
The Trump administration went out of its way to show appreciation for the nation’s farmers and ranchers on National Agriculture Day Tuesday, with proclamation at USDA featuring the vice president, and an address by Sec. Sonny Perdue during a Ag Day at the National Press Club. Introducing Vice President Mike Pence, Perdue commented that he was happy to be able …
GROWMARK, NRCS Partner for Conservation
GROWMARK and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) recently signed a national Memorandum of Understanding to further sound agronomic and conservation practices. Ryan White, Dir. of Agronomy Marketing and Agronomy Information Services for GROWMARK, says the MOU is about the GROWMARK system commitment to working with farmers in a profitable and sustainable way. “We both have the same customer and …