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 …
Support for Repeal of Catfish Inspection Program
There’s a whole boatload of folks who think something is fishy about the USDA catfish inspection program that was included in the 2008 Farm Bill and they’d like to see it thrown back. An effort to repeal the program apparently has widespread support in Congress and with a variety of agricultural companies and organizations. National Fisheries Institute spokesperson Gavin Gibbons …
USDA Announces New Conservation Collaboration
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new federal-private collaboration with DuPont to safeguard natural resources on private lands used to supply bio-based feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol production. The joint agreement between USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service and DuPont aims to set voluntary standards for the sustainable harvesting of agricultural residues for renewable fuel, and supports rural job creation, additional income …
MGEX Commentary on Plantings Report
A little more corn, a little less soybeans, more wheat and a lot less cotton – that summarizes the USDA 2013 Prospective Plantings report out today. Corn growers intend to plant 97.3 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2013, up slightly from last year and 6 percent higher than in 2011. If realized, this will represent the highest …
Senate Spending Bill Saves Meat Inspectors
The U.S. Senate yesterday passed a continuing budget resolution that would keep the federal government operating through the end of the fiscal year on September 30th and keep meat inspectors off the chopping block. The Senate unanimously passed an amendment introduced by Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) to the Continuing Resolution (CR) solves a funding gap for …
Secretary of Ag Tom Vilsack at Ag Day
Our U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spoke at the annual National Ag Day banquet in the USDA Whitten Bldg. First up in his remarks was a sales pitch for moderator, The Big O, Orion Samuelson’s book, “You Can’t Dream Big Enough.” I’ll bet that didn’t hurt sales! If you like Orion’s Ole and Lena jokes then you’ll really enjoy …
Media Bias in Animal Ag Story
Fox News loves to point out media bias in mainstream reporting on politics in particular, but probably not when it comes to agriculture. Fox carried an AP story over the weekend about state bills seeking to make it more difficult for animal rights activists to go undercover at agricultural operations to get video of abuse and sometimes hold it for …
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 …
USDA Deputy Secretary Resigns – Update
*UPDATED with Merrigan statement* Call it kind of a surprise – the announcement late yesterday that USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan has resigned her position. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack released the following statement about Merrigan’s resignation: “USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan has helped USDA achieve record results over the past four years. She has played a vital role in the Department-wide …
Sequester Chops Some USDA Reports
Statistical surveys and reports about catfish, hops and mink are among those being suspended by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) “for the remainder of the fiscal year due to reduced funding caused by sequestration,” according to a press release out today. Before deciding upon the program suspensions, NASS reviewed its survey programs against mission- and user-based criteria as well …