The bell had barely begun to ring in the new school year when complaints starting coming in about USDA’s “healthier” school lunch menu guidelines and the chorus is getting louder. The new guidelines feature lots more healthy fresh fruits and veggies, which is great, but they also cut the portion sizes and the amount of protein served to students, which …
House Says No to Farm Bill Now
No farm bill for now. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) told reporters last week before Congress called it quits that they would deal with a farm bill after the election because he did not believe there were 218 votes to pass either an extension or new legislation. “The current situation that we face is that we’ve got people …
USDA Expands Drought Assistance
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $11.8 million in additional financial and technical assistance to help crop and livestock producers in 22 states apply conservation practices that reduce the impacts of drought and improve soil health and productivity. The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides this assistance through its Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). …
USDA Changing Report Release Times in 2013
USDA is changing the release time of certain key statistical reports beginning in January 2013. The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) will begin issuing several major USDA statistical reports at 12:00 p.m. EDT beginning in January 2013. The current USDA release time of 8:30 a.m. EDT …
Ag Sec. Vilsack Announces Beginning Farmers Grants
New USDA grants to support beginning farmers were announced by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on the final day of the Farm Progress Show. Sec. Vilsack held a a press conference in the New Holland media tent. “In the past few decades, U.S. agriculture has become the second most productive sector of the American economy thanks to farmers adopting …
FAPRI Looks at Farm Bills’ Differences, Impacts
A new analysis of the two Farm Bills out there … the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012 that passed the full Senate in June and the House’s Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2012, which made it out of the House Ag Committee last month … shows some similar impacts of the two bills, especially …
Administration Supports Ethanol
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack demonstrated the Obama administration’s strong commitment to ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) by spending over an hour at the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) conference on Friday morning. “This is an industry that is worth supporting,” he told the crowd of about 250 ethanol industry leaders. “Which is why the president is supporting the …
AFBF Reacts to Corn & Soybean Outlook
American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) economists says today’s USDA crop forecast is a “harbinger of volatility in global grain markets.” “There is an old saying in commodity markets that small crops tend to get smaller,” said AFBF economist Todd Davis. “If this holds true, then future reports will show declining projected production for corn and soybeans and further reductions in …
USDA: Corn Down 13%, Soybeans Down 12%
The drought is certainly taking its toll on row crops, as the latest USDA crop report out this morning shows that the corn harvest this year will be down 13 percent from last year’s numbers, with soybeans expected to be 12 percent lower than 2011. Meanwhile, cotton will see a 13 percent increase while winter wheat should be up 1 …
Senator and Secretary Attend Biobased Workshop
Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack were keynote speakers at the 2012 United Soybean Board Biobased Products Stakeholders’ Workshop at the Ford Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn, Michigan this week to show their strong support for new products made from agricultural commodities. “I think the sky’s the limit,” said Sen. Stabenow. “I don’t believe you have …