USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is rapidly staffing up to help farmers with their conservation challenges, and that brings with it the need to train the new employees. However, the agency is finding that many of these new conservationists didn’t grow up on a farm and need help understanding the different types of farming systems they will encounter.
“While new hires are a welcome sight at labor-strapped local offices, knowledge limitations and an increasing agency workload can challenge their ability to respond to producers’ requests for assistance,” Noah Wicks reports in the third part of our series, “Getting Grounded.” “Agency officials must now grapple with how to effectively train – and retain – this generation of younger employees while simultaneously rolling out billions of new farm conservation dollars.”
The agency recently hit its highest staffing level in more than a decade.
Republican AGs seek Supreme Court validation of broadband program’s unconstitutionality
Fifteen Republican state attorneys general want the Supreme Court to settle the debate over whether the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund is constitutional. They’re arguing it’s not.
The attorneys general filed an amicus brief urging the high court to review the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ July ruling that the fund, which defrays the cost of phone and internet access in rural areas, is unconstitutional. The FCC sought review after losing in the 5th Circuit.
The AGs are siding with the 5th Circuit, arguing USF assessments violate the “nondelegation doctrine” by placing Congress’s authority to tax in the hands of the Universal Services Administrative Company, an independent corporation.
“Congress needs to be the one to act here, not a private band of unaccountable industry participants,” the AGs write.
Attorney generals from West Virginia, Alabama, Ohio, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, South Carolina, Kansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Missouri, Virginia, Montana and Nebraska all signed on to the brief.
FDA reports more illnesses in E. coli outbreak
More illnesses have been reported in an ongoing E. coli outbreak tied to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.
FDA says 75 people have reported illnesses from E. coli across 13 states, and 22 have been hospitalized as of Thursday. Two people have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can cause kidney failure, and one death has been reported. All the individuals interviewed have reported eating at McDonald’s.
The updated number is a jump from the previous count of 49 illnesses.
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While federal agencies have not confirmed one source of the outbreak, early traceback data has pointed to slivered onions as a likely source.
Last week, Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall for some onion products from its Colorado facility out of concern for possible E. coli contamination. Several fast food chains, including Taco Bell, KFC and Burger King announced they have stopped using onions from Taylor Farms in select stores as a result.
On Friday, McDonald’s confirmed that slivered onions from the Colorado Taylor Farms facility were distributed to about 900 stores. Out of “broad concern and a commitment to food safety” the fast food giant announced in a statement it would stop sourcing onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility.
Georgia Dems want aid to specialty crop growers for export losses
Sen. Jon Ossoff and Rep. Sanford Bishop, both Georgia Democrats, are proposing a program to pay blueberry, squash, bell pepper, cucumber or asparagus growers for losses caused by imports.
The lawmakers’ Protecting our Produce Act would create a five-year pilot program to offset import-driven losses for producers of the specialty crops. The assistance would kick in if the national average market price for one of these crops were to fall below reference prices — and if that difference were caused by imports.
“If we don’t level the playing field for our fruit and vegetable growers here, who face so much unfair competition from South America, we risk losing fruit and vegetable production in Georgia and across the country,” Ossoff said at a press conference.
Dockworkers, Maritime Alliance to resume contract discussions in November
The International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance plan to resume contract discussions next month after agreeing to extend their current contract to Jan. 15, according to a joint statement.
Both sides plan to meet in New Jersey to try to iron out a new master contract proposal but said in the joint statement that they “will not discuss details of negotiations with the media prior to these meetings.”
Take note: Another strike could come after Jan. 15 if both sides don’t come to an agreement by then.
Final word. “If you had to pick one thing that will happen during a lame duck, if were a betting person I’d put pretty strong money laid down on the table of their being a disaster assistance package.” – veteran agribusiness lobbyist Randy Russell on Agri-Pulse Open Mic. He says the aid package could cost “tens of billions of dollars.”
Russell also says the chances of Congress passing a new five-year farm bill in the lame duck session are “diminishing by the day” but that Congress could consider some kind of temporary assistance to farmers affected by the downturn in commodity markets.
