Articles Tagged with ''pandemic''

Farm groups are awaiting the release any day of USDA’s requirements for $16 billion in direct payments to compensate producers for the market losses caused by the coronavirus crisis. OMB completed its review of the planned program on Friday.

Former Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, discusses the impacts COVID-19 has had on the agriculture industry and what America needs to do to ensure the agriculture sector’s strength long into the future.

It’s not everything that farm groups wanted, but the broad array of agricultural provisions in a $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill that the House is expected to vote on Friday are likely to find many supporters in the Senate.

House Democrats released a massive new coronavirus relief bill that would provide $16.5 billion in additional direct payments to farmers and authorize USDA to compensate producers who have to dispose of livestock and poultry that can’t be sold because of processing disruptions.

House Democrats try to agree on the shape of the next major coronavirus relief bill, while farm groups lobby for a major new infusion of cash to offset the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

The Agriculture Department awarded more than $1.2 billion in contracts to distributors to deliver fresh produce, milk, dairy products and pork and chicken directly to needy Americans.

Nina Fedoroff and Marshall Matz join together to discuss food security and the similarities between the COVID-19 pandemic and the Green Revolution.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue expressed confidence at a White House meeting Wednesday that the meat shortages that have forced supermarkets to limit purchases should ease as meatpacking plants fully reopen within the next 10 days.

Stung by scenes of farmers dumping milk and plowing under crops, the Trump administration is launching a never-before-tried plan to use the nation’s commercial food distributors to buy fresh produce, dairy products and meat and give them away to needy families across the country.

The full Senate returns to Washington for the first time since March, setting the stage for a partisan battle over the next big coronavirus aid bill and a growing list of requests from agriculture and other sectors for relief.