Articles Tagged with ''COVID-19 pandemic''

Democratic leaders have made it official: A continuing resolution that’s needed to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1 will include a provision to increase the debt limit.

House Democrats have moved their $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan a step closer to the House floor, but the legislation is still a work in progress.

Sources familiar with the agriculture provisions in the massive spending package Democrats are putting together expect it to include historic increases in conservation and research spending totaling nearly $36 billion.

The Agriculture Department has been scrubbing its website and social media to remove any photos or text that could identify Afghans who contributed to agricultural research or other projects funded by the USDA, government officials tell Agri-Pulse. There’s concern the Taliban may harm Afghans who cooperated with the U.S. – even if it was just to help on an ag research project.

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened global hunger, according to a new report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The FAO estimates that as many as 811 million people faced hunger in 2020, an increase of as much as 161 million people over 2019.

Margaret Zeigler has been tapped to serve as the interim president of the Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR) Foundation after Thomas Grumbly announced he will retire from the helm June 14.

Ag stakeholders in the Northeast say the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing meat processing capacity concerns in the region, leading many in the area to push for more facilities outside the traditional production hotbeds.