Articles Tagged with ''Sonny Perdue''

I have to drive 20 miles to see a traffic light. To get to an airport from our farm requires a 2-hour drive to Burlington. In other words, life on our dairy farm in Vermont can feel pretty remote. That was especially true before we gained access to broadband, back when it seemed like we faced a red light at the on-ramp to the information superhighway. Now that broadband finally has come to our country home—the red light has turned green—my family can enjoy the benefits of rural living along with the connectivity that keeps us in touch with the whole world.

The Agriculture Department sharply increased commodity payment rates for its 2019 trade assistance package, boosting the corn rate by 14-fold and quadrupling cotton’s, based on higher estimates of the trade damage that farmers have suffered.

China announced Friday it will increase tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. agricultural and other goods by 5-10% in retaliation for U.S. plans to hit about $300 billion worth of Chinese exports with new import taxes.

Brandon Lipps and Pam Miller have new roles at the Department of Agriculture, and USDA will have another mission area led by deputy undersecretary rather than a Senate-confirmed official.

Producers utilized a listening session featuring two of the most influential men in ag policy to express their displeasure with the state of affairs for rural America, putting them in a mode that varied between explanatory and defensive.

The Agriculture Department has the legal authority to move the Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture to Kansas City, but USDA may not have the authority to spend money on the relocation, USDA's inspector general says.

The Agriculture Department overhauled its Market Facilitation Program to broaden the number of farmers that would receive the trade aid, but officials may encounter new grumbling over the wide disparities in county payment rates.

Qualifying producers will get payments ranging from $15 to $150 an acre under this year's version of the Market Facilitation Program, with rates varying widely by county and region.

Farmers who qualify for the upcoming round of trade assistance payments will get at least $15 an acre, says Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, who will release additional details of the Market Facilitation Program later in the week.

In its latest effort to shrink enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Trump administration is proposing to remove up to 3 million people from the rolls by tightening eligibility rules that allow many states to sign up people with incomes that exceed federal limits.