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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Friday, August 16, 2024
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has announced plans to move the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture from their present homes in Washington, D.C., to somewhere, anywhere else but Washington.
The average farmer probably won’t notice anytime soon that the 2014 farm bill has expired, but producers who try to sign up for some conservation programs could be turned away, and some commodity groups will have to go without some trade promotion funding on which they have counted.
A nondescript press release could prove to be a starting point for transformational change in how beef cattle are tracked through the United States, or it could serve as another instance where the status quo proved too difficult to change.
Congress is in the midst of updating, as it does about every five years, the so-called farm bill, our nation’s comprehensive agricultural and food policy.
I was stunned when I saw the USDA announcement that they were moving their food, agriculture and economics research agencies outside of Washington, DC.
With the new farm bill likely stalled until after the November mid-term elections, one of the biggest disputes still to be ironed out is a provision in the House farm bill that would end commodity program payments for acreage on which farmers haven’t been growing program crops.
USDA Deputy Secretary Steve Censky defended his department's proposal to move two agencies out of Washington, D.C., while raising the possibility that their new home could be on property the agency already owns.
