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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
By most measures, 2016 was another banner year for organic production. Sales of organic farm goods increased 23 percent to $7.6 billion, double the 2011 total. But most of the organic feed grains come from abroad.
A large crowd gathered at this year’s Iowa Agriculture Leaders banquet in Des Moines Tuesday night to see Bill Northey, Iowa’s long-time Secretary of Agriculture, finally sworn in for his new USDA post.
USDA has approved a landmark new revenue insurance plan for dairy producers, and companies are likely to bring out additional new products for the livestock industry now that Congress has lifted an underwriting cap, says USDA’s chief economist.
The USDA is expecting strong support from farmers, elevators and exporters in an urgent mission to reduce the amount of unwanted material like weed seeds in the U.S. soybean supply.
The Senate confirmed Bill Northey as USDA’s undersecretary for farm programs after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, dropped a hold he had kept on the nomination for four months in a dispute over biofuel policy.
A top USDA official was met with boos and derisive laughter when he attempted to sell anti-hunger activists and food banks on the Trump administration’s proposal to convert a portion of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to food boxes.
President Trump takes another stab this week at settling a biofuel policy dispute that has embroiled a key USDA nominee, and his administration will step up its defense of proposals to clamp down on federal nutrition assistance.
U.S. corn and soybean production will be smaller than the previous year based on fractionally lower planted acreage and trend yields, USDA said today in its first projections for major crops for the 2018-2019 crop year.
