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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, December 26, 2024
More than 140 members of Congress are calling on the Department of Agriculture to offer “swift assistance for cattle producers” with some of the $9.5 billion authorized to assist farmers and ranchers hit by the effects of the coronavirus.
Producers are expected to plant 7.29 million more corn acres, 7.6 million more soybean acres, and 451,000 fewer wheat acres this year, according to USDA’s Prospective Plantings report released Tuesday.
Economists already were predicting that 2020 would be another tough year for the farm economy even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and oil prices plunge. Now, a top farm economist who’s advising USDA says he expects the pandemic to have a “very large” impact on farm income.
Now that President Donald Trump has signed the historic $2 trillion economic relief package into law, work now turns to getting the money out as quickly as possible. “This doesn’t do anybody any good if it takes a long time,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CBS Face the Nation on Sunday.
President Donald Trump signs into law a $2 trillion economic stimulus package that includes $23.5 billion in aid to farmers and ranchers as well as marketing loan relief.
The State Department agreed to accelerate approvals of H-2A farm workers by waiving interviews for many applicants, a move welcomed by agricultural groups who feared that embassy cutbacks amid the COVID-19 pandemic would leave farms without needed labor.
The $2 trillion Phase 3 stimulus package that passed the Senate late Wednesday night has a lot for ag, but not everyone thinks the sector is getting what will be needed for 2020. Starting with USDA.
Congressional leaders have reached agreement on a $2 trillion economic rescue package that would replenish the Agriculture Department’s Commodity Credit Corp. authority and earmark additional money for livestock and specialty crop producers as well as local agriculture.
