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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
It's official. Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow is back as chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee after the Senate finally approved an organization resolution Thursday afternoon. Stabenow last chaired the committee from 2011 to 2015.
The Senate Agriculture Committee is expanding its membership with three new Democrats, who could give the committee a push to the left on some issues, including climate policy.
Agriculture Secretary-designate Tom Vilsack commits to Black farmer advocates that he will ensure “fairness and equity” for African-American producers who are dealing with the impact of systemic discrimination and recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden transition team has been soliciting input from farm groups on what they would like to see in potential nominees to key agencies. That’s the word from the CEO of the National Corn Growers Association, Jon Doggett.
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations classified as “large” would be phased out by 2040 under a bill Sen. Cory Booker announced on Monday. The legislation would also restore country-of-origin labeling for beef and pork and add COOL requirements for dairy products.
Agricultural policy has seldom received as much attention as it has in this presidential campaign as Democrats vie for ways to cut into President Donald Trump’s rural base and win Iowa’s first-in-the-nation’s caucuses amid heightened anxiety about the farm economy.
Medicare expansion proposals could benefit rural health care, if enacted; more realistically, smaller benefits for rural hospitals, and perhaps cheaper drugs for all, may be on the way.
If just one environmental issue comes up during the Democratic debates scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, there’s a pretty good chance it will be climate change, a subject Republicans prefer to avoid but Democrats trip over themselves to talk about.
