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More than a year after courts forced the Agriculture Department to shut down a debt forgiveness program for minority farmers, Congress is set to give USDA wide open authority to aid borrowers of all races while providing additional aid to victims of past discrimination.

The average value of American cropland across the country rose sharply by about 14% in 2022 as strong commodity prices and inflation eclipsed rising input and other production costs. It was the second straight year farmers saw substantial increases in the value of their land, with some of the biggest jumps in the Northern Plains, Corn Belt and Lake States, according to new USDA data.

Rural electric cooperatives are among the big winners from the Democratic climate funding package headed toward final approval in Congress.

Groups representing renewable fuel production are encouraging California regulators to consider the role liquid transportation fuels — and biofuels in particular — can play in carbon-reduction efforts in the state.

Viewers across the country will see an unfamiliar backdrop in the outfield of an upcoming Major League Baseball game: corn.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday nearly $60 million will be awarded to 63 organizations to improve and build up the health care workforce and access to care in rural communities.

The U.S. House should be the final stop this week for a historic funding package aimed at slashing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

The Democratic-controlled Senate on Sunday passed an historic package of financial incentives for cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, including a dramatic increase in farm bill conservation programs aimed at spurring farmers to adopt climate-related farming practices.

A revised climate funding package Democrats are pushing through the Senate this weekend scraps a debt relief program for minority farmers that was blocked by the courts and replaces it with new programs earmarked for “distressed” USDA borrowers as well as farmers the department has discriminated against.

The climate funding package that Senate Democrats have agreed on should make it easier to pass the next farm bill while helping consumers and producers deal with climate change, says a Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Tina Smith of Minnesota.