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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.

USDA Rural Development has announced the fourth round of its ReConnect program, which will offer more than $1 billion to expand broadband in rural America and begin taking applications in September.

A Foundation created under the 2014 farm bill released a large grant to support studies on regenerative agriculture in vineyards.  

Federal programs intended to help farms and other rural businesses can have intimidating application processes or payment structures that render them inaccessible to some of their target recipients. Testimony in front of some congressional committees is raising these concerns while a series of webinars aims to help farmers and food entrepreneurs navigate the process.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture and the Kentucky Farm Bureau are partnering to support communities in the state’s eastern region impacted by recent flash flooding.