Rural

RSS

Congressional leaders announced agreement early Wednesday on a $1.5 trillion, government-wide spending bill for fiscal 2022 that includes new funding for rural broadband expansion and authorization of a cattle contract library at USDA to address concerns about market power in the beef sector.

Debates over whether farmers should be able to repair their high-tech machinery on their own that once raged in state legislatures are now spilling into the halls of Congress, the White House and courtrooms across the U.S.

USDA is taking additional steps to provide relief to historically underserved farmers and other producers holding direct loans from the Farm Service Agency.

Congress faces a Friday deadline to pass a massive bill to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, but negotiations were still far from final heading into the weekend.

The Russian government's decision to suspend fertilizer exports will threaten supplies for farmers in the European Union, South America and Africa while eventually pushing up prices that U.S. farmers must pay, according to analysts.

The National Farmers Union, along with six of its state affiliates and five “right to repair” organizations, filed a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission Thursday alleging farm equipment giant John Deere is violating antitrust laws by restricting access to software embedded in its machines.

Leaders of major crop groups say the farm bill commodity programs won’t adequately protect their margins at a time of skyrocketing input costs, but the organizations aren’t ready to propose specific changes.

Surging commodity prices have pushed crop insurance guarantees to record highs or near-record highs for farmers in the Midwest and Plains states this spring, which will help them protect their revenue against the soaring input costs.

Advocates for rural broadband are urging the FCC to act now and save the Universal Service Fund, while broadband providers are pumping the brakes.

National Farmers Union members agreed Tuesday to put market competition, dairy policy reform, climate change, food processing reform and the agricultural supply chain at the top of their policy agenda for the upcoming year.