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The White House is establishing a new task force on supply chain disruptions to provide a “whole-of-government” response to near-term challenges. The task force will be led by the secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and Transportation.

Stakeholders from Capitol Hill to the Corn Belt are backing a push to incorporate sustainable practices into production agriculture, but farmers will need additional know-how and monetary support to make that happen, panelists said at an Agri-Pulse webinar Monday.

USDA is using a new round of coronavirus relief funding to help farmers who serve local markets and socially disadvantaged producers. Food banks also will benefit from the $1 billion in funding that USDA is allocating.

A veteran senior Senate staffer, Fitzhugh Elder, will be taking over as GOP staff director for the Senate Agriculture Committee next month, sources tell Agri-Pulse. He will replace Martha Scott Poindexter, who’s moving to the U.S. Dairy Export Council.

​President Joe Biden’s proposal to eliminate stepped-up basis and tax capital gains at death has run into opposition from a key Democrat. The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Georgia Democrat David Scott, says the tax plan could hurt farmers even though the tax liability would be deferred as long as a family farm stays in operation.

The Biden administration is testing an idea for promoting cover crop adoption that has proven popular in some states - offering farmers a subsidy on their crop insurance premiums.

Soaring prices for commodities ranging from corn to cotton have fueled a sense of optimism for some farmers this growing season, but economists and land investors warn that the highs could be short-lived and that higher cash rents and production expenses could squeeze growers sooner than they expect.

The nation’s largest beef producer group outlined its top near-term policy goals in a letter to lawmakers Tuesday that calls for reauthorization of the mandatory livestock price reporting system with at least one new provision to help producers with marketplace leverage.

A survey of producer sentiment in May reveals the lowest overall reading since September 2020 and declines in several areas, however, producers expect farmland values to rise over the next five years.